Books/Blogs for Startups

Must Read Books
These seven books changed my outlook on new product introductions, early stage sales and business in general.  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.  The 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. The Tipping Point has made me realize that marketing communications strategies for companies in New Markets often follow the Tipping Point. Alexander Osterwalder’s Business Model Generation is the first book that allows you to answer “What’s your business model?” intelligently and with precision.

Strategy Books for Startups
Technology Ventures is “the gold standard” of entreprenuership textbooks for technology startups. A must have on your shelf. The Entrepreneurial Mindset articulates the critically important idea that there are different types of startup opportunities.  The notion of three Market Types springs from here and Christensen’s work.  The book provides a framework for the early marketing/sales strategies essential in a startup.  Delivering Profitable Value talks more about value propositions and value delivery systems than you ever want to hear again.  However, this is one of the books you struggle through and then realize you learned something valuable. Finally, while New Venture Creation is a textbook used in business schools to teach entrepreneurship, there is way too much great stuff in it to ignore.  At first read it is simply overwhelming but tackle it a bit a time and use it to test your business plan for completeness.  Schumpeter’s book Theory of Economic Development is famous for his phrase “creative destruction”  and its relevance to entrepreneurship. Peter Drucker’s Concept of the Corporation was the first insiders view of how a decentralized company (GM) works. His Innovation and Entrepreneurship is a classic. While written for a corporate audience, read it for the sources of innovation.

Innovation and Entreprenuership in the Enterprise
How large companies can stay innovative and entrepreneurial has been the Holy Grail for authors of business books, business schools, consulting firms, etc.  There’s some great work from lots of authors in this area and I’d start by reading these short Harvard Business Review articles. Eric Von Hippel work on new product introduction methodologies and the notion of “Lead Users” offer many parallels with Customer Discovery and Validation. But like most books on the subject it’s written from the point of view of a large company. Von Hippel’s four steps of 1) goal generation and team formation, 2) trend research, 3) lead user pyramid networking and 4) Lead User workshop and idea improvement is a more rigorous and disciplined approach then suggested in our book, the Four Steps to the Epiphany.

Harvard Business Review Articles

Books

“Marketing as Strategy” Books
Offering more than some handy tactical tidbits, these books offer a chance to change your entire strategy. Peppers and Rogers, The One to One Future opened my eyes to concepts of lifetime value, most profitable customers and the entire customer lifecycle of “get, keep and grow.” Bill Davidow’s Marketing High Technology introduced me to the concept of “whole product” and the unique needs of mainstream customers.

“War as Strategy” Books
The metaphor that business is war is both a cliché and points to a deeper truth.  Many basic business concepts; competition, leadership, strategy versus tactics, logistics, etc. have their roots in military affairs. The difference is that in business no one dies.  At some time in your business life you need to study war or become a casualty.  Sun Tzu covered all the basics of strategy in The Art of War until the advent of technology temporarily superseded him. Also, in the same vein try The Book of Five Rings by Miyamoto Musashi.  These two books have unfortunately turned into business clichés but they are still timeless reading.  Carl Von Clausewitz’s On War is a 19th century western attempt to understand war. The “Boyd” book, The Fighter Pilot Who Changed the Art of War is a biography and may seem out of place here, but John Boyd’s OODA loop is at the core of Customer Development and the Pivot. Read it and then look at all the web sites for Boyd papers, particularly Patterns of Conflict. The New Lanchester Strategy is so offbeat that it tends to be ignored.  Its ratios of what you require to attack or defend a market keep coming up so often in real life, that I’ve found it hard to ignore.

Marketing Communications Books
Ries and Trout positioning books can be read in a plane ride, yet after all these years they are still a smack on the side of the head.  Regis McKenna has always been a favorite of mine. However, as you read Relationship Marketing separate out the examples Regis uses into either startups or large sustainable businesses.  What worked in one, won’t necessarily work in another.  Read these books first before you dive into the 21st century stuff like Seth Godin.

