Eric Ries

Eric Ries (born 1978) is a Silicon Valley entrepreneur and author recognized for pioneering the lean startup movement, a new-business strategy which directs startup companies to allocate their resources as efficiently as possible. He is a blogger within the technology entrepreneur community.

Early life

In 2001, Ries graduated from Yale University with a B.S. in Computer Science. As a high schooler, Ries had published a book called Black Art of Java Game Programming. While at Yale, he began his entrepreneurial career as the co-founder of Catalyst Recruiting, an online forum for university students to network with potential employers. During this time, Ries was also on the advisory board for two startup incubators and a venture fund in New Haven, Connecticut. He took a leave of absence from his undergraduate studies to pursue his newly founded company, however, due to a lack of business experience and the burst of the dot-com bubble, Catalyst Recruiting folded shortly thereafter. Ries felt he was "lucky that the company failed soon enough that [he] could do it during a leave of absence," and returned to Yale to complete his undergraduate degree.