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
27,964with a checked cover
3.86★average reader rating across the library
643written by 367 investors and founders on our records
Change your answersFounder · AI and data · Seed
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

    Genius Makers

    The Mavericks Who Brought AI to Google, Facebook, and the World

    Cade Metz · 2021

    4.263,395 ratings · Goodreads

    AI and dataCompany building

    About the book

    "This colorful page-turner puts artificial intelligence into a human perspective. Through the lives of Geoff Hinton and other major players, Metz explains this transformative technology and makes the quest thrilling." Walter Isaacson, author of The Code…

    On AmazonAudible

  • 2

    A World Without Work

    Technology, Automation, and How We Should Respond

    Daniel Susskind · 2020

    3.821,975 ratings · Goodreads

    AI and dataCompany building

    About the book

    A New York Times Book Review Editors’ Choice From an Oxford economist, a visionary account of how technology will transform the world of work, and what we should do about it From mechanical looms to the combustion engine to the first computers, new…

    On AmazonAudible

  • 3

    The Connection Algorithm

    Take Risks, Defy the Status Quo, and Live Your Passions

    Jesse Tevelow · 2015

    3.73450 ratings · Goodreads

    AI and dataCompany building

    About the book

    A #1 Bestseller in Entrepreneurship A #1 Bestseller in Management A #1 Bestseller in Personal Success A #1 Bestseller in Knowledge Capital "Young Jesse Tevelow is on to something. His new book, The Connection Algorithm, is chock full of phenomenal strategies…

    On AmazonAudible

  • 4

    The Infinity Machine

    Demis Hassabis, DeepMind, and the Quest for Superintelligence

    Sebastian Mallaby · 2026

    4.423,320 ratings · Goodreads

    AI and dataCompany building

    About the book

    From one of our leading chroniclers of the intersection of innovation and capitalism, a landmark  reckoning, based on unprecedented access, with one of the world’s most brilliant and driven tech visionaries and his game-changing company.Even by the standard…

    On AmazonAudible

  • 5

    Power And Prediction

    The Disruptive Economics of Artificial Intelligence

    Ajay Agrawal · 2022

    4.217,462 ratings · Goodreads

    AI and dataCompany building

    About the book

    Disruption resulting from the proliferation of AI is coming. The authors of the bestselling Prediction Machines describe what you can do to prepare. Banking and finance, pharmaceuticals, automotive, medical technology, retail. Artificial intelligence (AI)…

    On AmazonAudible

  • 6

    Human + machine

    Paul R. Daugherty · 2018

    28 Open Library reading lists

    AI and dataCompany building

    About the book

    Artificial intelligence (AI) is transforming how we work right now. Are you ready? In the past, robots were typically large pieces of machinery, sectioned off from human workers to perform precise, mechanical tasks on an assembly line. But now, bots and other…

    On AmazonAudibleOpen Library

  • 7

    Data Strategy

    How to Profit from a World of Big Data, Analytics and the Internet of Things

    Bernard Marr · 2017

    3.77418 ratings · Goodreads

    AI and dataCompany building

    About the book

    Less than 0.5 per cent of all data is currently analysed and used. However, business leaders and managers cannot afford to be unconcerned or sceptical about data. Data is revolutionizing the way we work and it is the companies that view data as a strategic…

    On AmazonAudible

  • 8

    The Lights in the Tunnel

    Automation, Accelerating Technology and the Economy of the Future

    Martin Ford · 2009

    3.72717 ratings · Goodreads

    AI and data

    About the book

    What will the economy of the future look like? Where will advancing technology, job automation, outsourcing and globalization lead? This groundbreaking book by a Silicon Valley computer engineer explores these questions and shows how accelerating technology…

    On AmazonAudible

Books on ai and data.

  • 1

    Supremacy

    AI, ChatGPT, and the Race That Will Change the World

    Parmy Olson · 2024

    4.046,375 ratings · Goodreads

    AI and dataCompany building

    About the book

    In November of 2022, a webpage was posted online with a simple text box. It was an AI chatbot called ChatGPT, and was unlike any app people had used before. It was more human than a customer service agent, more convenient than a Google search. Behind the…

    On AmazonAudible

  • 2

    Everybody Lies

    Big Data, New Data, and What the Internet Can Tell Us About Who We Really Are

    Seth Stephens-Davidowitz · 2017

    3.9043,226 ratings · Goodreads

    AI and dataCompany building

    About the book

    Foreword by Steven Pinker Blending the informed analysis of The Signal and the Noise with the instructive iconoclasm of Think Like a Freak, a fascinating, illuminating, and witty look at what the vast amounts of information now instantly available to us…

    On AmazonAudible

  • 3

    The Scaling Era

    An Oral History of AI, 2019–2025

    Dwarkesh Patel · 2025

    3.87570 ratings · Goodreads

    AI and dataCompany building

    About the book

    An inside view of the AI revolution, from the people and companies making it happen.How did we build large language models? How do they think, if they think? What will the world look like if we have billions of AIs that are as smart as humans, or even…

    On AmazonAudible

  • 4

    The Thinking Machine

    Jensen Huang, Nvidia, and the World's Most Coveted Microchip

    Stephen Witt · 2025

    4.295,636 ratings · Goodreads

    AI and dataCompany building

    About the book

    “Stephen Witt’s deep reporting shines through every page of The Thinking Machine. The result is a page-turning biography of perhaps the most consequential CEO and company in the world.”, David Epstein, New York Times bestselling author of Range Nvidia is…

