I highly recommend "The Lean Startup" by Eric Ries, which offers good insights into building a successful startup through continuous innovation.
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The Lean Startup
Eric Ries
Business · A BOOKTypographic jacket · original cover not fetched
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The Lean Startup
29 readers recommend it across 21 discussions
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It depends on your startup's stage. If it doesn't exist yet (and based on your submissions, it doesn't), you can start after reading The Mom Test. You might also want to read The Lean Startup. However, you can read a dozen books and still be stuck in the research phase. Reading alone doesn't create your startup. If you understand The Mom Test and apply its knowledge, you're ready to start. Be cautious of advice from people who have read hundreds of books on starting a startup - they may not have had the time to actually create one. Go validate your idea, and (hopefully) start building. Good luck!
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I would recommend The Lean Startup by Eric Ries. It’s a classic that introduced the MVP concept to the world. And for a bit of different approach, Make by Pieter Levels. This also recommends trying a lot of ideas and seeking what sticks, but perhaps with a more straightforward approach.
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Zero to one The lean startup The 4-hour workweek The subtle art of not giving a f*ck -- What I've found out, biographies are the best thing for me because I always want to know what happens next, but I also learn invaluable lessons from the biographee (just googled this term now and it exists!), so it's a nice mix of story and self-help
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Same here - Zero to one - really inspiring book! And Lean startup - far too ambitious for me at the moment, but I learned a lot from it. 4 hour work week - I would say it’s more like a fiction book, but still fun to read. 7 habits of highly effective people - it’s saved my life in high school, I knew some parts of it by heart.
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Advice to Founders and CEOs - Dear Founder (Maynard Webb) - The Hard Things About Hard Things (Ben Horowitz) - Straight Talk for Startups (Randy Komisar and Jantoon Reigersman) - The Founders’ Dilemmas (Noam Wasserman) - The Entrepreneur’s Daily Nietzsche (Brad Feld and Dave Jilk) - Build (Tony Fadell) - Zero to IPO (Frederic Kerrest) - The Great CEO Within (Matt Mochary) Finance - Wharton's Introduction to Financial Accounting course: [https://www.coursera.org/learn/wharton-accounting](https://w... (https://www.coursera.org/learn/wharton-accounting]%28https://www.coursera.org/learn/wharton-accounting%29) - How Finance Works: The HBR Guide to Thinking Smart About the Numbers (Mihir Desai) - Financial Intelligence for Entrepreneurs: What You Really Need to Know About the Numbers (Karen Berman and Joe Knight) Open-Book Company (Employee Ownership, Financial Literacy, Goal-setting) - The Great Game of Business (Jack Stack and Bo Burlingham) Legal - Acceleration (Ryan Roberts) - The Entrepreneur’s Guide to Law and Strategy (Constance Bagley and Craig Dauchy) Company Strategy and Direction (post-product/market fit) - Crossing the Chasm (Geoff Moore) - Zone to Win (Geoff Moore)…
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- The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People
- The Four Steps to the Epiphany
- Crossing the Chasm
- The Hard Thing About Hard Things
- The Innovator’s Dilemma
- Good to Great
- Shoe Dog
- High Output Management
- Steve Jobs
- Never Split the Difference
- Zero to One
- The Five Dysfunctions of a Team
- Principles
- Delivering Happiness
- Managing Humans
- Influence
- Creativity, Inc.
- Dealers of Lightning
- Punished by Rewards
- Start with Why
- Mindset
- Radical Candor
- The Great CEO Within
- Traction
- Turn the Ship Around!
- Elon Musk
- Getting to Yes
- The Effective Executive
- Behind the Cloud
- Blitzscaling
- Drive
- Grit
- Marketing High Technology
- Ogilvy on Advertising
- Setting the Table
- The Everything Store
- The Ride of a Lifetime
- Venture Deals
- Made in America
- Only the Paranoid Survive
- The Making of a Manager
- The Almanack of Naval Ravikant
- Hacking Growth
- The Founder's Dilemmas
- The Idea Factory
- Financial Intelligence for Entrepreneurs
- Idea Man
- Inspired
- Pour Your Heart Into It
- Secrets of Sand Hill Road
- Thinking in Bets
- Work Rules!
