Applying filters
Max Levchin's Review:
What’s your favorite business book you’d recommend to young entrepreneurs and why?
Some good ones from the “pure business” category: Zero to One, The Hard Thing About Hard Things, The Innovator’s Dilemma, Good to Great, etc.
Danielle Morrill's Review:
This is a no-brainer on the list. Most startup enthusiasts have probably already heard about this one, given how much people admire Peter Thiel, one of the infamous “PayPal Mafia” cofounders. But, if you haven’t actually picked up and read Zero to One yet, now is the time.
Thiel expounds on some of his core beliefs, like: understanding what important truth few others agree with you on; why product doesn’t always win; and the importance of being a long-term thinker as a founder. You can breeze through this read in a weekend, but you’ll be referencing it over and over again for a long time.
Andrew Chen's Review:
Today, I was asked for the definitive list of books that I’d recommend as the classics for tech products and business. It’s hard to pare things down to such a short list, since there’s so much great stuff that’s been written.
In addition, a lot of new exciting books have been published in recent years, but they haven’t stood the test of time. My lists solely consists of books that skew oldish, but have aged well and continue to provide value today. This leaves out amazing contributions such as The Hard Thing About Hard Things, Zero to One, and The Lean Startup, which will undoubtedly make a list like this in future years.
Ref: http://andrewchen.co/ten-classic-books-that-define-tech/
Sam Altman's Review:
If you want to build a better future, you must believe in secrets. The great secret of our time is that there are still uncharted frontiers to explore and new inventions to create. In Zero to One, legendary entrepreneur and investor Peter Thiel shows how we can find singular ways to create those new things.
Elon Musk's Review:
Peter Thiel has built multiple breakthrough companies, and Zero to One shows how.
Ref: http://www.amazon.in/Zero-One-Notes-Startups-Future/dp/0804139296
Reid Hoffman's Review:
In his book Zero to One, my friend and former colleague Peter Thiel lays out an ingenious, provocative, and highly entertaining argument regarding the virtues of monopoly and the shortcomings of competition. He makes his case so deftly that I suspect it will soon attain the implacable majesty of conventional wisdom. That would be a shame.
Read the full review here: https://www.linkedin.com/pulse/20141126002147-1213-entrepreneurship-and-competition-in-peter-thiel-s-zero-to-one?trk=mp-reader-card
Balaji S. Srinivasan's Review:
The book by @peterthiel and @bgmasters may top the NYT bestseller list! Worth checking out: http://zerotoonebook.com/order cc @bhorowitz @pmarca
Andrew Chen's Review:
Today, I was asked for the definitive list of books that I’d recommend as the classics for tech products and business. It’s hard to pare things down to such a short list, since there’s so much great stuff that’s been written.
With that in mind, here’s my list. I’m sure you’ve read many of them, but hopefully you find a gem or two that you haven’t already read. In no particular order:
Ref: http://andrewchen.co/ten-classic-books-that-define-tech/
Ron Conway's Review:
User-friendly guide to the art and science of management.
Ref: https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1KLCdlp4SW7Z64W_DWGwwuTIfH1GXRAMtPxv4EB5gKu0/edit#gid=0
Vinod Khosla's Review:
This is a user-friendly guide to the art and science of management from Andrew S. Grove, the president of America’s leading manufacturer of computer chips. Grove’s recommendations are equally appropriate for sales managers, accountants, consultants and teachers—anyone whose job entails getting a group of people to produce something of value.
Ben Horowitz's Review:
It has been an honor for me to learn from Andy Grove through the years and I am excited for everyone who is new to High Output Management to join me in this experience. I know that you will enjoy this marvelous book written by the best teacher that I have ever known.
Marc Andreessen's Review:
Recommended,
Ref: https://twitter.com/pmarca/status/500912803071283201
@pmarca do you know of anything thats like an intro to the skillset side of running a business aimed at technical people? SICP for business?0
Our standard recommendation is high output management
Ref: https://twitter.com/pmarca/status/604840255045267456
Which are the best books about scaling a company from seed to Series B with systems out there?
Andy Grove "High Output Management" and @bhorowitz's book!
