Entrepreneur Reading List

1. Disrupted: My Misadventure in the Start-Up Bubble
   
2. The Phoenix Project: A Novel about IT, DevOps, and Helping Your Business Win
   
3. The E-Myth Revisited: Why Most Small Businesses Don't Work and What to Do About It
   
4. The Art of the Start: The Time-Tested, Battle-Hardened Guide for Anyone Starting Anything
   
5. The Four Steps to the Epiphany: Successful Strategies for Products that Win
   
6. Permission Marketing: Turning Strangers into Friends and Friends into Customers
   
7. Ikigai
   
8. Reality Check: The Irreverent Guide to Outsmarting, Outmanaging, and Outmarketing Your Competition
   
9. Bootstrap: Lessons Learned Building a Successful Company from Scratch
   
10. The Marketing Gurus: Lessons from the Best Marketing Books of All Time
    
11. Content Rich: Writing Your Way to Wealth on the Web
    
12. The Web Startup Success Guide
    
13. The Best of Guerrilla Marketing: Guerrilla Marketing Remix
    
14. From Program to Product: Turning Your Code into a Saleable Product
    
15. This Little Program Went to Market: Create, Deploy, Distribute, Market, and Sell Software and More on the Internet at Little or No Cost to You
    
16. The Secrets of Consulting: A Guide to Giving and Getting Advice Successfully
    
17. The Innovator's Solution: Creating and Sustaining Successful Growth
    
18. Startups Open Sourced: Stories to Inspire and Educate
    
19. In Search of Stupidity: Over Twenty Years of High Tech Marketing Disasters
    
20. Do More Faster: TechStars Lessons to Accelerate Your Startup
    
21. Content Rules: How to Create Killer Blogs, Podcasts, Videos, Ebooks, Webinars (and More) That Engage Customers and Ignite Your Business
    
22. Maximum Achievement: Strategies and Skills That Will Unlock Your Hidden Powers to Succeed
    
23. Founders at Work: Stories of Startups' Early Days
    
24. Blue Ocean Strategy: How to Create Uncontested Market Space and Make Competition Irrelevant
    
25. Eric Sink on the Business of Software
    
26. Words that Sell: More than 6000 Entries to Help You Promote Your Products, Services, and Ideas
    
27. Anything You Want
    
28. Crossing the Chasm: Marketing and Selling High-Tech Products to Mainstream Customers
    
29. The Innovator's Dilemma: The Revolutionary Book that Will Change the Way You Do Business
    
30. Tao Te Ching
    
31. Philip & Alex's Guide to Web Publishing
    
32. The Tao of Programming
    
33. Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance: An Inquiry into Values
    
34. The Inmates Are Running the Asylum: Why High Tech Products Drive Us Crazy and How to Restore the Sanity
    
    

    Computer Science Grad School Reading List
    

    
    

35. All the Mathematics You Missed: But Need to Know for Graduate School
    
36. Introductory Linear Algebra: An Applied First Course
    
37. Introduction to Probability
    
38. The Structure of Scientific Revolutions
    
39. Science in Action: How to Follow Scientists and Engineers Through Society
    
40. Proofs and Refutations: The Logic of Mathematical Discovery
    
41. What Is This Thing Called Science?
    
42. The Art of Computer Programming
    
43. The Little Schemer
    
44. The Seasoned Schemer
    
45. Data Structures Using C and C++
    
46. Algorithms + Data Structures = Programs
    
47. Structure and Interpretation of Computer Programs
    
48. Concepts, Techniques, and Models of Computer Programming
    
49. How to Design Programs: An Introduction to Programming and Computing
    
50. A Science of Operations: Machines, Logic and the Invention of Programming
    
51. Algorithms on Strings, Trees, and Sequences: Computer Science and Computational Biology
    
52. The Computational Beauty of Nature: Computer Explorations of Fractals, Chaos, Complex Systems, and Adaptation
    
53. The Annotated Turing: A Guided Tour Through Alan Turing's Historic Paper on Computability and the Turing Machine
    
54. Computability: An Introduction to Recursive Function Theory
    
55. How To Solve It: A New Aspect of Mathematical Method
    
56. Types and Programming Languages
    
57. Computer Algebra and Symbolic Computation: Elementary Algorithms
    
58. Computer Algebra and Symbolic Computation: Mathematical Methods
    
59. Commonsense Reasoning
    
60. Using Language
    
61. Computer Vision
    
62. Alice's Adventures in Wonderland
    
63. Gödel, Escher, Bach: An Eternal Golden Braid
    
    

