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Silicon Valley Exchange Says Wall Street Needs to Slow Down

The Long-Term Stock Exchange wants to list companies that aim for sustainable growth. 

Commuters exit a Wall Street subway station near the New York Stock Exchange.Photographer: Michael Nagle/Bloomberg
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Eric Ries has plenty of Wall Street doubters. That only motivates him more. The Silicon Valley author, who’s sold more than a million copies of his book The Lean Startup, is putting his own lessons into practice by entering one of the world’s most competitive and cutthroat markets: U.S. stocks. His Long-Term Stock Exchange got the green light from regulators in May, but many market executives still don’t know what to make of it and can’t figure out how it will fit into an already complex ecosystem.

“A lot of finance people said, ‘Listen, kid, you don’t understand,’ ” says Ries, 41, about the reaction to his exchange. “I don’t take being called crazy as an insult. I’m used to it.”