Startup founders, what books did you find most helpful? - python_kiss
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python_kiss
About 14 months ago, I had little knowledge of how to execute a startup. In
particular, I wasn't familiar with any online marketing tactics. The following
books helped me a lot in that respective, and more:

1\. Positioning, 22 Immutable Laws of Marketing/Branding, Focus, Marketing
Warfare

2\. Purple Cow, All Marketers are Liars, Permission Marketing (I didn't like
"The Big Moo", "Free prize inside" or "Small is the new Big").

3\. Founters At Work

4\. Wikinomics, Wisdom of Crowds, The Tipping Point (Blink! was alright). I am
looking forward to reading "The Long Tail" and "The starfish and the
spider"...has anyone read them yet?

6\. Why We Buy

7\. Hackers and Painters

8\. The E-Myth revisited

9\. The Art of the Start

10\. On War, The Art of War by Machiavelli and Sun Tzu (not exactly for
startups, but definitely useful)

11\. Crossing the Chasm

~~~
danw
Very good list. I've been compiling a list for a while now using google
notebook. Its a big mess and many of the books I have yet to read but it links
to a few good lists such as the ones on joelonsoftware and onstartups.

<http://www.google.com/notebook/public/14636089903511277449/BDQiPSgoQ98yW0vQh>

Also python: long tail is a good read, drags out a bit though. Possibly more
my attention span at fault there.

~~~
bootload
great list. I'll take some time to go through this. To this I'd add the

_\- JOS software reading list [0]

_ \- JOS management reading list [1]

There are gaps in these lists but pretty much cover the _best_ for both
_programmers_ & _business - types_. But the lists needs updating as I note
pg's _'Painters & Hackers'_ is not listed nor is Cal Hendersons _'Building
Scalable Websites'_ [3].

Reference

[0] Joel On Software 'Book Review, reading list'

<http://www.joelonsoftware.com/navLinks/fog0000000262.html>

[1] Joel On Software, 'Management reading list'

<http://www.joelonsoftware.com/articles/FogCreekMBACurriculum.html>

[3] Cal Henderson, 'Building Scalable Web Sites, 978-0596102357':

<http://www.amazon.com/Building-Scalable-Web-Sites-Applications/dp/0596102356>

~~~
danw
Hackers and Painters is on my list three times :)

I'm going to have to check out Cal Hendersons book sometime but first I have
to make a good site then I can worry about scaling it.

~~~
nostrademons
Cal addresses that by arranging his book in roughly the order that you should
think about things. He recommends that you think about:

1\. Version control

2\. Issue tracking

3\. One-click deploy

4\. Internationalization

5\. Security

before you start building your application, then you build and release it,
then (and only then) start thinking about:

6\. Email

7\. Web services

8\. Scalability

9\. Statistics & monitoring

10\. APIs

This mostly squares with my experiences (both with my own startup - currently
on step 3, with 4, 5 and a launch-ready app already done - and working for
others). The only changes I'd make are:

1\. Move statistics and monitoring up the priority list, before launch. You
want that data available to drive feature implementation.

2\. I'm of two minds on internationalization. I think that most apps can wait
until they're popular before they need to internationalize. However, i18n is
really difficult to do later, after you've already built an app. I watched
LiveJournal go through the process, and it wasn't pretty. So even though you
don't need it, you may want to do it upfront because it'll be much harder
later.

~~~
danw
Now I think I need this book. Your right about stats, I would move them to
number 6 or perhaps even to prelaunch.

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notabel
"Hackers and Painters" had an immense impact on me a couple of years ago. Like
pg, I multiplex art and hackery (I suck at painting though--sculpture,
printmaking, and theatrical design are my areas), so to read a book that
validated and supported that duality was to find a good bit of clarity
regarding my course in life. I still go back to H&P; every few months, when I
get worried about such things.

Just yesterday I started reading "Founders at Work", and from what I've gotten
through, it's going to be great. More on that later, if this thread last.

