Starting a company is an exciting journey. It is full of challenges, risks, and growth opportunities. As a founder, you’ll wear many hats. You’ll be the visionary, the problem-solver, and everything in between.
There’s a wealth of knowledge available in some insightful books that can guide you through the process. If you’re just starting out or looking to expand your tech startup, these are 10 best books every startup founder should read.
They cover all aspects, from starting a business to developing the right mindset to conquer the world of tech and entrepreneurship.
Are Startup books worth your time?
Sad reality is most startup books suck. Some are good. Some are great.
Yet, no matter how many startup advice you read… the best learnings will come from actually getting your hands dirty, getting customer feedback, playing the vc game, and a lot of trial and error.
You’ll build (I hope) a successful startup with a lot of stress and sweat. Not comfortably reading books on your couch.
That said… there are great books that can help you avoid some errors and common pitfalls most aspiring entrepreneurs encounter in their startup journey.
Since you’ll soon discover your most scarce resource as a startup founder is time, I’ve put together a list of the best startup books every founder should read, in my very personal opinion.
I know, I know … there are hundreds of “best startup books collection” posts out there… so why mine? Well… I’ve read most of them, I’ve founded 2 successful startups and invested in many others, and I’m not using affiliate links to make money out of this list 🙂
Alright, that’s enough of an intro, let’s jump right into this list of the best startup books you can read in 2024.
Why You Should Read Books Specifically Made for Startup Founders
Studying books for tech startup founders provides key insights and tips that show you the easiest way to tech and business.
The authors of these books include seasoned founders, investors, and industry experts who share their real-world experiences, lessons, and hands-on advice.
I believe that reading these guys’ stories and strategies would better equip you to tackle the challenges of launching and growing your own business.
What’s more? These resources cover essential topics like fundraising, product development, leadership, team building, and market identification. They look at every other area that plays a key role in tech industry success.
They can also help you steer clear of common mistakes that many startup founders run into.
Spending time to read these books not only boosts your knowledge but also sparks your creativity and strategic thinking about your path as a founder.
21 Books Every Startup Founder Should Read
1. The Lean Startup by Eric Ries
The Lean Startup has become the go-to book for tech startups. Eric Ries introduces the “lean” method, which stresses creating a basic working product (MVP) and tweaking it based on what customers say.
The main idea involves building something, testing it learning from the results, and then choosing to change direction or keep going.
This book shows founders how to come up with new ideas and get more done. It teaches them how to avoid wasting time and money on ideas that won’t work in real life.
2. Zero to One by Peter Thiel
Peter Thiel, who helped start PayPal, shares a fresh take on launching a company that brings something new to the world instead of just making existing products better.
Zero to One questions common ideas that tell founders to focus on new things that push the limits of what we think we can do.
Thiel’s thoughts on rivalry controlling markets, and starting with a daring plan are key for any tech entrepreneur who wants to leave a mark.
3. The Hard Thing About Hard Things by Ben Horowitz
Ben Horowitz, an experienced entrepreneur and venture capitalist, talks about running a startup.
In The Hard Thing About Hard Things, he gives straightforward advice on the toughest choices a founder needs to makeᅳfrom letting employees go, to staying sane, to steering a company through tough times.
This book looks at the difficulties of entrepreneurship offering insights from someone who has been there.
4. Crossing the Chasm by Geoffrey A. Moore
Startups find it hard to move their tech product from early adopters to the mainstream market.
Crossing the Chasm tackles this issue by offering ways to connect early adopters with the wider market.
Moore’s ideas on how to position, market, and sell products are key for tech founders who want their products to become popular.
5. Innovator’s Dilemma by Clayton M. Christensen
“Innovator’s Dilemma” is a key book that shows why companies that do well often can’t come up with fresh ideas. Christensen talks about “disruptive innovation,” where new firms can beat big ones by making things simpler and cheaper.
People who start tech companies need to get this process to shake up current markets and protect themselves from possible disruptors.
You have to read this book to stay on top of the always-changing tech world.
6. Start with Why by Simon Sinek
What makes some companies inspire loyalty while others don’t?
Simon Sinek argues that the most successful organizations begin with “why”ᅳtheir core purpose or belief.
Start with Why encourages founders to lead with a clear vision and mission to build a company culture that resonates with employees, customers, and investors alike.
This book reminds us that the “why” driving your startup often carries more weight than the “what” or “how.”
7. High Output Management by Andrew S. Grove
Andrew Grove, who led Intel as CEO, offers practical advice to manage teams, make decisions, and grow a company in High Output Management.
While it doesn’t zero in on startups, Grove’s insights work well for any tech founder.
This book provides the essentials to build a well-oiled productive organization covering everything from setting goals to evaluating performance.
