Startup books to easily read in 1 week?
I want to read a few books around starting up a business to get a few ideas. Anything that really changed your perception or direction of your business?
Thanks in advance!
I want to read a few books around starting up a business to get a few ideas. Anything that really changed your perception or direction of your business?
Thanks in advance!
I recommend both "Rework" and "I doesn't have to be crazy at work"
For non-book I'd recommend reading Paul Graham's essays and Sam Altman's Startup Play Book.
You already have some great recommendations here. Here are my favorite two:
Happy reading!
Haven't heard of the first one. What were your big takeaways from it?
I can answer :D
The authors focus on the problems of today’s startups, clarify upcoming questions and explain them using a highly practice-oriented solution approach. It also contains more than 40 helpful checklists for all project phases, as well as special explanations for digital startups and spin-offs.
It is based upon the theory of Customer Development and Agile and Lean engineering that has been pioneered over the last decade within the startup and entrepreneurial community.
The organization can be confusing. While this manual takes the reader sequentially through the necessary tasks of starting up the startup, it follows two different tracks at the same time. There are the Web/Mobile Channels — your IT, new-economy type channels — and the Physical Channels — brick and mortar. The authors say it’s helpful to read both sections, regardless of what channel your product happens to be.
Thanks, that's a super useful description. I'm also a big fan of the combination of Customer Development and Lean, books that combine both tend to be super practical.
Still, would love to hear specific takeaways from the book!
Thanks! I follow Blank's blog, so will add it to my list.
You need to sell your startup. I realized this too late, but growing on that as we speak. Three books helped me a lot:
These three books helped me in:
I hope this help you too. Keep pushing my friend! 🧘♂️
More outside of the box. Thanks for the recommendations, Karthik
You’re welcome @hernan 👍
Awesome. thanks for recommending. I too spend way too much building instead of showing hehe.
True. Typical mistake that no one would learn unless they experience the mistake themselves.
Lots of sweet recommendations. Love it.
1 small piece of advice... be careful not to get lost in education purgatory like I did. That's really a waste of time.
A useful way to think about it is that you 'earn' reading by doing the highest priority stuff like talking to users and building stuff.
You don't wanna be in a position where suddenly months have passed and you've made virtually no progress.
I agree. I just like to read in my spare time :)
I think "The Mom Test" is an easy read and really helpful! Also check out "Letters from a Stoic" which got me thinking more about the journey that I was about to go on and how to stoically get past some of the roadblocks that were bound to come up.
I also have a bigger list at startupbookslist.com if you wanna have more books to check out.
Going down the road of stoicism, eh? I think I should read some Seneca, as you suggest. Nice little site, Ayush.
Humble plug for my biz partner @amyhoy's book JFS: https://stackingthebricks.com/just-fucking-ship/
Lean Startup by Eric Ries. You can probably skim through it in a day, but it's also a good reference.
Read it! I enjoyed the case studies
I couldn't agree more. Easy read. Full of good information.
I like the style of https://makebook.io/ if you are into bootstrapping.
The $100 Startup if you haven't read it already.
Other you can read are Getting Real which is available online https://basecamp.com/gettingreal/
The Lean Startup
These are ones I have read and highly recommend.
Getting Real's coming out a lot so and I love Basecamp so it may be my next one up!
Read the Lean Startup
Anything Basecamp related I can really get behind. Perhaps my next read!
What makes you recommend $100 Startup?
Thanks!
The whole concept of $100 startup is to build a business with less money. Personally I like that, not breaking the bank to build something.
Cool stuff. Will check it out
"Anything you want by Derek Sivers" is simple, short & great. The most common sense advice which is not common in any other book. I don't know why this book isn't recommended enough. It's literally the only book I finished from start to end without getting bored.
Not really a startup book but "Steal like an Artist by Austin Kleon" is my another favorite which will teach you how to steal literally anything while hiding sources & appearing original. Be it others successful startup ideas with a variation or design or landing page.
Steal Like an Artist. I remember buying it at the airport and just read through it on the flight. May have to reread it. I wonder where it is...
Great two suggestions! Read both and really enjoyed and also recommend both.
Mind mentioning the premise of Anything You Want? I haven't heard of that one before.
Basically you can achieve anything you want just by helping people. Don't try to start a business or a startup. Just help people. The more you help people, the more the world will give to you. You will have anything you want by just doing those things. I don't explain this better but Derek does.
Here's the book page - https://sivers.org/a
See the "Chapters" section on the page where he has some little blog posts. They are some of the chapters from the book.
