Top 10 Books for First-Time Founders
First-Time FoundersEssential reads curated for your startup journey. From customer discovery to leadership growth, these 10 books provide the foundational knowledge every new founder needs.
A practical guide to talking to customers without getting lied to. Fitzpatrick shows how to ask questions that reveal honest feedback instead of polite encouragement, helping you validate ideas before building.
Getting the customer to yes by focusing on the gap between where they are and where they want to be. Keenan shows how to diagnose problems and position solutions effectively.
Grow your leadership to grow your business. Executive coach Alisa Cohn shares lessons from helping companies like Etsy, Foursquare, and InVision become headline names, focusing on founder self-management and team leadership.
The definitive guide to building startups using validated learning, rapid experimentation, and iterative product releases. Ries introduces the Build-Measure-Learn feedback loop that has become the foundation of modern startup methodology.
Thiel argues that the most valuable companies create something entirely new rather than competing in existing markets. This contrarian guide challenges conventional thinking about competition, monopoly, and innovation.
A comprehensive guide to the 19 channels startups can use to get customers. Weinberg and Mares introduce the Bullseye Framework for systematically testing and finding your best traction channel.
Building a business when there are no easy answers. Horowitz shares the brutal, honest reality of running a startup—the struggles, the tough calls, and how to survive them.
The operating system your business needs to run and scale without you. Deiss provides systems and frameworks for establishing processes that enable companies to function and expand independently of owner involvement.
Marketing and selling high-tech products to mainstream customers. Moore explains the gap between early adopters and the mainstream market, and how to cross it.
Be a kickass boss without losing your humanity. Scott introduces the Radical Candor framework: caring personally while challenging directly to build better relationships and results.