Seth Godin “gets deeply” the profound changes the internet is having in the way we think about customers and communicating with them.  Godin’s Permission Marketing book crystallized a direct marketing technique (permission marketing), which was simply impossible to achieve pre-internet.  His follow-on book, Ideavirus is worth it after you’ve read Permission Marketing.  His follow-on books are all worth having in your library.  Lakoff’s book, Don’t Think of an Elephant! while written for a political audience has some valuable insights on framing communications.

Sales
Thomas Freese is the master of consultative selling. Both his books are a great start in understanding how a pro sells. Many of the ideas of Customer Validation are based on the principles articulated by Bosworth, Heiman and Rackham. Bostworth’s Solution Selling is a must read for any executive launching a new product.  Its articulation of the hierarchy of buyers needs as well its description of how to get customers to articulate their needs, makes this a “must read”, particularly those selling to businesses. Heiman’s books are a bit more tactical and are part of a comprehensive sales training program from his company Miller-Heiman.  If you are in sales or have a sales background you can skip these.  But if you aren’t they are all worth reading for the basic “blocking and tackling” advice.  The only bad news is that Heiman writes like a loud salesman – but the advice is sound. Rackham’s Spin Selling is another series of books about major account, large ticket item sales, with again the emphasis on selling the solution, not features.  Lets Get Real is of the Sandler School of selling (another school of business to business sales methodology.)

Startup Nuts & Bolts
Jeff Timmons’ Business Plans that Work summarizes the relevant part of his New Venture Creation book.  However, both are worth having on the shelf as his model of how to look at startup opportunities provides a rigor and framework that I only wish I had used.  Nesheim’s book High Tech Startup is the gold standard of the nuts and bolts of all the financing stages from venture capital to IPO’s. If you promise to ignore the marketing advice he gives you, Baird’s book, Engineering Your Startup is the cliff notes version in explaining the basics of financing, valuation, stock options, etc. Term Sheets and Valuations is a great read if you’re faced with a term sheet and staring at words like “liquidation preferences and conversion rights” and don’t have a clue what they mean.  Read this and you can act like you almost understand what you are giving away. Gordon Bells’ book High-Tech Ventures is incomprehensible on the first, second or third read.  Yet it is simply the best “operating manual” for startups that has been written.  (The only glaring flaw is Bell’s assumption that a market exists for the product and that marketing’s job is data sheets and trade shows.)  Read it in doses for insight and revelation and make notes, (think of reading the bible) rather than reading it straight through.

Manufacturing
I’ve yet to meet a manufacturing person that does not reference The Goal when talking about lean manufacturing principles first. It’s a book inside a novel – so it humanizes the manufacturing experience.  Lean Thinking is the best over all summary of the lean manufacturing genre. Toyota Production System is the father of all lean manufacturing – it’s simple tone is refreshing.

Product Design
Cooper’s book, The Inmates are Running the Asylum, had the same impact on me as Moore’s Crossing the Chasm – “why of course, that’s what’s wrong.”  It’s important and articulate.

Culture/Human Resources
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.

Ironically, the best HR stuff for anyone in a startup to read is not a book.  It is the work James Baron at Stanford has done.    Download his slides on the Stanford Project on Emerging Companies.  Baron’s book, Strategic Human Resources – is a classic HR textbook. Finally, if you are working at a startup and wondering why the founder is nuts, The Founder Factor helps explain a few things.

Venture Capital
Unlike the “how to” books above, these are personal stories.  If you have never experienced a startup first hand, Jerry Kaplan’s book Startup and Michael Wolff’s book Burn Rate are good reads of a founder’s adventure with the venture capitalists.  Eboys is the story of Benchmark Capital during the Internet Bubble.  Ferguson’s book is a great read for the first time entrepreneur.  His personality and views of the venture capitalists and “suits” are a Rorschach ink blot test for the reader.

