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The First-Time Founder's Bookshelf: 15 Books for Each Stage, From Idea to Scale
15
items Startup books grouped by the stage where they help most: testing an idea, building and selling, hiring, and scaling. Each one was recommended by a named founder or venture investor, and every note links to where they said it. I may earn a small commi...
Sections
4
Idea: finding a problem worth solving
Building: product, pricing and first customers
Hiring: the first team
Scaling: from startup to company
Idea: finding a problem worth solving
Before writing code, talk to customers and figure out the job they need done. YC teaches the first book on this list to every batch.
A short guide to customer interviews that get honest answers, by asking about people's real past behavior instead of pitching your idea. Pebble founder Eric Migicovsky teaches its three rules in his YC talk on talking to users.
The Mom Test: How to talk to customers & learn if your business is a good idea when everyone is lying to you
Christensen's Jobs to Be Done idea: customers hire a product to make progress on a specific job, and that job is what you should design for. Databricks CEO Ali Ghodsi calls it the essence of the framework.
Competing Against Luck: The Story of Innovation and Customer Choice
Eric Ries on building the smallest testable version of a product, measuring what users actually do and changing course quickly. Marc Andreessen wrote that Ries turned startup building from an art into a science.
The Lean Startup: How Today's Entrepreneurs Use Continuous Innovation to Create Radically Successful Businesses
Building: product, pricing and first customers
Getting from a working product to customers who pay, and keeping your nerve when it nearly fails.
Moore explains the gap between early adopters and mainstream buyers, and why most tech products die in it. Nicira founder Martin Casado recommends it, and Decagon CEO Jesse Zhang picked it for a16z's founder reading list.
Crossing the Chasm, 3rd Edition: Marketing and Selling Disruptive Products to Mainstream Customers
The authors argue that most new products fail on pricing, and that you should test what customers will pay before you build. Ali Ghodsi says it helped him design pricing at Databricks.
Monetizing Innovation: How Smart Companies Design the Product Around the Price
The Heath brothers lay out four common traps in decision making and a simple process for avoiding them. Ali Ghodsi included it among the books that shaped how he runs Databricks.
Decisive: How to Make Better Choices in Life and Work
The story of SpaceX's early years, when a small team on a remote Pacific island failed three times to reach orbit before the fourth launch worked. a16z growth partner David George recommends it for showing how close the company came to dying.
Liftoff: Elon Musk and the Desperate Early Days That Launched SpaceX
Hiring: the first team
Who you hire and how you treat them decides what the company becomes. These are the books founders say they built their hiring on.
A four-step hiring method: define the outcomes a role needs, source through referrals, run structured interviews, then sell the candidate. Ali Ghodsi says all hiring at Databricks is built on this book.
Who: The A Method for Hiring
Netflix's former chief talent officer explains the culture she built with Reed Hastings: hire adults, tell the truth and skip most HR procedures. Hastings called the book magical.
Powerful: Building a Culture of Freedom and Responsibility
A Navy captain describes taking the worst-rated submarine in the fleet to the best by letting crew members make decisions instead of waiting for orders. Basecamp cofounder David Heinemeier Hansson named it a favorite leadership book.
Turn the Ship Around!: A True Story of Turning Followers into Leaders
Scaling: from startup to company
Operating manuals and hard-times stories for when the company outgrows the founder's old habits.
Stripe's former COO gives templates and tactics for company planning, hiring executives and running a leadership team. Patrick Collison says few people are better qualified to explain how to manage fast growth.
Scaling People: Tactics for Management and Company Building
CEO coach Matt Mochary's operating manual for founders: running meetings, giving feedback, hiring and staying accountable. Former Coinbase CTO Balaji Srinivasan says he and Brian Armstrong used parts of it at Coinbase.
The Great CEO Within: The Tactical Guide to Company Building
Serial founder Dan Shapiro covers the CEO's job from cofounder splits to board fights and fundraising. Koru cofounder Kristen Hamilton picked it as her top business book in First Round's founder reading list.
Hot Seat: The Startup CEO Guidebook
Lee Iacocca's memoir of launching the Mustang, being fired from Ford and then rescuing Chrysler from near bankruptcy. a16z growth partner Sarah Wang says she still rereads it every few years.
Iacocca: An Autobiography
The true story of Shackleton's crew surviving nearly two years after their ship was crushed by Antarctic ice. a16z partner Alex Rampell recommends it to teams facing near certain defeat.
Endurance: Shackleton's Incredible Voyage