The best books for startup entrepreneurs

Why am I passionate about this?

I love innovation! In today’s world, a lot on the innovation is coming from startups who are challenging the status quo and the existing solutions, and trying to offer a new product or service. Being a venture capitalist for many years, I’ve seen thousands of motivated entrepreneurs as well as highly innovative startups, but unfortunately most of them fail. The books I recommend, all share advice from highly experienced and successful entrepreneurs, enabling new entrepreneurs to learn from their experience. These books are not theoretical ones but rather very practical, so any entrepreneur can adopt operational advice as well as an entrepreneurial mindset that has proven to lead to success. 


I wrote...

The Unstoppable Startup: Mastering Israel's Secret Rules of Chutzpah

By Uri Adoni,

Book cover of The Unstoppable Startup: Mastering Israel's Secret Rules of Chutzpah

What is my book about?

Being a venture capitalist for more than 15 years, I had the opportunity to meet thousands of startups, and to invest in quite a few. One of the things I’ve seen is that on one hand, many mistakes are being repeated by different entrepreneurs, but on the other, there’s a surprising common denominator to the ones that succeed. Based on this experience, I’ve tried to put together a hands-on guide to building and developing a successful technology startup. In the book, I share what I believe is the main factor behind Israel’s incredible track record of success in high-tech. A bold, can-do, audacious attitude known as Chutzpah. The book provides an insider’s perspective on Israel’s secret formula that has made it so successful in fostering the growth of technology businesses.

Shepherd is reader supported. When you buy books, we may earn an affiliate commission.

The books I picked & why

Book cover of The Hard Thing About Hard Things: Building a Business When There Are No Easy Answers

Uri Adoni Why did I love this book?

Ben Horowitz is the cofounder of Andreessen Horowitz, one of the most successful venture capitals in the world.

However, he chose to write a book from his experience and perspective as an entrepreneur. Ben’s descriptions and storytelling enables the reader to really feel what he felt, and completely identify with the challenges he went through.

I loved his references to rap music throughout the book– very creative. 

By Ben Horowitz,

Why should I read it?

2 authors picked The Hard Thing About Hard Things as one of their favorite books, and they share why you should read it.

What is this book about?

Ben Horowitz, cofounder of Andreessen Horowitz and one of Silicon Valley's most respected and experienced entrepreneurs, offers essential advice on building and running a startup-practical wisdom for managing the toughest problems business school doesn't cover, based on his popular ben's blog. While many people talk about how great it is to start a business, very few are honest about how difficult it is to run one. Ben Horowitz analyzes the problems that confront leaders every day, sharing the insights he's gained developing, managing, selling, buying, investing in, and supervising technology companies. A lifelong rap fanatic, he amplifies business lessons with…


Book cover of The Lean Startup: How Today's Entrepreneurs Use Continuous Innovation to Create Radically Successful Businesses

Uri Adoni Why did I love this book?

This is an amazing how-to, hands-on book, that really guides and help entrepreneurs to manage their startup.

You can tell that Eric Ries is highly acquainted with entrepreneurship, and has developed a methodology, that if implemented in the right way, can significantly reduce the high probability of a startup to fail. 

By Eric Ries,

Why should I read it?

7 authors picked The Lean Startup as one of their favorite books, and they share why you should read it.

What is this book about?

THE INTERNATIONAL BESTSELLING SENSATION

'The Lean Startup changes everything.' - Harvard Business Review

----------

Most new businesses fail. But most of those failures are preventable.

The Lean Startup is a new approach to business that's being adopted around the world. It is changing the way companies are built and new products are launched.

Essential reading for any ambitious entrepreneur, The Lean Startup will teach you to identify what your customers really want. You'll learn how to test your vision continuously, adapting and adjusting before it's too late.

With over a million copies sold across the globe, now is your time…


Book cover of Fall in Love with the Problem, Not the Solution: A Handbook for Entrepreneurs

Uri Adoni Why did I love this book?

Uri Levine is an amazing serial entrepreneur.

He founded numerous successful startups, and Waze is probably the most famous one. Uri shares his vast entrepreneurial experience, in a practical, straight forward and smart manner. He touches upon every aspect of building and running a startup - all the way from addressing the problem you want to solve, recruiting the right people, fund raising, scaling globally and more.  

By Uri Levine,

Why should I read it?

1 author picked Fall in Love with the Problem, Not the Solution as one of their favorite books, and they share why you should read it.

What is this book about?

Unicorns—companies that reach a valuation of more than $1 billion—are rare. Uri Levine has built two.

And in Fall in Love with the Problem, Not the Solution, he shows you just how he did it.

As the cofounder of Waze—the world’s leading commuting and navigation app with more than 700 million users to date, and which Google acquired in 2013 for $1.15 billion—Levine is committed to spreading entrepreneurial thinking so that other founders, managers, and employees in the tech space can build their own highly valued companies.
 
