Blog

Running a startup is a full time job. And we’re not talking 40 hours a week — it’s a 24/7 gig. So suggesting to a founder that he or she take the time to read a book might not make much sense. However, given the number of great reads out there and the people who are writing books and sharing knowledge that only they can, it’s worth it to put some time aside and pick up that book/kindle/iPad and flip through some of the recommended startup reads.

Tom Eisenmann, a Harvard Business School professor, wrote a post with a great list of books to read (thank you, Mark MacLeod, for sharing the list with us!). He makes the great point that, “Of course, learning-by-reading is no substitute for learning-by-doing — but almost everything on the list was written by people who work or invest in new ventures, so there’s a lot of wisdom [in the list].” So do, do, do, but don’t forget to do a bit of reading!

Here’s his “MUST READ” list:

Steve Blank’s Four Steps to the Epiphany

Eric Ries’ lean startup principles in a series of blog posts

Marty Cagan’s Inspired 

Geoffrey Moore’s Crossing the Chasm and Inside the Tornado

Avinash Kaushik’s Web Analytics 2.0

Viral marketing analytics by David Skok

Startup metrics presentation by Dave McClure

David Skok on building a sales and marketing machine

Harvard Business Review article by Mark Leslie and Charles Holloway on the sales learning curve

Get working and get reading!!

We’ve shared a few books on the blog, but a really important one that we haven’t yet is The Lean Startup.

Eric Ries’ book hit the startup world like a storm, and is talked about along side famous authors such as Geoffrey Moore.

“Every so often a business book comes along that changes how we think about innovation and entrenpreneurship. Clay Christensen’s theories on disruptive innovation and Geoffrey Moore’s potent metaphors of “crossing the chasm” from small to mass markets, and going “inside the tornado” of starting a business, have loomed large over entrepreneurial theory for years. Eric Ries’s The Lean Startup has the chops to join this exalted company.” FINANCIAL TIMES

As it says on their website, the book is split in 3 categories
- Vision
- Steer
- Accelerate

If you haven’t picked this one up yet, you should.

Check out their website to learn more and see where you can get it.

We’re really excited today to have Brad Feld visit the FounderFuel teams. 

His latest book “Venture Deals: Be Smarter Than Your Lawyer and Venture Capitalist” is spreading like wildfire amongst startup founders, and we definitely recommend you pick it up.

In the book Brad shares his thoughts on:
- The Venture Capital ecosystem.
- Term Sheets and what to look for.
- Various funding stages.

Moreover, you should check out his upcoming webinar in which he will discuss the book.

Join him on October 11, at 11:00 am (MST). Sign up for it here.

I’ve been meeting a lot of startups since we launched FounderFuel, and among many recurring topics of discussion, it seems I’ve been talking a lot about Brad Feld and David Cohen’s “Do More Faster.”

Quite surprisingly not as many people have read it as I expected so I’ve decided to share with you the experience I had when I did, but first I must admit with quite a bit of shame, that I don’t read a lot of books. Perhaps unsurprisingly to you, blogs are where I do most of my reading.

But this was an exception I had to check out and when I got started, I was hooked from the very first few lines. I really couldn’t get enough of it and ended up reading through it in 48 hours. This was quite a feat for me, and so unlike me that my wife was convinced something was wrong!

The book takes us through startup stories told by Brad and David, but even more captivating were the chapters told by the teams who’ve been through the TechStars program. For me at least, those were the ones that really kept me turning the pages. The level of details and the learnings they share are really captivating.

Needless to say I think the book is great. It’s easy and fun to read, and I think every web entrepreneurs out there would learn a great deal from it.

Did I manage to get you excited about it? Pick it up!