    Video Game Development Reading List
    

    
    

64. Game Programming Gems - 1 2 3 4 5 6 7
    
65. AI Game Programming Wisdom - 1 2 3 4
    
66. Making Games with Python and Pygame
    
67. Invent Your Own Computer Games With Python
    
68. Bit by Bit

There are several "phases." It varies from company to company but generally looks like the following:

1. Friends&Fools ~ just enough to keep going (super early stage)
   
2. Angel investors* ~$10k-200k (proof of concept, possibly a few rounds)
   
3. Series A ~2m-10m (enough to become a real company or die trying)
   
4. Series B ~20m-50m (not ready for exit** stage, but growing quickly)
   
5. C/D/E/F... ~50m+ (large valuations up to billions, how attractive can you make the exit before you run out of money)
   
   You want each round of funding to be at a higher valuation than the last, that way each previous investor can claim a better and better balance sheet and the company gets increasingly large injections of cash to fuel growth (you get your next round of investors on growth).
   
   If subsequent rounds are valued less than before, previous investors (and founders) get screwed and lose a lot of control + ownership. But at that point it is usually preferable to getting no money and going out of business (most startups have large burn rates and not a good monetization strategy).
   
   Each round founders and previous investors give up some control of the company to new investors. So early investors usually have the right of first refusal. They can continue to invest in each round and keep their control for additional money.
   
   I cannot stress how hype driven this is. When a company seems great, everyone wants in. If a company seems to be struggling, it becomes hard to raise money very quickly).
   
   This is why you see successful startup CEOs are often natural hype machines. Its a necessary survival skill. Technical and personal skills are somewhat less so
   
   ​
   
   *Could also be known as seed phase
   
   ** Exit means buyout by larger company, like Google. Or an IPO on the stock market. This is where investors make back money, in theory
   
   More info: https://www.investopedia.com/articles/personal-finance/102015/series-b-c-funding-what-it-all-means-and-how-it-works.asp
   
   If you really want a good guide book, I would suggest this one: https://www.amazon.com/Venture-Deals-Smarter-Lawyer-Capitalist/dp/1119594820/ref=sr_1_2?keywords=venture+deals&qid=1571807378&sr=8-2
   
   Not particularly useful if you are just casually curious, but if you want the nuts and bolts on how the process works, its a good one.

I recommend that you consider the wisdom of the crowd. One does not have to be informed to contribute. There are enough influences in daily life that if enough people are involved then the best decision for the group will emerge. I know it may seem counter-intuitive but the alternative is technocratic exclusion and derision. Kind of like this post-election hate

Here is an easy read, the focus is business and startups but it does cover the theory as well.

Here is the obligatory Wikipedia link, the point is that when you concentrate decisions into the hands of a few people who think they know and who think others don't deserve to participate then it will not be the best solution for the larger group as a whole, and the level of "informed" really doesn't matter if you are interested in the best result that matches the common good.

This short, terrific book tells the tale:
In Pursuit of the Common Good: Twenty-Five Years of Improving the World, One Bottle of Salad Dressing at a Time.
It was co-written by A.E. Hotchner, Paul's best friend and co-founder of Newman's Own. Hotchner was also pal with Ernest Hemingway. Needless to say, he is a hell of a writer. I highly recommend it. There is a lot of humor and when they write about opening the Hole in the Wall camps, it's very moving and inspiring. It's a memorable portrait of Paul, too. Great book.