Levine offers an inside look at the creation and sale of Waze and…


Book cover of Zero to One: Notes on Startups, or How to Build the Future

Uri Adoni Why did I love this book?

Both Peter Thiel and Blake Masters have real-life business and entrepreneurship experience, and thus their advice are practical ones.

The book is mainly addressing the mind-set that entrepreneurs should adopt and differentiates an evolutionary approach of a company vs. a revolutionary one, or as they call it, the vertical vs. the horizontal progress. It really makes you think of entrepreneurship and disruption in a more structured manner.

By Peter Thiel, Blake Masters,

Why should I read it?

5 authors picked Zero to One as one of their favorite books, and they share why you should read it.

What is this book about?

What Valuable Company Is Nobody Building? The next Bill Gates will not build an operating system. The next Larry Page or Sergey Brin won't make a search engine. If you are copying these guys, you aren't learning from them. It's easier to copy a model than to make something new: doing what we already know how to do takes the world from 1 to n, adding more of something familiar. Every new creation goes from 0 to 1. This book is about how to get there. "Peter Thiel has built multiple breakthrough companies, and Zero to One shows how". (Elon…


Book cover of Start With Why: How Great Leaders Inspire Everyone to Take Action

Uri Adoni Why did I love this book?

As strange as it may sound, many founders, entrepreneurs, CEO’s and business leaders don’t know how to answer the simple fundamental questions of “Why are you doing what you are doing?”, “What is the purpose of your company?” Why does it exist”?

Simon Sinek “codifies” what he believes is the differentiating edge of any successful company or leader – understanding, defining, and crystalizing the answer to the question “Why are you doing what you are doing?” in the deepest sense of the question. He calls it “The Golden Circle” model, which on one hand is a very simple model, but on the other hand is highly challenging the mindset of any entrepreneur, company, or business leader. 

By Simon Sinek,

Why should I read it?

8 authors picked Start With Why as one of their favorite books, and they share why you should read it.

What is this book about?

THE MILLION-COPY GLOBAL BESTSELLER - BASED ON THE LIFE-CHANGING TED TALK!

WHAT READERS ARE SAYING ABOUT START WITH WHY:

'It's amazing how a book can change the course of your life, and this book did that' Reader Review

'Imagine the Ted Talk expanded to 2 hours long, with more depth, intrigue and examples' Reader Review

'What he does brilliantly is demonstrate his own why - to inspire others - throughout' Reader Review

'Wow. Wow. Wow. I cannot rate this book highly enough to take a different, positive approach to life and work' Reader Review

Discover your purpose with one simple…


You might also like...

Book cover of The Coaching Habit: Say Less, Ask More & Change the Way You Lead Forever

Michael Bungay Stanier Author Of The Coaching Habit: Say Less, Ask More & Change the Way You Lead Forever

New book alert!

Why am I passionate about this?

Coaching is a wonderful technology that can help people be a force for change… and is often wrapped up in mystic and woo-woo and privilege that makes it inaccessible and/or unattractive to too many. I want being more coach-like—by which I mean staying curious a little longer, and rushing to action and advice-giving—to be an everyday way of being with one another. Driven by this, I’ve written the best-selling book on coaching this century (The Coaching Habit) and have created training that’s been used around the world by more than a quarter of a million people. I’m on a mission to unweird coaching.

Michael's book list on unexpectedly useful books about coaching

What is my book about?

The coaching book that's for all of us, not just coaches.

It's the best-selling book on coaching this century, with 15k+ online reviews. Brené Brown calls it "a classic". Dan Pink said it was "essential".

It is practical, funny, and short, and "unweirds" coaching. Whether you're a parent, a teacher, a leader, or even a coach, you can stay curious longer.

By Michael Bungay Stanier,

Why should I read it?

2 authors picked The Coaching Habit as one of their favorite books, and they share why you should read it.

What is this book about?

Look for Michael's new book, The Advice Trap, which focuses on taming your Advice Monster so you can stay curious a little longer and change the way you lead forever.

In Michael Bungay Stanier's The Coaching Habit, coaching becomes a regular, informal part of your day so managers and their teams can work less hard and have more impact.

Drawing on years of experience training more than 10,000 busy managers from around the globe in practical, everyday coaching skills, Bungay Stanier reveals how to unlock your peoples' potential. He unpacks seven essential coaching questions to demonstrate how-by saying less and…


5 book lists we think you will like!

Interested in entrepreneurs, leadership, and success in life?

11,000+ authors have recommended their favorite books and what they love about them. Browse their picks for the best books about entrepreneurs, leadership, and success in life.

Entrepreneurs Explore 293 books about entrepreneurs
Leadership Explore 372 books about leadership
Success In Life Explore 251 books about success in life