- Zone to Win
- Build
- Built from Scratch
- Confessions of the Pricing Man
- Creative Confidence
- Data-Driven Marketing
- Dear Founder
- Entering StartupLand
- Great People Decisions
- How Finance Works
- It Doesn't Have to Be Crazy at Work
- Leading Matters
- Managing Oneself
- Monetizing Innovation
- No Rules Rules
- Playing to Win
- Positioning
- Powerful
- Riding Shotgun
- Scientific Advertising
- Startup Boards
- Straight Talk for Startups
- The Business of Venture Capital
- The CIO Paradox
- The Culture Map
- The Entrepreneur's Daily Nietzsche
- The Entrepreneur's Guide to Law and Strategy
- The Great Game of Business
- The Holloway Guide to Technical Recruiting and Hiring
- The Powell Principles
- The Power Law
- The Talent War
- Valley of Genius
- What You Do Is Who You Are
- Winning
- Zero to IPO
Here are some of the most popular ones: The Lean Startup by Eric Ries Zero to One by Peter Thiel The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People by Stephen Covey Think and Grow Rich by Napoleon Hill The E-Myth Revisited by Michael Gerber Good to Great by Jim Collins The Art of Possibility by Rosamund Stone Zander and Benjamin Zander The Hard Thing About Hard Things by Ben Horowitz The Innovator's Dilemma by Clayton Christensen Rework by Jason Fried and David Heinemeier Hansson These books cover various aspects of entrepreneurship, from idea generation and innovation to leadership and management. Each one offers a unique perspective and valuable insights that can help entrepreneurs navigate the challenges and opportunities of starting and growing a business.
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Lean Startup series It know better understand the importance of testing ideas before investing time and money.
> - The Four Steps to the Epiphany Good (even great) book, but has some flaws and focuses mostly on enterprise costumers. The revised version The Startup Owner's Manual is more polished and covers a wider range of business models. > - The Lean Startup An excellent recommendation. The other books in the series (especially IMO Running Lean and Lean Analytics) are also worth a look: https://www.amazon.com/stores/page/7509FE4F-9888-4384-ACBC-D... (https://www.amazon.com/stores/page/7509FE4F-9888-4384-ACBC-D5B12AA08563)
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- The Four Steps to the Epiphany - The Lean Startup
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Nonfiction I’ve read this year and enjoyed greatly: - How to change your mind by Michael Pollan - The Lean Startup - Company of One
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The lean startup and from zero to one.
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- The Innovator's Dilemma by Clay Christensen - Thinking, Fast and Slow by Daniel Kahneman - A Briefer History of Time by Stephen Hawking - The Lean Startup by Eric Ries - Steve Jobs by Walter Isaacson - The Industries of the Future by Alec Ross - Never Split the Difference by Chris Voss - Start with No by Jim Camp - How Google Works by Eric Schmidt and Jonathan Rosenberg - The Everything Store by Brad Stone - The Inevitable by Kevin Kelly
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- The Lean Startup, by Eric Rives - The Long Tail, by Chris Anderson - The Blue Ocean Strategy, by W. Chan Kim - On the shortness of life, by Seneca - 1984, by George Orwell
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There were different book that impacted different stages of my career: As a programmer : 1. The C++ Programming Language by Bjarne Stroustrup. 2. Operating System Concepts by Silberschatz 3. Compilers by Aho As an agile software developer: 1. eXtreme Programming by Kent Beck 2. Pragmatic Programmer by Hunt and Thomas 3. Continuous Delivery by Jez Humble As an architect: 1. Domain Driven Design by Evans 2. Pattern-Oriented Software Architecture by Buschmann 3. Envisioning Information by Edward Tufte As a CEO: 1. Good To Great by Collins 2. Lean Startup by Eric Ries 3. Beyond Budgeting by Pfläging
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- The Pragmatic Programmer
- Good to Great
- Domain-Driven Design: Tackling Complexity in the Heart of Software
- The C++ Programming Language
- Compilers: Principles, Techniques, and Tools
- Envisioning Information
- Extreme Programming Explained: Embrace Change
- Operating System Concepts
- Continuous Delivery
- Pattern-Oriented Software Architecture, Volume 1: A System of Patterns
