Reading List
The books for what you are building.
Tell us your business model, industry and stage, or how you invest, and get the books worth your time, picked from 30,000 on building and backing companies. Chosen by ratings and what they are about.
Atomic HabitsJames Clear · 4.31★
FreakonomicsSteven D. Levitt · 4.01★
The Tipping PointMalcolm Gladwell · 4.01★
Rich Dad Poor DadRobert T. Kiyosaki · 4.08★
BlinkMalcolm Gladwell · 3.96★
Thinking, Fast and SlowDaniel Kahneman · 4.16★
The Art of WarSun Tzu · 3.94★Change your answersFounder · Seed · Finance and numbers
Your reading list
The best matches for everything you told us, ranked.
- 1
Venture Deals
Be Smarter Than Your Lawyer and Venture Capitalist
Brad Feld · 2011
4.1117,486 ratings · Goodreads
Finance and numbersRaising moneyCompany building
About the book
Praise for Venture Deals"My biggest nightmare is taking advantage of an entrepreneur without even realizing it. It happens because VCs are experts in financings and most entrepreneurs are not. Brad and Jason are out to fix that problem with Venture Deals.…
- 2
80/20 Sales and Marketing
The Definitive Guide to Working Less and Making More
Perry Marshall · 2013
4.191,904 ratings · Goodreads
Finance and numbersFirst salesMarketing and growth
About the book
Stop "Just Getting By" ... Master The 80/20 Principle And Make More Money Without More Work. When you know how to walk into any situation and see the 80/20's, you can solve almost ANY marketing problem. 80/20 can demolish any sales and advertising problem.…
- 3
Undercover User Experience Design
Learn How to Do Great UX Work with Tiny Budgets, No Time, and Limited Support
Cennydd Bowles · 2010
4.02505 ratings · Goodreads
Finance and numbersFinding product-market fitCompany building
About the book
Once you catch the user experience bug, the world changes. Doors open the wrong way, websites don't work, and companies don't seem to care. And while anyone can learn the UX remedies usability testing, personas, prototyping and so on unless your organization…
- 4
The 1-Page Marketing Plan
Get New Customers, Make More Money, And Stand out From The Crowd
Allan Dib · 2016
4.3211,134 ratings · Goodreads
Finance and numbersMarketing and growthCompany building
About the book
Do Not Read This Book If You Hate Money To build a successful business, you need to stop doing random acts of marketing and start following a reliable plan for rapid business growth. Traditionally, creating a marketing plan has been a difficult and…
- 5
Sales Dogs
You Do Not Have to Be an Attack Dog to Be Successful in Sales
Blair Singer · 2001
3.923,176 ratings · Goodreads
Finance and numbersFirst salesCompany building
About the book
By knowing the five basic breeds of people-the Pit Bull, the Golden Retriever, the Poodle, the Chihuahua, & the Basset Hound-readers will have the necessary insight to improve their business & selling savvy. SalesDogs * Introduce Five Breeds of SalesDogs! *…
- 6
Copywriting Secrets
Jim Edwards · 2019
4.311,193 ratings · Goodreads
Finance and numbersMarketing and growthCompany building
About the book
What if you could sell anything to anyone? Nobody is born knowing how to sell. But the truth is, you can learn how to sell more . . . a LOT more . . . when you discover the right words that make people buy. Copywriting is selling. Whether online,…
- 7
Principles of Managerial Finance, Brief
Lawrence J. Gitman · 1976
34 Open Library reading lists
Finance and numbers
- 8
The Art of Startup Fundraising
Alejandro Cremades · 2016
4.02819 ratings · Goodreads
Finance and numbersCompany buildingRaising money
About the book
The Art of Startup Fundraising takes a fresh look at raising money for startups, with a focus on the changing face of startup finance. New regulations are making the old go-to advice less relevant, as startup money is increasingly moving online. These new…
The books most about finance and numbers.
