The 23 Best Books for Startup Founders at Any Stage

Being a startup founder and CEO is difficult.

CEOs of large corporations are oftentimes groomed over the course of years for the position. There is no playbook for startup founders. Most first-time founders are learning on the fly and are responsible for making just about every decision for their company. As a startup founder, there is no one better to learn from than the person that has been there before. Luckily, there are thousands of founders, investors, and operators that have been there before to share their learnings.

22 Books For Startup Founders

Check out our favorite books for startup founders below (broken down by subject).

Operations

When it comes to operating a startup, there is no better person to learn from than a founder or operator who has been there before. Check out our favorite books for operating and scaling a startup below:

The Lean Startup by Eric Ries

Before writing The Lean Startup, Eric co-founder IMVU where they efficiently built a minimum viable product in 6 months. “The Lean Startup approach fosters companies that are both more capital efficient and that leverage human creativity more effectively. Inspired by lessons from lean manufacturing, it relies on “validated learning,” rapid scientific experimentation, as well as a number of counter-intuitive practices that shorten product development cycles, measure actual progress without resorting to vanity metrics, and learn what customers really want. It enables a company to shift directions with agility, altering plans inch by inch, minute by minute.”

The Startup Playbook by Rajat Bhargava & Will Herman

Rajat Bhargave and Will Herman both have careers founding and leading startups. As the authors put it, “The Startup Playbook is full of our advice, guidance, do’s, and don’ts from our years of experience as founders many times. We want to share our hard-earned knowledge with you to make success easier for you to achieve.”

Zero to One by Peter Thiel & Blake Masters

Peter Thiel co-founded PayPal, Palantir, and Founders Fund. It is safe to say that he knows what it takes to innovate and invent. “Zero to One presents at once an optimistic view of the future of progress in America and a new way of thinking about...