8. Blitzscaling by Reid Hoffman and Chris Yeh
In the tech industry, speed often leads to success. Blitzscaling by LinkedIn co-founder Reid Hoffman looks at how companies can grow to outpace their competitors.
The book talks about ways to handle fast growth, from hiring the best people to dealing with the risks of expanding too.
This book is a key resource for driven founders who aim to grow fast while staying in charge.
9. Hooked: How to Build Habit-Forming Products by Nir Eyal
Every tech startup wants to make products people can’t live without.
Hooked by Nir Eyal looks at why some products become habits and others don’t. Eyal’s “Hook Model” shows how to design products that have an impact on users and keep them coming back.
Founders who want to enhance their product development and user experience should read this book.
10. The Art of the Start 2.0 by Guy Kawasaki
Guy Kawasaki, a former Apple evangelist, provides a comprehensive guide to starting a company in The Art of the Start 2.0.
His book covers all aspects you need to know to launch and grow a startup, from pitching to investors to building a brand.
Kawasaki’s straight-talking advice coupled with real-world examples, makes this book essential for anyone in the early stages of setting up a tech company.
11. Who
Who— written by Geoff Smart and Randy Street— is centered around the fact that so many small businesses make a crucial error. They focus on what they’re selling or what problem they’re solving and forget about the who.
Who have you hired? You can save millions by avoiding costly hiring mistakes, and this book is all about that.
They include:
- A 4-step method for hiring the right team members with what they say is a 90% success rate
- The promise of potentially saving $1.5M by avoiding basic hiring mistakes
- Interviews with over 20 billionaires and 60 different high-profile thought leaders. Including CEOs and investors (which originally comprised of over 1300 hours of interview materials)
The book is well-written and concise, and has two authors that have multiple decades of relevant experience (and success) each. This is one hiring guide startup owners should read right away.
Trust this might sound boring, especially at the beginning when you’re a one-man band. But I can assure you as you scale your startup and start shaping your startup culture, hiring the wrong people can have a devastating impact, even kill your company.
12. Founders at Work: Stories of Startups’ Early Days
Jessica Livingston’s Founders at Work is an exceptional compilation of interviews where founders of downright famous tech companies discuss their earliest days with their companies.
Steven Wozniak from Apple. Max Levchin from PayPal. Caterina Fake from Flickr. Sabeer Bhatia from Hotmail.
They share their stories about how they learned to build their now-famous companies, including how they got the idea for their businesses, won over investors, and recovered when plans went sideways.
What’s unique about this book compared to many others is that the interviews are the entire focus of the book. They’re in-depth and from various sources; it’s not just one founder’s story, and it’s not just a few quotes from experts that are dropped in to prove someone else’s point.
You’ve got diverse experiences, all leading to incredible success. That’s worth reading and listing among the best startup books!
13. Hooked: How to Build Habit-Forming Products
Any product can have a solid GTM strategy, good timing, and a little bit of luck that results in a successful launch.
But what about long-term retention? That’s something else entirely.
A big part of high retention rates comes down to habit. When someone uses your product as part of their established routine and it’s a true habit, your value goes up.
Hooked, by Nir Eyal, is all about how you can create habit-worthy products through “hook cycles” that keep users coming back over and over, all while you spend most of your marketing budget on initial customer acquisition.
14. The Startup Owner’s Manual
Written by Steve Blank and Bob Dorf, The Startup Owner’s Manual is a step-by-step guide for startup ownership, focusing heavily on customer development. This includes helping you identify your audience and discover strategies to help retain and grow your client base as you acquire it.
They detail the customer development process (they’ve used and recommended) to help flesh out your business idea and bring it to life. Along with sharing information about “9 deadly sins” that can significantly impair potential success.
15. The $100 Startup: Reinvent the Way You Make a Living, Do What You Love, and Create a New Future
“The $100 Startup” by Chris Guillebeau, is a guide for aspiring entrepreneurs looking to start and grow a business with minimal investment.
The book is based on numerous interviews and surveys with real startups. It offers practical insights and case studies to help individuals define and sell a product, as well as grow their business from there.
Guillebeau emphasizes the power of a great idea and the willingness to take action. Showcasing examples of people who have successfully started microbusinesses with $100 or less.
16. Predictable Revenue: Turn Your Business Into a Sales Machine with the $100 Million Best Practices of Salesforce.com
Predictable Revenue is a book that provides actionable insights for building a high-growth sales team.
It focuses on processes for generating a constant flow of new leads and customers, emphasizing the importance of quality over quantity in sales.
It is a valuable resource for those looking to optimize their salesforce and achieve sustainable business growth. The book covers topics such as creating predictable lead generation, avoiding common sales mistakes, and developing self-managing sales teams
17. What Customers Want: Using Outcome-Driven Innovation to Create Breakthrough Products and Services
What Customers Want is written by Anthony W. Ulwick, the CEO of Stregyn, Inc. It will have you reconsidering everything you know about the “customer-driven” model that focuses on customer requirements to drive growth.
