Ever heard the quote, "The journey of a lifetime starts with the turning of a page"?

Starting out on your journey as a startup founder requires you to wear a lot of hats and place yourself in the shoes of a lot of people. You wouldn’t be able to do that without expanding your mind with the help of books.

A startup is a journey that has a lot of uncertainties, risks, hurdles and burnouts that are sometimes lurking in the corner waiting for you once you begin.

Arming yourself with the right books provides founders like yourself with proven strategies, experiences of others who have been in your shoes and help you avoid common mistakes.

Books help you navigate your journey like the captain of a sea with a trusted crew who have their expertise in various fields in order to keep the ship afloat.
What are the best books for startup founders you might ask?

At the end of this article, you get the opportunity to see the summary of the 11 best books for startup founders according to our research and expertise.

Content

Why Constant Learning is Critical for Startups
11 Best Books for Startup Founders (2024)
The Importance of Action over Words

Why Constant Learning is Critical for Startup Founders

This isn’t just to make you feel better, but if you get tired after reading the first page of the first book you get, you’re not alone. Most startup books might seem boring or unimportant to you.

Sometimes you might just be doing it, so you can brag about your book collection. The best way to still grow as a founder is by getting hands-on experience.

Constant learning is critical for not just startups but well established businesses because it provides teams and founders with the skills and knowledge needed to evolve and progress over time.

A startup is particularly hard to navigate because you have to establish a market fit, stand out from the crowd and survive your first few years without sinking.

Figuring out the best books for startup founders saves you from the ones that serve you no purpose and helps you focus on the ones that allow you to tap into the various experiences of other founders and industry experts.

11 Best Books for Startup Founders (2024)

The Hard Thing About Hard Things by Ben Horowitz
Shoe Dog by Phil Knight
The Innovator’s Dilemma by Clayton Christensen
The Lean Startup by Eric Ries
The Startup Owner’s Manual by Steve Blank
Principles by Ray Dalio
Measure What Matters by John Doerr
Zero to One by Peter Thiel
Atomic Habits by James Clear
Blitzscaling by Reid Hoffman
Crossing the Chasm by Geoffrey A. Moore

1. The Hard Thing About Hard Things by Ben Horowitz

best books for startup founders
Ben Horowitz is the cofounder and general partner of Andreessen Horowitz. He uses relatable storytelling to share his experiences, lessons, and the difficult tasks involved in creating and running a business.

Ben picks his experiences from his time as head of multiple firms to provide solutions to issues he faced and what to do in times of catastrophe and urgency.

Forgive our French if you might find one of the quotes from the book rough but “If you’re going to eat shit, don’t nibble.” Ben used this subheading to explain that when facing an unpleasant task, it is better to confront it fully and decisively rather than prolonging the inevitable.

The book is full of powerful lessons for startup founders dealing with tough decisions and challenges, which is why it made it to our top picks of best books for startup founders.

Related To Startup Building: Top 11 Tips for Effective Startup Building Without Burnout

2. Shoe Dog by Phil Knight

books for startup founders
This book is more of a memoir of Phil Knight, the co-founder of Nike. It focuses on entrepreneurial journeys, leadership lessons, and high-risk taking.

If you wanna know about the creation of the Nike Brand, *Shoe Dog* gives you an insight into this and lets you inside Phil Knight’s head during certain critical decision moments.

As a startup founder, nothing makes you feel better than knowing you aren’t alone when it comes to the struggles that come with the “Founder” title. Shoe Dog tells a deeply personal story about the hardships, risks, and uncertainties that come with building a startup.

A key lesson that stands out would be the importance of hiring the right team, and Phil credits Nike’s success to his first employees, from Jeff Johnson to his trusted partners and mentors.

A lesson that RocketDevs takes pride in, ensuring the first employees of the startups we help scale are nothing less than the top 5% of talents out there.

3. The Innovator’s Dilemma by Clayton Christensen

The Innovator’s Dilemma* by Clayton Christensen extensively discusses the concept of unique market innovations. This book is a guide on how to displace market leaders, challenge competitors, and build innovative products that can reshape industries.

A key lesson from The Innovator’s Dilemma is that “disruptive technologies don’t necessarily start out as better or higher quality products.”

As a startup founder who might be thinking of building an MVP in order to establish a market fit, this book helps with decision-making along the way and boosts you and your team’s confidence despite operating in a market with the big leagues.

This book falls under the best books for startup founders because it teaches flexibility, how to focus on underserved markets, and how to embrace disruption and avoid stagnation as a founder.

4. The Lean Startup by Eric Ries

best books startup founders
It is no surprise that The Lean Startup has a 4.5/5 rating on Amazon and Goodreads and has been publicly endorsed by founders of renowned startups such as Dropbox, Airbnb, and Weebly.

The Lean Startup encourages founders to embrace experimentation and teaches startups how to quickly pivot, reducing waste through a ‘build, measure, learn’ cycle.

Eric Ries teaches many lessons in this book, from waste minimization to the build-measure-learn feedback loop. Every lesson can be attributed to real-life case studies of certain startups like Zappos and Hewlett Packard.

One particular lesson you might be interested in is “The importance of the Five Whys technique.”