  • Burn Rate: How I Survived the Gold Rush Years on the Internet  by Michael Wolff
  • Startup: A Silicon Valley Adventure by Jerry Kaplan
  • Eboys: The First Inside Account of Venture Capitalists at Work by Randall E. Stross
  • High Stakes, No Prisoners: A Winner’s Tale of Greed and Glory in the Internet Wars by Charles H. Ferguson
  • Pitching Hacks: The Book from http://venturehacks.com/pitching

Business History (See here for Silicon Valley History)
Alfred Sloan’s My Years with General Motors is a great read, but not for the traditional reasons.  Read it from the point of view of an entrepreneur (Durant) who’s built a great company by gut and instinct, got it to $200M and is replaced by the board.  Then watches as a world-class bureaucrat grows into one of the largest and best run companies in the world.   Make sure you read it in conjunction with Sloan Rules and A Ghost’s Memoir. If you’re an entrepreneur the one founder you probably never heard of but should is William Durant. Read Madsen’s biography. The Nudist on the Late Shift is a book you send to someone who lives outside of Silicon Valley who wants to know what life is like in a startup.

Angel List for Entreprenuers

Best of Y-Combinator Startup Advice

Incubator List/ Local Startup Resources/ Startup Q&A

Must Read Blogs

Executive Compensation

Boilerplate Venture Funding Documents

Lawyers/Legal

Manufacturing Resources

More to read
Brad Feld and Jason Mendelson – Ask the VC   http://askthevc.com
Dharmesh Shah  – On startups   http://onstartups.com
Josh Kopelman  – Redeye VC   http://redeye.firstround.com
David Hornik – VentureBlog   http://ventureblog.com

Should be posting more often
Bill Burnham – Burnham’s Beat   http://tinyurl.com/4jb4mt
David Cowan – Who Has Time For This?  http://whohastimeforthis.com
Steve Barsh – Barsh Bits  http://blog.stevebarsh.com

Tenacity
If you’ve gotten this far, here is a a visual representation of tenacity and persistence

27 Responses

  1. Gray Somerville, on March 20, 2009 at 8:26 pm Said:

    I highly recommend Amar Bhide’s “The Origin and Evolution of New Businesses”. A serious academic inquiry into the nature of the entrepreneurial endeavor, this book provides some very helpful and surprising insights about what makes a new venture work.

    Reply
  2. yokum, on April 7, 2009 at 2:40 pm Said:

    Thanks for the mention on the list. Glad you like the site.

    Reply
  3. Jeff @ McStartup, on April 23, 2009 at 6:13 am Said:

    There are two books I always tell people to start with. The first is Crossing the Chasm which you mention, the second is Innovation and Entrepreneurship by Peter Drucker. I’m also a fan of Timmons’ work, although I leave that for a phase two reference material, which it sounds like you do as well. I have to admit, I was somewhat surprised that none of Drucker’s work made your shortlist.

    Reply
  4. Must Read Books for Startup Founders « entrepreneur in the m@king, on June 18, 2009 at 10:15 am Said:

    [...] has outlined his must read books in categories(sales,marketing,founder self development,etc ). Must Read Books by Steve Blank.He has so many selected especially for books for [...]

    Reply
  5. Dr. Jochen L. Leidner, on August 6, 2009 at 8:01 am Said:

    Good collection, I can definitely endorse this.

    However, it is crucial that any startup focuses on sales as the top priority (it’s easy to get caught up in the entrepreneurial literature, but that doesn’t pay the bills).

    Going to a trade fair, talking to potential customers early, trying to build relationships and attempting an early sale are the crucial steps. But definitely have a read through Steve’s list in the evening.

    Reply
  6. Five favourites: Startup Lessons Learned - Aalto Entrepreneurship Society, on November 17, 2009 at 4:14 am Said:

    [...] Ries What are lean startups? Eric Ries What is customer development? Steve Blanks must read books Books/blogs for Startups A podcast version of a similar kind of speech can be found from the  STVP Entrepeneurial Thought [...]

