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.

Fill in your cardOr browse a starter list

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★
30,000books on building and backing companies
27,989with a checked cover
3.86★average reader rating across the library
643written by 367 investors and founders on our records
Change your answersFounder · Seed · Finding product-market fit
I am
Your rolePick one
Business modelUp to three
Your stagePick one
Working onUp to four
Your rolePick one
How you investUp to three
To sharpenUp to three
IndustryUp to three
More ways to narrow it: kind of book, and when it was written
Kind of bookAny
WrittenPick one

Nothing is stored. Your answers live in the page's address, so the list can be kept or shared.

Your reading list

↻ Show different picks

The best matches for everything you told us, ranked.

  • 1

    The Elements of User Experience

    User-Centered Design for the Web

    Jesse James Garrett · 2002

    4.014,134 ratings · Goodreads

    Finding product-market fitCompany building

    About the book

    Smart organizations recognize that Web design is more than just creating clean code and sharp graphics. A site that really works fulfills your strategic objectives while meeting the needs of your users. Even the best content and the most sophisticated…

    On AmazonAudible

  • 2

    UX Strategy

    How to Devise Innovative Digital Products that People Want

    Jaime Levy · 2014

    3.941,224 ratings · Goodreads

    Finding product-market fitCompany building

    About the book

    How do you bridge the large knowledge gap between user experience design and business strategy? This practical book introduces lightweight strategy tools and techniques that will help both your design team and your client come to a shared understanding of the…

    On AmazonAudible

  • 3

    Observing the User Experience

    A Practitioner's Guide to User Research

    Mike Kuniavsky · 2003

    3.99695 ratings · Goodreads

    Finding product-market fit

    About the book

    The gap between who designers and developers imagine their users are, and who those users really are can be the biggest problem with product development. Observing the User Experience will help you bridge that gap to understand what your users want and need…

    On AmazonAudible

  • 4

    Strategize

    Product Strategy and Product Roadmap Practices for the Digital Age

    Roman Pichler · 2016

    4.00994 ratings · Goodreads

    Finding product-market fitCompany building

    About the book

    Create a winning game plan for your digital products with Strategize: Product Strategy and Product Roadmap Practices for the Digital Age , 2nd edition. Using a wide range of proven techniques and tools, product management expert Roman Pichler explains how to…

    On AmazonAudible

  • 5

    Lean UX

    Applying Lean Principles to Improve User Experience

    Jeff Gothelf · 2012

    3.996,766 ratings · Goodreads

    Finding product-market fitCompany building

    About the book

    The Lean UX approach to interaction design is tailor-made for today’s web-driven reality. In this insightful book, leading advocate Jeff Gothelf teaches you valuable Lean UX principles, tactics, and techniques from the ground up, how to rapidly experiment with…

    On AmazonAudible

  • 6

    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

    Finding 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

  • 7

    Lean Customer Development

    Building Products Your Customers Will Buy

    Cindy Alvarez · 2014

    4.181,270 ratings · Goodreads

    Finding product-market fitCompany building

    About the book

    How do you develop products that people will actually use and buy? This practical guide shows you how to validate product and company ideas through customer development research--before you waste months and millions on a product or service that no one needs…

    On AmazonAudible

  • 8

    Product Leadership

    How Top Product Managers Launch Awesome Products and Build Successful Teams

    Richard Banfield · 2017

    3.641,115 ratings · Goodreads

    Finding product-market fitCompany building

    About the book

    In today's lightning-fast technology world, good product management is critical to maintaining a competitive advantage. Yet, managing human beings and navigating complex product roadmaps is no easy task, and it's rare to find a product leader who can steward…

    On AmazonAudible

The books most about finding product-market fit.

