Pioneers
Entrepreneurship & Startups books
Books for founders and would-be founders on validating ideas, finding product-market fit, raising capital and scaling a company. Expect startup staples like The Lean Startup, Zero to One and The Hard Thing About Hard Things, plus practical guides such as The Mom Test, Running Lean and Venture Deals.
33 books2 foundation / essential1 recentFor founders, entrepreneurs and investors
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Start here
Featured picks in Entrepreneurship & Startups: good first reads.
The E-Myth Revisited
The E-Myth Revisited
Entrepreneurship & StartupsThe Lean Startup
The Lean Startup
Entrepreneurship & StartupsAll 33 Entrepreneurship & Startups books
Alphabetical by title, each with a short description. Open the details for related reads and courses, or go straight to Amazon.
Anything You Want
Derek Sivers tells the story of building CD Baby, an online shop for independent musicians' music, and the lessons he took about running a business on his own terms. Suits first-time founders and anyone curious about unconventional ways to work.
Blitzscaling
Reid Hoffman and Chris Yeh argue that in some markets companies should put speed ahead of efficiency in order to grow quickly under uncertainty. They explain how to scale up and when it makes sense. Relevant to founders and executives in winner-takes-most sectors.
Build
Tony Fadell, who helped create the iPod and co-founded Nest, shares practical lessons on careers, building products and leading teams. Suitable for aspiring product makers, designers and managers.
Company of One
Paul Jarvis makes the case for staying deliberately small rather than chasing growth, building a resilient business that serves customers well and supports a good life for its owner. Suits freelancers and independent business owners.
Crossing the Chasm
Geoffrey Moore examines the gap between early adopters and the mainstream market that technology companies often struggle to cross, and recommends winning a narrow beachhead segment first. Useful for product leaders and marketers launching innovative products.
Disciplined Entrepreneurship
Bill Aulet lays out a 24-step framework for starting a company, running from choosing a market segment through to defining a business model and winning customers. Practical for first-time founders and for students of entrepreneurship.
Founders at Work
A collection of interviews with the founders of well-known technology startups about how their companies began, the early obstacles they faced and the decisions they made. Jessica Livingston, herself a venture investor, lets aspiring entrepreneurs learn from first-hand experience.
Lost and Founder
Rand Fishkin, co-founder of Moz, offers a frank account of what building and funding a startup is really like. He questions common assumptions about venture-backed growth and shares lessons from his own mistakes. Useful for founders weighing how to grow and raise money.
Masters of Scale
Drawing on the Masters of Scale podcast, in which Reid Hoffman talks with founders about how companies grow, this book gathers lessons on building and scaling businesses. It will interest entrepreneurs and leaders who like learning from founders' stories.
Obviously Awesome
April Dunford treats product positioning as the step that makes a product's value obvious to the right customers. She sets out a practical process for defining competitive alternatives, unique strengths and the best-fit market. Useful for founders and marketers.
Pioneers
An entrepreneurship title by Neri Karra Sillaman, included in our Entrepreneurship & Startups list for founders and would-be founders.
Pour Your Heart Into It
Howard Schultz recounts how he helped build Starbucks, from a visit to Italian espresso bars through to the company's growth and its approach to employees and customers. Of interest to entrepreneurs and retail leaders.
Running Lean
Ash Maurya offers a systematic way to test a business idea, using a one-page Lean Canvas and rapid experiments to move from an initial plan to one that customers actually want. Suitable for early-stage founders with limited time and money.
Shoe Dog
Phil Knight's memoir of founding and building Nike, from selling imported running shoes out of his car boot to running a global brand. It is a candid, personal account of risk, partnership and perseverance for readers interested in entrepreneurship.
The $100 Startup
Chris Guillebeau shares case studies of people who built small, profitable businesses with little money, and draws out common patterns in how they chose their ideas and launched. For readers who want independence through a modest venture.
The $100M Offers
Alex Hormozi explains how to build an offer so attractive that customers feel foolish refusing it. He breaks value into elements such as the outcome, likelihood of success, time and effort. Suits business owners and marketers.
The Almanack of Naval Ravikant
Eric Jorgenson compiles and edits the ideas of investor and entrepreneur Naval Ravikant on building wealth and living a happy life, drawn from his talks, posts and interviews. It offers reflective guidance for founders and anyone rethinking work and money.
The Art of the Start 2.0
Guy Kawasaki offers practical guidance for launching a new venture, covering areas such as articulating a mission, building a team, pitching to investors, raising money and marketing. Written for aspiring founders at the earliest stages.
The Cold Start Problem
Andrew Chen explores how to launch and grow products that depend on network effects, from building the first small network to reaching a tipping point and sustaining growth. Aimed at founders, product managers and investors in social and marketplace products.
