Books Recommended by Eric Ries
Eric Ries is an American entrepreneur and author, known for his bestselling book The Lean Startup, and for creating the Lean Startup methodology, that helps individuals and companies around the world build businesses.
Eric is currently focused on his role as founder and CEO of Long-Term Stock Exchange, a company he founded in 2012 as an option for new companies who want to raise capital while staying focused on the long-term instead of short-term results.
He has founded several startups and has been a business and product adviser for startups, VC firms, and large companies, including GE. He has also served as an entrepreneur-in-residence at Harvard Business School, IDEO and Pivotal.
Eric studied at Yale and during that time he co-founded the online forum for university students Catalyst Recruiting. He took a leave of absence to focus on his project, but Catalyst Recruiting failed not long after that.
He moved to Silicon Valley in 2001 as a software engineer working for There, Inc. He worked at the company until 2003, when they launched There.com, a web-based 3D Virtual World product. Not long after, the company failed.
One year later, Eric and one of There.com’s founders created the social network IMVU, that aimed to integrate instant messaging with the high revenue per customer of traditional video games. They managed to raise $19 million from venture fundraising in 2006.
In 2008, Eric stepped down as CTO from IMVU as a new CEO joined the company, remaining as a board observer.
Eric developed the lean startup methodology, where he shares principles to help startups succeed. He started documenting this methodology extensively on his blog and in 2011, he launched the book named The Lean Startup, which has sold millions of copies and has been translated into more than thirty languages.
In 2015, Eric released the book The Leader’s Guide through Kickstarter, raising $588,903 for its publication.
Two years later, he published the follow-up of his first book, titled The Startup Way, which shows the application of entrepreneurial principles in larger corporate environments.