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Considering how many people love telling this story, both within and outside of Costco, I think it's more the former than the latter. One way you can tell is that the COO, who was cursed at in this story, later succeeded Sinegal as the CEO and, in fact, has gone on record defending that hot dog price many times.

I'd be very curious to hear what you think if you have a chance to read the book.

That's true, and yet the evidence shows that some companies have been able to do it. I think there's something to be learned by studying those companies as a data set.

What's interesting is that this is not a long-standing pillar of the American financial system but a relatively recent addition that was done without any democratic legitimacy whatsoever. I think it's pretty clear that if we go a different direction, we can have a different outcome.

There is a whole table of examples like the one you mentioned in the book. This has been going on a long time: companies being destroyed, all in the name of profit.

I think if you read the book, you'll find the answers you seek. Either way, I hope you'll come back and tell me.

I just like to ask one little question: Who chose the structure in the first place? It's kind of a chicken and egg situation.

I don't know, man. There seem to be enough exceptions in the world to make me at least curious about whether this is really true. For what it's worth, the story of Google and "Don't Be Evil" is in the book.

What you say is true, but there is more to it. Decay is not the only thing that can happen to a structure. It also can be actively destroyed from the outside. Rather than ask whether a structure is right or wrong, good or bad, we instead need to learn to ask whether it is strong or weak.

Your comment made me smile because the book hasn't had a one-star review yet. Maybe you'll get to be the first.

Everything you say is true, but I might like to ask you this question: who chose those specific people at the leadership?

This is kind of a big and deep question, more than I can get into with so many other questions pending, but let me see what I can offer. First of all, we are living through a golden age of entrepreneurship. Unfortunately, because times of tremendous turmoil are often times of tremendous startup opportunity.

But in particular, this moment, the capabilities of individual people are being amplified thanks to all these new technologies. You have the opportunity to be an early adopter of a technology that billions of people will use just a few years from now, but you get it first. That probably means that the things you care a lot about or know a lot about, you could do something about it that would have been absolutely impossible even five years ago.

Now, you have to avoid that feeling that you're too late. I remember feeling, in 1998, that I'd already missed the internet. The vast majority of people have never used Claude Code. The vast majority of people have no idea how LLMs work or what they do. The vast majority of people simply don't even know that starting a company is something you could use this technology to do.

As inexperienced or behind as you might feel, just the fact that you're here having this conversation right now proves that you are way, way, way ahead. All you have to do is use that advantage.

I didn't say they were good, only that they are exceptionally long-lived. Don't you want to know why?

I definitely don't want to paint Costco as perfect. It wouldn't surprise me at all if their ethos is not especially attractive to people who want to work on the tech side of their business. I can easily imagine that at some point that is going to cause some kind of problem for them. But I can also imagine that it's just a very distinctive culture that's not for everybody. The truth is, I don't really know because I've never worked there.

I tried to address this in The Lean Startup and also in the follow-up book The Startup Way. Cutting corners, making crap does not help you test your thesis. What's needed is not to ape the techniques and tactics that work in another industry like software, but to really think from first principles about what will create sustained iteration speed even in a hardware context. In The Startup Way, in particular, I give a bunch of examples, including a bunch from old school manufacturing contexts that have applied these techniques successfully.

You're so welcome. Thank you for writing such a nice comment, especially in a situation like this when other people have been... less generous.

Both Mondragon and King Arthur Flour are in the book. I'm not familiar with Equal Exchange, but now that you've mentioned it, I'm going to go learn more.

One of the least read parts of The Lean Startup is the chapter on what I call engines of growth. This is my attempt to elucidate what I call the law of sustainable growth, meaning a situation where new customers come as a necessary side effect of the actions of past customers.

Not really related to your question, but Steve recently wrote a great article about the new book that, if you're a fan of his, you might like too: https://steveblank.com/2026/06/09/incorruptible/

Thank you so much.

You said it pretty well here. I'm not claiming that any company I profile is perfect, only (in this case) that they've had incredible longevity.

Ain't that the truth? At the very end of the book, I call these companies "addicts creating more addicts." You might enjoy that part.

Not great, Bob!

If I was going to do a new edition, what would you want to see in it?

I've thought about it over the years, but never pulled the trigger. This used to drive me crazy when I was younger. When an author who became "older and wiser" decided to make a new edition of the book in which they hedged all their bold claims with all the caveats that they had gained through experience. I always thought such old people were cowards. Of course, now I understand why they do it.

thank you!

oh yes, they are the lead case study in Chapter 7

Apple is not covered in the book (except via a few Steve Jobs anecdotes). I'm just not plugged in enough to their internal culture to be able to comment intelligently.

Tell me what's different about this page vs what you've seen on LinkedIn? maybe I can learn how to promote the book better!

thank you! and thanks for being an early adopter twice over. respect

you walked right into it. but happy to answer questions about the details anytime

I don't love entropy as the metaphor, because entropy is inevitable. And yet, some organizations seem to not experience it. These exceptions demonstrate that there must be some other variable involved.