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
Zag
The Number One Strategy of High-Performance Brands
Marty Neumeier · 2006
3.994,025 ratings · Goodreads
Retail and fashionMarketing and growthCompany building
About the book
"When everybody zigs, zag," says Marty Neumeier in this fresh view of brand strategy. ZAG follows the ultra-clear "whiteboard overview" style of the author’s first book, THE BRAND GAP, but drills deeper into the question of how brands can harness the power of…
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2
Reengineering Retail
The Future of Selling in a Post-Digital World
Doug Stephens · 2017
4.13445 ratings · Goodreads
Retail and fashionFirst salesCompany building
About the book
Since the release of Doug Stephens’ first book, The Retail Revival , change in the global retail sector has accelerated beyond even the boldest forecasts. As predicted, online giants like Amazon and Alibaba.com are growing at a dizzying pace. Hundreds of…
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3
Why We Buy
The Science of Shopping
Paco Underhill · 1999
3.8813,558 ratings · Goodreads
Retail and fashionCompany building
About the book
Is there a method to our madness when it comes to shopping? Hailed by the San Francisco Chronicle as "a Sherlock Holmes for retailers," author and research company CEO Paco Underhill answers with a definitive "yes" in this witty, eye-opening report on our…
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4
Managing Brand Equity
David A. Aaker · 1991
4.04305 ratings · Goodreads
Retail and fashionMarketing and growthCompany building
About the book
In a fascinating and insightful examination of the phenomenon of brand equity, Aaker provides a clear and well-defined structure of the relationship between a brand and its symbol and slogan, as well as each of the five underlying assets, which will clarify…
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5
Dapper Dan
Made in Harlem
Daniel R. Day · 2019
4.392,058 ratings · Goodreads
Retail and fashion
About the book
The story of a legendary designer who pioneered high-end streetwear, from a storefront in Harlem to the red carpet in Hollywood, dressing everyone from Salt-N-Pepa and Eric B. & Rakim to Beyoncé and Jay-Z along the way. With his now-legendary store on…
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6
The End of Fashion
How Marketing Changed the Clothing Business Forever – A WSJ Reporter's Exposé on How Elite Designers Lost to Mainstream Consumers
Teri Agins · 1999
3.861,102 ratings · Goodreads
Retail and fashionMarketing and growthCompany building
About the book
A solid, hard-hitting, and uncompromising journalistic look at the fashion industry. The time when "fashion" was defined by French designers whose clothes could be afforded only by elite has ended. Now designers take their cues from mainstream consumers and…
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7
Shopping, Seduction & Mr. Selfridge
Lindy Woodhead · 2007
3.721,934 ratings · Goodreads
Retail and fashionCompany building
About the book
If you lived at Downton Abbey, you shopped at Selfridge’s. Harry Gordon Selfridge was a charismatic American who, in twenty-five years working at Marshall Field’s in Chicago, rose from lowly stockboy to a partner in the business which his visionary skills…
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8
Brand Sense
Build Powerful Brands through Touch, Taste, Smell, Sight, and Sound
Martin Lindstrom · 2005
3.87898 ratings · Goodreads
Retail and fashionMarketing and growthCompany building
About the book
In perhaps the most creative and authoritative book on sensory branding ever written, international business legend Martin Lindstrom reveals what the world's most successful branding companies do differently, integrating touch, taste, smell, sight, and…
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Books on retail and fashion.

1
Fashion entrepreneurship
Michele Granger, Tina Sterling · 2002
15 Open Library reading lists
Retail and fashionCompany building
On Amazon Audible Open Library
2
The Brand Gap
Marty Neumeier · 2003
3.985,757 ratings · Goodreads
Retail and fashionCompany buildingInnovation
About the book
THE BRAND GAP is the first book to present a unified theory of brand-building. Whereas most books on branding are weighted toward either a strategic or creative approach, this book shows how both ways of thinking can unite to produce a “charismatic brand”―a…
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3
Retail Gangster
The Insane, Real-Life Story of Crazy Eddie
Gary Weiss · 2022
3.901,120 ratings · Goodreads
Retail and fashionCompany building
About the book
A biography of the spectacular rise and fall of Eddie Antar, better known as "Crazy Eddie," whose home electronics empire changed the world even as it turned out to be one of the biggest business scams of all timeBack in the fall of 2016 we heard the news…
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4
How Big Brands Grow What Marketers Dont Know
Byron Sharp · 2010
40 Open Library reading lists
Retail and fashion
About the book
"This book provides evidence-based answers to the key questions asked by marketers every day. Tackling issues such as how brands grow, how advertising really works, what price promotions really do and how loyalty programs really affect loyalty, How Brands…
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5
How Brands Grow
Part 2
Jenni Romaniuk · 2016
4.16580 ratings · Goodreads
Retail and fashionCompany building
About the book
Following the success of international bestseller How Brands What Marketer's Don't Know comes a new book that takes readers further on a journey to smarter, evidence-based marketing. How Brands Grow Part 2 , by Jenni Romaniuk and Byron Sharp, is about…
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6
The Everything Store
Jeff Bezos and the Age of Amazon
Brad Stone · 2013
4.1378,706 ratings · Goodreads
Retail and fashionCompany building
About the book
The definitive story of Amazon.com, one of the most successful companies in the world, and of its driven, brilliant founder, Jeff Bezos. Amazon.com started off delivering books through the mail. But its visionary founder, Jeff Bezos, wasn't content with…
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7
The Hero and the Outlaw
Building Extraordinary Brands Through the Power of Archetypes
Margaret Mark · 2001
4.13970 ratings · Goodreads
Retail and fashionCompany buildingMoats and competition
About the book
A brand’s meaning―how it resonates in the public heart and mind―is a company’s most valuable competitive advantage. Yet, few companies really know how brand meaning works, how to manage it, and how to use brand meaning strategically. Written by best-selling…
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8
Logo Design Love
A Guide to Creating Iconic Brand Identities
David Airey · 2009
4.204,263 ratings · Goodreads
Retail and fashionCompany building
About the book
There are a lot of books out there that show collections of logos. But David Airey’s “Logo Design Love” is something different: it’s a guide for designers (and clients) who want to understand what this mysterious business is all about. Written in…
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What founders at seed need most: company building, finding product-market fit, raising money, first sales, marketing and growth.

