

Ask HN: What can you recommend to Read for future startup founder? - genbit

I think it&#x27;s good to read about some Tips&amp;Tricks, before you start new company.<p>Business side, everything that can be useful to find partners, customers, raise funds.<p>Maybe you can suggest some books or read list.
======
mindcrime
Cribbed from an older answer of mine, to a different question[1], but pretty
much my "recommended reading list".

[1]:
[https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=5591319#up_5591574](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=5591319#up_5591574)

0\. _The Four Steps to the Epiphany_ \- it's not strictly about "marketing" in
and of itself, but it certainly touches on elements of marketing, and should
be required reading for any startup founder, IMO.

1\. _Crossing the Chasm_ by Geoffrey Moore (more marketing strategy / product
strategy than marketing tactics, but a valuable read)

2\. Lookup the current textbook for "Marketing 101" (or it's equivalent) at a
nearby college. Go buy the book and read it, even if you don't take the class.
If you have time and money, take the class.

3\. _The Ultimate Sales Machine_ by Chet Holmes. I'm deep into studying Chet's
approach now, and his book has some great stuff on it. If you can, get hold of
his videos from the program he did with Anthony Robbins titled "Ultimate
Business Mastery System." You can safely skip the Tony Robbins part, but Chet
delivers some good stuff.

4\. _In Search of Stupidity_ by Merrill Rick Chapman.

5\. _Positioning: The Battle for Your Mind_ by Al Ries, Jack Trout and Philip
Kotler

6\. _The 22 Immutable Laws of Marketing: Violate Them at Your Own Risk!_ by Al
Ries and Jack Trout

7\. _Re-Positioning: Marketing in an Era of Competition, Change and Crisis_ by
Jack Trout and Steve Rivkin

8\. _The 22 Immutable Laws of Branding_ by Al Ries and Laura Ries

9\. _Differentiate or Die: Survival in Our Era of Killer Competition_ by Jack
Trout and Steve Rivkin

10\. _Successful Business Research: Straight to the Numbers You Need - Fast!_
by Rhonda Abrams. This is good for learning about how to find the numbers
you'll want to use to put together a first cut of a marketing plan. Think your
"target market" is "screw, nut and bolt manufacturers in the southeast with
more than 500 employees"? Then you need to know how many of those even exist,
before you know if the market is even theoretically worth pursuing. Think your
market is "adolescent girls in Massachusetts?" Then you might want population
demographics and birth rates, etc. This is a good basic, (and cheap) book with
some good pointers on how to get started on that kind of market research.

11\. _Marketing High Technology_ by William H. Davidow

12\. _How to Drive Your Competition Crazy: Creating Disruption for Fun and
Profit_ by Guy Kawasaki

13\. I'm a big Seth Godin fan, I'd say read anything and everything by him.
_The Purple Cow_ stands out in my memory as a particularly good one.
_Permission Marketing_ is good as well.

14\. _The Cluetrain Manifesto_

Also, I don't have any specific titles handy (I'm out of town consulting right
now, unfortunately, so I can't even walk into the other room and check), but
just go to a good used book store near you (if you have one) and find a couple
of cheap used textbooks on "marketing research" and "marketing strategy". The
exact title won't matter, you just want something you can read through and get
the high level stuff. You're not trying to become an MBA, just to learn the
language and the broad brush stroke overview of what goes on.

Some more suggestions in another old thread:

[https://news.ycombinator.com:2227/item?id=7939794](https://news.ycombinator.com:2227/item?id=7939794)

~~~
genbit
thanks, good read and advices

------
JSeymourATL
It's useful for future founders to know there will be mountains of struggle,
pitfalls, tragedies, tons of errors. The James Dyson story has got it all>
[http://www.amazon.com/Against-Odds-Autobiography-Business-
Ic...](http://www.amazon.com/Against-Odds-Autobiography-Business-
Icons/product-
reviews/1587990148/ref=cm_cr_pr_hist_4?ie=UTF8&filterBy=addFourStar&showViewpoints=0&sortBy=bySubmissionDateDescending)

------
aespinoza
The Startup Manual - will get you started. ([http://www.amazon.com/The-
Startup-Owners-Manual-Step-By-Step...](http://www.amazon.com/The-Startup-
Owners-Manual-Step-By-
Step/dp/0984999302/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1405628584&sr=8-1&keywords=the+startup+manual))

~~~
genbit
yes, were looking for something like that

------
rayalez
Here's my list: [http://digitalmind.io/post/best-startup-
books](http://digitalmind.io/post/best-startup-books)

