Ask YC: Entrepreneurial/Startup Reading List?

https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=253223

by JimEngland • 18 years ago

6 9 18 years ago

news.ycombinator.com

My friend and I are looking to start our own small web business in the coming months, and I am looking to expand my entrepreneurial and business knowledge base. I am looking for books that deal with starting a business as well as managing software teams.

So far on my list, I have Peopleware by Tom DeMarco, Groundswell by Charlene Li and Josh Bernoff, and Raving Fans: A Revolutionary Approach to Customer Service by Ken Blanchard and Sheldon Bowles. Does the YC community have any other suggestions to add to my list? Thank you!

bdotdub• 18 years ago

I've been reading 'Founders at Work' by YCs own Jessica Livingston. Very good book for insight into the beginnings of startups and the startup process in general.

Definitely a must read!

JimEngland• 18 years ago

Sounds great, I'll check it out, thank you!

crocus• 18 years ago

http://ycombinator.com/lib.html

chris_l• 18 years ago

"The Monk and the Riddle" by Randy Komisar

donna• 18 years ago

The Wisdom of Crowds by James Surowiecki Takes a whole new approach to management, and solutions.

How to Win Friends & Influence People by Dale Carnegie

bookhuddle• 18 years ago

Check this list out: http://www.bookhuddle.com/list/491/Recommended-Technical-and...

This list is made up from books I've read, books friends and coworkers have read, books on Joel Spolsky's Management Training Program, the Personal MBA reading list, and books recommmened by people on Hacker News.

antiform• 18 years ago

Mythical Man-Month by Fred Brooks teaches great lessons about managing programmers and programming as a team.

On a less technical note, Growing a Business by Paul Hawken is great book about letting a company grow naturally.

MaysonL• 18 years ago

"Crossing the Chasm" Geoffrey Moore "Entrepreneurship and Innovation" Peter Drucker "Cities and the Wealth of Nations" Jane Jacobs

Also, check out "The Programmer's Stone" blog for great ideas on software team building and management.

jalammar• 18 years ago

"Starting Something" - The story of Neoforma, from startup to IPO, written by one of the two founders. Has especially great insights on the people aspect of the journey (VC's, employees, family, partners, angel investors...etc).

'The Search' - talks about Google and search companies in general, how they started, how they developed their business model, and the evolution of the industry in general. Especially fascinating is Bill Gross's story, and how he started ToGo.com (later became Overture) and invented a lot of the things that people commonly only associate with Google. It was also the first time I read the in-depth story about the founding of Google. inspiring...

'Founders at Work' is terrific also. Can't wait for the second part.

I'll throw in an extra recommendation. Not exactly a book, but a podcast actually. It's called "Venture Voice". It a series of interviews with entrepreneurs (Ev Williams of Twitter/Blogger/Odeo, Jay Adelson of Revision 3 and CEO of Digg, Calicanis of Weblogs Inc, Kawasaki, Mena Trott of Six Apart, to name a few). You can think of it as an audio version of 'Founders at Work'. Those two are a real must especially for web entrepreneurs.

Ask YC: Entrepreneurial/Startup Reading List?

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