Must Read Books for a Startup Founder

Kartike Bansal
17 replies
There are many aspects to a startup, whether it's hiring the right people, figuring out the pricing model, deciding when to seek funding, making pivots, or even preparing an exit strategy in case it doesn't work out. There's no shortage of challenges. I'm just getting started and my reading list is still pretty short. Mind sharing some books that have genuinely made a difference in your startup journey? Your suggestions would be a huge help to me and other community members!

Replies

Stefan Pettersson
The Mom Test, by Rob Fitzpatrick. The Minimalist Entrepreneur, by Sahil Lavingia (founder of Gumroad).
@stpe The mom test is another classic, been recommended to me by a lot of people, I really should read it all the way through at some point
Stefan Pettersson
@william_mathews1 Definiely! I’ve been working with building digital products for +20 years. Still I felt the Mom Test really gave me a lot of insights and tools! Especially while doing solo-entrepreneurship or early-stage startup.
Kartike Bansal
@stpe Great books! Thank you.
André J
@william_mathews1 What's the book the alchemist about? "the idea that all individuals should live in the singular pursuit of their individual dreams"
Kartike Bansal
@sentry_co My friend recommended this book. I bought it but didn't read it. Surely, will start my reading streak with this one.
@sentry_co sure, but its more of a general life lesson / parable kind of thing than startup specific knowledge like "the mom test" for instance Don't get me wrong though, fantastic recommendation, everyone should read it :)
@sentry_co just had a look at sentry, looks really cool, what are you working on RN??
André J
@william_mathews1 Ripping through our entire codebase, with LLM and prompt coding 😬. TBH. I think we can do 3 years of roadmap the next 3 months with LLM prompt coding.
"Zero to one" is a classic, I also really liked "Fundraising" by Ryan Breslow
Salar Davari
@william_mathews1 I've heard of zero and One" Could tell me what topics it covers?
@salar__davari It covers a lot of ground, so its hard to explain here. It gives a lot of insight about what makes a good founder, how to give yourself an advantage. Theres a decent summary here if you are interested: https://fourminutebooks.com/zero....
Tomas Papazian
Hi Kartike -Never split the difference -Think fast, think slow -The 48 laws of power -The power of now These books are not necessarily for start ups but they give you great knowledge you will probably need in your journey. Would love to connect and share some more value with you