1
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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2
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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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
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
UX for Lean Startups
Faster, Smarter User Experience Research and Design
Laura Klein · 2013
4.092,097 ratings · Goodreads
Company buildingFinding product-market fit
About the book
Great user experiences (UX) are essential for products today, but designing one can be a lengthy and expensive process. With this practical, hands-on book, you’ll learn how to do it faster and smarter using Lean UX techniques. UX expert Laura Klein shows you…
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7
Risky is the New Safe
The Rules Have Changed . . .
Randy Gage · 2012
3.86348 ratings · Goodreads
Raising moneyCompany building
About the book
THE NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER and #1 WALL STREET JOURNAL BESTSELLER Risky Is the New Safe is a different kind of book for a different kind of thinking--a thought-provoking manifesto for risk takers. It will challenge you to think laterally, question…
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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
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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3
The 360 Degree Leader
Developing Your Influence from Anywhere in the Organization
John C. Maxwell · 2005
4.158,377 ratings · Goodreads
Leading and managing
About the book
Don't wait for that promotion! Start leading NOW... right where you are! What's the number one question leadership expert John C. Maxwell is asked while conducting his leadership conferences? "How can I implement what you teach when I'm not the top leader?"…
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4
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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5
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.…
On Amazon Audible
6
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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7
The Hard Thing About Hard Things
Building a Business When There Are No Easy Answers―Straight Talk on the Challenges of Entrepreneurship
Ben Horowitz · 2014
4.19114,702 ratings · Goodreads
Leading and managing
About the book
A lot of people talk about how great it is to start a business, but only Ben Horowitz is brutally honest about how hard it is to run one. In The Hard Thing About Hard Things, Ben Horowitz, cofounder of Andreessen Horowitz and one of Silicon Valley's most…
On Amazon Audible
8
How Google Works
Eric Schmidt · 2014
4.0529,775 ratings · Goodreads
Leading and managing
About the book
Both Eric Schmidt and Jonathan Rosenberg came to Google as seasoned Silicon Valley business executives, but over the course of a decade they came to see the wisdom in Coach John Wooden's observation that 'it's what you learn after you know it all that…
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Published in the last three years, newest first, for what you told us.

1
Make It Ours
Crashing the Gates of Culture with Virgil Abloh
Robin Givhan · 2025
4.04306 ratings · Goodreads
Retail and fashion
About the book
A groundbreaking chronicle of the legacy of Virgil Abloh, whose iconic rise to the top of the fashion industry embodied the cultural sea change transforming our ideas about the relationship between who we are and what we wear, from Pulitzer Prize-winning…
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2
Brand It Like Serhant
Stand Out From the Crowd, Build Your Following, and Earn More Money
Ryan Serhant · 2024
3.95275 ratings · Goodreads
Retail and fashionMarketing 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…
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3
Personal Branding for Introverts
Goldie Chan · 2025
4.41211 ratings · Goodreads
Retail and fashionMarketing 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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4
The Bookshop
A History of the American Bookstore
Evan Friss · 2024
3.9012,644 ratings · Goodreads
Retail and fashionCompany building
About the book
An affectionate and engaging history of the American bookstore and its central place in American cultural life, from department stores to indies, from highbrow dealers trading in first editions to sidewalk vendors, and from chains to special-interest…
On Amazon Audible
5
Strip Tees
A Memoir of Millennial Los Angeles
Kate Flannery · 2023
3.666,423 ratings · Goodreads
Retail and fashion
About the book
Strip Tees is a fever dream of a memoir, Hunter S. Thompson meets Gloria Steinem, about a recent college graduate and what happens when her feminist ideals meet the real world. At the turn of the new millennium, LA is the place to be. “Hipster” is a new…
On Amazon Audible
6
American Flannel
How a Band of Entrepreneurs Are Bringing the Art and Business of Making Clothes Back Home
Steven Kurutz · 2024
4.22502 ratings · Goodreads
Retail and fashionCompany building
About the book
“I can confidently say this will be one of my favorite books of 2024.”, Stephen King, bestselling author (and onetime millworker)“American Flannel is a wonderful book--surprising, entertaining, vivid and personal, but also enlightening on the largest…
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7
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 Amazon Audible
8
Glossy
Ambition, Beauty, and the Inside Story of Emily Weiss's Glossier
Marisa Meltzer · 2023
3.2912,235 ratings · Goodreads
Retail and fashionCompany buildingMarketing and growth
About the book
The bombshell exposé that reveals, for the first time, exactly what happened at Glossier, one of America’s hottest and most consequential startups, and dives deep into the enigmatic, visionary woman responsible for it all. Called “one of the most disruptive…
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How companies like yours were actually built, from the people who built them.