    Reply
  7. compassioninpolitics, on November 19, 2009 at 10:52 am Said:

    It would be awesome to have this in PDF form or on Scibd so I could take it offline without wasting paper (aka the Green option).

    Thanks so much for this fantastic list of books. I was surprised by two omissions:
    1) Art of the Start
    2) Founders at Work

    I think the two free videos of Jeff Haskins at the Stanford E-corner you highlight in your syllabus as incredibly on point too.

    Finally, I’m curious if books on software (for instance Joel on Software), project management (for instance Scott Berkun), and outsourcing would be increasingly valuable as globalization revolutionizes what start ups look like and how they behave.

    Again fantastic list….Looking forward to reading your book.

    Reply
  8. Josh of Cubicle Ninjas, on January 9, 2010 at 3:36 pm Said:

    Simply wanted to share my gratitude for providing this list. After spending all day reading your articles and watching your engrossing “Secret History of Silicon Valley” presentation, I now find a brilliant capper.

    Thank you.

    Reply
  9. Rob, on February 9, 2010 at 3:19 pm Said:

    hi Steve,

    Love your work and insights. Thank you for all of that.

    This note, however is to say a very big thank you for the visual representation of ‘tenacity’. It is awesome. Something very special and personal. Wonderful. The end is very moving.

    Thanks
    Rob

    Reply
  10. Stuff I noticed around February 14, 2010, on February 14, 2010 at 9:42 am Said:

    [...] Books/Blogs for Startups « Steve Blank [new tab]Read this, then buy all the books – read all of them.February 12, 2010 [...]

    Reply
  11. Sarvesh Bhardwaj › links for 2010-02-23, on February 23, 2010 at 7:03 pm Said:

    [...] Books/Blogs for Startups « Steve Blank Clayton M. Christensen (tags: books entrepreneurship startups startup business reading management reference gyaan) [...]

    Reply
  12. links for 2010-02-23 « Sarvesh’s Blog, on February 23, 2010 at 7:04 pm Said:

    [...] Books/Blogs for Startups « Steve Blank Clayton M. Christensen (tags: books entrepreneurship startups startup business reading management reference gyaan) [...]

    Reply
  13. Mark Gibson, on February 27, 2010 at 6:39 am Said:

    Hi Steve,
    Love the Four Steps and have left the building myself. Loved the Secret History which is still largely unknown. I reviewed your book in my blog http://tinyurl.com/the-four-steps

    All the best,
    Mark

    Reply
  14. sebavlad, on March 5, 2010 at 12:09 am Said:

    Hi Steve,

    Your book should be the bible for every online entrepreneur. Love it. Thank you. Thanks for sharing all these books as well.

    Best,

    Vlad

    Reply
  15. Paul McArdle, on April 1, 2010 at 4:22 am Said:

    Thanks Steve,

    A number of the books I have read, or have given to others in our team to review. Some reviews are on our blog:
    http://blog.global-roam.com/

    I will be adding all the others to our shopping cart in due course (and we will also divvy up a watch on the blogs you mention).

    However it surprises me that I did not see a mention of the following 3 books:
    1) “7 Habits” = http://blog.global-roam.com/index.php/1995/05/book-review-7-habits-of-highly-effective-people/ (about becoming a real person)
    2) “Speed of Trust” = http://blog.global-roam.com/index.php/2008/06/book-review-speed-of-trust/ (why it is important, and how to improve how someone trusts you)
    3) “Adversity Quotient” = http://blog.global-roam.com/index.php/2009/09/book-review-adversity-quotient-by-paul-g-stoltz/ (as you will need a high AQ, guaranteed, for your enterprise to succeed – AND, what’s more, you can improve it).
    I give a copy of each of these books to pretty much everyone who comes to work with our company.

    An absolutely essential starting point in terms of human behaviour – start with the person first, before they are able to contributed interdependetly in an organisation.

    Cheers

    Paul

    Reply
  16. Must Read Books & Blogs for Startups « Spreading FINANCIAL INTELLIGENCE, on April 28, 2010 at 6:48 am Said:

    [...] April 28, 2010 · Leave a Comment Books/Blogs for Startups [...]