    On AmazonAudible

  • 5

    The Industries of the Future

    Alec J. Ross · 2016

    3.968,471 ratings · Goodreads

    AI and dataCompany building

    About the book

    This book answers the question: 'What's next?' The Internet had a world-changing impact on businesses and the global community over the twenty years from 1994 to 2014. In the next ten years, change will happen even faster. As Hillary Clinton's Senior…

    On AmazonAudible

  • 6

    Future Ethics

    Cennydd Bowles · 2018

    4.29273 ratings · Goodreads

    AI and dataCompany building

    About the book

    ‘Eloquent, insightful and utterly a must read for anyone who is inventing the future or cares about living in it.’, Christina Wodtke, Stanford University ‘Cennydd’s long-lens view of ethics is exactly what designers, product managers and builders of today’s…

    On AmazonAudible

  • 7

    Machine, Platform, Crowd

    Harnessing Our Digital Future

    Andrew McAfee · 2017

    4.042,898 ratings · Goodreads

    AI and dataCompany building

    About the book

    “A clear and crisply written account of machine intelligence, big data and the sharing economy. But McAfee and Brynjolfsson also wisely acknowledge the limitations of their futurology and avoid over-simplification.” ― Financial Times In The Second Machine Age…

    On AmazonAudible

  • 8

    Predictive Analytics

    The Power to Predict Who Will Click, Buy, Lie, or Die

    Eric Siegel · 2013

    3.662,129 ratings · Goodreads

    AI and dataCompany building

    About the book

    "Mesmerizing & fascinating...", The Seattle Post-Intelligencer "The Freakonomics of big data.", Stein Kretsinger , founding executive of Advertising.com Award-winning | Used by over 30 universities | Translated into 9 languages An introduction for everyone.…

    On AmazonAudible

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

  • 1

    Reshuffle

    Who wins when AI restacks the knowledge economy

    Sangeet Paul Choudary · 2025

    4.32316 ratings · Goodreads

    AI and dataCompany building

    About the book

    What happens when the “know-how” that once defined expertise migrates from humans to AI tools? How do organizations reorganize when machines take over not just tasks but entire workflows? And most importantly, how does this reshaping of knowledge work change…

    On AmazonAudible

  • 2

    Rewired

    The McKinsey Guide to Outcompeting in the Age of Digital and AI

    Eric Lamarre · 2023

    3.87490 ratings · Goodreads

    AI and dataCompany building

    About the book

    In Rewired, the world's most influential management consulting firm, McKinsey & Company, delivers a road-tested, how-to manual their own consultants use to help companies build the capabilities to outcompete in the age of digital and AI. Many companies are…

    On AmazonAudible

  • 3

    The Age of Extraction

    How Tech Platforms Conquered the Economy and Threaten Our Future Prosperity

    Tim Wu · 2025

    3.871,213 ratings · Goodreads

    AI and dataCompany building

    About the book

    Tech platforms manipulate attention, extract wealth, and deepen inequality. In this new book, Tim Wu (The Attention Merchants) explains how we can reclaim control and create a balanced economy that works for everyone.“The magic of Tim Wu’s The Age of…

    On AmazonAudible

  • 4

    The Technological Republic

    Hard Power, Soft Belief, and the Future of the West

    Alexander C. Karp · 2025

    3.533,868 ratings · Goodreads

    AI and dataCompany building

    About the book

    INSTANT #1 NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER • “A cri de coeur that takes aim at the tech industry for abandoning its history of helping America and its allies.”, The Wall Street Journal From the Palantir co-founder, one of tech’s boldest thinkers and The…

    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

    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

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

    Power and Progress

    Our Thousand-Year Struggle Over Technology and Prosperity

    Daron Acemoğlu · 2023

    3.942,496 ratings · Goodreads

    AI and dataCompany building

    About the book

    The bestselling co-author of Why Nations Fail and the bestselling co-author of 13 Bankers deliver a bold reinterpretation of economics and history that will fundamentally change how you see the world   A thousand years of history and contemporary evidence…

    On AmazonAudible

  • 3

    Personal History

    A Memoir

    Katharine Graham · 1997

    4.0925,181 ratings · Goodreads

    Founder stories

    About the book

    Madrid. 22 cm. 557 p. Encuadernación en tapa blanda de editorial ilustrada. Graham, Katharine 1917-2001. Traducción de María Luisa Rodríguez Tapia y José Manuel Calvo Roy. Título Personal history .. Este libro es de segunda mano y tiene o puede tener marcas…

    On AmazonAudible

  • 4

    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

  • 5

    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

  • 6

    Life After Google

    The Fall of Big Data and the Rise of the Blockchain Economy

    George Gilder · 2018

    3.542,407 ratings · Goodreads

    AI and dataCompany building

    About the book

    A FINANCIAL TIMES BOOK OF THE MONTH FROM THE WALL STREET " Nothing Mr. Gilder says or writes is ever delivered at anything less than the fullest philosophical decibel.. . Mr. Gilder sounds less like a tech guru than a poet, and his words tumble out in a…

    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

    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

    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

  • 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.