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

    Strategic marketing for educational institutions

    Philip Kotler · 1985

    81 Open Library reading lists

    Marketing and growth

    About the book

    Here is the handbook for academics and practitioners who want to understand what marketing is, how it can contribute to their institutions' greater effectiveness, and how to do it. This revised edition, like its predecessor, provides a solid background in…

    On AmazonAudibleOpen Library

  • 2

    80/20 Sales and Marketing

    The Definitive Guide to Working Less and Making More

    Perry Marshall · 2013

    4.191,904 ratings · Goodreads

    Marketing and growthFirst salesCompany building

    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

  • 3

    Go for No! for Network Marketing

    Richard Fenton · 2017

    4.44312 ratings · Goodreads

    Marketing and growthCompany buildingFirst sales

    About the book

    The perfect companion book for anyone in direct sales or network marketingFenton and Waltz, authors of the best-selling book, Go for No! and Ray Higdon, founder of one of the fastest growing network marketing training companies today, have teamed up to create…

    On AmazonAudible

  • 4

    Ogilvy on Advertising

    David Ogilvy · 1983

    4.1511,960 ratings · Goodreads

    Marketing and growthCompany building

    About the book

    A candid and indispensable primer on all aspects of advertising from the man  Time  has called "the most sought after wizard in the business." Told with brutal candor and prodigal generosity, David Ogilvy • How to get a job in advertising • How to choose…

    On AmazonAudible

  • 5

    Selling the Invisible

    A Field Guide to Modern Marketing

    Harry Beckwith · 1997

    3.9410,059 ratings · Goodreads

    Marketing and growthFirst salesCompany building

    About the book

    You can't touch, hear, or see your company's most important products... So how do you sell, develop, make them grow? That's the problem with services. This "phenomenal" book, as one reviewer called it, answers that question with insights on how markets work…

    On AmazonAudible

  • 6

    Copywriting Secrets

    Jim Edwards · 2019

    4.311,193 ratings · Goodreads

    Marketing and growthCompany buildingFirst sales

    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

  • 7

    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

  • 8

    Book Marketing is Dead

    Book Promotion Secrets You MUST Know BEFORE You Publish Your Book

    Derek Murphy · 2013

    3.95422 ratings · Goodreads

    Marketing and growthCompany buildingFirst sales

    About the book

    Librarian Note: Alternate Cover Edition for B00HC6HQ70. How to sell a ton of books (even if you're starting with no platform).If you've found this book I'm assuming you have or will soon have a bookout on the market, and are exploring ways to turn it into…

    On AmazonAudible

The books most about marketing and growth.

  • 1

    Permission Marketing

    Turning Strangers into Friends and Friends into Customers

    Seth Godin · 2014

    3.9114,851 ratings · Goodreads

    Marketing and growth

    About the book

    The man Business Week calls "the ultimate entrepreneur for the Information Age" explains "Permission Marketing", the groundbreaking concept that enables marketers to shape their message so that consumers will willingly accept it. Whether it is the TV…

    On AmazonAudible

  • 2

    Confessions of an Advertising Man

    David Ogilvy · 1963

    4.006,181 ratings · Goodreads

    Marketing and growth

    About the book

    David Ogilvy was an advertising genius. At the age of 37, he founded the New York-based agency that later merged to form the international company known as Ogilvy & Mather. Regarded as the father of modern advertising, Ogilvy was responsible for some of the…

    On AmazonAudible

  • 3

    Authentic personal branding

    Hubert K. Rampersad · 2009

    10 Open Library reading lists

    Marketing and growth

    On AmazonAudibleOpen Library

  • 4

    Brandwashed

    Tricks Companies Use to Manipulate Our Minds and Persuade Us to Buy

    Martin Lindstrom · 2011

    3.814,394 ratings · Goodreads

    Marketing and growth

    About the book

    Foreword by Morgan SpurlockFrom the bestselling author of Buyology comes a shocking insider’s look at how today’s global giants conspire to obscure the truth and manipulate our minds, all in service of  persuading us to buy.  Marketing visionary Martin…

