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1/ I've so far started two companies. While I either had or knew how to acquire the technical knowledge, I struggled a LOT in running the business. I read a number of books, blog posts, YouTube videos, and podcasts to suck less.
This is a thread on books that I found helpful.
This is a thread on books that I found helpful.
2/ Why these books: They provide founders with the highest leverage and unfair advantage. They are rich, dense, and provide the learnings of someone who has gone through the drill. They provide tactical advise: on what you should be doing, rather than being vague or hand-wavy
3/ If there is one book that I recommend every startup founder should read, it is THE FOUR STEPS TO EPIPHANY by Steve Blank. How to start from the idea, how to validate it - going from customer development to company creation. https://www.amazon.com/Four-Steps-Epiphany-Steve-Blank/dp/0989200507
4/ Eric Ries, a student of Steve Blank, used those learnings to build a successful company - giving rise to THE LEAN STARTUP. He talks about vision, how to steer it, and finally accelerate. The build-measure-learn framework is invaluable for startups. https://www.amazon.com/Lean-Startup-Entrepreneurs-Continuous-Innovation/dp/B005MM7HY8/
5/ How do you visually represent your company's strategy, threat, and value prop and differentiation in one slide? BUSINESS MODEL GENERATION, by Alexander Osterwalder, provides the framework. And did I say - the book is beautifully designed.
https://www.amazon.com/Business-Model-Generation-Visionaries-Challengers-ebook/dp/B06X426D4F
https://www.amazon.com/Business-Model-Generation-Visionaries-Challengers-ebook/dp/B06X426D4F
6/ What's a playbook to do customer conversation? If you are like me, who suck at networking and talking to people - THE MOM TEST by Rob Fitzpatrick is worth its weight in gold. The book has a number of examples and is a very quick read. https://www.amazon.com/Mom-Test-customers-business-everyone-ebook/dp/B01H4G2J1U/
7/ Positioning is the art of deliberately defining how are you the best at something for a specific market that cares a lot about the problem you are solving. OBVIOUSLY AWESOME by April Dunford provides the framework for positioning. https://www.amazon.com/Obviously-Awesome-Product-Positioning-Customers-ebook/dp/B07PPW5V9C
8/ Sales typically begin much before marketing at startups, especially at B2B ones. SELL MORE FASTER by Amos Schwartzfarb provides the best tactical advice for startups on how to start, learn, and accelerate the sales process. https://www.amazon.com/Sell-More-Faster-Ultimate-Techstars-ebook/dp/B07WNYR9M5/
9/ Rockstar developers do not translate into an engine that continuously ships products. It depends on the product management culture. SHAPE UP by Ryan Singer provides a proven framework (at Basecamp) on how to build and ship successful products.
https://basecamp.com/shapeup
https://basecamp.com/shapeup
10/ Invariably, even before you have a website up, you will start making decks. Innumerable of them. For potential customers and investors. THE PYRAMID PRINCIPLE by Barbara Minto provides a top-down thinking framework, to think, structure, and present. https://www.amazon.com/Pyramid-Principle-Logic-Writing-Thinking/dp/0273710516/
11/ When fund-raising, you need to know the investors' language and the terms used in the agreement. VENTURE DEALS by Brad Feld provides a breakdown of everything there is to when it comes to startup investing.
https://www.amazon.com/Venture-Deals-Smarter-Lawyer-Capitalist-ebook/dp/B07WSYKG7N/
https://www.amazon.com/Venture-Deals-Smarter-Lawyer-Capitalist-ebook/dp/B07WSYKG7N/
12/ Culture is controversial. There is no one size fits all. DHH and Jason Fried, founders of Basecamp, provides insights on how to build a high-performance company - and is my personal favorite.
https://www.amazon.com/Rework-Jason-Fried-ebook/dp/B002MUAJ2A
https://www.amazon.com/Rework-Jason-Fried-ebook/dp/B002MUAJ2A
13/ I will finish this thread with a book that I found very inspirational. THE HARD THINGS ABOUT HARD THINGS by Ben Horowitz talks about the various challenges and decisions he had to make when running his company - from starting up all the way to IPO.
https://www.amazon.com/Hard-Thing-About-Things-Building/dp/B00I0A6HUO
https://www.amazon.com/Hard-Thing-About-Things-Building/dp/B00I0A6HUO