Just to build on this:

I couldn't make up my mind either, so I searched for these on the Amazon US site since I don't use Goodreads to see how reviews looked, etc. The resulting links, with the smile. prefix for charity aspect in case you make a purchase, are below. YMMV.


The Other F Word: 3.4

Business Development for Dummies: 3.5

Startup Mixology: 4.27

Starting a Tech Business: 2.67

The 4 Lenses of Innovation: 3.62

StartupLand: 4.01

All in Startup: 4.18

The Customer Funded Business: 3.73

Trend Driven Innovation: 4.38

Monetizing Innovation: 4.20

The Ways to New: 3.84

Startup Checklist: 4.10

The Art of Startup Fundraising: 4.11

Disciplined Entrepreneurship: 4.26

.

Not in the original list:

The Art of Opportunity: How to Build Growth and Ventures Through Strategic Innovation and Visual Thinking

In my experience, the only way this would work if you're still in the idea stage is if you have a pre-existing personal relationship with the lawyer in question who is willing to do some pro-bono legwork for you or work on contingency.

Lawyers cost money. Like investors, it is very unlikely that they want to invest their limited time on you unless they can see a clear benefit to themselves. If you have the money, it is better spent elsewhere during the idea phase.

Echoing what I said earlier, and what jashs103 said below, at the very minimum you are going to need a well thought-out business plan, preferably with financial projections... and your first investors will likely be angel investors (family, friends, etc) who are willing to pony up some money while you refine your idea and strategy.

Go to the library and check out some books on writing business plans and raising money. One book that is pretty helpful is Raising Venture Capital for the Serious Entrepreneur.

There is no one book. What you are looking for is perspectives.

My suggestion, first up: Start with The Goal: A Process of Ongoing Improvement

It is a great book for people who are currently employed, and are struggling to understand why business owners think the way they think. Also, it introduces some basic lean thinking concepts (Theory of Constraints) that are very useful regardless of whether you are trying to be an entrepreneur or not. If you plan to hire people, this should be required reading for all of them. Remember, the book was written in the last century, some culture shock is expected.

Next: I would highly recommend reading The Lean Startup. It's a bit dated now, and newer refinements are available, but every other book kind of builds upon this book.

Now you should be able to relate to whether your business idea is sound or not. Next you want to understand, how other people became successful, for this, you need to read Nir Eyal's Hooked. The book is an eye opener for how various online businesses keep making us coming back for more.

Now you are close to building your product, but maybe you need to understand if you are onto something worth selling or not? The Lean Startup will tell you to do a Smokescreen MVP or a Concierge MVP. An even better approach is defined in Sprint. This approach allows you to test business assumptions in a highly structured manner.

After all of this, hopefully, you will someday reach a stage, where you will need to go and pitch your idea to investors. Get Backed teaches you to put together a presentation for investors, and how to handle the presentation.

At the end of all of this, you might be feeling very optimistic about life and stuff, but to keep yourself grounded, read up on Ben Horowitz's The Hard Thing About Hard Things. It is one of the most humbling books you could ever read, and once in a lifetime kind of a book that is as profound as the Chicken Soup books.

If I were you, These are some steps I would take to increase my odds of getting a VC job assuming you are new the field and don't have $$ you can afford to easily lose.

A- No experience, little to no money
1- Read at least 5 books about the industry
2- Listen to podcasts and watch YouTube videos with VC interviews and teachings
3- Networks with VC
4- Land a job
5- Make money
6- Become a professional VC


Books to read
1- #Breaking Into VC - Bradley Miller
https://www.amazon.com/BreakIntoVC-Investor-Entrepreneur-Professional-Guidebook/dp/1544934343

2Done Deals

3-Essentials of Venture Capital

4- Venture Deals

5- The Business of Venture Capital


Podcasts and radio to listen to
1- Angellist radio
2 - 20 Minutes VC with Harry Stebbings
http://www.thetwentyminutevc.com/
3- Bloomberg radio
4- Investors archives series on YouTube
https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCVJalJNQWimC2zWrIHR_bSQ

Networking with VC
You can go on VC firms websites, find some VC partners you admire and email or call them to pick their brain.
You could also attend VC meetings or pitc competitions if you have access to.

