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

    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

  • 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

    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

  • 4

    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

  • 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

    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

  • 7

    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

  • 8

    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

The books most about finance and numbers.

  • 1

    Cost Accounting

    William K. Carter · 2005

    4.21204 ratings · Goodreads

    Finance and numbers

    About the book

    Designed for an introductory course at the undergraduate or graduate level, this dynamic text presents an updated, real-world approach to cost accounting. Cost Accounting, 14e demonstrates the fundamentals and logic of alternative accounting systems and…

    On AmazonAudible

  • 2

    The 9 Steps to Financial Freedom

    Practical and Spiritual Steps So You Can Stop Worrying

    Suze Orman · 1997

    3.793,596 ratings · Goodreads

    Finance and numbers

    About the book

    Suze Orman has transformed the concept of personal finance for millions by teaching us how to gain control of our money -- so that money does not control us. She goes beyond the nuts and bolts of managing money to explore the psychological, even spiritual…

    On AmazonAudible

  • 3

    The investment, financing, and valuation of the corporation

    Myron J. Gordon · 1962

    18 Open Library reading lists

    Finance and numbers

    On AmazonAudibleOpen Library

  • 4

    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

  • 5

    The Book on Estimating Rehab Costs

    The Investor's Guide to Defining Your Renovation Plan, Building Your Budget, and Knowing Exactly How Much It All Costs

    J. Scott · 2013

    4.201,003 ratings · Goodreads

    Finance and numbers

    About the book

    Entirely revised and updated! How much does it really cost to flip a house? Learn detailed tips, tricks, and tactics to accurately budget all house flipping projects from expert real estate investor and fix-and-flipper J Scott. Discover the…

    On AmazonAudible

  • 6

    Get a Financial Life

    Personal Finance in Your Twenties and Thirties

    Beth Kobliner · 1996

    3.903,140 ratings · Goodreads

    Finance and numbers

    About the book

    A completely revised and updated fourth edition of the New York Times bestseller, designed to guide younger adults through the world of personal finance. More than ever before, people in their twenties and thirties need help getting their financial lives…

    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

    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

  • 3

    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

  • 4

    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

  • 5

    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

  • 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

    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

  • 2

    Veeck As In Wreck

    The Autobiography of Bill Veeck

    Bill Veeck · 1962

    4.132,173 ratings · Goodreads

    Founder stories

    About the book

    Bill Veeck was an inspired team builder, a consummate showman, and one of the greatest baseball men ever involved in the game. His classic autobiography, written with the talented sportswriter Ed Linn, is an uproarious book packed with information about the…

    On AmazonAudible

  • 3

    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

  • 4

    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

  • 5

    Finding My Virginity

    The New Autobiography

    Richard Branson · 2017

    4.073,696 ratings · Goodreads

    Founder storiesCompany building

    About the book

    Global business icon Richard Branson has written many books, but none have been more popular than his first memoir, 1998's Losing My Virginity. Now he's finally publishing his second volume of memoirs, covering all of his fascinating ups and downs of the past…

    On AmazonAudible

  • 6

    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…

    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

    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

  • 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…

    On AmazonAudible

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From the record

Written by the people who write the cheques

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