    On AmazonAudible

  • 5

    The Art of SEO

    Mastering Search Engine Optimization

    Eric Enge · 2009

    4.09927 ratings · Goodreads

    Marketing and growth

    About the book

    Four acknowledged experts in search engine optimization share guidelines and innovative techniques that will help you plan and execute a comprehensive SEO strategy. This second edition brings you up to date on recent changes in search engine behavior, such as…

    On AmazonAudible

  • 6

    Hegarty on Advertising

    John Hegarty · 2011

    4.06741 ratings · Goodreads

    Marketing and growth

    About the book

    A look into what lies behind great ideas and brilliant advertising, told by one of the industry's leading players. What makes a great idea? How does one best pitch to a prospective client? What effect will new technology have on advertising? Written by one of…

    On AmazonAudible

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

  • 1

    Hey, Hun

    Sales, Sisterhood, Supremacy, and the Other Lies Behind Multilevel Marketing

    Emily Lynn Paulson · 2023

    3.5814,654 ratings · Goodreads

    Marketing and growthFirst salesCompany building

    About the book

    She signed up for the sisterhood, free cars, and the promise of a successful business of her own. Instead, she ended up with an addiction, broken friendships, and the rubble of a toppled pyramid . . . scheme. Hey, Hun: Sales, Sisterhood, Supremacy, and the…

    On AmazonAudible

  • 2

    Lean Marketing

    More Leads. More Profit. Less Marketing.

    Allan Dib · 2024

    4.31452 ratings · Goodreads

    Marketing 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

    Personal Branding for Introverts

    Goldie Chan · 2025

    4.41211 ratings · Goodreads

    Marketing and growthCompany building

    About the book

    A top expert in personal branding shows introverts how to leverage their unique strengths to get ahead    To build a career, you need a personal brand to showcase your distinct skills, experience, and expertise. Building that brand can feel…

    On AmazonAudible

  • 4

    Brand It Like Serhant

    Stand Out From the Crowd, Build Your Following, and Earn More Money

    Ryan Serhant · 2024

    3.95275 ratings · Goodreads

    Marketing and growthCompany building

    About the book

    Bestselling author and real estate, television, and media icon Ryan Serhant shares his proven, three-step strategy to build your brand from scratch Brand is everything. Whether you’re a real estate broker, a hair stylist, or a freelance contractor, your end…

    On AmazonAudible

  • 5

    Little Bosses Everywhere

    How the Pyramid Scheme Shaped America

    Bridget Read · 2025

    3.965,793 ratings · Goodreads

    Marketing and growthCompany building

    About the book

    A groundbreaking work of history and reportage that unveils the stranger-than-fiction world of multilevel marketing, from the shadowy cabals at the top to the strivers at the bottom, whose deferred dreams churn a massive money-making scam that has remade…

    On AmazonAudible

  • 6

    The Pricing Roadmap

    How to Design B2B SaaS Pricing Models That Your Customers Will Love

    Ulrik Lehrskov-Schmidt · 2023

    4.43207 ratings · Goodreads

    Finding product-market fitCompany building

    About the book

    "The definitive resource on SaaS pricing, I absolutely can not recommend this book enough." Viktor Heide, COO of Contractbook.com, Forbes "30 under 30" A foolproof method to achieve skyrocketing sales, growth, and profits for your software as a service…

    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

    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

  • 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

    American Kingpin

    Catching the Billion-Dollar Baron of the Dark Web

    Nick Bilton · 2017

    4.4155,362 ratings · Goodreads

    Founder stories

    About the book

    From New York Times-bestselling author Nick Bilton comes a true-life thriller about the rise and fall of Ross Ulbricht, aka the Dread Pirate Roberts, the founder of the online black market Silk Road. In 2011, Ulbricht, a 26-year-old libertarian idealist…

    On AmazonAudible

  • 5

    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

  • 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…

    On AmazonAudible

What founders at seed keep coming back to, if you have not read them yet.

  • 1

    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

  • 2

    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

  • 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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