

Ask HN: Recommendation for Books on Startups? - nishantmodak

What are the books on startups that you would recommend as a must read for an aspiring entrepreneur?
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hga
_Walking the High-Tech High Wire: The Technical Entrepreneur's Guide to
Running a Successful Enterprise_ by David Adamson,
[http://www.amazon.com/Walking-High-Tech-High-Wire-
Entreprene...](http://www.amazon.com/Walking-High-Tech-High-Wire-
Entrepreneurs/dp/0070004684/)

The best tech startup book I've read, by a founder of a company that came up
with a unique semiconductor device. They had to create their market (it had
great advantages but they had to convince EEs to do something unconventional),
they had to discover what made them money (selling parts or services
(consulting)), etc.

If your company is going to have a lot of people and has repeatable processes
(i.e. you're not developing software) _The E-Myth_ by Michael Gerber or I
suppose its revision (which I haven't read): [http://www.amazon.com/E-Myth-
Revisited-Small-Businesses-Abou...](http://www.amazon.com/E-Myth-Revisited-
Small-Businesses-About/dp/0887307280/)

He suggests that you build up any company of this nature as if you're going to
franchise it.

He also has a _lot_ of other good advice; one that comes to mind is to make
sure that there's a head for every "hat", i.e. make sure every critical
function is the responsibility of _someone_ , don't let anything fall through
the cracks simply because of oversight.

At the other end of the spectrum, it's no accident that Robert X. Cringely's
_Accidental Empires: How the Boys of Silicon Valley Make Their Millions,
Battle Foreign Competition, and Still Can't Get a Date_ is still in print:
[http://www.amazon.com/Accidental-Empires-Silicon-Millions-
Co...](http://www.amazon.com/Accidental-Empires-Silicon-Millions-
Competition/dp/0887308554/)

Read/skim it if for nothing else but the lesson of how Intel, after it had
gotten quite big almost died due to the innocent well intentioned actions of
one man. He makes the point that high tech companies, even if they enter the
Fortune 500, aren't like "normal" ones.

There's the conceit that when a company gets big enough, no one person can
kill it. His example is only one of many you can find where screwing up at the
technical level can with frightening speed put a high tech company on a
terminal path (see the recent "When the elves leave Middle Earth" HN item for
another example of this: <http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=1007750>).

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ScottWhigham
What are you looking for? That is, IMO, too broad of a question for me/us to
give anything more than broad suggestions. Are you looking for inspirational
stories? War stories? How to? Legal and "how to form a corporation"? There are
great books in probably 20 different areas but you need the right ones at the
right time to get the most out of them IMO.

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mfalcon
I think "Getting Real"(<http://gettingreal.37signals.com/toc.php>) is an
excellent book.

I can't remember another one, but as someone previously said, articles, posts
and discussions are better resources of information about it.

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csomar
I read <http://www.foundersatwork.com> and it was not really bad. However I
prefer to read articles and discussions about startups; I think they are the
best resource of information.

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sutro
"Startup" by Jerry Kaplan. [http://www.amazon.com/Startup-Silicon-Adventure-
Jerry-Kaplan...](http://www.amazon.com/Startup-Silicon-Adventure-Jerry-
Kaplan/dp/0140257314)

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chaosmachine
You're probably already aware of it, but Founders at Work is worth a read.

<http://www.foundersatwork.com/>

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Caligula
My personal favorite and one that I wish I read before I started:

the four steps to the epiphany