1. "The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes" by Arthur Conan Doyle. This may sound like an odd one, but years ago, I almost never took the time to read. My girlfriend, who knew that I loved Sherlock Holmes books when I was younger, convinced me to try this book as an audiobook while I did my ~40 minute commute to work. I was skeptical, but within days, I was hooked. It made my work commute much more interesting (a British person was reading me Sherlock Holmes!); then I started listening to audiobooks during all my driving (instead of wasting time, I can learn!); then I got an iPod, put audiobooks on that, and started listening to them during all sorts of odd chores (e.g. cleaning, walking, biking); after that, I was so hooked on books, that I started making time to read them too. This had a profoundly transformative effect on my career. 2. "The Lean Startup" by Eric Ries.…
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1. "The Lean Startup" by Eric Ries 2. "Insanely Simple" by Ken Segall 3. "How to Measure Anything" by Douglas W. Hubbard
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My recent favorites: Jobs, The Hard Thing About Hard Things, High Output Management, Innovator's Dilemma, Lean Startup, On The Shortness Of Life, How Google Works, Zero To One, Life Changing Magic of Tidying Up, Power of Habit, Things Fall Apart, Stoner
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Here's my usual list of recommendations, the best books I've read in the past 5 years. Fiction: - Harry Potter and the Methods of Rationality If you know nothing about this book you might naturally hesitate to read "Harry Potter fanfiction" and assume that it's dumb/horrbile, but it's not. Just suspend your disbelief and read the first 5-10 chapters. Trust me, it's brilliant, hilarious, and life-changing. - Atlas Shrugged Controversial, I know, a lot of people here hate it for some reason, but it was incredibly influential on me, inspired my passion for entrepreneurship and science and philosophy. Still is one of the best books I am aware of. Nonfiction: - Hackers and Painters by Paul Graham Also a collection of his essays that you can find on github. He is one of the most clever writers I am aware of, but I assume you know that, since you're on HN. - "On Intelligence" by Jeff Hawkins This book explains in simple terms a very awesome and elegant theory on how mind works. Incredibly fascinating, I've learned a lot from it and it explains a lot of things, and will change the way you think about thinking process. - The Selfish Gene by Richard Dawkins…
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- Gödel, Escher, Bach: An Eternal Golden Braid
- Atlas Shrugged
- The Selfish Gene
- Surely You're Joking, Mr. Feynman!
- Harry Potter and the Methods of Rationality
- Rework
- The Prince
- Hackers & Painters
- Rationality: From AI to Zombies
- Ghost in the Wires
- The 4-Hour Workweek
- On Intelligence
- Losing My Virginity
- Start Small, Stay Small
- iWoz
- Serious Creativity
- Abundance: The Future Is Better Than You Think
- Catch Me If You Can
The Goal is one my favorite books to recommend to anyone joining a startup, but also for product management types. I first read it around the same time I read The Lean Startup, and I found the two to be very complementary.
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Lean Startup is a great starting point to understand the what and why of it. Running Lean is the how.
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The Lean Startup. I just randomly got it and read it. I was going to go into game development then after reading it I totally changed what I was going to do.
1. Positioning by Al Trout 2. Lean Startup by Eric Ries PS - I help startups with marketing so if you need any advice let me know. Contact details and bio on my website (see my profile)
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Permission Marketing - Seth Godin, made me think about what he calls interruption marketing. Purple Cow - Seth Godin, made me think about standing out. The Lean Startup - Eric Ries, really changed the way I think about... Well, nearly everything that costs effort. The God Delusion - Richard Dawkins, good theory about why God most probably doesn't exist. The magic of reality - Richard Dawkins, great story about evolution, religion, etc. A short history of nearly everything - Bill Bryson, brilliant book. Perfect summary of our scientific advancements during the last centuries. He made me think about possible natural disasters.
