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
Product Design and Development
Karl T. Ulrich · 1994
4.01486 ratings · Goodreads
Industrial and manufacturingFinding product-market fitCompany building
About the book
Treating such contemporary design and development issues as identifying customer needs, design for manufacturing, prototyping, and industrial design, Product Design and Development by Ulrich and Eppinger presents in a clear and detailed way a set of product…
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2
Cold Steel
Lakshmi Mittal and the Multi-Billion-Dollar Battle for a Global Empire
Tim Bouquet · 2008
4.161,149 ratings · Goodreads
Industrial and manufacturingCompany building
About the book
When the world's two largest steel producers went head to head in a bitter struggle for market domination, an epic corporate battle ensued that sent shockwaves through the political corridors of Europe, overheated the world's financial markets and transformed…
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3
The Choice Factory
25 behavioural biases that influence what we buy
Richard Shotton · 2018
4.081,663 ratings · Goodreads
Industrial and manufacturingCompany buildingMarketing and growth
About the book
Before you can influence decisions, you need to understand what drives them. In The Choice Factory, Richard Shotton sets out to help you learn. By observing a typical day of decision-making, from trivial food choices to significant work-place moves, he…
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4
Marketing places
Philip Kotler, Donald Haider · 1993
40 Open Library reading lists
Industrial and manufacturingMarketing and growth
About the book
"Today's headlines report cities going bankrupt, states running large deficits, and nations stuck in high debt and stagnation. Philip Kotler, Donald Haider, and Irving Rein argue that thousands of "places"--Cities, states, and nations - are in crisis, and can…
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5
Made in the USA
The Rise and Retreat of American Manufacturing
Vaclav Smil · 2013
3.77518 ratings · Goodreads
Industrial and manufacturingCompany building
About the book
In Made in the USA , Vaclav Smil powerfully rebuts the notion that manufacturing is a relic of predigital history and that the loss of American manufacturing is a desirable evolutionary step toward a pure service economy. Smil argues that no advanced economy…
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6
Managing Humans
Biting and Humorous Tales of a Software Engineering Manager
Michael Lopp · 2007
3.924,332 ratings · Goodreads
Industrial and manufacturingCompany building
About the book
Managing Humans is a selection of the best essays from Michael Lopp's popular website Rands in Repose(www.randsinrepose.com). Lopp is one of the most sought-after IT managers in Silicon Valley, and draws on his experiences at Apple, Netscape, Symantec, and…
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7
The CEO Factory
Management Lessons from Hindustan Unilever
Sudhir Sitapati · 2019
4.341,774 ratings · Goodreads
Industrial and manufacturingCompany building
About the book
For six decades Hindustan Unilever has remained among India’s top five most valuable companies. No other Corporation in the world has done so well for so long. Its brands sit in most Indian homes (nine out of ten Indians use an HUL product every month), its…
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8
Cobalt Red
How the Blood of the Congo Powers Our Lives
Siddharth Kara · 2023
4.3519,185 ratings · Goodreads
Industrial and manufacturing
About the book
The revelatory New York Times and Publishers Weekly bestseller, shortlisted for the Financial Times Best Business Book of the Year Award. An unflinching investigation reveals the human rights abuses behind the Congo’s cobalt mining operation―and the moral…
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Books on industrial and manufacturing.