~~~
python_kiss
Has anyone read "ANSI Common Lisp" by pg, yet? The painting on the front cover
is actually by Paul :)

<http://images.pearsoned-ema.com/jpeg/large/9780133708752.jpg>

~~~
aristus
Sure -- it's what got me into Lisp hackery after I had plateaued on other
languages. This led to Emacs and then RSI, but 2 out of 3 ain't bad. :)

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comatose_kid
Business side:

Most business books are fun to read, but it's really hard to say that any have
been truly helpful. Most lean more to the motivational/inspirational side,
instead of focusing on case studies. My suspicion is that business is probably
not best learned from a book. But I'll list a few I like anyways.

Alan Sugar: The Amstrad Story \- Great story about how Sir Alan grew an empire
selling stereos out of the back of a car. Instructive because his key insights
revolved around understanding what the average user wanted, as opposed to the
technical elite.

Softwar: An Intimate Portrait of Larry Ellison \- He started his first company
at 33 after working for other high tech firms. This book is neat because
Ellison adds his own comments in the footer when he disagrees with the
biographer.

Founders @ Work \- Pre-ordered it. I was tempted to read it all at once, but
decided to spread it out over 2 weeks. I'm glad that I did - there's a lot to
digest....

Product side:

_Designing Interactions \- If you want to design great user experiences, it
helps to see the thought processes great designers go through to create
successful products.

_ Bulletproof Web Design \- Well written, concise. Cederholm knows CSS.

 _Hardening Linux \- I've seen many guides at the bookstore. This one appealed
to me because it has both breadth and depth. The chapter on configuring
firewalls was alone worth the price of the book.

------
domp
I really liked "The Tipping Point". Anything by Malcolm Gladwell I would have
to recommend.

~~~
vo0do0
I agree 100%! Awesome insights and helpful concepts/information

~~~
domp
Definitely. It was great to read this when I had the beginning stages of a
company idea in my head. Made me think of it in a completely different way.

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pg
Tufte's _Visual Display of Quantitative Information_ and Carnegie's _How to
Win Friends and Influence People_.

~~~
notabel
I had long pined to read Tufte's The Cognitive Style of PowerPoint, but
couldn't convince myself to spend the money; when I arrived at university, I
immediately found a copy, and greatly appreciated it (not to say I agreed with
every point). I thence read Visual Display of Quantitative Information, and
found it fascinating--for anyone who's ever taken an interest in typography,
visualization, or the theory of communication, it's an excellent read. Even if
none of that interests you, you'd still benefit from the book: it shows you
how to think analytically about human factors, which is a relatively rare
discipline.

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aristus
I've had to make up for a college education so these may be old hat.

Alan Kay's UI lectures:
<http://webcast.berkeley.edu/course_details.php?seriesid=1906978270>

Ed Tufte, especially Envisioning Information

Structure and Interpretation of Computer Programs (SICP)
<http://www.swiss.ai.mit.edu/classes/6.001/abelson-sussman-lectures/>

Ed Yourdon: Death March... this is a great guide to dealing with enterprizey
development. This shows you what to avoid in your own org.

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nostrademons
My list, categorized:

 _Business & Management_

1\. Innovator's Dilemma and Innovator's Solution by Clayton Christensen

2\. Built to Last and Good to Great by Jim Collins. Built to Last is more
applicable for startups.

3\. Mythical Man Month by Fred Brooks. Anyone who has to manage a team of
programmers and hasn't read this will _fail_ utterly, unless they've already
failed before (or been on a failing team). There's a lot that's
counterintuitive about software project management.

4\. Peter Drucker's work. Kinda long and repetitive, but some good insights.

 _Marketing_

1\. All Marketers are Liars by Seth Godin. I like this better than Purple Cow,
Guerilla Marketer's Handbook, and The Big Red Fez. Most of those have fairly
obvious stuff.