Danielle Morrill's Review:
This is a list of the books, essays, blog posts, articles, podcasts, etc. that have had an outsized impact on my thinking in life and business. I am trying to figure out a good way to organize this, right now it is just a tiny part of my collection but definitely a set of books that I find myself suggesting to people over and over again.
Management
- High Output Management by Andy Grove
Brian Chesky's Review:
Chesky and his co-founders’ first “sources” were their earliest advisers, tech entrepreneur Michael Seibel and Y Combinator’s Graham. Reading was also an early part of the regimen. For Chesky, a source may come in the form of a biography of a business hero such as Steve Jobs or Walt Disney. His primary book source on management technique is Andy Grove’s High Output Management. To learn the ins and outs of hospitality, he went to the Cornell Hospitality Quarterly, a scholarly journal published by the Cornell University School of Hotel Administration.
Max Levchin's Review:
What’s your favorite business book you’d recommend to young entrepreneurs and why?
Some good ones from the “pure business” category: Zero to One, The Hard Thing About Hard Things, The Innovator’s Dilemma, Good to Great, etc.
Marc Andreessen's Review:
But @bhorowitz's book still makes great gift for entrepreneurs & future entrepreneurs (ages 8-108) in your life :-).
Steve Blank's Review:
Ben Horowitz’s The Hard Thing About Hard Things is a series essays about what CEO face in the “Build” phase – the transition from searching for a business model into a company.
Andrew Chen's Review:
Today, I was asked for the definitive list of books that I’d recommend as the classics for tech products and business. It’s hard to pare things down to such a short list, since there’s so much great stuff that’s been written.
In addition, a lot of new exciting books have been published in recent years, but they haven’t stood the test of time. My lists solely consists of books that skew oldish, but have aged well and continue to provide value today. This leaves out amazing contributions such as The Hard Thing About Hard Things, Zero to One, and The Lean Startup, which will undoubtedly make a list like this in future years.
Ref: http://andrewchen.co/ten-classic-books-that-define-tech/
Balaji S. Srinivasan's Review:
.@bhorowitz's new book is coming out. From near-death of company to 1.6B and a16z. http://amzn.to/1gXrD46
Danielle Morrill's Review:
This is a list of the books, essays, blog posts, articles, podcasts, etc. that have had an outsized impact on my thinking in life and business. I am trying to figure out a good way to organize this, right now it is just a tiny part of my collection but definitely a set of books that I find myself suggesting to people over and over again.
Startups
David Cancel's Review:
The struggle. The grind. This is the reality check that you will always need when you’re going through it.
Marc Andreessen's Review:
In tech, the term vertical is to distinguish "focused on a particular industry" vs horizontal which is "cuts across all industries".Generally tech vertical products and sales efforts are quite different than horizontal products and sales efforts.
Steve Blank's Review:
Crossing the Chasm made me understand that there are repeatable patterns in early stage companies. It started my search for the repeatable set of patterns that preceded the chasm
Danielle Morrill's Review:
You know that oh-so-popularRodgers’ bell curve about customer adoption rates? We’ve all seen it…but how do weactually use it to help us shape our business strategy? InCrossing the Chasm, you’ll learn about the actual characteristics of each kind of customer—from “innovator” to “laggard”—and better understand how to choose and acquire your target market.
The author, Geoffrey Moore, talks about the importance of maintaining momentum to get the next group along the curve to want to buy into your product/service, navigating the challenges of moving across the customer adoption “chasm,” and ultimately growing a business that scales. A classic read.
Ron Conway's Review:
Bestselling guide that created a new game plan for marketing in high-tech industries.
Ref: https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1KLCdlp4SW7Z64W_DWGwwuTIfH1GXRAMtPxv4EB5gKu0/edit#gid=0
Andrew Chen's Review:
Today, I was asked for the definitive list of books that I’d recommend as the classics for tech products and business. It’s hard to pare things down to such a short list, since there’s so much great stuff that’s been written.
With that in mind, here’s my list. I’m sure you’ve read many of them, but hopefully you find a gem or two that you haven’t already read. In no particular order:
Ref: http://andrewchen.co/ten-classic-books-that-define-tech/
Steve Blank's Review:
Innovator’s Dilemma and Innovator’s Solution helped me refine the notion of the Four types of Startup Markets. I read these books as the handbook for startups trying to disrupt an established company
Marc Andreessen's Review:
Q) Hey @pmarca is all innovation disruptive? If yes, why the redundancy? If not,what the hell is undisruptive innovation?