- 1
The Money Saving Mom's Budget
Slash Your Spending, Pay Down Your Debt, Streamline Your Life, and Save Thousands a Year
Crystal Paine · 2012
3.581,250 ratings · Goodreads
Finance and numbers
About the book
Crystal Paine, who has helped busy women everywhere take control of their finances, presents her most effective strategies designed for families of all sizes and income levels. With hundreds of inspiring “why didn’t I think of that?” TIPS, plus WORKSHEETS,…
- 2
Financial Statements
A Step-by-step Guide to Understanding and Creating Financial Reports
Thomas R. Ittelson · 1998
4.171,299 ratings · Goodreads
Finance and numbers
About the book
Explains how to read the three basic types of financial statements--the balance sheet, the income statement, and the cash flow--and uses this foundation to explain the flow of cash and product
- 3
Valuation + DCF Model Download
Measuring and Managing the Value of Companies
McKinsey & Company, Inc. · 2000
4.291,815 ratings · Goodreads
Finance and numbers
About the book
McKinsey & Company's #1 best-selling guide to corporate valuation, now in its sixth edition Valuation is the single best guide of its kind, helping financial professionals worldwide excel at measuring, managing, and maximizing shareholder and company value.…
- 4
Accounting for the Numberphobic
A Survival Guide for Small Business Owners
Dawn Fotopulos · 2014
4.33303 ratings · Goodreads
Finance and numbers
About the book
Why do so many business owners dread looking at the numbers? They make excuses...They don't have time...That's what the accountant is for....But the simple truth is that no one else will ever be as invested in their company as they are--and they need to take…
- 5
Real estate finance and investments
William B. Brueggeman, Jeffrey Fisher · 1993
55 Open Library reading lists
Finance and numbers
- 6
The Accounting Game
Basic Accounting Fresh from the Lemonade Stand
Darrell Mullis · 1998
4.271,446 ratings · Goodreads
Finance and numbers
About the book
Basic Accounting Fresh From the Lemonade Stand The world of accounting can be intimidating. But, more often than not, there's no way to avoid it--even non-financial jobs venture into financial jargon and concepts. For those trying to get more done at the…
Published in the last three years, newest first, for what you told us.
- 1
Buy What You Love Without Going Broke
Transform Your Spending and Get More of What Money Can’t Buy―An Empowering Personal Finance Guide with a Mindful Spending Plan
Jennifer Louise Smith · 2025
3.911,144 ratings · Goodreads
Finance and numbers
About the book
A relatable personal finance guide that gives a fresh take on how to control your impulse spending so you can stick to a budget and pay off debt, without the guilt and shame of traditional financial advice, from the hosts of the beloved Frugal Friends podcast.…
- 2
Simple Marketing For Smart People
The One Question You Need to Win Customers without Gimmicks, Hype, or Hard Selling
Billy Broas · 2024
4.35305 ratings · Goodreads
Marketing and growthFirst salesCompany building
About the book
Why do so many smart people struggle with marketing? The answer is smart people love complexity, and complexity brews problems. Does your marketing feel like it has way too many moving parts? If so, Simple Marketing for Smart People is the solution you’ve…
- 3
Lean Marketing
More Leads. More Profit. Less Marketing.
Allan Dib · 2024
4.31452 ratings · Goodreads
Finance and numbersMarketing and growthCompany building
About the book
Bigger Results with Less Marketing You keep being told to do more marketing―more complex, more aggressive, and more expensive marketing. Chasing the latest bright, shiny object is exhausting. Increased efforts keep leading to disappointment. The overwhelm…
- 4
- 5
$100M Money Models
How To Make Money
Alex Hormozi · 2025
4.541,436 ratings · Goodreads
Finance and numbersCompany building
About the book
*Guinness World Fastest Selling Non-Fiction Book in History*** OVER 5,000,000 COPIES SOLD IN THE $100M SERIES!! ** This book will show you the art of getting more customers to spend more money faster.If you have a business, this book will help you make more…
- 6
Incorruptible
Why Good Companies Go Bad... and How Great Companies Stay Great
Eric Ries · 2026
4.37355 ratings · Goodreads
Finance and numbersCompany building
About the book
Incorruptible is Eric Ries’s boldest work since The Lean Startup. Where his earlier books offered tools for product innovation and scaling, this one tackles a deeper, systemic why do even the best companies drift from their missions, betraying the trust of…
How companies like yours were actually built, from the people who built them.