The Diary of a CEO
Steven Bartlett draws on his experience building businesses and on lessons from others to set out a collection of principles for business and life. Readers wanting motivation and practical guidance on starting up and working with people may find it useful.
The E-Myth Revisited
Michael Gerber argues that many small businesses struggle because owners work in the business as technicians instead of on it as entrepreneurs. He recommends building systems so the business can run without constant personal involvement. Aimed at small business owners.
The Founder's Dilemmas
Noam Wasserman examines the people decisions that shape a startup's fate, including choosing co-founders, dividing equity, hiring and bringing in investors. It draws on research into many founders and suits entrepreneurs facing these choices.
The Four Steps to the Epiphany
Steve Blank sets out the customer development model, which treats a startup as a search for a repeatable business model rather than the execution of a fixed plan. It underpins much lean startup thinking and suits founders and innovators.
The Hard Thing About Hard Things
Ben Horowitz gives candid advice on running a company when there are no easy answers, drawing on his own time as a technology chief executive. It covers decisions such as layoffs and leading under pressure, and is aimed at founders and managers.
The Lean Startup
Eric Ries proposes treating a new venture as a series of experiments: build a minimum viable product, measure how customers respond and learn quickly whether to persevere or pivot. Aimed at founders and innovators in companies of any size.
The Minimalist Entrepreneur
Sahil Lavingia argues for building a profitable, sustainable business without chasing venture capital, starting small and serving a community. He draws on his own experience as the founder of Gumroad. A fit for entrepreneurs who prefer steady growth.
The Mom Test
Rob Fitzpatrick explains how to talk to customers and test business ideas without being misled by polite or biased answers, including how to ask better questions. A practical guide for founders, product people and anyone doing customer research.
The Personal MBA
Josh Kaufman condenses the core ideas of business, from creating value to marketing, sales and finance, into a self-study guide. Intended for readers who want a working grasp of how businesses operate without attending business school.
The Startup Owner's Manual
A step-by-step manual for building a startup using customer development, in which founders get out of the building to test their assumptions with real customers before committing resources. Written for entrepreneurs and for teams launching new products inside larger firms.
The Startup Way
Eric Ries argues that the methods of lean startups can be adapted to run established organisations, helping large companies experiment, learn and innovate continuously. It builds on his earlier work on lean startups and is aimed at executives and intrapreneurs.
Traction
Gabriel Weinberg and Justin Mares present the Bullseye framework for finding customers, which tests a range of marketing channels to identify the one that works best. It covers nineteen channels and suits startups looking for their first real growth.
Venture Deals
Written by two venture investors, this guide explains how venture capital financing works and walks through term sheets and the clauses that matter most. Useful for entrepreneurs raising money and for anyone who wants to understand investor agreements.
Zero to One
Peter Thiel argues that real progress comes from creating something new rather than copying what already works, and that companies should aim for a defensible, near-monopoly position. Based on notes from his Stanford course, it offers a provocative guide for founders.
Courses to go with Entrepreneurship & Startups reading
Turn the ideas into skills with self-paced video courses. Each shelf shows the books it pairs with.
Udemy courses
Starting a business
Courses on launching and validating a business idea.
Browse Starting a business coursesUdemy courses
Lean startup
Courses on lean startup methods and customer validation.
Browse Lean startup coursesUdemy courses
Startup funding
Courses on funding a startup and working with investors.
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Put it to work
Apply one idea to a customer, product, growth or company-building question you are facing now.
Common questions
- How many Entrepreneurship & Startups books are on this list?
- This page lists 33 Entrepreneurship & Startups books, 2 of them marked Foundation / Essential and 1 marked Recent / New thinking.
- Which Entrepreneurship & Startups books should I start with?
- Good first reads are the featured picks: Pioneers by Neri Karra Sillaman, The E-Myth Revisited by Michael E. Gerber, and The Lean Startup by Eric Ries.
- Who is this Entrepreneurship & Startups reading list for?
- Founders, entrepreneurs and investors.
- Are there courses to go with these Entrepreneurship & Startups books?
- Yes. This page lists 3 Udemy course shelves for Entrepreneurship & Startups: Starting a business, Lean startup, and Startup funding. Udemy links are affiliate links: we may earn a commission if you enrol, at no extra cost to you.
- How are the books chosen?
- The Business Reading Room curates its library by topic and groups titles into collections: Foundation / Essential, Core / Recommended and Recent / New thinking.
- Where can I buy these books?
- Each book links to Amazon through an affiliate link. As an Amazon Associate I earn from qualifying purchases. Editions, formats and prices are shown on Amazon.