A) It's called sustaining innovation. There is also a third kind, discontinuous innovation. Read the Christensen book :-).
Jeff Bezos's Review:
An enormously influential business book whose principles Amazon acted on and that facilitated the creation of the Kindle and AWS. Some companies are reluctant to embrace disruptive technology because it might alienate customers and undermine their core business, but Christensen argues that ignoring potential disruption is even costlier.
Ref: https://www.farnamstreetblog.com/2013/10/jeff-bezoss-reading-list/
Max Levchin's Review:
What’s your favorite business book you’d recommend to young entrepreneurs and why?
Some good ones from the “pure business” category: Zero to One, The Hard Thing About Hard Things, The Innovator’s Dilemma, Good to Great, etc.
Andrew Chen's Review:
Today, I was asked for the definitive list of books that I’d recommend as the classics for tech products and business. It’s hard to pare things down to such a short list, since there’s so much great stuff that’s been written.
With that in mind, here’s my list. I’m sure you’ve read many of them, but hopefully you find a gem or two that you haven’t already read. In no particular order:
Ref: http://andrewchen.co/ten-classic-books-that-define-tech/
Ben Horowitz's Review:
Interestingly this is the only business book that Steve Jobs liked. In his biography of Jobs, Walter Isaacson wrote that it “deeply influenced” Jobs. Fittingly the book shows why and how most companies miss out on new waves of innovation — they do exactly what they are taught to do in business school.
Ref: https://www.farnamstreetblog.com/2014/03/ben-horowitz-5-books/
Ron Conway's Review:
Words of wisdown from Bill Walsh to inspire, inform, and enlighten leaders in all professions.
Ref: https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1KLCdlp4SW7Z64W_DWGwwuTIfH1GXRAMtPxv4EB5gKu0/edit#gid=0
Vinod Khosla's Review:
Bill Walsh is a towering figure in the history of the NFL. His advanced leadership transformed the San Francisco 49ers from the worst franchise in sports to a legendary dynasty. In the process, he changed the way football is played. Prior to his death, Walsh granted a series of exclusive interviews to bestselling author Steve Jamison. These became his ultimate lecture on leadership.
Ref: http://www.khoslaventures.com/resources/reading-list
Ref: https://www.gatesnotes.com/About-Bill-Gates/Vinod-Khosla-Recommended-Reading
Sam Altman's Review:
For the question "What are some of the best books to learn from that you recommend for a young startup founder?", I decided to transcribe these books.
David Cancel's Review:
When the San Francisco 49ers hired Bill Walsh, they were 4–12 and the worst team in the NFL. Three years later, they won their first Super Bowl — and the turnaround happened because of the small things. All of the details matter, because the score will take care of itself.
Noah Kagan's Review:
The Score Will Take Care of Itself by Bill Walsh
- Focusing on doing the right processes and the outcome will take care of itself
- Keep your lockers / desks clean and it’ll reflect in other parts of your life
Ref: http://okdork.com/2012/09/20/the-18-books-that-changed-my-life/
Ron Conway's Review:
Collection of interviews with founders of famous technology companies about what happened in the very earliest days.
Ref: https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1KLCdlp4SW7Z64W_DWGwwuTIfH1GXRAMtPxv4EB5gKu0/edit#gid=0
Garry Tan's Review:
This book was a part of The stack of knowledge
Just got the shipment of books I sent here from home. It is amazing how one can convert a pile of dead trees into something (hopefully) useful.
Steve Blank's Review:
Jessica Livingston’s Founders At Work are the best case studies/vignettes without a PR rewrite of how founders really start companies
Andrew Chen's Review:
Today, I was asked for the definitive list of books that I’d recommend as the classics for tech products and business. It’s hard to pare things down to such a short list, since there’s so much great stuff that’s been written.
With that in mind, here’s my list. I’m sure you’ve read many of them, but hopefully you find a gem or two that you haven’t already read. In no particular order:
Ref: http://andrewchen.co/ten-classic-books-that-define-tech/
Vinod Khosla's Review:
A black swan is an event, positive or negative, that is deemed improbable yet causes massive consequences. In this groundbreaking and prophetic book, Taleb shows in a playful way that Black Swan events explain almost everything about our world, and yet we—especially the experts—are blind to them.