Instead, Ulwick talks about “outcome-driven innovation” while going over a deeply scientific approach that cuts back on big swings and random guesses that businesses sometimes take when trying to figure things out.
In other words, it’s not about the “benefits” or “features” clients want, which some businesses focus on and can get tied up within. Instead, Ulwick encourages businesses to think about focusing on (and marketing to) the specific outcome customers want.
In this startup book, you can learn how to capture unique customer data that makes more predictable innovation possible. Along with helping you discover which ideas and tech can make the biggest impact when it comes to creating customer value.
18. Capitalism Without Capital: The Rise of the Intangible Economy
Capitalism Without Capital (written by Jonathan Haskel and Stian Westlake). It’s a book that every startup should read if they’re focused on intangible products that customers can’t physically hold in their hands.
Intangible assets might include design, branding, and (of course!) SaaS tools, and they’ve become increasingly important for brands of all kinds to invest in.
This book looks at over a decade of research to determine how best to measure intangible investments and what their impacts have on major brands. This includes data on how different countries invest in intangible items. What’s changed over time, and what the future might look like.
19. From Impossible to Inevitable: How SaaS and Other Hyper-Growth Companies Create Predictable Revenue
Aaron Ross and Jason Lemkin’s From Impossible to Inevitable is all about the kind of rapid growth that makes Silicon Valley pay close attention.
Today’s startup founders know better than anyone how much pressure there is to grow at a break-neck speed. And scaling to downright aggressive heights, even if you’re struggling to scale as it is.
This book has strategic insights into what you can do to grow faster and more consistently. While looking at how companies like SalesForce and HubSpot have already done so. They stress that the growth strategies are just as effective for brands with a $100,000 as they are for brands already raking in $1 billion annually.
Here, you can learn how to identify what roadblocks are slowing your potential growth. Discover how to overcome them, create a niche for yourself. And build a strong, highly scalable, and highly effective sales team.
20. Buy Back Your Time: Get Unstuck, Reclaim Your Freedom, and Build Your Empire
In this book, Martell, a successful SaaS founder himself, shares his own personal journey of overcoming burnout and creating a life with more freedom and flexibility.
The book is divided into three parts: “Get Unstuck,” “Reclaim Your Freedom,” and “Build Your Empire.” In the first part, Martell helps readers identify the reasons for feeling stuck and provides strategies for overcoming obstacles such as fear, procrastination, and feeling overwhelmed.
The second part focuses on creating more time in one’s life by prioritizing tasks, delegating responsibilities, and setting boundaries. Finally, in the third part, Martell discusses how to turn that extra time into an opportunity to build a business or pursue other goals.
Founders are probably most hard-pressed on time. There’s so much to do, and so little time. His emphasis on setting boundaries and delegating tasks resonated with me, as those are key strategies that have helped me grow my own business.
21. Without a Doubt: How to Go from Underrated to Unbeatable
“Without A Doubt” is a captivating account of Surbhi’s journey with her company vision, from its inception to its successful exit.
The book provides a candid insight into an entrepreneur’s thought process as she navigates the challenges of leading a company for the first time.
I appreciated the author’s refreshing honesty about the realities of achieving such a high level of success. And what it truly looks like behind the scenes, especially as a woman in a predominantly male-dominated industry.
The book is divided into three parts: “Believe,” “Act,” and “Achieve.” In the first part, Sarna emphasizes the importance of believing in oneself and provides strategies for overcoming negative self-talk and limiting beliefs.
The second part focuses on taking action and making progress toward one’s goals. While the third part discusses how to achieve success and maintain momentum.
Frequently Asked Questions
How do these books help with team management in a tech startup?
Many recommended titles focus on leadership, culture building, and effective communication within teams. Books like Leaders Eat Last by Simon Sinek emphasize creating an environment where employees thrive.
Do these books provide actionable advice or just theory?
Most of the recommended books blend theory with practical advice, offering real-world examples and actionable steps that you can implement in your startup.
Where can I access these recommended books?
You can find them at local bookstores, or online retailers like Amazon, or even borrow them from libraries—many also have digital versions available for e-readers.
Final Thoughts
The right resources can make a big difference in your journey as a tech startup founder. The ten books we’ve revealed here don’t just give you valuable insights and strategies. They also push you to be tough and come up with new ideas when things get tough.
When you dive into these lasting lessons from entrepreneurs who’ve made it, you set yourself up for your own success story.
Keep in mind; every great business starts with knowledge and being open to learning. So pick up one or all of these books today and start turning your startup dreams into something real.
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