These first steps will increase your chance of getting a job or at least an internship leading to a job.

In terms of making money, this is a personal decision up to you. VC firms themselves are funded by Limited Partners such as pension funds or school endowments. So they are pretty much investing other people money in most cases.

All these steps apply if you want to be a professional VC in a traditional sense, a job like one would imagine an investor banker on Wall Street or a doctor working in a hospital.


B- If you have the knowledge and the money likeChris Sacca

Depending on your income, you can start right away and become a VC. If you have money, you can invest in any business venture you want and start practicing your craft. You wouldn't necessarily need to join a firm. You can even start your own firm if you're loaded.

In either case you need to have a deal flow (investment opportunities) and be able to do due diligence. VC is a calculated investment not a lottery.
You would also need a great understanding of the ecosystem of business venture including the relationship between VCs, entrepreneurs and the business opportunities/markets.

Go ahead and become a VC, you do need to get permission from anybody. If you're hungry enough figure it out and GO FOR IT.

Here are three books that I've read within the past year that I loved:

​

Rand Fishkin's Lost and Founder

April Dunford's Obviously Awesome

Verne Harnish's Scaling Up

​

Of the three, only Dunford's book is marketing specific but they all offer such excellent insights that you need to think about marketing as an element of a company, not a stand-alone function. Fishkin is the founder of SEO firm Moz, and his book is a page-turner.

​

Good luck!

I've read a lot of the books recommended so far in the comments, and IMO a lot of them wouldn't really apply to OP and what he's looking for.

For the financial analysis stuff you're looking for, I would recommend ["Simple Numbers, Straight Talk, Big Profits"] (http://www.amazon.com/Simple-Numbers-Straight-Talk-Profits/dp/1608320561/ref=pd_sim_b_52?ie=UTF8&refRID=1S8HGR7A61EGGQWPC28R).

I would also second "The Personal MBA" as someone already posted here. I also liked ["E-Myth Mastery"] (http://www.amazon.com/E-Myth-Mastery-Michael-E-Gerber-ebook/dp/B000RO9VIQ/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1419395662&sr=1-1&keywords=e-myth+mastery) for the company structure and organization that you're looking for -- if you can get past the waffling and storytelling crap Gerber is so fond of, there's actually good information within those pages.

Lastly, "Street Smarts" is also a great book on business strategy for those with more experience like you.

Here’s a great book on the topic. It covers how to raise equity, how to structure your partnership, and will help you realize what resources you’re going to need. Good luck!

Raising Private Capital: Building Your Real Estate Empire Using Other People's Money https://www.amazon.com/dp/1947200984/ref=cm_sw_r_cp_api_j-QNBbF9WRXP2

The Lean Start-Up was helpful to an extent, but this one:
http://www.amazon.com/The-Customer-Funded-Business-Finance-Customers/dp/111887885X
was even better for those looking to build something from the ground up. Might work for existing business as well, but my model is for a new business so can't really speak to that. The Business Model Generator by Strategyzer also was a good supplement to both these books.

Only one title of overlap, nice.
Out of your list, where would you start? Have you read any other in our original list?



Built to Sell, John Warrillow

The Automatic Customer, John Warrillow

How to Sell at Margins Higher Than Your Competitors, Lawrence Steinmetz

Start With Why, Simon Sinek

Leaders Eat Last, Simon Sinek

The E-Myth Revisited, Michael Gerber

Selling the Invisible, Harry Beckwith

What Clients Love, Harry Beckwith

Question Based Selling, Tom Freese

Also, read this book! It helps you figure out some small business stuff and make a business plan and what not. Some of it won't apply, especially if you're doing digital patterns, but I found it really helpful. This book is also helpful but there's a lot of overlap between the two.