  • 1

    The User Experience Team of One

    A Research and Design Survival Guide

    Leah Buley · 2013

    4.191,657 ratings · Goodreads

    Finding product-market fit

    About the book

    UX Team of Oneb Theory and Practice for Designers Responsible for Holo UX b This book presents ways to achieve greater impact than standardized UX work results with less time and resources do. Whether youre looking to turn to the UX field, or an experienced…

    On AmazonAudible

  • 2

    Smashing UX Design

    Foundations for Designing Online User Experiences

    Jesmond Allen · 2012

    4.10230 ratings · Goodreads

    Finding product-market fit

    About the book

    The ultimate guide to UX from the world's most popular resource for web designers and developers "Smashing Magazine" is the world′s most popular resource for web designers and developers and with this book the authors provide the ideal resource for…

    On AmazonAudible

  • 3

    Solving Product Design Exercises

    Questions & Answers

    Artiom Dashinsky · 2018

    4.30675 ratings · Goodreads

    Finding product-market fit

    About the book

    Practice your product design and UX skills. Prepare for your next job interview. "Redesign the NYC metrocard system. Design a dashboard for a general practitioner. Redesign an ATM". Learn how to solve and present exercises like these, that top startups…

    On AmazonAudible

  • 4

    Agile Product Management with Scrum

    Creating Products That Customers Love

    Roman Pichler · 2008

    3.841,651 ratings · Goodreads

    Finding product-market fit

    About the book

    The First Guide to Scrum-Based Agile Product Management In Agile Product Management with Scrum, leading Scrum consultant Roman Pichler uses real-world examples to demonstrate how product owners can create successful products with Scrum. He describes a broad…

    On AmazonAudible

  • 5

    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 fit

    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

  • 6

    The Gamer's Brain

    How Neuroscience and UX Can Impact Video Game Design

    Celia Hodent · 2017

    4.30242 ratings · Goodreads

    Finding product-market fit

    About the book

    Making a successful video game is hard. Even games that are well-received at launch may fail to engage players in the long term due to issues with the user experience (UX) that they are delivering. That's why makers of successful video games like Fortnite and…

    On AmazonAudible

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

  • 1

    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

  • 2

    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

  • 3

    Careless People

    A Cautionary Tale of Power, Greed, and Lost Idealism

    Sarah Wynn-Williams · 2025

    4.12150,174 ratings · Goodreads

    Company building

    About the book

    Sarah Wynn-Williams joined Facebook believing the company could change things for the better. Instead, what she encountered over seven years was so shocking that Meta obtained a legal order to silence her. Now you can read her award-winning story. Candid…

    On AmazonAudible

  • 4

    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

  • 5

    1929

    Inside the Greatest Crash in History – and How It Shattered a Nation

    Andrew Ross Sorkin · 2025

    4.1535,108 ratings · Goodreads

    Company building

    On AmazonAudible

  • 6

    The First-Time Manager

    Sales

    Mike Weinberg · 2023

    4.43282 ratings · Goodreads

    First salesCompany building

    About the book

    The First Time Manager Series has sold over 500,000 copies and is a go-to guide for new and aspiring sales managers on what to expect and how to succeed. The jump from sales superstar to sales manager has made or broken many a sales career. As a…

    On AmazonAudible

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

  • 1

    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

  • 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

    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

  • 4

    Never Finished

    Unshackle Your Mind and Win the War Within

    David Goggins · 2022

    4.3850,509 ratings · Goodreads

    Founder stories

    About the book

    This is not a self-help book. It's a wake-up call! Can't Hurt Me, David Goggins' smash hit memoir, demonstrated how much untapped ability we all have but was merely an introduction to the power of the mind. In Never Finished, Goggins takes you inside his…

    On AmazonAudible

  • 5

    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

  • 6

    Driven

    An Autobiography

    Larry H. Miller · 2010

    4.121,863 ratings · Goodreads

    Founder storiesCompany building

    About the book

    When he was sixteen years old, Larry Miller came home one summer night to find all his possessions sitting in three bags on the porch of his darkened house. The door was locked. From those troubled and humble beginnings rose a man whose influence has touched,…

    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

    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

As an Amazon Associate we earn from qualifying purchases. Which books we recommend never depends on it: they are chosen from their ratings and what they are about.

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.

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.