1
Makers
The New Industrial Revolution
Chris Anderson · 2012
3.883,979 ratings · Goodreads
Industrial and manufacturingCompany building
About the book
3D Robotics co-founder and bestselling author Chris Anderson takes you to the front lines of a new industrial revolution as today’s entrepreneurs, using open source design and 3-D printing, bring manufacturing to the desktop. In an age of custom-fabricated,…
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2
The British Industrial Revolution in Global Perspective
Robert C. Allen · 2009
3.99277 ratings · Goodreads
Industrial and manufacturing
About the book
Why did the industrial revolution take place in eighteenth-century Britain and not elsewhere in Europe or Asia? In this convincing new account Robert Allen argues that the British industrial revolution was a successful response to the global economy of the…
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3
PRODUCT DESIGN+DEVELOPMENT >IN
Karl T. Ulrich · 1994
4.00482 ratings · Goodreads
Industrial and manufacturingCompany building
About the book
This book presents a set of product development techniques aimed at bringing together the marketing, design, and manufacturing functions of the enterprise. It treats issues such as identifying customer needs, design for manufacturing, prototyping, and…
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4
Manufacturing Processes for Design Professionals
Rob Thompson · 2007
4.51200 ratings · Goodreads
Industrial and manufacturingCompany building
About the book
An encyclopaedic guide to production techniques and materials for product and industrial designers, engineers, and architects. Today's product designers are presented with a myriad of choices when creating their work and preparing it for manufacture. They…
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5
Become an Effective Software Engineering Manager
James Stanier · 2020
4.34612 ratings · Goodreads
Industrial and manufacturingCompany building
About the book
Software startups make global headlines every day. As technology companies succeed and grow, so do their engineering departments. In your career, you’ll may suddenly get the opportunity to lead teams: to become a manager. But this is often uncharted…
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6
The Most Powerful Idea in the World
A Story of Steam, Industry, and Invention
William Rosen · 2010
3.931,401 ratings · Goodreads
Industrial and manufacturingInnovationCompany building
About the book
If all measures of human advancement in the last hundred centuries were plotted on a graph, they would show an almost perfectly flat line, until the eighteenth century, when the Industrial Revolution would cause the line to shoot straight up, beginning an…
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7
Data Mining Techniques
For Marketing, Sales, and Customer Relationship Management
Michael J.A. Berry · 1997
4.06233 ratings · Goodreads
Industrial and manufacturingCompany building
About the book
Packed with more than forty percent new and updated material, this edition shows business managers, marketing analysts, and data mining specialists how to harness fundamental data mining methods and techniques to solve common types of business problemsEach…
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8
The Engineering Executive's Primer
Impactful Technical Leadership
Will Larson · 2024
4.26426 ratings · Goodreads
Industrial and manufacturingCompany building
About the book
As an engineering manager, you almost always have someone in your company to turn to for a peer on another team, your manager, or even the head of engineering. But who do you turn to if you're the head of engineering? Engineering executives have a…
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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 User Experience Team of One
A Research and Design Survival Guide
Leah Buley · 2013
4.191,657 ratings · Goodreads
Finding product-market fitCompany building
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…
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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
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…
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4
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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5
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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6
A Project Guide to UX Design
For User Experience Designers in the Field or in the Making
Russ Unger · 2009
3.871,774 ratings · Goodreads
Finding product-market fitCompany building
About the book
“If you are a young designer entering or contemplating entering the UX field this is a canonical book. If you are an organization that really needs to start grokking UX this book is also for you. " -- Chris Bernard, User Experience Evangelist, Microsoft User…
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7
Venture Deals
Be Smarter Than Your Lawyer and Venture Capitalist
Brad Feld · 2011
4.1117,486 ratings · Goodreads
Raising 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.…
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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
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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2
The New One Minute Manager
Kenneth H. Blanchard · 1981
3.95148,444 ratings · Goodreads
Leading and managing
About the book
For decades, The One Minute Manager® has helped millions achieve more successful professional and personal lives. While the principles it lays out are timeless, our world has changed drastically since the book’s publication. The exponential rise of…
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3
A Different Kind of Power
Jacinda Ardern · 2025
4.4521,916 ratings · Goodreads
Leading and managing
About the book
From the former prime minister of New Zealand, then the world’s youngest female head of government and just the second to give birth in office, comes a deeply personal memoir chronicling her extraordinary rise and offering inspiration to a new generation of…
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4
The Phoenix Project
A Novel About IT, DevOps, and Helping Your Business Win
Gene Kim · 2013
4.2551,320 ratings · Goodreads
Leading and managing
About the book
Bill is an IT manager at Parts Unlimited. It's Tuesday morning and on his drive into the office, Bill gets a call from the CEO. The company's new IT initiative, code named Phoenix Project, is critical to the future of Parts Unlimited, but the project is…
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5
The Manager's Path
A Guide for Tech Leaders Navigating Growth and Change
Camille Fournier · 2017
4.2510,686 ratings · Goodreads
Leading and managing
About the book
Managing people is difficult wherever you work, but the tech industry as a whole is pretty bad at it. Tech companies in general lack the experience, tools, texts, and frameworks to do it well. And the handful of books that share tips and tricks of engineering…
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6
Leading with the Heart
Coach K's Successful Strategies for Basketball, Business, and Life
Mike Krzyzewski · 2000
4.204,239 ratings · Goodreads
Leading and managing
About the book
In this informative and inspirational book, Coach K, Duke University's head basketball coach, tells readers how he coaxes peak performances from his team, relying on lessons he learned as a captain in the U.S. Army. Duke University's head basketball coach…
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7
Winning
Proven Leadership and Management Principles for Strategic Career Excellence and Business Success
Jack Welch · 2005
3.8643,588 ratings · Goodreads
Leading and managing
About the book
A champion manager of people, Jack Welch shares the hard-earned wisdom of a storied career in what will become the ultimate business bible With Winning, Jack Welch delivers a wide-ranging, in-depth, no-holds-barred management guidebook about the tough…
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8
The Coaching Habit
Say Less, Ask More & Change the Way You Lead Forever
Michael Bungay Stanier · 2016
4.0030,923 ratings · Goodreads
Leading and managing
About the book
In Michael Bungay Stanier's The Coaching Habit, coaching becomes a regular, informal part of your day so managers and their teams can wok less hard and have more impact. Drawing on years of experience training more than 10,000 busy managers from around the…
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Published in the last three years, newest first, for what you told us.

