Best books for founders and investors

Your reading list

ShortlistThe best matches for everything you told us, ranked.

The best matches for everything you told us, ranked.

1
This Changes Everything
Capitalism vs. The Climate
Naomi Klein · 2014
4.1628,175 ratings · Goodreads
Climate and energy
About the book
Forget everything you think you know about global warming. It's not about carbon, it's about capitalism. The good news is that we can seize this crisis to transform our failed economic system and build something radically better. In her most provocative…
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2
The New Map
Energy, Climate, and the Clash of Nations
Daniel Yergin · 2020
4.176,248 ratings · Goodreads
Climate and energyCompany building
About the book
A Wall Street Journal besteller and a USA Today Best Book of 2020 Named Energy Writer of the Year for The New Map by the American Energy Society “ A master class on how the world works.”, NPR Pulitzer Prize-winning author and global energy expert,…
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3
The Ecology of Commerce
A Declaration of Sustainability
Paul Hawken · 1993
4.122,387 ratings · Goodreads
Climate and energyCompany building
About the book
A visionary new program that businesses can follow to help restore the planet.
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4
The Necessary Revolution
How individuals and organizations are working together to create a sustainable world.
Peter M. Senge · 2008
3.84522 ratings · Goodreads
Climate and energyCompany building
About the book
Imagine a world in which the excess energy from one business would be used to heat another. Where buildings need less and less energy around the world, and where “regenerative” commercial buildings – ones that create more energy than they use – are being…
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5
Windfall
The Booming Business of Global Warming
McKenzie Funk · 2014
4.03673 ratings · Goodreads
Climate and energyCompany building
About the book
A fascinating investigation into how people around the globe are cashing in on a warming world: McKenzie Funk has spent the last six years reporting around the world on how we are preparing for a warmer planet. Funk shows us that the best way to understand…
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6
Taming the Sun
Innovations to Harness Solar Energy and Power the Planet
Varun Sivaram · 2018
4.06510 ratings · Goodreads
Climate and energy
About the book
How solar could spark a clean-energy transition through transformative innovation--creative financing, revolutionary technologies, and flexible energy systems. Solar energy, once a niche application for a limited market, has become the cheapest and…
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7
The Ecological Rift
John Bellamy Foster · 2010
4.06339 ratings · Goodreads
Climate and energy
About the book
Humanity in the twenty-first century is facing what might be described as its ultimate environmental catastrophe: the destruction of the climate that has nurtured human civilization and with it the basis of life on earth as we know it. All ecosystems on the…
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8
A World of Three Zeros
The New Economics of Zero Poverty, Zero Unemployment, and Zero Net Carbon Emissions
Muhammad Yunus · 2017
3.681,723 ratings · Goodreads
Climate and energyCompany building
About the book
A winner of the Nobel Peace Prize and bestselling author of Banker to the Poor offers his vision of an emerging new economic system that can save humankind and the planet Muhammad Yunus, who created microcredit, invented social business, and earned a Nobel…
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Books on climate and energy.

1
More and More and More
An All-Consuming History of Energy – The International Bestseller on Climate Change and Fossil Fuels
Jean-Baptiste Fressoz · 2025
4.05520 ratings · Goodreads
Climate and energy
About the book
The radical, paradigm-shifting international bestseller that destroys our delusions about energy consumption and will change the way we talk about climate change. We have long been taught that humanity’s relationship with energy is one of progress, with wood…
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2
Race for Tomorrow
Survival, Innovation and Profit on the Front Lines of the Climate Crisis
Simon Mundy · 2022
4.22207 ratings · Goodreads
Climate and energyInnovationCompany building
About the book
In this extraordinary journey through twenty-six countries, Simon Mundy meets the people on the front lines of the climate crisis, showing how the struggle to respond is already reshaping the modern world – shattering communities, shaking up global business,…
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3
The Elements of Power
Gadgets, Guns, and the Struggle for a Sustainable Future in the Rare Metal Age
David S. Abraham · 2015
4.06264 ratings · Goodreads
Climate and energyCompany building
About the book
Our future hinges on a set of rare metals that few of us have even heard of. In this eye-opening book, a natural resource strategist reveals the critical importance of these transformative elements to our technological lifestyle and the consequences of our…
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4
Scale
The Universal Laws of Growth, Innovation, Sustainability, and the Pace of Life in Organisms, Cities, Economies, and Companies
Geoffrey B. West · 2017
4.115,764 ratings · Goodreads
Climate and energyCompany buildingInnovation
About the book
The former head of the Sante Fe Institute, visionary physicist Geoffrey West is a pioneer in the field of complexity science, the science of emergent systems and networks. The term “complexity” can be misleading, however, because what makes West’s discoveries…
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5
Energy
A Beginner's Guide
Vaclav Smil · 2006
3.991,520 ratings · Goodreads
Climate and energy
About the book
As Einstein pointed out in his famous equation, E=MC2, all matter can be described as energy. It is everywhere; it is everything. In this engaging book, prolific author and academic Vaclav Smil provides an introduction to the far-reaching term and gives the…
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6
Quantum Supremacy
Michio Kaku · 2023
3.783,798 ratings · Goodreads
Climate and energyCompany building
About the book
An exhilarating tour of humanity's next great technological achievement, quantum computing, which may eventually illuminate the deepest mysteries of science and solve some of humanity's biggest problems, like global warming, world hunger, and incurable disease,…
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7
Badass
Making Users Awesome
Kathy Sierra · 2015
4.171,194 ratings · Goodreads
Climate and energyCompany building
About the book
Imagine you’re in a game with one objective: a bestselling product or service. The rules? No marketing budget, no PR stunts, and it must be sustainably successful. No short-term fads. This is not a game of chance. It is a game of skill and strategy. And…
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8
The Grid
The Fraying Wires Between Americans and Our Energy Future
Gretchen Bakke · 2016
3.854,881 ratings · Goodreads
Climate and energyCompany building
About the book
A revelatory look at our national power grid--how it developed, its current flaws, and how it must be completely reimagined for our fast-approaching energy future.America's electrical grid, an engineering triumph of the twentieth century, is turning out to be…
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What founders at seed need most: company building, finding product-market fit, raising money, first sales, marketing and growth.

