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.

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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★
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The best matches for everything you told us, ranked.

  • 1

    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…

    On AmazonAudible

  • 2

    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…

    On AmazonAudible

  • 3

    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,…

    On AmazonAudible

  • 4

    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.…

    On AmazonAudible

  • 5

    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…

    On AmazonAudible

  • 6

    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.…

    On AmazonAudibleAuthor's Podcasts

  • 7

    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! *…

    On AmazonAudible

  • 8

    The Art of Closing the Sale

    The Key to Making More Money Faster in the World of Professional Selling

    Brian Tracy · 2007

    4.231,154 ratings · Goodreads

    Finance and numbersFirst salesCompany building

    About the book

    "Let me think it over." Early in his sales career, world-renowned sales expert Brian Tracy couldn't find a way to overcome that simple five-word objection and close the sale. Then he discovered a technique that worked. Business boomed. Tracy broke every…

    On AmazonAudible

The books most about finance and numbers.

  • 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.…

    On AmazonAudible

  • 2

    Keys to Heaven's Economy

    An Angelic Visitation from the Minister of Finance

    Shawn Bolz · 2005

    4.40328 ratings · Goodreads

    Finance and numbers

    About the book

    The Lord's audible voice filled the room, introducing the angel standing before me: "Welcome the Minister of Finance for the Kingdom." So begins the unfolding of Shawn Bolz's visitations from God's heavenly messenger, His Minister of Finance. Heavenly…

    On AmazonAudible

  • 3

    Accounting Principles

    Jerry J. Weygandt · 1987

    4.02408 ratings · Goodreads

    Finance and numbers

    About the book

    This engaging book lays the foundation for readers to succeed on the CPA exam and ultimately in their professional practice. The new edition continues to reflect the conversational style and clarity that has made this a leader in the market. It explores the…

    On AmazonAudible

  • 4

    Real estate finance and investments

    William B. Brueggeman, Jeffrey Fisher · 1993

    55 Open Library reading lists

    Finance and numbers

    On AmazonAudibleOpen Library

  • 5

    Moneyball

    Michael Lewis · 2003

    4.27148,833 ratings · Goodreads

    Finance and numbers

    About the book

    Billy Beane, general manager of MLB's Oakland A's and protagonist of Michael Lewis's Moneyball, had a problem: how to win in the Major Leagues with a budget that's smaller than that of nearly every other team. Conventional wisdom long held that big name,…

    On AmazonAudible

  • 6

    The One Week Budget

    Learn to Create Your Money Management System in 7 Days or Less!

    Tiffany Aliche · 2011

    4.20688 ratings · Goodreads

    Finance and numbers

    About the book

    Hate paying bills? So do I, and that’s why I stopped! What if I told you that I haven’t paid a bill in over a decade and my credit score is over 800? Would you call me a liar or would you want to know how I did it? In this book, I will teach you what took me…

    On AmazonAudible

Published in the last three years, newest first, for what you told us.

  • 1

    Future Rich Person

    The New Rules for Building Wealth

    Haley Sacks · 2026

    4.08420 ratings · Goodreads

    Finance and numbers

    About the book

    From Zillennial Finance Expert Mrs. Dow Jones comes a groundbreaking, judgment-free personal finance guidebook about how to grow wealth on your own terms.You’re not bad with money. It’s just no one ever taught you how to win a game rigged against…

    On AmazonAudible

  • 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…

    On AmazonAudible

  • 3

    The 5 Types of Wealth

    A Transformative Guide to Design Your Dream Life

    Sahil Bloom · 2025

    4.1312,431 ratings · Goodreads

    Finance and numbersCompany building

    About the book

    A groundbreaking guide to rejecting the default path and designing your dream life, a life centered around The 5 Types of Wealth. Launch your journey to fulfillment with this transformative system from inspirational writer, speaker, and entrepreneur Sahil…

    On AmazonAudible

  • 4

    Our Dollar, Your Problem

    An Insider's View of Seven Turbulent Decades of Global Finance, and the Road Ahead

    Kenneth Rogoff · 2025

    4.161,111 ratings · Goodreads

    Finance and numbersCompany building

    About the book

    A leading economist explores the global rise of the U.S. dollar and shows why its future stability is far from assured. Our Dollar, Your Problem argues that America’s currency might not have reached today’s lofty pinnacle without a certain amount of good…

    On AmazonAudible

  • 5

    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…

    On AmazonAudible

  • 6

    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…

    On AmazonAudible

How companies like yours were actually built, from the people who built them.

  • 1

    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…

    On AmazonAudible

  • 2

    Elon Musk

    Walter Isaacson · 2023

    4.3281,328 ratings · Goodreads

    Founder storiesCompany building

    About the book

    From the author of Steve Jobs and other bestselling biographies, this is the astonishingly intimate story of the most fascinating and controversial innovator of our era, a rule-breaking visionary who helped to lead the world into the era of electric vehicles,…

    On AmazonAudible

  • 3

    Sam Walton

    Made in America

    Sam Walton · 1992

    4.1527,178 ratings · Goodreads

    Founder storiesCompany building

    About the book

    As Sam Walton himself said, this is "...a story about entrepreneurship, and risk, and hard work, and knowing where you want to go and being willing to do what it takes to get there. And it's a story about believing in your idea even when maybe some other…

    On AmazonAudible

  • 4

    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…

    On AmazonAudible

  • 5

    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…

    On AmazonAudible

  • 6

    Bitter Brew

    The Rise and Fall of Anheuser-Busch and America's Kings of Beer

    William Knoedelseder · 2012

    4.056,011 ratings · Goodreads

    Founder storiesCompany building

    About the book

    “Bitter Brew deftly chronicles the contentious succession of kings in a uniquely American dynasty. You’ll never crack open a six again without thinking of this book.”, John Sayles, Director of Eight Men Out and author of A Moment in the Sun The creators of…

    On AmazonAudible

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…

    On AmazonAudible

  • 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…

    On AmazonAudible

  • 3

    To Sell is Human

    The Surprising Truth About Moving Others

    Daniel H. Pink · 2012

    3.8726,914 ratings · Goodreads

    Company buildingFirst sales

    About the book

    From the bestselling author of Drive and A Whole New Mind comes a surprising--and surprisingly useful--new book that explores the power of selling in our lives.According to the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, one in nine Americans works in sales. Every day…

    On AmazonAudible

  • 4

    The 22 Immutable Laws of Marketing

    Violate Them at Your Own Risk

    Al Ries · 1993

    4.0522,738 ratings · Goodreads

    Marketing and growthCompany building

    About the book

    There are laws of nature, so why shouldn't there be laws of marketing? As Al Ries and Jack Trout, the world-renowned marketing consultants and bestselling authors of Positioning, note, you can build an impressive airplane, but it will never leave the ground if…

    On AmazonAudible

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From the record

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