2\. The Tipping Point by Malcolm Gladwell

3\. Crossing the Chasm by Geoffrey Moore

 _Technical_

1\. Building Scalable Websites by Cal Henderson

2\. High Performance MySQL by Jeremy Zawodny

3\. Pragmatic Programmer by...well, it's mentioned elsewhere here.

There are lots of other technical books I like, but most of them aren't
directly relevant to the startup I'm building

------
ladyada
If you want a company, not just a startup: anything from Nolo press

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vo0do0
\- Tipping point (creates a urgency feeling)

\- Built to last (tips and best practices)

\- Blink (helps not to waste ideas, shows how your first impressions/thoughts
could be useful)

\- Phylosophy Books (Republic and Politics) - you can understand and have good
insights about this social networking and community fever moment.

Anything you could read regarding usability, interfaces and scalability would
help a lot when dealing with low money web2 related startups.

To know about extreme programming would be very good.

------
fireandfury
7 Habits of Highly Effective People by Stephen Covey

~~~
python_kiss
That is indeed an excellent book for personal development. Anyone who hasn't
yet read it should certainly look into it.

------
raju
Founders at Work Hackers and Painters

(Disclaimer - I am moonlighting on my startup idea, but have these books to be
a huge source of inspiration. Also, Joel's list is highly recommended. Another
book, and it may seem off-topic is Titan: The Life of John D. Rockefeller, Sr.
It helps to study the lives of those who have managed to pull off very
successful businesses)

------
nickb
There's plenty of interesting books out there and many are fairly specific for
the task you're trying to solve. The book that has helped me out the most is
Getting Things Done by David Allen:

<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Getting_Things_Done>

It's better than any other personal development book.

~~~
danw
GTD didnt work for me.

The bits that I did find useful were

1) make lots of lists

2) read your lists often

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dropbox
some that haven't been mentioned:

\- the innovator's dilemma by clayton christensen

\- blue ocean strategy (kim and mauborgne) -- these two books give you a
little bit more of a framework to evaluate where your idea adds value and give
you examples of how/why some successful companies have been successful

\- high tech startup by nesheim -- a little dated, but lots of info

\- negotiation/people books: getting to yes (fisher, ury) and getting past no
(ury), influence by cialdini (useful for more than just startups)

\- maybe some management books: peopleware (demarco and lister), the art of
project management (berkun), first, break all the rules (buckingham)

\- founders at work (livingston) to get inspired

+1 to crossing the chasm, and the godin & gladwell books, art of the start

blogs: onstartups.com, fred wilson, brad feld, seth godin, etc., guy kawasaki

-drew

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bhb
Some of these have been mentioned, but these stand out for me

 _Programming:_

Getting Real

The Pragmatic Programmer

Hackers and Painters

 _Business:_

Good to Great

Start Your Own Business (I knew basically nothing about small business before
I started, and it's a good intro)

Crossing the Chasm (good so far, haven't finished)

 _Technology/Culture:_

The Long Tail

The World is Flat

 _Productivity/People:_

Getting Things Done

Getting to Yes

How to Win Friends and Influence People

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mauricecheeks
The Magic Lamp 'Goal setting for people who hate setting goals' \- Keith Ellis

its not self help for slackers :-) its just a really good book about
organizing your goals and seeing them through.

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blee001
Be Quick - But Don't Hurry by Andrew Hill with John Wooden. This book reveals
the secrets of running a successful organization.

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sharpshoot
startup by jerry Kaplan. This book really gives you the insight and adrenaline
involved in building an idea which was too early for its time. Emotional stuff
:)

iCon: the unofficial biography of steve jobs. Tremendous into steve's
character

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goodgoblin
Agile Web Development with Rails was very helpful

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zkinion
Founders at Work :)

and Felix Dennis' "How To Get Rich"

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juwo
"real life" by Me

------
reitzensteinm
Dilbert :)