1
Breakneck
China's Quest to Engineer the Future
Dan Wang · 2025
4.0812,193 ratings · Goodreads
Industrial and manufacturingCompany building
About the book
As the defining conflict of the twenty-first century approaches, Breakneck offers a riveting, firsthand investigation of China’s seismic progress, and what it means for America. Technology analyst Dan Wang, “an indispensable voice on China” (Evan Osnos) for…
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2
Blood in the Machine
The Origins of the Rebellion Against Big Tech
Brian Merchant · 2023
4.192,069 ratings · Goodreads
Industrial and manufacturingCompany building
About the book
Longlisted for the Financial Times Business Book of the Year The "rich and gripping" true story of the first time machines came for human jobs, and how the Luddite uprising explains the power, threat, and toll of big tech and AI today (Naomi Klein) The most…
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3
The Software Engineer's Guidebook
Navigating senior, tech lead, and staff engineer positions at tech companies and startups
Gergely Orosz · 2023
4.08882 ratings · Goodreads
Industrial and manufacturingCompany building
About the book
In my first few years as a developer I assumed that hard work was all I needed. Then I was passed over for a promotion and my manager couldn’t give me feedback on what areas to improve, so I could get to the senior engineer level. I was frustrated, even…
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4
How to Win Friends and Influence Fungi
Collected Quirks of Science, Tech, Engineering, and Math from Nerd Nite
Chris Balakrishnan · 2024
3.61766 ratings · Goodreads
Industrial and manufacturing
About the book
The co-founders of the global science organization Nerd Nite bring readers a collection of wacky, yet fascinating STEM topics. For twenty years Nerd Nite has delivered to live audiences around the world the most interesting, fun, and informative…
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5
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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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…
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7
Breaking the Mould
Reimagining India's Economic Future
Raghuram G. Rajan · 2023
4.04561 ratings · Goodreads
Industrial and manufacturingCompany building
About the book
Where is India going today? Is it surging forward, having just overtaken the United Kingdom to become the fifth-largest economy in the world? Or is it flailing, unable to provide jobs for the millions joining the labour force? What should India do to secure a…
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8
Cancel Me If You Can
Dave Portnoy · 2026
4.226,588 ratings · Goodreads
Company building
About the book
In his unfiltered style, Dave Portnoy details the journey of how he built his polarizing media empire, Barstool Sports, while refusing to bend the knee to those who tried to tear him down, staying true to himself and blocking out the haters. Dave Portnoy is a…
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How companies like yours were actually built, from the people who built them.

