I’m a serial entrepreneur who’s built and sold several startups. I’ve been helping non-venture-backed startup founders since 2005 and now I run the first startup accelerator for bootstrappers, called TinySeed. I’ve invested in 57 startups, but I don’t believe the only way to start a SaaS company is to raise money. I host the most popular podcast for bootstrappers, called Startups for the Rest of Us. I also run the most well-known conference and online community for non-venture-track SaaS founders, called MicroConf.
I wrote...
Start Small, Stay Small: A Developer's Guide to Launching a Startup
By
Rob Walling
What is my book about?
Start Small, Stay Small is a step-by-step guide to launching a self-funded startup. If you're a developer, this book is your blueprint to getting your startup off the ground with no outside investment.
This book intentionally avoids topics restricted to venture-backed startups such as: honing your investment pitch, securing funding, and figuring out how to use the piles of cash investors keep placing in your lap. There's nothing wrong with pursuing venture funding and attempting to grow fast like Amazon, Google, Twitter, and Facebook. It just so happened that most people are not in a place to do this.
When you buy a book we may earn a small commission.
The Books I Picked & Why
Traction: How Any Startup Can Achieve Explosive Customer Growth
By
Gabriel Weinberg
Why this book?
There are many traction channels that we can try to leverage as founders and oftentimes it’s difficult to know which channel will work best. This book provides you with the framework to methodically discover and test different traction channels effectively and systematically grow your startup. If nothing else, this book is a great list of marketing approaches that you can use as a starting point for your growth efforts.
When you buy a book we may earn a small commission.
The Only Sales Guide You'll Ever Need
By
Anthony Iannarino
Why this book?
Selling is and always has been about the personal relationship between the buyer and the seller. People buy from people they know and trust. Iannarino does a fantastic job outlining the essential behaviors (self-discipline, accountability, competitiveness, resourcefulness, storytelling, diagnosing) for effective sales and these principles will be requisite for all startup founders.
When you buy a book we may earn a small commission.
Essentialism: The Disciplined Pursuit of Less
By
Greg McKeown
Why this book?
As startup founders, we are often trying to do too much. By spreading ourselves thin, we lose. I love this book because McKeown provides a selective criteria framework for making decisions about what is important and essential -- decisions that any founder has to make on a daily, if not hourly, basis.
When you buy a book we may earn a small commission.
The Entrepreneur's Guide to Keeping Your Sh*t Together: How to Run Your Business Without Letting it Run You
By
Sherry Walling,
Rob Walling
Why this book?
The mental game is perhaps the most important part of being a successful founder while also living a sane and happy life. Sherry Walling is an entrepreneur with a Ph.D. in clinical psychology and helps us understand how to properly equip ourselves for the startup journey. For full disclosure, I am married to Dr. Walling and credited as a contributing author since we collaborated on several of the ideas that served as the basis for this book. But this book is recommended far and wide by those who read it and understand the need to be aware of how difficult this journey can be.
When you buy a book we may earn a small commission.
Strengthsfinder 2.0
By
Gallup,
Tom Rath
Why this book?
Knowing yourself can be difficult, but essential for success as a founder. Instead of focusing on our weaknesses, Rath argues that we should double down on what makes us unique and he provides us with the tools to discover those strengths. We wear many hats as startup founders, so by understanding our own strengths, we can be more effective leaders and build a more balanced team.
