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

    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

  • 3

    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

  • 4

    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

  • 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! *…

    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

    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

  • 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

    Bubbly on Your Budget

    Live Luxuriously with What You Have

    Marjorie Hillis · 1937

    3.82433 ratings · Goodreads

    Finance and numbers

    About the book

    Bubbly on Your Budget is an effervescent guide to living on a budget without sacrificing style. First published in 1937, these tips stand the test of time. Author Marjorie Hillis proves that it isn't how much we have, but how we act, that matters. With a…

    On AmazonAudible

  • 2

    Real estate finance and investments

    William B. Brueggeman, Jeffrey Fisher · 1993

    55 Open Library reading lists

    Finance and numbers

    On AmazonAudibleOpen Library

  • 3

    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

    On AmazonAudible

  • 4

    Lower Ed

    The Troubling Rise of For-Profit Colleges in the New Economy

    Tressie McMillan Cottom · 2015

    4.261,560 ratings · Goodreads

    Finance and numbers

    About the book

    “The best book yet on the complex lives and choices of for-profit students.” The New York Times Book Review As seen on The Daily Show , NPR’s Marketplace , and Fresh Air , the “powerful, chilling tale” (Carol Anderson) of higher education becoming an…

    On AmazonAudible

  • 5

    $100M Offers

    How To Make Offers So Good People Feel Stupid Saying No

    Alex Hormozi · 2021

    4.5419,221 ratings · Goodreads

    Finance and numbers

    About the book

    Here’s exactly what this book will show you how to do: How To Charge a Lot More Than You Currently Are… a- The Tiny Market Big Money Process we use to laser focus on niche markets overflowing with cash b- The “Unfair” Pricing formula….how we 100x’d our…

    On AmazonAudible

  • 6

    Essentials of Accounting

    Robert N. Anthony · 1976

    4.071,125 ratings · Goodreads

    Finance and numbers

    About the book

    For courses in Introductory Accounting. This programmed text has a proven format that involves a unique reversal of pages in the later chapters. This design was conceived as a way to allow the answer column to always appear in th right margin. The book is…

    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

    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

  • 3

    $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…

    On AmazonAudible

  • 4

    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

  • 5

    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

  • 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…

    On AmazonAudible

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

  • 1

    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

  • 2

    Wizard

    The Life and Times of Nikola Tesla

    Marc J. Seifer · 1996

    3.736,658 ratings · Goodreads

    Founder stories

    About the book

    Nikola Tesla (1856-1943), credited as the inspiration for radio, robots, and even radar, has been called the patron saint of modern electricity. Based on original material and previously unavailable documents, this acclaimed book is the definitive…

    On AmazonAudible

  • 3

    The Elon Musk Blog Series

    Wait But Why

    Tim Urban · 2016

    4.701,837 ratings · Goodreads

    Founder storiesCompany building

    About the book

    In 2015, Elon Musk reached out to blogger Tim Urban and asked him if he'd take a crack at explaining Elon's endeavors, and the industries surrounding them, to the world. Tim accepted, and after extensive meetings with Elon and his staff, he wrote four blog…

    On AmazonAudible

  • 4

    Sam Walton, Made in America

    My Story

    Sam Walton · 1992

    4.1628,881 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

    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…

    On AmazonAudible

  • 6

    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

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

    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…

    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

    Nunca te pares

    Phil Knight · 2016

    4.46361,920 ratings · Goodreads

    Company building

    On AmazonAudible

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