Jeff Bezos's Review:
The scholar argues that people are wired to see patterns in chaos while remaining blind to unpredictable events, with massive consequences. Experimentation and empiricism trumps the easy and obvious narrative.
Ref: https://www.farnamstreetblog.com/2013/10/jeff-bezoss-reading-list/
Peter Thiel's Review:
The weirdest idea anyone ever had about the future is that we should expect it to look like the past — but that's what the reigning science of statistics assumes. Nassim Taleb has not been fooled; he is the single best guide to understanding uncertainty.
Naval Ravikant
's Review:
Naval Ravikant's Book Recommendations: A collection of books recommended by @Naval
Ref: https://www.producthunt.com/@naval/collections/naval-s-book-recommendations
Andrew Chen's Review:
Ex-Salesforce sales head breaks down how they sold to B2B. Lots of great details on how to organize sales teams, generate leads, incentive compensation, etc.
Steve Blank's Review:
Lean Analytics is a great discussion about metrics that matter for web/mobile startups. Predictable Revenue is one of those short, smart, tactical books that you need to read if you have a direct sales force.
Danielle Morrill's Review:
Predictable Revenue is quite the gem! In it, you’ll learn to story behind how Salesforce.com built an outbound sales process that helped them nearly double their growth in a few short years—$100 million in recurringrevenue. If you want to figure out what it takes to generate a strong pipeline of highly qualified leads to build out predictable revenue streams for your company (basically, every B2B startup), scoop this book up now.
You will learn how to do things like: build an outbound sales process that doesn’t require a huge marketing budget or cold calling; build a top-notch, self-managing sales team; and avoid big mistakes other CEOs and sales executives have made over and over again. If you seriously implement the advice in this book, you’ll be hard-pressed not to see a positive shift in your business. And that’s pretty damn worth a quick 53-page read, isn’t it?
David Cancel's Review:
The sales classic from Aaron Ross — doesn’t just apply if you’re in sales. This is another must read if you’re in SaaS.
Marc Andreessen's Review:
Deep thinking about money from anthropologist David Graeber: Debt preceded money http://www.realecontv.com/videos/debt/the-real-history-of-money-and-debt-part-1.html @pmarca
Yep a very interesting book.
ref: https://twitter.com/pmarca/status/450633045570101248
Andrew Chen's Review:
Today, I was asked for the definitive list of books that I’d recommend as the classics for tech products and business. It’s hard to pare things down to such a short list, since there’s so much great stuff that’s been written.
In addition, a lot of new exciting books have been published in recent years, but they haven’t stood the test of time. My lists solely consists of books that skew oldish, but have aged well and continue to provide value today. This leaves out amazing contributions such as The Hard Thing About Hard Things, Zero to One, and The Lean Startup, which will undoubtedly make a list like this in future years.
Ref: http://andrewchen.co/ten-classic-books-that-define-tech/
Vinod Khosla's Review:
Here’s a list recommended by Vinod Khosla, one of the co-founders of Sun Microsystems, and founder of the firm Khosla Ventures, which focuses on venture investments in various technology sectors, most notably clean technology.
Ref: https://www.gatesnotes.com/About-Bill-Gates/Vinod-Khosla-Recommended-Reading
Steve Blank's Review:
Every founding team should stop for 48 hours and read Lean Startup. Stop and read this book now.
Ref: https://twitter.com/search?q=%40sgblank%20review%20book&src=typd
Eric Ries was the best student I ever had. He took the Customer Development process, combined it with Agile Engineering, and actually did the first implementation in a startup. His insights about the combined Customer Development/Agile process and its implications past startups into large corporations is a sea change in thinking. His book, The Lean Startup is a “must have” for your shelf.
Jeff Bezos's Review:
Collins briefed Amazon executives on his seminal management book before its publication. Companies must confront the brutal facts of their business, find out what they are uniquely good at, and master their fly wheel, in which each part of the business reinforces and accelerates the other parts.
Ref: https://www.farnamstreetblog.com/2013/10/jeff-bezoss-reading-list/
Max Levchin's Review:
What’s your favorite business book you’d recommend to young entrepreneurs and why?