    Reply
  17. misterLTS, on May 11, 2010 at 9:14 am Said:

    Great variety of book list :)
    Thanks for the post, now I can get the specific book for I need for start-ups :)

    Reply
  18. Paintball Jersey, on May 19, 2010 at 5:56 pm Said:

    There are two books I always tell people to start with. The first is Crossing the Chasm which you mention, the second is Innovation and Entrepreneurship by Peter Drucker. I’m also a fan of Timmons’ work, although I leave that for a phase two reference material, which it sounds like you do as well. I have to admit, I was somewhat surprised that none of Drucker’s work made your shortlist.
    +1

    Reply
    • steveblank, on May 20, 2010 at 11:07 pm Said:

      Thanks. I have a stack of Drucker reading on my shelf. This is another good reminder to attack the pile.

      steve

  19. expertceo, on June 2, 2010 at 4:12 pm Said:

    Steve,

    We really appreciate your reference to our Compensation Section in your “books/blogs for startups” page. We’re continuing to build our content, and are working hard to get CEOs to contribute redacted information. The link below will take anyone interested to a discussion forum with some more information on this.

    http://www.expertceo.com/discussions/5-compensation/2749-knowledgebase-call-for-compensation-information

    Ken Ross
    http://www.expertceo.com

    Reply
  20. Andrew de Andrade, on June 2, 2010 at 5:02 pm Said:

    Thanks for the list. I’ve read some and there are a bunch I need to check out.

    I would add Marty Cagan’s Inspired to the product design list.

    I would add “The Machine that Changed the World”, “Regional Advantage” and “The New Argonauts” to the Business History list.

    Others I would add:
    Art of the Start
    Made to Stick
    A Whole New Mind

    Reply
  21. David Dunnison, on June 20, 2010 at 11:51 am Said:

    Fantastic list!

    Cheers for Davidow, Miller & Heiman, Ries & Trout, and Goldratt.

    I was surprised, though, that Competitive Stragey (Michael Porter) is not on this list. Forbes’ “Checklist: The 20 Most Important Questions In Business”, for example, relies heavily on Porter’s five forces. No business plan or ppt, or even value statement is complete without an understanding of competition.

    http://www.forbes.com/2010/06/17/most-important-questions-in-business-entrepreneurs-management-small-business_slide.html

    Prolific A. David Silver (e.g. Venture Capital) might also be considered for this list.

    In the HR section, how about “Who” by Street and Smart? This definied ‘A Players’ and how to attract them.

    With respect to an overall plan and execution, there are two books that jump to mind. Harnish’s “Mastering the Rockefeller Habits” builds a critical ‘Right Things Right’ model. Second, Thomson’s ‘Blueprint to a Billion” does a fantastic job of reverse engineering the seven critical sucess elements from those companies that made it big.

    Regards, David

    Reply
    • steveblank, on June 20, 2010 at 2:33 pm Said:

      David,

      Darn more summer reading for me. Thanks for the suggestions.

      steve

  22. Ken Ross, on July 17, 2010 at 1:31 pm Said:

    Just completed an interesting, new survey on incentive compensation for private technology companies. It’s on our site at:

    http://bit.ly/aSgWnh

    Reply
  23. Sue Leininger, on July 27, 2010 at 8:52 am Said:

    Hi Steve,
    My current ACTiVATE class (see http://www.txstate.edu/activate for more details) is reading and discussing your Epiphany book. The content is invaluable as we pursue the opportunities presented by tech transfer and own own entrepreneurial projects. If you ever want input from a professional editor (I teach technical writing at the university level) for your next edition, please let me know. I have been editing each chapter as we progress through our assignments and would be happy to discuss how an edited presentation of your experience/knowledge can communicate ideas more effectively. Who knows, it might increase sales? In any case, thanks for sharing your wisdom!

    Reply

Leave a Reply