Books every founder should read, at least once
(+ some bonus summaries from Startmate CEO Michael Batko)
BOOKS
The Great CEO Within
-Practical guide for first-time CEOs. (
Summary
)
The High Growth Handbook
The Hard Thing About Hard Things
- A reminder that it's meant to be hard.
Crucial Conversations
- A guide for how to talk about the hard things.
Hackers & Painters
- A book to help you understand startups, and engineers (
Summary
)
The Ride of a Lifetime
- Iger's calm tone, his strategy for Disney, and his approach to acquisitions provides a wonderful model to founders.
The Outsiders: Eight Unconventional CEOs and Their Radically Rational Blueprint for Success
- A good reminder of how to create value over decades.
Good Strategy/Bad Strategy
- A guide for founders to understand what strategy means. (
Summary
).
On Writing Well
- Writing scales.
Deep Work
- If you don't do it, eventually you'll struggle.
Zero To One
(
Summary
)
The Courage To Be Disliked
- A philosophical approach to building a set of mental models to make the founder journey more tolerable. (
Summary
)
Atomic Habits
- "You do not rise to the level of your goals. You fall to the level of your systems."
The Checklist Manifesto
(
Summary
).
Measure What Matters
- How to implement OKRs. (
Summary
).
High Output Management
- The Silicon Valley operator's bible.