Books that help you start up
Not a bestseller list, but the books founders keep coming back to. Each one comes with what it is good for.
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Starting up
The Mom Test · Rob Fitzpatrick
How to talk to customers so they tell you the truth instead of being polite. The shortest and most useful book on this list.
View on Amazon*: The Mom Test (opens in a new tab)The Lean Startup · Eric Ries
Build, measure, learn: the core idea of testing a business idea in small experiments before the money is gone.
View on Amazon*: The Lean Startup (opens in a new tab)Running Lean · Ash Maurya
Turns Lean Startup into a working plan, with the Lean Canvas as the tool for your first week.
View on Amazon*: Running Lean (opens in a new tab)Business Model Generation · Alexander Osterwalder, Yves Pigneur
The Business Model Canvas: a business model on one page, so a team talks about the same thing.
View on Amazon*: Business Model Generation (opens in a new tab)Traction · Gabriel Weinberg, Justin Mares
Nineteen channels for winning customers, and a method for finding the two or three that work for you.
View on Amazon*: Traction (opens in a new tab)Crossing the Chasm · Geoffrey A. Moore
Why products stall after the first enthusiasts, and how to bridge the gap to the mainstream market.
View on Amazon*: Crossing the Chasm (opens in a new tab)Zero to One · Peter Thiel, Blake Masters
On monopolies, secrets and the difference between copying and building something genuinely new.
View on Amazon*: Zero to One (opens in a new tab)The Hard Thing About Hard Things · Ben Horowitz
What no guide tells you: layoffs, crises and decisions where there is no good option.
View on Amazon*: The Hard Thing About Hard Things (opens in a new tab)
Technology and product
Inspired · Marty Cagan
How good product teams work: discovering problems before building solutions.
View on Amazon*: Inspired (opens in a new tab)The Pragmatic Programmer · Andrew Hunt, David Thomas
Craft for developers: small habits that keep software maintainable for years.
View on Amazon*: The Pragmatic Programmer (opens in a new tab)Clean Code · Robert C. Martin
Readable code as an attitude: names, functions and structure the next person understands.
View on Amazon*: Clean Code (opens in a new tab)Designing Data-Intensive Applications · Martin Kleppmann
Databases, replication and distributed systems explained clearly. Essential before the first architecture is set.
View on Amazon*: Designing Data-Intensive Applications (opens in a new tab)Accelerate · Nicole Forsgren, Jez Humble, Gene Kim
What teams that ship often and safely measurably do differently, backed by several years of data.
View on Amazon*: Accelerate (opens in a new tab)The Phoenix Project · Gene Kim, Kevin Behr, George Spafford
A novel about an IT project close to failure, showing why processes matter more than heroes.
View on Amazon*: The Phoenix Project (opens in a new tab)