I recently read The Mom Test, and I learned something critical: before investing in your idea, talk to potential customers to see if anyone wants it or not.<p>While this might seem obvious, it wasn’t to me. The first time I started something in my 20s, I was so enamored with the idea and its potential that I didn’t validate it!<p>So, The Mom Test is obviously crucial reading.<p>There are so many other books and resources out there. Which of them would you consider crucial? Which contain crucial lessons?
I was going to mention The Mom Test when I saw the title of your Ask HN, so I'll dive a bit deeper because it's IMHO the most important book I read when starting my current startup[0] and it's what took us to first sale before the MVP was even available.<p>> before investing in your idea, talk to potential customers to see if anyone wants it or not.<p>I would reframe this a bit, otherwise someone not familiar with the book will take from your quote the exact opposite lesson from the one taught in The Mom Test. I believe the main lesson from the book is:<p>- Don't talk to people about your ideas<p>- Ask people about their actual use cases and frustrations<p>- Figure out where they're struggling, investing effort and money. Let them talk<p>- Don't ask people about your idea and don't ask them if they want it or not. You're only trying to validate the problem.<p>Questions to ask:<p><pre><code> What's the hardest thing about [doing this thing]?
Tell me about the last time you encountered that problem...
Why was that hard?
What, if anything, have you done to try to solve the problem?
What don't you love about the solutions you've tried?
</code></pre>
[0]: <a href="https://www.onetake.ai" rel="nofollow">https://www.onetake.ai</a> (an autonomous AI video editor for SMBs)
The first 25 pages of Steve Blank's <i>Four Steps to the Epiphany</i> (here's a PDF for some Stanford class [1]). Sounds very similar to The Mom Test, but presented from a much different angle. It diagnoses the startup failure mode of excessive focus on product over customer understanding. It hit me like a freight train after my first startup failed. His detailed examination of downstream consequences in other areas of the business, like sales and marketing, are just uncannily accurate to how they played out in my business.<p>Validate, validate, validate. "That's really cool" is not validation from a customer. "That's really cool. I want it. How much does it cost?" is validation from a customer.<p>[1] <a href="https://web.stanford.edu/group/e145/cgi-bin/winter/drupal/upload/handouts/Four_Steps.pdf" rel="nofollow">https://web.stanford.edu/group/e145/cgi-bin/winter/drupal/up...</a>
"The new business road test" - John Mullins
"Will it fly" - Pat Flynn<p>"Start marketing" - Rob Walling (<a href="https://robwalling.com/assets/ebook.pdf" rel="nofollow">https://robwalling.com/assets/ebook.pdf</a>)
I recommend the article on "Why Startup Founders Should Stop Reading Business Books" ;)<p><a href="https://youtu.be/19WpIbBhxJU" rel="nofollow">https://youtu.be/19WpIbBhxJU</a><p>(don't know where I got this...)<p>Ideas are worth nothing unless executed. They are just a multiplier. Execution is worth millions.<p><pre><code> Explanation:
AWFUL IDEA -1
WEAK IDEA 1
SO-SO IDEA 5
GOOD IDEA 10
GREAT IDEA 15
BRILLIANT IDEA 20
NO EXECUTION $1
WEAK EXECUTION $1000
SO-SO EXECUTION $10,000
GOOD EXECUTION $100,000
GREAT EXECUTION $1,000,000
BRILLIANT EXECUTION $10,000,000
</code></pre>
To make a business, you need to multiply the two.<p>The most brilliant idea, with no execution, is worth $20.<p>The most brilliant idea takes great execution to be worth $20,000,000.<p>That’s why I don’t want to hear people’s ideas.<p>I’m not interested until I see their execution.
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.<p>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.<p>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.<p>Go validate your idea, and (hopefully) start building. Good luck!
A bit unconventional, but I think Wheeler's <i>Understanding Variation</i> followed by Deming's <i>A New Economics</i> teach people how to interpret past and future in a way that makes both exploration and exploitation more effective.<p>I would not want to go through life not having read those -- much less run an early-stage company!
I recently read Deep Work by Cal Newport and while it isn't specifically about startups it does offer a crucial insights into doing work that is valuable (potentially also monetary valuable). Startups can be run in 1000s different ways, in particular solo-startups, but common for them is that they solve a difficult problem, and that requires deep work.
