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22 Books Y Combinator Partners and Founders Recommend
22
items Books that Y Combinator partners and co-founders have recommended, from Paul Graham and Garry Tan to Michael Seibel and Dalton Caldwell. The picks come from YC's own blog reading lists, Startup School talks, partner websites and podcast interviews, a...
Sections
5
Selling, hiring and scaling
Product taste and the hacker mindset
Thinking clearly when the future is unclear
Empire builders and long games
Setbacks, grit and staying sane
Selling, hiring and scaling
The practical books YC people hand founders for sales, negotiation and a team that is growing fast.
Read this if you are a technical founder doing sales yourself for the first time. YC's Dalton Caldwell points founders to it, and the full book is free to read online.
Founding Sales
Read this before a big negotiation with a customer, investor or new hire. Dalton Caldwell of YC tells founders to start with the classic sales books everyone reads, and he named this one.
Getting to Yes
Read this once the company is hiring fast and the early founder playbook stops working. YC partner Gustaf Alstromer called Elad Gil's writing the best blog for startup founders.
High Growth Handbook
Read this when the team grows past the point where everyone knows everyone. Emmett Shear wrote on YC's blog that it helps companies scaling past their first 150 people.
Work Rules!
Read this if you manage engineers and wonder why adding people makes a late project later. Paul Graham lists it on the books page of his own website.
The Mythical Man-Month
Product taste and the hacker mindset
For founders who build the product themselves and care how it looks, feels and works.
Read this to see how Y Combinator's co-founder thinks about startups, programming and taste. Garry Tan and Michael Seibel both name it among their favorite books.
Hackers & Painters
Read this if users get confused by your product and nobody on the team is a designer. Garry Tan called it one of his favorite books in his YC Startup School design talk.
The Design of Everyday Things
Read this when you want to think about craft and creativity instead of metrics. Jack Dorsey brought it to YC's Startup School, and YC's Craig Cannon says he highly recommends it.
The Art Spirit
Thinking clearly when the future is unclear
Books on prediction and decision making that YC partners picked for their own reading lists.
Read this if guessing the future is part of your job, from fundraising to hiring plans. YC partner Jared Friedman says Tetlock's research has actionable lessons for making better predictions.
Superforecasting
Read this if you like seeing everyday decisions through a programmer's eyes. YC co-founder Trevor Blackwell called it an accessible summary of a mountain of research on how people decide.
Algorithms to Live By
Read this for the story behind the research on why smart people make bad decisions. Former YC president Geoff Ralston recommended this account of the Kahneman and Tversky partnership.
The Undoing Project
Read this short book if you want a push toward long-term thinking. Daniel Gross said on YC's reading list that it gives readers a shared language about playing the infinite game.
Finite and Infinite Games
Empire builders and long games
History and one epic novel about power, monopolies and patience, mostly picked by Michael Seibel and Aaron Harris.
Read this to see how a monopoly gets built on a new technology. YC's Aaron Harris called it the best analysis of that kind he had read, and Michael Seibel lists it among his favorites.
Titan
Read this for the full history of oil, money and power, from the first wells to modern geopolitics. Michael Seibel picked it for a YC reading list and keeps it among his favorite books.
The Prize
Read this epic novel if you make big calls under pressure. Michael Seibel says it is his favorite book because it shows that delaying a major decision is often a serious option.
Shogun
Read this business story about how one talent agency came to dominate Hollywood through deal packaging. Daniel Gross and Michael Seibel both picked it for YC summer reading lists.
Powerhouse
Read this if you have to lead a team full of strong people who disagree with you. YC's Aaron Harris put this Lincoln history on the YC summer reading list.
Team of Rivals
Setbacks, grit and staying sane
For the hard stretches of building a company, plus one comic novel for switching off.
Read this when the work feels pointless or the news feels heavy. YC's Paul Buchheit reread it during a low stretch and called it the most important book he read that year.
Man's Search for Meaning
Read this for help getting back up after a failure. YC's Kevin Hale wrote that failure is inevitable and called Brene Brown's book a solid recommendation for entrepreneurs.
Rising Strong
Read this for an honest look at years of grinding before anything works. YC's Qasar Younis sees many similarities between building a stand-up comedy career and being a founder.
Born Standing Up
Read this if you wonder whether persistence matters more than raw talent. YC partner Anu Hariharan called it the best book she had read on building passion and perseverance.
Grit
Read this when you need to stop thinking about work for an evening. YC co-founder Jessica Livingston recommends Wodehouse because startup people need to relax, not always think about work.
Carry On, Jeeves