1
A Ghost's Memoir
John McDonald · 2002
13 Open Library reading lists
Industrial and manufacturingFounder stories
About the book
"Published in 1964, My Years with General Motors was an immediate best-seller and today is considered one of the few classic books on management. The book is the ghostwritten memoir of Alfred P. Sloan, Jr. (1875-1966), whose business and management strategies…
On Amazon Audible Open Library
2
Liftoff
Elon Musk and the Desperate Early Days That Launched SpaceX
Eric Berger · 2021
4.466,930 ratings · Goodreads
Industrial and manufacturingFounder storiesCompany building
About the book
"This is as important a book on space as has ever been written and it's a riveting page-turner, too.", Homer Hickam, #1 New York Times Bestselling Author of Rocket Boys The dramatic inside story of the historic flights that launched SpaceX, and Elon…
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3
American Steel
Richard Preston · 1991
4.12279 ratings · Goodreads
Industrial and manufacturingCompany building
About the book
A report on the resurrection of an American Dream provides a glimmer of hope on the seemingly barren economic horizon with the story of an Indiana steel company that is aiming to restore some of the 300,000 jobs lost in that industry over the past decade.…
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4
Revolver
Sam Colt and the Six-Shooter That Changed America
Jim Rasenberger · 2020
4.00374 ratings · Goodreads
Industrial and manufacturingFounder storiesCompany building
About the book
A sweeping, definitive biography of Samuel Colt, the inventor of the legendary Colt revolver (a.k.a. six-shooter), which changed the US forever, triggering the industrial revolution and the settlement of the American West.Patented in 1836, the Colt pistol with…
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5
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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6
The Profiteers
Bechtel and the Men Who Built the World
Sally Denton · 2016
3.67584 ratings · Goodreads
Industrial and manufacturingFounder storiesCompany building
About the book
From the bestselling coauthor of The Money and the Power (which the Los Angeles Times called “one of the most important nonfiction books published in a half century”), the inside story of the Bechtel family and the empire they’ve controlled since the…
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7
Before the Industrial Revolution
European Society and Economy, 1000-1700
Carlo M. Cipolla · 1974
4.29280 ratings · Goodreads
Industrial and manufacturingCompany building
About the book
The Third Edition includes substantial revisions and new material throughout the book that will secure its standing as the most useful history available of preindustrial Europe. During the seven hundred years before the Industrial Revolution, the stage was…
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8
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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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
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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3
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 Amazon Audible
4
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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5
Lok Vyavhar
Diamond Books · 1936
4.221,157,905 ratings · Goodreads
Company building
About the book
This is the translation of famous - HOW TO WIN FRIENDS AND INFLUENCE PEOPLE - a classic book that gave birth to the self-help industry. Through this book, Dale Carnegie offers practical and proven advice on how to deal with people and understand them in order…
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6
Empire of Pain
The Secret History of the Sackler Dynasty
Patrick Radden Keefe · 2021
4.53151,147 ratings · Goodreads
Company building
About the book
The highly anticipated portrait of three generations of the Sackler family, by the prize-winning, bestselling author of Say Nothing .The Sackler name adorns the walls of many storied Harvard, the Metropolitan Museum of Art, Oxford, the Louvre. They are one of…
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7
Bad Blood
Secrets and Lies in a Silicon Valley Startup
John Carreyrou · 2018
4.40285,283 ratings · Goodreads
Company building
About the book
The full inside story of the breathtaking rise and shocking collapse of a multibillion-dollar startup, by the prize-winning journalist who first broke the story and pursued it to the end in the face of pressure and threats from the CEO and her lawyers. In…
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8
The Art of the Start
The Time-Tested, Battle-Hardened Guide for Anyone Starting Anything
Guy Kawasaki · 2004
3.9129,538 ratings · Goodreads
Company buildingMarketing and growth
About the book
A new product, a new service, a new company, a new division, a new organization, a new anything, where there’s a will, here’s the way. It begins with a dream that just won’t quit, the once-in-a-lifetime thunderbolt of pure inspiration, the obsession, the…
On Amazon Audible

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Reading list: the books for what you are building

Your reading list

Written by the people who write the cheques

Read what the people you are pitching read.