Here are all the local Amazon links I could find:


amazon.com

amazon.co.uk

amazon.ca

amazon.com.au

amazon.in

amazon.com.mx

amazon.de

amazon.it

amazon.es

amazon.com.br

amazon.nl

amazon.co.jp

amazon.fr

Beep bloop. I'm a bot to convert Amazon ebook links to local Amazon sites.
I currently look here: amazon.com, amazon.co.uk, amazon.ca, amazon.com.au, amazon.in, amazon.com.mx, amazon.de, amazon.it, amazon.es, amazon.com.br, amazon.nl, amazon.co.jp, amazon.fr, if you would like your local version of Amazon adding please contact my creator.

The Portable MBA in Entrepreneurship
http://www.amazon.com/The-Portable-Entrepreneurship-William-Bygrave/dp/0471271543
Good to Great and Built to Last by Jim Collins
and The Power to Change by Rachel McKee and Bruce Carlson

📅 2018-04-23 ⏰ 15:25:19 (UTC)

>I'm doing an AMA on Reddit tomorrow for the launch of https://www.amazon.com/Lost-Founder-Painfully-Honest-Startup/dp/0735213321. Hope to see lots of you there, asking tough Qs 😅

>— Rand Fishkin ✅ (@randfish)

>🔁️ 17 💟 111



📷 image



 

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biy this book: https://www.amazon.com/gp/aw/d/9881485088/ref=tmm_pap_title_0?ie=UTF8&qid=1565801583&sr=8-1
pretty easily explained, but its a good base to start with.

Mastering the VC Game by Jeff Bussgang. It's a really fast read; his perspective is well balanced among successes and failures in the startup world.
*Edit - I should add that this is geared towards the VC thought process, but it is valuable because Bussgang was also a founder.

Hi Jawilson2, here's a few books I've read in the past that helped prime me. I guess at the minimum these books helped me understand who was a bullshitter and who wasn't when they claimed they "knew the business side."

Raising Venture Capital for the Serious Entrepreneur - Fund raising basics. Key if you ever plan to raise money. You'd be stupid to try without reading this first.
http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0071496025/

Business Model Generation - This book helps you think through the business model issues most "hacker" type entrepreneurs skip. Makes you think more holistically.
http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0470876417/

The Entrepreneur's Guide to Business Law - Basics about legal issues you should be aware exist. I haven't read through it all at once, but it's a good guide when I run up against areas I'm murky on.
http://www.amazon.com/The-Entrepreneurs-Guide-Business-Law/dp/0324204930/

You might want to check out this book, Mastering the VC Game. http://www.amazon.com/Mastering-VC-Game-Venture-Start-up/dp/1591843251

It talks about Angels and VC's. It is also pretty timely. There is a bit in there about term sheets, what to watch out for, how to valuate, what angels and vc's are looking for, etc.

The following comment by Trev_Holland was openly removed.

The original comment can be found(in censored form) at this link:

np.reddit.com/r/ CryptoCurrency/comments/83pgy2/-/dvk7eav?context=4

The original comment's content was as follows:

---

> https://www.amazon.com/Cryptocurrencies-simply-explained-Co-Founder-Decentralization/dp/9881485088/ref=sr_1_7?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1520828515&sr=1-7&keywords=crypto+currencies

I was inspired by this, but can't make salad dressing. And White Man's Burden is breadpig required reading ;)

The Art of the Start - Guy Kawasaki

Raising Venture Capital for the Serious Entrepreneur - Dermot Berkery

Mastering the VC Game: A Venture Capital Insider Reveals How to Get from Start-up to IPO on Your Terms - Jeffrey Bussgang

And not specifically about the "money part," but an absolutely invaluable book:

Four Steps to the Epiphany- Steve Blank

And don't neglect reading Paul Graham's Essays, Fred Wilson's Blog, Ask The VC, and Feld Thoughts.

CryptoCurrencies by Julian Hosp https://www.amazon.com/Cryptocurrencies-simply-explained-Co-Founder-Decentralization/dp/9881485088/

https://www.amazon.com/Venture-Deals-Smarter-Lawyer-Capitalist/dp/1119594820/ref=dp_ob_title_bk

Is probably the standard intro text.