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Best Books For a Startup?
26 points by jasonlbaptiste on March 16, 2008 | hide | past | favorite | 32 comments
I think this is an interesting topic. Most likely it's been done already. Anyway, here's my list:

- Monk and the Riddle- Randy Komisar (You HAVE to read this, it puts it in the right perspective. Randy is a genius)

- Paypal Wars

- Founders at Work- Jessica Livingston




Founders at Work (of course)

"Best Practices"-type books that cover the tools and technology the startup is using, whether its Textmate, Unix, Subversion, whatever. Becoming more efficient is never a bad thing.

I'd also add books on management and dealing with people:

- The Art of Speedreading People - Tieger

- Behind Closed Doors - Rothman, Derby

- The Mythical Man Month - Brooks

- Most if not all the books on Joel Spolsky's "MBA Curriculum":

http://www.joelonsoftware.com/articles/FogCreekMBACurriculum...


WOW, Joel Spolsky's list is great. A lot of books on there that I didn't mention above that I've read. Funniest book title:

Difference between God and Larry Ellison... is that God doesn't think he's Larry Ellison


Joel's list is indeed awesome. I think nearly every book I would recommend is already on it.


I am writing my own ... Survival Guide for Bootstrapping Entrepreneurs

http://www.startupforless.org


A nice compliment to the books is a "startup dot com" documentary. It has a lot of dot-com era specifics, but it is very enlightening nonetheless.

http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0256408/


for sure, really good movie. theres also a movie on kozmo called edreams. that i havent seen yet :-(.


Art of the Start - Guy Kawasaki

How to Get Rich - Felix Dennis

Differentiate or Die - Jack Trout

and of course...

Founders at Work - Jessica Livingston

Hackers and Painters - Paul Graham


1) Tipping Point by Malcom Gladwell (very interesting ideas)

2) Innovator's Dilemma (for understanding what can work well)

3) Inside Intuit (for a great business story)

4) Eric Sink on the Business of Software


heres the google books full version of inside intuit. this book looks awesome:

http://books.google.com/books?id=lRs_4U43UcEC&printsec=f...


I'm surprised that 'Getting Real' hasn't been suggested yet, perhaps it has something to do with the recent backlash against 37signals. Anyway I'll stand by it. Fantastic book. I might even go as far as to say 'essential'.

http://gettingreal.37signals.com/toc.php


It's definitely worth reading, but not worth paying for since you can read it for free on their site.


High Tech Start Up - John L. Nesheim

Crossing the Chasm - Geoffrey Moore

One Minute Manager (but only if you've never had management experience)


Made to Stick: Why Some Ideas Survive and Others Die

http://www.amazon.com/Made-Stick-Ideas-Survive-Others/dp/140...


For the German readership: "Cash Code" by Tritsch and Kohlhammer. It has a focus on the legal and administrative stuff around a startup. http://www.cashcodeportal.de/


I have a book left over from my b-school days that I often dip back into. It's called "The Entrepreneurial Venture" and it's sort of like "Founders at Work" if that had been written by Harvard Business School professors.

http://www.amazon.com/Entrepreneurial-Venture-Practice-Manag...

I know that in this group it probably provides an alternative perspective.


It looks like nobody else has recommend one book I particularly like: Startups That Work: Surprising Research on What Makes or Breaks a New Company by Joel Kurtzman and Glenn Rifkin.

It combines a large quantitative study on startups with highlights from case interviews. The book's claims are generally backed by empirical evidence, which is something missing in many other entrepreneurship books.

David Sickmiller


Wow, how could I forget this one:

eBoys: The First Inside Account of Venture Capitalists at Work by Randall Stross (San Jose State Professor, Writes for the Times Occasionally, etc.)

Seriously, this is a really open approach to how Benchmark Capital approached investments in eBay, Webvan,etc. I believe it's available on itunes as an audiobook as well.


I recommend "The Design of Everyday Things" (formely "The Psychology of Everyday Things") by Donald Norman. It's kind of dated and it's focused on product design, but it has some very good ideas about making products that are easy to use and understand.


I'd also highly recommend The Monk and the Riddle - I don't think I've ever seen it suggested elsewhere, but I recommend it to everyone.

I found PayPal Wars to be a bit dull, and the author a bit smug.


This might be only tangentially related, but I dig "How To Be Rich" by J. Paul Getty. He talks a lot about how he built Getty Oil, and about what's important in business and in life.


The New New Thing(http://www.wwnorton.com/catalog/fall99/newnewthing.htm)


"How to win friends and influence people" by Dale Carnegie.

This book should especially be read by those that aren't good with people.


Insanely Great - Steven Levy. About the building of the original Macintosh. Extremely inspiring and interesting.


Bootstrap - Kenneth L. Hess


The Adventure of Leadership by Hap Klopp is a great weekend read.


The New New Thing

Founders at Work

Hackers and Painters

How To Get Rich

Competitive Strategies

The Intelligent Investor (or Security Analysis)

Liar's Poker


Steven Levy is great, I would add his Crypto book as well.


http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Security_Analysis

Different kind of security, but I'll check it out.


If They Say No Just Say Next by John Fuhrma


I think news.yc needs a search.

Heres some we added 3 days ago :p

http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=135185


google: books site:http://news.ycombinator.com


Smarter Ventures - Katharine Cambell




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