Books for Starting a Company
Move from the raw beginnings of startups to strategy, iteration, endurance, and leadership under pressure.
For first-time founders turning an idea into a company.
How to use this guide
Start with founders’ early accounts, then consider strategy, small tests, endurance and management under pressure.
The selection, reading order and reasons below are the library’s editorial guidance. Each founder connection has its own source.
- Founders at Work: Stories of Startups' Early Days
Begin with candid accounts of how real companies looked before their success seemed inevitable.
Paul Graham — Foreword and recommendation
It is probably the single most valuable book a startup founder could read.
Graham writes the book’s foreword and recommends it as a guide to what happens in a startup’s first days.
Source for Paul Graham - Zero to One: Notes on Startups, or How to Build the Future
Learn to define the unique insight that can make a new company valuable and hard to copy.
Elon Musk — Jacket endorsement
Peter Thiel has built multiple breakthrough companies, and Zero to One shows how.
Printed publisher endorsement; this is not an interview recommendation.
Source for Elon Musk - The Lean Startup
Turn that insight into small tests that reveal what customers will use before resources run out.
Ben Horowitz — Praised
In his Tim Ferriss interview, Horowitz says The Lean Startup is useful for small companies. The interview does not identify his edition.
Source for Ben Horowitz - Shoe Dog: A Memoir by the Creator of Nike
See the persistence, uncertainty, and near failures hidden inside a durable company.
Bill Gates — Positive review
A refreshingly honest reminder of what the path to business success really looks like.
Gates reviewed the book on December 5, 2016.
Source for Bill Gates - The Hard Thing About Hard Things: Building a Business When There Are No Easy Answers
Prepare for the management decisions that have no clean formula once the company is under pressure.
Marc Andreessen — Recommendation
Ben’s book is good.
Andreessen includes Horowitz’s book in his recommendations for would-be entrepreneurs.
Source for Marc Andreessen