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The Alchemist - Paulo Coelho. King, Warrior, Magician, Lover by Moore and Gillette The lean startup Paul Graham how to start a startup Mark Hyman Ultimate Mind Solution Tribal Leadership Wheel of Time Think and Grow Rich Superior Man David Deida The Fountain Head Eckhart Tolle New Earth 50th Law Good to Great Jed Mckenna Earl Nightengale Long Walk to Freedom Outliers Good to Great Psycho-Cybernetics by Maxwell Maltz (Self-image) Seven Habits of Highly Effective People by Steven Covey(Being awesome) Wealth of Nations Wayne Dyer The Tao System of the World Origin of Species Brave new world Thank you economy Crush it Built to Last Who Moved my Cheese Stillness Speak Eckhert Tolle Mastery George Leonard Steve Jobs Biography The Last Lecture Steve Pavlina Books Iacocca Striking Thoughts Bruce Lee Carlos Castaneda Ghost in the Wires Richest Man in Babylon Way of the Superior Man Losing My Virginity Think and Grow Rich Delivering Happiness
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- The Fountainhead
- The Alchemist
- Brave New World
- Think and Grow Rich
- Good to Great
- The Wheel of Time
- The Wealth of Nations
- The Richest Man in Babylon
- Ghost in the Wires
- The Last Lecture
- Losing My Virginity
- Delivering Happiness
- The Way of the Superior Man
- Who Moved My Cheese?
- Built to Last
- On the Origin of Species
- Mastery
- King, Warrior, Magician, Lover
- Tribal Leadership
- A New Earth
- Crush It!
- Stillness Speaks
- Striking Thoughts
- System of the World
- Thank You Economy
- The 50th Law
- The Seven Habits of Highly Effective People
There's definitely some self promotion in the book, and at times it can be a little repetitive. It's also fairly introductory and the information in it can perhaps be found on various blogs, etc. It's a good introduction however for anyone looking to move beyond a trial and error approach to startups.
"The snowball: Warren Buffett and the business of life" "The autobiography of Benjamin Franklin" "The toilet paper entrepreneur" "The lean startup" "Anything you want"
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The Lean Startup by Eric Ries. It's a really good book for starting entrepreneurs.
Just bought a (physical) Kindle; it has: _Wolf Hall_ (http://www.amazon.com/Wolf-Hall-Novel-Booker-Prize/dp/080508... (http://www.amazon.com/Wolf-Hall-Novel-Booker-Prize/dp/0805080686)) _Tree of Smoke_ (http://www.amazon.com/Tree-Smoke-Novel-Denis-Johnson/dp/0374... (http://www.amazon.com/Tree-Smoke-Novel-Denis-Johnson/dp/0374279128)) (I'm about halfway through both; I'm trying to get better about reading fiction). _The Lean Startup_ (http://www.amazon.com/Lean-Startup-Entrepreneurs-Continuous-... (http://www.amazon.com/Lean-Startup-Entrepreneurs-Continuous-Innovation/dp/0307887898/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1323540517&sr=1-1)) (Having trouble getting myself propelled into this one) _Imbibe!_ (http://www.amazon.com/Imbibe-Absinthe-Cocktail-Professor-Fea... (http://www.amazon.com/Imbibe-Absinthe-Cocktail-Professor-Featuringthe/dp/0399532870/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1323540560&sr=1-1)) (Probably the best book on booze ever written, my favorite thing I've read all year) _Bitters_ (http://www.amazon.com/Bitters-Spirited-Cure-All-Cocktails-Fo... (http://www.amazon.com/Bitters-Spirited-Cure-All-Cocktails-Formulas/dp/1580083595/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1323540592&sr=1-1))…
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