Doing a Job by Admiral Rickover: <a href="https://govleaders.org/rickover.htm" rel="nofollow">https://govleaders.org/rickover.htm</a><p>This one-pager guide never fails to set me straight whenever I feel like I've lost my way.<p>If you have more time - I recommend reading everything Rickover has written, it'll serve you throughout life.
The Cold Start Problem by Andrew Chen, if your startup idea is in the "networked product" domain.
I have re-read that book 3 times now, its that good
The Hard Thing About Hard Things - Ben Horowitz<p>This is probably one of the best<p>Shoe Dog - Phil Knight.
A great read about the struggles of how Nike started. But was left unsatisfied as the book ends with the company going public but doesnt cover its ascension in the late 80s/90s and how that went down.
The Incerto series by Nassim Taleb, specially The Black Swan and Antifragile. It is hard to make predictions, specially about the future, some good heuristics may be of help.
I would recommend The Lean Startup by Eric Ries. It’s a classic that introduced the MVP concept to the world.<p>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.
I think "The E-Myth Revisited: Why Most Small Businesses Don't Work and What to Do About It" is a good book for the mindset and some of the processes around how to build the engine that is your business.
While I am not in the startup world, I feel like "Continuous Discovery Habits" by Teresa Torres would be a great read covering a similar topic. It talks about how to manage the business needs vs customer needs and focusing on outcome vs output. About continuously engaging with customer to validate your assumptions, etc.<p>In general anything on Human Centered Design could be useful.
I would argue if you are looking for the "right books" you are already going down the wrong path. Having built a successful startup (and some failed ones) the most important truths came from putting on the blinders and getting fully immersed in the problem space. Keep your ears open but your eyes focused.<p>Too many founders get wide-eyed by the structure-less nature of building a startup and try to look for adult supervision, either from mentors, advisors or books. Be your own mentor and trust your own judgment. Always take outside advice but never let it override your internal compass. At best, a book will give you a minor nugget and is usually not worth the time and attention.
Paul Graham’s essays are well regarded, and I think they include all of the advice others gave mentioned here from other books<p><a href="https://paulgraham.com/articles.html" rel="nofollow">https://paulgraham.com/articles.html</a>
Too many people fall into the trap of over consuming knowledge.<p>The only knowledge that matters at the end of the day is experiential: the kind that is learned by doing.<p>The kid who ships a product to a dozen users, learns and iterates with determination and focus, will have learned far more than the intellectual reading and waiting for the right opportunity to strike.<p>Of course there is value in intellectual knowledge, but most are far from the optimal balance - too skewed towards the intellectual vs. engaging with, and learning from, reality.
Read “The ultimate sales letter”. This is an older book by a very successful copywriter. It has made me so much money and provided so much success (still does). I read it every year.
“Traction: How Any Startup Can Achieve Explosive Customer Growth”<p>Someone in your startup needs to have read this. It’s a discussion of the different sales channels.
I think you need to be careful thinking that the books will be the most valuable input you can get as a Startup. The most basic skill of any business is to "Sell what people want to buy", as Paul Graham puts it.<p>If you just sit and think about that, it encapsulates almost everything that is important about a business: To sell, people need to know about the product/business (marketing), you have to build it (development) and you have to sell it (sales). But you put good people in those roles and they will do their jobs but still not make much money. Why? People need to want to buy it and the main driver for that is a balance of a Customer-focussed Product Manager as well as a DNA of what the company is about and what it is offering. You want to make things customers want but they don't always know what they want and you might be selling something different, in which case your marketing message might be off.<p>The books might say "Always be closing" or "Marketing is everything" or "Deliver junk and iterate" and these are all partial truths but they can also come at a cost to other more effective parts of the business.<p>As the CEO, your job is to supervise those various levers/teams/departments so you need to know enough about them to understand if they are working, if the person running them is the right person and whether the changes you need to make are big and small!<p>p.s. I enjoyed the Mom Test but I think if you have an open mind, a lot of that stuff you would work out just from experience.<p>Good luck.
"If you like that, you're gonna love this." (Private Hudson in "Aliens", 1986) - Ash Maurya, "Running Lean: Iterate from Plan A to a Plan That Works". Try to get your hands on a preview of the upcoming 3rd edition (10 years newer than the 2nd edition).