Some good ones from the “pure business” category: Zero to One, The Hard Thing About Hard Things, The Innovator’s Dilemma, Good to Great, etc.
Steve Blank's Review:
.If you are in a large company and wondering why your company isn’t going anywhere your answers might be found in Good to Great. Written by Jim Collins, the same author who wrote Built to Last, both are books that “you should be so lucky” to read. What differentiates good companies versus great? How do you institutionalize core values into a company that enable it to create value when the current management is long gone? When I first read these, I thought they were only for companies that were lucky enough to get big. Upon reflection, these books were the inspiration for the “Mission-Oriented Culture.” Read these two books together.
Noah Kagan's Review:
The whole Facebook ads world can be very confusing, but there's an easy way to start once you're ready.
Noah Kagan's Review:
Completely updated for 2017 — here's what I learned spending $3 MILLION on Facebook ads:
Reid Hoffman's Review:
In early days @Stripe CEO @patrickc took midnight customer service shifts: "We'd wake up, help + go back to sleep."
Reid Hoffman's Review:
Today on #MastersofScale: @sherylsandberg and I talk about leading at scale
Vinod Khosla's Review:
Under Andy Grove’s leadership, Intel has become the world’s largest chip maker and one of the most admired companies in the world. In Only the Paranoid Survive, Grove reveals his strategy of focusing on a new way of measuring the nightmare moment every leader dreads–when massive change occurs and a company must, virtually overnight, adapt or fall by the wayside. Grove underscores his message by examining his own record of success and failure, including how he navigated the events of the Pentium flaw, which threatened Intel’s reputation in 1994, and how he has dealt with the explosions in growth of the Internet. The work of a lifetime, Only the Paranoid Survive is a classic of managerial and leadership skills.
Andrew Chen's Review:
There’s also a number of great books that just tell the narrative of one company, such as The New New Thing, Startup, eBoys, Only the Paranoid Survive, Breaking Windows, but I’ve left those off the list even though they are very fun to read.
Ref: http://andrewchen.co/ten-classic-books-that-define-tech/
Ben Horowitz's Review:
I read this book as part of my MBA program. It’s full of common sense, which, while I didn’t know it at the time, isn’t so common.
Ref: https://www.farnamstreetblog.com/2014/03/ben-horowitz-5-books/
Steve Blank's Review:
If you buy one book to understand how VC’s and fund raising works, Venture Deals is the one. Wish I had it when I did startups. Same for Mastering the VC Game. If you read two books about how to deal with VC’s start here
Danielle Morrill's Review:
Brad Feld is such a boss. He undeniably marches to the beat of his own drum when it comes to his investing style and general startup advice. Which is exactly why his book, Venture Deals, is so worth reading. He wrote this with his Foundry Group cofounder Jason Mendelson, and the result is a captivating read about how venture capital deals come together.
Essentially, the aim of this book is to help you be smarter than your lawyer or venture capitalist when it comes to deal structuring so you don’t get screwed. If you’re looking to raise money for your startup any time soon, wondering if fundraising is even the right move for your company, or just looking to gain a better understanding of venture capital strategy and deal structure, read this.
Marc Andreessen's Review:
1/Third aspect of valuation of tech companies often misunderstood--this time private valuations set by VCs and other private investors:
2/This topic was recently explored by @Jessicalessin in this excellent article: https://www.theinformation.com/When-3-Billion-is-Not-3-Billion
3/A private company in which a sophisticated investor has bought a minority stake for $X/share is not actually worth $X * total # of shares.
4/First, the entire company has not traded hands, just a small slice of it. So we don't actually know what the whole company is worth.
5/Second, most financing rounds are for preferred shares, which have special rights. Other shares don't have those rights & are worth less.
6/Smart VCs think about startup shares less as stock than as options -- options with limited (1x) downside & unlimited (1,000x+) upside.
7/A share of preferred startup stock ~= A long-dated out-of-the-money call option, paired with a long-dated contingent put option.
8/The contingent put option is the liquidation preference in preferred stock. Increases odds of getting $ back in a downside sale of the co.
9/Plus, in some high-valuation late-stage rounds, there are additional downside protections like ratchets, which can be highly valuable.
