Rating: 7.7/10. The Promise and Peril of Entrepreneurship: Job Creation and Survival among US Startups by Robert W. Fairlie, Zachary Kroff, Javier Miranda, Nikolas Zolas This book presents a primary economic research on startups and entrepreneurship in the United States, not limited to tech startups but encompassing all kinds of new businesses. Many surveys have…
Category: Startups
Getting Acquired by Andrew Gazdecki
Rating: 7.6/10. Getting Acquired: How I Built and Sold My SaaS Startup by Andrew Gazdecki Book written by a founder and serial entrepreneur of several SaaS startups, details his journey in the first half of the book, how he built and eventually sold Bizness Apps. In his college years, the author was already deeply involved…
The Cold Start Problem by Andrew Chen
Rating: 8.3/10. The Cold Start Problem: How to Start and Scale Network Effects by Andrew Chen Book about the dynamics of network effects and offers guidance for founders who are building products that depend on these effects for success. The author previously worked at Uber during a phase of explosive growth where he witnessed firsthand…
Founding Sales by Peter Kazanjy
Rating: 8.5/10. Founding Sales: The Early Stage Go-to-Market Handbook by Peter Kazanjy Book about how to do sales from first principles, for the founder of a startup who has never done sales before. The approach to startup sales is different from that of a bigger company, and you should do work that doesn’t scale. Firstly,…
Lean Analytics by Alistair Croll and Benjamin Yoskovitz
Rating: 8.2/10. Lean Analytics: Use Data to Build a Better Startup Faster by Alistair Croll and Benjamin Yoskovitz Book about how to use data to make decisions in startups. Every metric you collect should be useful information in making a decision, so avoid collecting vanity metrics like the number of page views or sign-ups. It’s…
How I Built This by Guy Raz
Rating: 6.9/10. How I Built This: The Unexpected Paths to Success from the World’s Most Inspiring Entrepreneurs by Guy Raz Book filled with stories about startups, apparently based off a podcast. The book is pretty short and there are a lot of chapters, about 25 chapters of 10 pages each; each chapter revolves around some…
Why Startups Fail by Tom Eisenmann
Rating: 8.4/10. Why Startups Fail: A New Roadmap for Entrepreneurial Success by Tom Eisenmann It is well known that most startups fail. This book examines common failure patterns for startups through case studies: beginning with the problems faced by early-stage startups, then another different set of problems faced by startups as they grow. The case…
That Will Never Work by Marc Randolph
Rating: 7.6/10. That Will Never Work: The Birth of Netflix and the Amazing Life of an Idea by Marc Randolph Story of the early days of Netflix, from its founding in 1997 until its IPO in 2002. The author is a serial entrepreneur: after his previous company got acquired, he starts brainstorming new business ideas…
Angel: How to Invest in Technology Startups by Jason Calacanis
Rating: 8.3/10. Angel: How to Invest in Technology Startups — Timeless Advice from an Angel Investor Who Turned $100,000 into $100,000,000 by Jason Calacanis Book that’s meant to be a guide for angel investors, but is also a good reference for founders who are looking to raise funding to understand what investors are looking for….
The Mom Test by Rob Fitzpatrick
Rating: 8.2/10. The Mom Test: How to talk to customers & learn if your business is a good idea when everyone is lying to you by Rob Fitzpatrick Book about how to validate startup ideas by talking to customers, and common mistakes that founders make when they try to do so. Unlike many business books,…
The Business of Venture Capital by Mahendra Ramsinghani
Rating: 8.4/10. The Business of Venture Capital: The Art of Raising a Fund, Structuring Investments, Portfolio Management, and Exits by Mahendra Ramsinghani A comprehensive guide to how the world of venture capital works and what it takes to be successful as a VC. The job of a VC is to take money from investors, identify…
The Hard Thing About Hard Things by Ben Horowitz
Rating: 7.6/10. The Hard Thing About Hard Things: Building a Business When There Are No Easy Answers by Ben Horowitz Book by tech CEO and venture capitalist, founder of the Andreessen-Horowitz VC firm. The first part tells the story of his role as CEO of Loudcloud and Opsware. His company ran into trouble during the…