There are certain books that are must reads when you’re considering building a startup, if only so that you speak the same lingo as everyone else in the scene as you’re working on your new venture. These five books might not be assigned by your English teacher, but they certainly qualify as classics.
- The Lean Startup
, by Eric Ries: This book came out about a year ago and in that time it has become the holy book of startup founders dedicated to building businesses efficiently and effectively.
- Business Model Generation
, by Alexander Osterwalder and Yves Pigneur: Don’t try to buy this book on Kindle or as an ebook — it’s a heavily visual walk through of common business model patterns that will get you thinking about the business end of what you’re building in entirely new ways.
- The Art of the Start
, by Guy Kawasaki: If you read only one of Kawasaki’s books, it should be this one (although I’d recommend working your way through the rest of his books as you have time).
- Founders at Work
, by Jessica Livingston: Learn from startup founders who have already been where you are. This book is the closest you can come to watching founders like Caterina Fake and Max Levchin in action at the beginning of their careers.
- The Founder’s Dilemmas
, by Noah Wasserman
: Need insight on how to deal with the common problems faced by startup founders? This book covers a wide range of potential pitfalls.
What other books would you consider classics in the realm of building a startup?
Image by Flickr user Peter Renshaw
About Thursday Bram
Thursday Bram has been fascinated with technology and business since she was recruited to work with a startup focused on launching rockets into space in high school. She has started her own business, written for sites like CNET and GigaOm, and thought a lot about whether space flight or the web are going to wind up having a bigger impact on the human race.