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…
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2
Get Backed
Craft Your Story, Build the Perfect Pitch Deck, and Launch the Venture of Your Dreams
Evan Baehr · 2015
4.36356 ratings · Goodreads
Raising moneyCompany building
About the book
HOW DO YOU LAUNCH THE VENTURE OF YOUR DREAMS? Get Backed isn’t just about startup fundraising. It’s a handbook for anyone who has an idea and needs to build relationships to get it off the ground. Over the last 3 years, entrepreneurs Evan Loomis and…
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3
80/20 Sales and Marketing
The Definitive Guide to Working Less and Making More
Perry Marshall · 2013
4.191,904 ratings · Goodreads
First salesMarketing and growthCompany 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.…
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4
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…
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5
Smashing UX Design
Foundations for Designing Online User Experiences
Jesmond Allen · 2012
4.10230 ratings · Goodreads
Finding product-market fitCompany building
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…
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6
Achieving Excellence in Fundraising + Website
Eugene R. Tempel · 2003
4.02249 ratings · Goodreads
Raising moneyCompany building
About the book
The third edition of this acclaimed resource, Achieving Excellence in Fundraising, explains the fundraising profession's major principles, concepts, and techniques. With contributions from noted experts in the field, and filled with illustrative examples,…
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7
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…
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8
Solving Product Design Exercises
Questions & Answers
Artiom Dashinsky · 2018
4.30675 ratings · Goodreads
Finding product-market fitCompany building
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…
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Leading and managing a team as the company grows.

1
Good to Great
Why Some Companies Make the Leap... and Others Don't
Jim Collins · 2001
4.12312,279 ratings · Goodreads
Leading and managing
About the book
The Challenge: Built to Last, the defining management study of the nineties, showed how great companies triumph over time and how long-term sustained performance can be engineered into the DNA of an enterprise from the very beginning. But what about the…
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2
Rising Strong
The Reckoning. The Rumble. The Revolution
Brené Brown · 2015
4.2590,292 ratings · Goodreads
Leading and managing
About the book
Social scientist Brené Brown has ignited a global conversation on courage, vulnerability, shame, and worthiness. Her pioneering work uncovered a profound truth: Vulnerability, the willingness to show up and be seen with no guarantee of outcome, is the only path…
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3
Give and Take
A Revolutionary Approach to Success
Adam M. Grant · 2013
4.0641,070 ratings · Goodreads
Leading and managing
About the book
Give and Take highlights what effective networking, collaboration, influence, negotiation, and leadership skills have in common. For generations, we have focused on the individual drivers of success: passion, hard work, talent, and luck. But today, success…
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4
To Rescue the American Spirit
Teddy Roosevelt and the Birth of a Superpower
Bret Baier · 2025
4.542,106 ratings · Goodreads
Leading and managing
About the book
From #1 New York Times bestselling author and Fox News Channel’s Chief Political Anchor, a captivating biography of Theodore Roosevelt, the stalwart naturalist, writer, ranchman, soldier, president, and avatar of our modern era. There has never been a…
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5
American Icon
Alan Mulally and the Fight to Save Ford Motor Company
Bryce G. Hoffman · 2012
4.425,255 ratings · Goodreads
Leading and managing
About the book
THE INSIDE STORY OF THE EPIC TURNAROUND OF FORD MOTOR COMPANY UNDER THE LEADERSHIP OF CEO ALAN MULALLY. At the end of 2008, Ford Motor Company was just months away from running out of cash. With the auto industry careening toward ruin, Congress offered all…
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6
The Ride of a Lifetime
Lessons Learned from 15 Years as CEO of the Walt Disney Company
Robert Iger · 2019
4.4099,495 ratings · Goodreads
Leading and managing
About the book
A grand vision defined: The CEO of The Walt Disney Company shares the ideas and values he has used to reinvent one of the most beloved companies in the world, and inspire the people who bring the magic to life. In 2005, Robert Iger became CEO of The Walt…
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7
The Outsiders
Eight Unconventional CEOs and Their Radically Rational Blueprint for Success
William N. Thorndike Jr. · 2012
4.2214,412 ratings · Goodreads
Leading and managing
About the book
”It is impossible to produce superior performance unless you do something different.”, John TempletonWhat makes a successful CEO? Most people call to mind a familiar definition: a seasoned manager with deep industry expertise. Others might point to the…
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8
Creativity, Inc.
Overcoming the Unseen Forces That Stand in the Way of True Inspiration
Ed Catmull · 2014
4.20105,625 ratings · Goodreads
Leading and managing
About the book
“What does it mean to manage well?” From Ed Catmull, co-founder (with Steve Jobs and John Lasseter) of Pixar Animation Studios, comes an incisive book about creativity in business, sure to appeal to readers of Daniel Pink, Tom Peters, and Chip and Dan Heath.…
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Published in the last three years, newest first, for what you told us.