For You: How To Build A Business Plan For A Startup

5 The Startup Owner’s Manual by Steve Blank

If you were looking for a step-by-step guide on how to navigate the startup journey from ideation to business model, this might be a little bit close to that.

Steve Blank, being one of the pioneers of the Customer Development Methodology, teaches founders how to test their assumptions and business models early in the startup process.

As a startup founder, one of your basic goals should be how to reduce risk, minimize waste, and give your product a chance at success.

The book focuses on Customer Development as a part of the Lean Startup methodology. One of the key takeaways that you would be interested in would be Iteration and Adaptability.

As a founder, you must know that you need to continuously improve and optimize your product based on the feedback received, a lesson that would be thoroughly covered in the book.

The Startup Owner’s Manual is one of the best books for startup founders because it breaks down complex issues into simpler solutions.

6. Principles by Ray Dalio

Just like Stephen R. Covey once said, “Habit is the intersection of knowledge, skill, and desire.”

This might seem a bit confusing sometimes, but Principles by Ray Dalio is a book that combines personal life lessons with business insights that provide you with a set of practical principles needed to achieve success.

Dalio showcases his thoughts about open-mindedness, one he happily encourages among founders and leaders. His opinions aren’t just based on personal biases but on expertise.

It is divided into two main sections of life principles and work principles. Dalio not only focuses on personal growth but self-reflection and decision-making as well and also emphasizes the need for continuous improvement.

7. Measure What Matters by John Doerr

books for startup founders
Objectives and Key Results (OKRs) are the basis for Measure What Matters by John Doerr. It helps organizations, especially startups, focus on what truly matters when it comes to achieving success.

To break this down even further, even startups need KPIs and not just employees. Doerr provides a structured approach that allows startups to prioritize and achieve meaningful results using the methods outlined.

Certain key lessons you can get from Measure What Matters are regular check-ins, aligning teams around shared goals, and setting measurable key results.

Think of this as a workbook that keeps you in check when it comes to setting measurable goals. It’s one of the best books for startup founders looking to know the useful metrics needed to scale as a startup.

8. Zero to One by Peter Thiel

best books for startup founders
“Doing what we already know how to do well is the surest way to be mediocre.”

Peter Thiel might have sounded a bit harsh with this, but he made sure to break down what he meant by this.

You get to see into the mind of the co-founder of PayPal and Palantir through this groundbreaking book that would definitely challenge your way of thinking if you aren’t a radical thinker. Although, in order to move your startup from ideation to scalability, one must be ready to adapt to the crazy times.

In Zero to One you might notice Thiel’s encouragement of embracing unique thinking and industry redefinition.

He also doesn’t fail to mention that not all innovative ideas will succeed, but you must be prepared for failure and learn from it so you can improve over time.

9. Atomic Habits by James Clear

You might see this as almost similar to Principles by Ray Dalio. As a startup founder, it can be easy to get sucked into the habits that can eventually lead to burnout, but how can you navigate life as a startup founder without late nights and mental drain?

James Clear provides his readers with practical strategies needed to grow as a founder. He emphasizes the impact of small actions that can improve your quality of life by breaking negative habits and developing positive ones.

Have you heard of the 1% rule where you aim to improve 1% each day? Small habits that are consistently repeated over time help the mind and the body, but don’t let us get into it ourselves. You could let James explain it in detail himself.

10. Blitzscaling by Reid Hoffman

Reid Hoffman, co-founder of LinkedIn, and Chris Yeh explore some of the strategies used by some of the world’s fastest-growing companies.

Blitzscaling is known as the strategy of putting speed over efficiency in a state of uncertainty. An approach that has been used by tech giants like Facebook, Uber, and Amazon.

Hoffman and Yeh introduce the framework that has 5 key elements essential for successful blitzscaling (Business Model, Market Size, Team, Distribution, and Market Timing).

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11. Crossing the Chasm by Geoffrey A. Moore

We can’t put together the best books for startup founders without including a book that talks about marketing and technology adoption.

You might be facing this right now as Crossing the Chasm talks about the challenges that most startups face when transitioning from early adopters to the mainstream market.

Geoffrey A. Moore offers practical strategies for successfully marketing disruptive innovations and establishing the needed partnerships to showcase credibility.

A key quote that stands out is “The goal is not to make a sale, it’s to make a customer.” As confusing as this might be right now, it is important to note that building a startup without marketing strategies handy is a recipe for sinking within a year.

The Importance of Action over Words

You might be thinking, “Do I need to read all the best books for startups before I get my product off the ground?”

You don’t need to. Learning without actively working on what you have learned is like a doctor who only experienced doing surgery through books but never saw the insides of an operating room. Not the best candidate if someone was ever in need of a complex procedure.

Next Steps

What are your next steps then? Starting out with a team is your best bet, especially a group of experts that are geniuses in their field and have high adaptability skills. You don’t need to start out with a league of engineers right away for your product; a small team would do right now.

RocketDevs is the best value for developers on the web. We can help you build your startup easily with the right development team.

We also help you take care of hiring and productivity tools needed to help you monitor your talent in real-time while providing you with the best tech talent and helpful tips.

Each developer is pre-vetted and is tailor-made to suit the needs of each startup that goes through our free consultation. Click the button below to book a call and see how it works

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