10/And, preferred stock brings with it governance rights and information access not available to normal investors. Those have value too.
11/So you can't extrapolate the value of an entire company from a minority sale of preferred stock. Better just to focus on cash raised.
12/In my view there is WAY too much discussion of private valuations in tech. Fuzzy numbers matter way less than real company substance.
13/The best book to read as followup to this tweetstream is: Venture deals
ref: https://twitter.com/pmarca/status/457021383109668864
what book would you suggest for a founder to gain a better understanding of overall finance?
For venture finance, I'd say Brad Fed's book on venture deals and Andrew Metrick's venture capital textbook.
Ref: https://twitter.com/pmarca/status/588527284010684416
what book would you suggest for a founder to gain a better understanding of overall finance?
For venture finance, I'd say Brad Fed's book on venture deals and Andrew Metrick's venture capital textbook.
Steve Blank's Review:
. If you write software you already know about Fred Brooks classic text the Mythical Man Month. If you manage a software company you need to read it so you don’t act like Dilbert’s pointy-haired boss.
Andrew Chen's Review:
Today, I was asked for the definitive list of books that I’d recommend as the classics for tech products and business. It’s hard to pare things down to such a short list, since there’s so much great stuff that’s been written.
With that in mind, here’s my list. I’m sure you’ve read many of them, but hopefully you find a gem or two that you haven’t already read. In no particular order:
Ref: http://andrewchen.co/ten-classic-books-that-define-tech/
Jeff Bezos's Review:
An influential computer scientist makes the counter-intuitive argument that small groups of engineers are more effective than larger ones at handling complex software projects. The book lays out the theory behind Amazon’s two pizza teams.
Ref: https://www.farnamstreetblog.com/2013/10/jeff-bezoss-reading-list/
Steve Blank's Review:
Bill Davidow’s Marketing High Technology introduced me to the concept of “whole product” and the unique needs of mainstream customers
Danielle Morrill's Review:
This is a list of the books, essays, blog posts, articles, podcasts, etc. that have had an outsized impact on my thinking in life and business. I am trying to figure out a good way to organize this, right now it is just a tiny part of my collection but definitely a set of books that I find myself suggesting to people over and over again.
Marketing
- Marketing High Technology by William Davidow
Marc Andreessen's Review:
Read Bill Davidow's book "Marketing High Technology" for this topic in tech industry. Underappreciated classic.
ref: https://twitter.com/pmarca/status/524782323972063233
Q) Who has written about positioning / timing for going beyond your initial beachhead besides "Crossing the Chasm" and "The Marketing Playbook"
A) Try Bill Davidow "High-Tech Marketing".
David Cancel's Review:
This is the book the aligns everything we do at Drift. Focus on the one thing. The big rocks. If you chase two rabbits, you won’t catch either.
David Cancel's Review:
This is the book that aligns everything we do at Drift and has helped our entire team focus on the task at hand. If you’ve read about Stephen Covey’s “big rocks” this is similar — but it’s a great, quick read to reinforce what you already know: if you chase two rabbits, you won’t catch either. This is one book that every new employee get when they join the team at Drift.
Ref: https://medium.com/@dcancel/my-6-favorite-books-of-2016-deb4215ecbfc
David Cancel's Review:
I give this book to everyone who joins our team at Drift. It’s also the book I have gifted the most in 2016. What’s your “One Thing?” has become our daily mantra at Drift and a question I ask myself to start each morning. My favorite chapter is “10. The Focusing Question”.
Ref: https://seekingwisdom.io/the-books-i-recommend-for-the-new-manager-19d616a0ff65
Danielle Morrill's Review:
This book is consistently one of the top book recommendations made by some of the most successful entrepreneurs and investors around. While more of a popular read in the overarching business world (more than 3.5 million copies have been sold to date), it flies a little under the mainstream radar in the early-stage startup scene. But, if you want to be a sound strategic founder, Blue Ocean Strategy is a necessity.
The core premise of the book is that lasting success comes from creating what the authors call “blue oceans”—untapped new markets that are ripe for growth—rather than focusing on battling competitors. Essentially, this book will force you to completely rethink your business strategy (in the best possible way). The result? Learn what it takes to blow your competitors out of the water and build a business in an uncontested market space. Someone get the floaties!