1
The Only Possible Solution
How to Shape the Future for Our Next Generations
Fons Burger · 2026
4.40999 ratings · Goodreads
Climate and energy
About the book
What if climate change, biodiversity loss, food and water insecurity, inequality, declining health, political polarization, and the erosion of trust are not separate crises at all? What if they are all symptoms of the same underlying system failure? In…
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2
Dirtbag Billionaire
How Yvon Chouinard Built Patagonia, Made a Fortune, and Gave It All Away
David Gelles · 2025
4.162,500 ratings · Goodreads
Climate and energyCompany building
About the book
Named one of Financial Times’s Best Books of 2025 New York Times reporter and bestselling author David Gelles reveals how Patagonia became a global leader in doing well by doing good and how other companies are adopting its principles. This is the inside…
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3
Wasteland
The Secret World of Waste and the Urgent Search for a Cleaner Future
Oliver Franklin-Wallis · 2023
4.442,908 ratings · Goodreads
Climate and energy
About the book
An award-winning investigative journalist takes a deep dive into the global waste crisis, exposing the hidden world that enables our modern economy, and finds out the dirty truth behind a simple question: what really happens to what we throw away? In…
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4
The Future of the Responsible Company
What We've Learned from Patagonia's First 50 Years
Vincent Stanley · 2023
4.18374 ratings · Goodreads
Climate and energyCompany building
About the book
Simple but powerful advice on how and why to rethink your business structure in a time when traditional capitalism is no longer working for people or the planet. Vincent Stanley, Patagonia's Director of Philosophy, with Yvon Chouinard, founder and former…
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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…
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6
Crude Capitalism
Oil, Corporate Power, and the Making of the World Market
Adam Hanieh · 2024
4.50296 ratings · Goodreads
Climate and energy
About the book
A groundbreaking history of oil and it's importance to US politics, finance, militarism and consumerism from an award-winning author and scholarThis expansive history traces the hidden connections between oil and capitalism from the late 1800s to the current…
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7
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…
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8
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…
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How companies like yours were actually built, from the people who built them.

1
The Moral Case for Fossil Fuels
Alex Epstein · 2014
4.062,500 ratings · Goodreads
Climate and energyCompany building
About the book
A sure-to-be-controversial defense of the fossil fuel industry Conventional wisdom says fossil fuels are an unsustainable form of energy that is destroying our planet. But Alex Epstein shows that if we look at the big picture, the much-hated fossil fuel…
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2
Hot, Flat, and Crowded
Why We Need a Green Revolution – and How It Can Renew America
Thomas L. Friedman · 2008
3.7113,980 ratings · Goodreads
Climate and energyCompany building
About the book
In this brilliant, essential book, Pulitzer Prize-winning author Thomas L. Friedman speaks to America's urgent need for national renewal and explains how a green revolution can bring about both a sustainable environment and a sustainable America. Friedman…
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3
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…
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4
Jim Henson
The Biography
Brian Jay Jones · 2013
4.0415,877 ratings · Goodreads
Founder stories
About the book
For the first time ever-a comprehensive biography of one of the twentieth-century's most innovative creative artists: the incomparable, irreplaceable Jim Henson. He was a gentle dreamer whose genial bearded visage was recognized around the world, but most…
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5
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,…
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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…
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7
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…
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8
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…
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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…
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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…
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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…
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4
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…
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5
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…
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6
How to Win Friends and Influence People
Dale Carnegie · 1936
4.211,172,289 ratings · Goodreads
Company building
About the book
"How to Win Friends and Influence People' is one of the first best-selling self-help books ever published. Just after publishing, it quickly exploded into an overnight success, eventually selling more than 15 million copies worldwide, and pioneering an entire…
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7
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…
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8
The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People
Powerful Lessons in Personal Change
Stephen R. Covey · 1989
4.16843,480 ratings · Goodreads
Company building
About the book
In The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People, author Stephen R. Covey presents a holistic, integrated, principle-centered approach for solving personal and professional problems. With penetrating insights and pointed anecdotes, Covey reveals a step-by-step…
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Reading list: the books for what you are building

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Written by the people who write the cheques

Read what the people you are pitching read.