- 1
Steve Jobs
Walter Isaacson · 2011
4.161,391,990 ratings · Goodreads
Founder storiesCompany building
About the book
Walter Isaacson's worldwide bestselling biography of Apple cofounder Steve Jobs. Based on more than forty interviews with Steve Jobs conducted over two years--as well as interviews with more than 100 family members, friends, adversaries, competitors, and…
- 2
Heartland
A Memoir of Working Hard and Being Broke in the Richest Country on Earth
Sarah Smarsh · 2018
3.7616,921 ratings · Goodreads
Founder stories
About the book
During Sarah Smarsh’s turbulent childhood in Kansas in the 1980s and 1990s, the forces of cyclical poverty and the country’s changing economic policies solidified her family’s place among the working poor. By telling the story of her life and the lives of the…
- 3
Shoe Dog
A Memoir by the Creator of Nike
Phil Knight · 2016
4.45389,310 ratings · Goodreads
Founder storiesCompany building
About the book
In this candid and riveting memoir, for the first time ever, Nike founder and CEO Phil Knight shares the inside story of the company’s early days as an intrepid start-up and its evolution into one of the world’s most iconic, game-changing, and profitable…
- 4
Elon Musk
Tesla, SpaceX, and the Quest for a Fantastic Future
Ashlee Vance · 2015
4.12456,221 ratings · Goodreads
Founder storiesCompany building
About the book
Elon Musk, the entrepreneur and innovator behind SpaceX, Tesla, and SolarCity, sold one of his internet companies, PayPal, for $1.5 billion. Ashlee Vance captures the full spectacle and arc of the genius's life and work, from his tumultuous upbringing in…
- 5
Alex Ferguson
My Autobiography
Alex Ferguson · 2013
3.9418,818 ratings · Goodreads
Founder stories
About the book
The celebratory, revealing, inspiring, and entertaining autobiography of the greatest manager in the history of British soccer. Over the past four years, Alex Ferguson has been reflecting on and jotting down the highlights of his extraordinary career, and…
- 6
The Jordan Rules
The Inside Story of One Turbulent Season with Michael Jordan and the Chicago Bulls
Sam Smith · 1992
4.2519,445 ratings · Goodreads
Founder stories
About the book
Sam Smith’s seminal, New York Times bestselling “eye-opener” ( The San Diego Union-Tribune ) on Michael Jordan and the 1990-1991 Chicago Bulls team, perfect for fans of ESPN’s hit documentary series The Last Dance. This is the book that changed the way the…
What founders at seed keep coming back to, if you have not read them yet.
- 1
Crossing the Chasm
Marketing and Selling High-Tech Products to Mainstream Customers
Geoffrey A. Moore · 2002
4.0332,109 ratings · Goodreads
Marketing and growthCompany buildingFirst sales
About the book
Here is the bestselling guide that created a new game plan for marketing in high-tech industries. Crossing the Chasm has become the bible for bringing cutting-edge products to progressively larger markets. This edition provides new insights into the realities…
- 2
Inspired
How to Create Tech Products Customers Love
Marty Cagan · 2008
4.2226,350 ratings · Goodreads
Company buildingFinding product-market fit
About the book
Learn to design, build, and scale products consumers can't get enough of How do today's most successful tech companies–Amazon, Google, Facebook, Netflix, Tesla–design, develop, and deploy the products that have earned the love of literally billions of…
- 3
Building A Story Brand
Donald Miller · 2017
4.2726,500 ratings · Goodreads
Marketing and growthCompany building
About the book
New York Times bestselling author Donald Miller uses the seven universal elements of powerful stories to teach readers how to dramatically improve how they connect with customers and grow their businesses. Donald Miller’s StoryBrand process is a proven…
- 4
The Long Tail
Why the Future of Business is Selling Less of More
Chris Anderson · 2006
3.8330,263 ratings · Goodreads
Company buildingFirst sales
About the book
The New York Times bestseller that introduced the business world to a future that s already here -- now in paperback with a new chapter about Long Tail Marketing and a new epilogue. Winner of the Gerald Loeb Award for Best Business Book of the Year. In…
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From the record
Written by the people who write the cheques
Books by investors and founders we hold records for. The author links to what they have done, not just what they wrote.
The Lean Startupby Eric Ries, Eric Ries2011 · 4.11★L
Lean Inby Sheryl Sandberg, Meta2013 · 3.94★T
The Hard Thing About Hard Thingsby Ben Horowitz, Andreessen Horowitz2014 · 4.19★D
Delivering Happinessby Tony Hsieh, Tony Hsieh2000 · 4.04★#
#Girlbossby Sophia Amoruso2014 · 3.64★T
The One Thingby Gary Keller, Pocketchange Investments2012 · 4.12★P
Principlesby Ray Dalio2017 · 4.09★Read what the people you are pitching read.
Every investor and founder on our records links to their books and the podcasts they are on.