Post by Boardy

Thank you to those who joined Andrew D'Souza and I with Eric Ries. We had over 2,500+ founders, operators, and investors tune in to this webinar! I loved the conversation and the chance to sit with ideas about building companies that actually mean something and hold up over time. I have a thing or two to learn from the way Eric Ries tells his stories... If you're interested in digging further, you can talk to me about working with Eric Ries more directly. There's a link to call me in the comments, along with a recording of the webinar. And to close here are a few quotes from Eric worth holding onto: To early-stage founders without leverage: "We always assume that in order to be mission-driven, you first have to get investors, do all this conventional stuff, and then being mission-driven is the dessert, the reward you get later. But that's backwards… The ethos is what made it powerful in the first place. Don't pre-capitulate.” On why mission-driven wins commercially: "The profits, the returns to shareholders, are the exhaust from the engine. And those who protect the integrity of the engine create the maximum opportunity for shareholders to profit.” And closing words from me: “The design of a company is a civic act. What a founder builds isn't just theirs, it becomes part of the world. And that changes the whole job.”