1
Anna
The Biography
Amy Odell · 2022
3.777,288 ratings · Goodreads
Retail and fashionFounder stories
About the book
This definitive biography of Anna Wintour follows the steep climb of an ambitious young woman who would, with singular and legendary focus, become one of the most powerful people in media.As a child, Anna Wintour was a tomboy with no apparent interest in…
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2
In My Shoes
A Memoir
Tamara Mellon · 2012
3.601,211 ratings · Goodreads
Retail and fashionFounder storiesCompany building
About the book
When Tamara Mellon’s father lent her the seed money to start a high-end shoe company, he cautioned her: “Don’t let the accountants run your business.” Little did he know. Over the next fifteen years, the struggle between “financial” and “creative” would…
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3
Deluxe
How Luxury Lost Its Luster
Dana Thomas · 2007
3.894,186 ratings · Goodreads
Retail and fashionCompany building
About the book
Documents how luxury goods have been transformed by a shift from exclusive distribution practices by quality-minded family businesses to mass production by profit-minded big corporations, revealing the secrets of top designers while examining the ways in…
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4
American Dreamer
My Life in Fashion & Business
Tommy Hilfiger · 2016
3.99267 ratings · Goodreads
Retail and fashionFounder storiesCompany building
About the book
In this tale of grit and glamour, setbacks and comebacks, business and pop culture icon Tommy Hilfiger shares his extraordinary life story for the first time. Few designers have stayed on top of changing trends the way Tommy Hilfiger has. Fewer still have…
On Amazon Audible
5
Wild Company
The Untold Story of Banana Republic
Mel Ziegler · 2012
4.04627 ratings · Goodreads
Retail and fashionFounder storiesCompany building
About the book
In the tradition of Pour Your Heart Into It and How Starbucks Saved My Life , a surprising and inspiring memoir from the founders of Banana Republic. With $1,500 and no business experience, Mel and Patricia Ziegler turned a wild idea into a company that…
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6
This Is Not a T-Shirt
A Brand, a Culture, a Community--a Life in Streetwear
Bobby Hundreds · 2019
4.211,335 ratings · Goodreads
Retail and fashionFounder storiesCompany building
About the book
The story of The Hundreds and the precepts that made it an iconic streetwear brand by Bobby Hundreds himself Streetwear occupies that rarefied space where genuine "cool" coexists with big business; where a star designer might work concurrently with Nike, a…
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7
Marshall Field's
The Store that Helped Build Chicago
Gayle Soucek · 2010
4.12228 ratings · Goodreads
Retail and fashionCompany building
About the book
"Give the lady what she wants!" Anyone who has waited in a Christmas line for the Walnut Room's Great Tree can attest that Chicago's loyalty to Marshall Field's is fierce. Dayton-Hudson even had to take out advertising around town to apologize for changing…
On Amazon Audible
8
The Man Who Saved the Union
Ulysses Grant in War and Peace
H.W. Brands · 2012
4.136,257 ratings · Goodreads
Retail and fashionFounder stories
About the book
From New York Times bestselling author H. W. Brands, a masterful biography of the Civil War general and two-term president who saved the Union twice, on the battlefield and in the White House, holding the country together at two critical turning points in our…
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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
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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5
The Lean Startup
Eric Ries · 2011
4.11374,139 ratings · Goodreads
Company building
About the book
Most new businesses fail. But most of those failures are preventable.The Lean Startup is a new approach to business that's being adopted around the world. It is changing the way companies are built and new products are launched. Essential reading for any…
On Amazon Audible
6
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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7
Shoe Dog
A Memoir by the Creator of Nike
Phil Knight · 2016
4.45389,310 ratings · Goodreads
Company 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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8
Napoleon Hill
Think and Grow Rich
Napoleon Hill · 1937
4.16385,071 ratings · Goodreads
Company building
About the book
“In every chapter of this book, mention has been made of the moneymaking secret which has made fortunes for hundreds of exceedingly wealthy men whom I have carefully analyzed over a long period of years. “The secret was brought to my attention by Andrew…
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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.