Here are some videos of some chapters from the book by Derek himself. His voice is soothing, his narration is amazing & his style is just good. He doesn't use more words than required so it's short, to the point. Check this playlist out - https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLCDDBA84EFA4061D1
His TED Talks are exceptionally well - https://youtu.be/HhxcFGuKOys & https://youtu.be/AWwDzHFSyLs
While everyone in the world gives tons of different advice on how to generate an idea & find a good market, Derek has a simple perspective. Just help people achieve what they want. If you give them what they want, the universe will give you what you want. This book was an eye-opener for me & I just read it 2 weeks back. Although I have read lots of his blogs & videos for 2 years, I am not a book reader. This is the 1st one I completely finished because its so small & crisp. Every sentence speaks something.
Even top indie hackers listen to him every now & then. The advice is so so good & simple. See https://twitter.com/adamwathan/status/1015751009501474816 & https://twitter.com/adamwathan/status/1261710241097490434
Don't want to leave any spoilers so you can have fun while reading. If you are already convinced, directly read the book & then watch everything else about Derek Sivers. If nothing, you'll love his voice :)
Thanks for this post! You did a great job grabbing all of this research :)
Based on what you wrote, you also need to read The Go-Giver and It's Not About You. Two business book fables that have the same message (Givers make more), sounds like you'd like them a lot.
Thanks for the recs, I'll give them a shot. But I'm really inconsistent haha so it might take me few months or probably this year to finish my already existing list.
I keep dropping books more often than reading them hah.
Hah, I'm the opposite. I read probably too much. Already have yours on the wish list!
Hey Hernán,
I've actually asked a very similar question here on IH about a month ago,
and I received a ton of suggestions. I've written them in this article on my blog.
I haven't read them all, but from the ones I've read I can tell you that these are quick and contain a ton of useful info:
I hope this helps :)
I confirm, Gabriel Weinberg's book is one of the best I've read on startup topics.
Nice! Thanks for those, Nicolas. I went through the ones on your site, as well. Duhigg's The Power of Habit is good. I only just recently got Atomic Habits by JAmes Clear, which is supposedly one step further.
Mom Test
Another one that's coming out a lot. Listed. Thank you
The Mom Test is a great one!
Surprised no one said The Mom Test, short and insightful!
Hooked - Nir Eyal
Zero to One - Peter Thiel (he's not the greatest atm, but his book is a must-read)
Influence - Robert Cialdini
Extreme Ownership - Jocko Wilkins
Oh, Nir Eyal. I've been meaning to read his newest book Indistractable. Zero to One is on the list. Will check out the other two. Any good insights? Thanks Antonio
I haven't talked to too many people who have read Extreme Ownership, but it's a fantastic read and I wish more people understood the concept behind it.
There are few books I can say or life-changing but this book was exactly that.
App Secrets - by Sean A. Casto
The information is applicable to anyone. Even if you aren't making an app. For example, I'm a web developer and have no interests in developing apps, but this book helped me a ton.
Mind telling me more about this book? What specifically did you find valuable about it?
It showed the process of how to make your app more visible and scalable on the app store. I am still reading it. About 40% through and I've learned a lot.
Is it mobile App Store specific? Or do you think what you’ve read can apply to B2B app stores: such as Slack or Heroku?
Hmmm... not sure. It hasn't talked about B2B stores, only Apple and Android store.
I'll tell you the literature that blew my mind/helped me be better in my ongoing startup journey:
If you're looking for a great primer to starting a business I would recommend The 7 Day Startup: You Don't Learn Until You Launch by Dan Norris! Very digestible for a 1 week read and even has some "homework" you can do along-side your read to prepare yourself for launching your business!
Lost and Founder by Rand Fishkin
Some great recommendations here already. I’d add Made to Stick: Why Some Ideas Survive and Others Die which is about effective communication and marketing.
From zero to one - Peter Thiel
The hard thing about hard things - Ben Horowitz
The millionaire fastlane - M.J. DeMarco (more about financial education and independence, but it's also startup oriented).
I think most of the classics have been mentioned here already, but here are my 0.02$
Building / Testing / Talking to customers - The Lean Startup
Building / Testing / Talking to customers - Sprint
Selling / Getting customers - Traction
Measuring / Gauging if you're on track - Measure What Matters
I've probably left tons of books off, but those are some of the top books for me, let me know if you have any questions.
I recommend Rework by Jason Fried (Basecamp):
https://boook.link/Rework
If you're just starting out: The Mom Test
If you are building your app: The Lean Startup
When you're talking to customers: When Coffee and Kale Compete
When you're finding a market: Obviously Awesome
Once you're making money: Profit First
The Monk and the Riddle by Randy Komisar
This comment was deleted 6 years ago