All the 'founder attitude' book recs are probably a good idea, but I would recommend supplementing with some VC and investing vehicle stuff, such as Secrets of Sand Hill Road and The Power Law, especially if that seems unimportant and tedious. Understanding your options and what the incentives are for investors will help you better understand where you are likely to be aligned and where you have to be careful.
My list:<p>1. The mom test (already mentioned) - idea validation
2. Zero to one by Thiel - contrarian original thinking
3. The Hard Thing About Hard Things by Ben Horowitz - Operating lessons
4. Paul Grahams essays and pretty much all content put out by YC<p>Beyond this it’s all about the nature of the founder and where /how you see value
I would recommend The Power Law[1], especially if you don't have any exposure to the startup/VC ecosystem. Contrary to what should be the ideal case, a founder needs to cater to VCs and their perspective of looking at products, just as they must cater to users.<p>I feel like I would have saved myself a lot of stupid conversations if I had the context this book provides.<p>[1]: <a href="https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/61403389-the-power-law" rel="nofollow">https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/61403389-the-power-law</a>
Same as ever by Morgan Housel, also the author of the Psychology of Money. This book is not directly related to startups, but I have read it, and it is full of timeless lessons that could apply to startups, like planning pessimistically yet dreaming optimistically, the compounding effect, and many more. I think it could set you in a good mindset for startups, especially in the early stage, though I think this book could resonate with anyone. It’s quite new, but it’s one of the best reads of mine this year.
I‘d recommend 'the right it' by Alberto Savoia [1].<p>> Pretotyping is a set of tools, techniques, and tactics designed to help you validate any idea for a new product quickly, objectively, and accurately. The goal of pretotyping is to help you make sure that you are building The Right It before you build It right.<p>[1] <a href="https://www.pretotyping.org/" rel="nofollow">https://www.pretotyping.org/</a>
I recently read this. It's brilliant. Not immediately aimed at a new startup but important to keep in mind when evaluating who to include on your board and how to weigh their advice as well.<p><a href="https://www.unchartedblue.com/how-to-kill-your-tech-company-vice-brunchlords-and-time-bombs-2/" rel="nofollow">https://www.unchartedblue.com/how-to-kill-your-tech-company-...</a>
OP,<p>You can start by reading this post:<p><a href="https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=41545495">https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=41545495</a>
I highly recommend "The Lean Startup" by Eric Ries, which offers good insights into building a successful startup through continuous innovation.
The startup playbook. All the basics: <a href="https://playbook.samaltman.com/" rel="nofollow">https://playbook.samaltman.com/</a><p>The Startup Owner's Manual: <a href="https://www.amazon.com/Startup-Owners-Manual-Step-Step/dp/0984999302" rel="nofollow">https://www.amazon.com/Startup-Owners-Manual-Step-Step/dp/09...</a><p>Nobody seems to recommend this because nobody has finished reading it, but it's meant to be acted on, not finished. There are literally checklists. It's also hard to get a soft copy, but th soft copies are useful for printing out the checklists. Paul Graham has changed the definition of a startup, but I still love the one from here - the goal of a startup is to have a scalable and repeatable business model.<p>Startup=Growth, by Paul Graham <a href="https://paulgraham.com/growth.html" rel="nofollow">https://paulgraham.com/growth.html</a><p>I'd recommend the whole site, and many do. But start here. Many don't understand that startups are about growing assets, not revenue. And exponential is a funny word for "very slow". If you wanted to grow to a million dollars, do anything but a startup and don't raise VC money. But this shows how the math works.<p>High Growth Handbook: <a href="https://growth.eladgil.com/" rel="nofollow">https://growth.eladgil.com/</a><p>And this is what you read after you get past 10 employees. Who to hire next, how to manage. There are tons of people who talk about how to get Product Market Fit, but few who talk about how to build an engine to turn PMF to money. There's tons of podcasts but consider this book a collection of the best ones.
Couple of my favourites: building a story brand, obviously awesome and the saas playbook.<p>There’s good advice in this thread that is cautioning about getting stuck in research mode. There’s only so much you can get from books. You need to try and fail at some point.<p>My recommendation to this point is to not treat the books as a set of “how tos”, instead use them to develop a model of the world to test your instincts against.