68 books like Angel Investing

Pitch Anything is an established work in the pitching and negotiation book categories. It is not perfect, but it is one of the best books for introducing entrepreneurs to the importance of pitching, selling, and negotiating persuasively. Entrepreneurs must pitch to attract co-founders and early team members, to obtain early stage funding, to close customers and other commercial partners, to close later stage funding rounds, and, ultimately, to go public or exit in a sale. While Pitch Anything is a good book, the brashness of some of its advice, particularly around what Klaff calls “frames,” do not fit all persons or situations. Some contexts require full-on Machiavellian tactics; others warrant more of a “Winning Friends and Influencing People” approach. Nonetheless, it is useful to understand which situation you are in and the available plays to run.

Armed with those caveats, I suggest readers of Pitch Anything read Chapter… show more.

Anyone who might ever be involved in raising funds for a startup should read Feld and Mendelson’s famous book, Venture Deals. This includes entrepreneurs, CFOs, legal and financial advisors, board members, and investors. The authors have long been pivotal players in Boulder, Colorado’s vibrant startup ecosystem. Their many engaging and illuminating talks to entrepreneurship classes and groups can be found on YouTube. Venture Deals is the best book out there for learning VC fundraising fundamentals – the players, terminology, processes, strategies, etiquette, deal documentation, best practices, and the implications of taking VC money. According to a study by CB Insights, “Running out of Money” is the second most common reason for startup failure. Venture Deals can help startups and startup advisors increase their odds for fundraising success by providing insiders’ insights for winning strategies. 

See, Solve, Scale provides a proven three-part framework for entrepreneurial success called the “See, Solve, Scale Entrepreneurial Process.” Author Danny Warshay has been a Professor of Entrepreneurship at Brown University for 15+ years. Previously, after earning his Harvard MBA, Warshay spent time in brand management at Procter & Gamble, followed by several years launching, growing, and exiting startups in software, advanced materials, consumer products, and media. 

See, Solve, Scale unpacks key concepts from Warshay’s Brown University course on entrepreneurship. Warshay has also taught these concepts internationally to entrepreneurship organizations, private companies, non-profits, governmental agencies, and non-governmental organizations. His teachings have broad applicability to solving all types of problems and improving the functioning and results of almost any kind of organization, not just startups. 

Key lessons in the book include the importance of bottom-up research, being anthropological and empathetic and finding and validating an unmet need or problem to solve, recognizing… show more.

I love Dave Parker’s book, Trajectory: Startup – Ideation to Product/Market Fit, because it provides a clear, but detailed roadmap to guide entrepreneurs through and over all of the necessary steps and obstacles to entrepreneurial success. The nature and degree of the best practices and practical insights laid out in Trajectory: Startup is somewhat similar, but even more granular, to that found in my own book but for the business side of things instead of the legal, governance, or regulatory side.

There is a lot of intellectual and procedural handholding in these pages, including checklists, to-do lists, and template forms for gathering and analyzing research and data, that first-time entrepreneurs will find indispensable and that even experienced entrepreneurs will find illuminating and useful. In the book’s Introduction, Parker summarizes what he hopes to help aspiring entrepreneurs do: create value with your product or service; decide on primary and secondary… show more.

As women, we have been primarily taught to save. Investment advice, when given, is usually focused on the stock market. But there are so many other options!

I was in my 50s before I realized I could be an angel investor. When I learned that only 2% of all venture capital invested in the United States goes to female teams, I wanted some of my money to support those women. So, I started educating myself.

Of all the books I read about angel investing, this was my absolute favorite. It was laid out well and introduced me to all the concepts I needed to know to get started as an angel.  

Skip the Line literally changed my perception of human potential. His deep dive into the path to achieving any goal exposes his secrets of success and failure. He has been a multi-millionaire and broke. James leaves nothing to chance or imagination in giving his step-by-step ideas and examples of how he broke through the commonly accepted limitations on steps to bold change. His style is self-effacing and so real that the story drags you in and you absolutely can not put it down.

This book blew me away. I have never read a book like this, let alone a romance. The female main character suffers from a rare liver disease that requires a donor for her survival. Sounds pretty grim, right? Well, the prognosis is dire but the story is charming, heartwarming, and ultimately up-lifting. I enjoyed the perspective of a main character hoping for a donor in addition to the unfolding love story. (There’s also an amazing bestie relationship to make you swoon.) Plus, the cover is absolutely gorgeous. It’s a work of art all the way around. 

Key Person of Influence (KPI) is a system which helps entrepreneurs to develop their businesses through 5 key principles, or methods - Pitch, Publish, Product, Profile and Partner.

Priestley talks about the importance of a number of business activities, including developing your entrepreneurial pitch and refining the way that you position your business in order to make an impact. Visibility and credibility are also critical for building trust with prospective customers, and through partnering and building relationships with other business owners, an organisation can accelerate its results.

At Purposeful Group, we have our own system, the App Map 2.0 model designed to help aspiring tech startup founders to create digital products from scratch via our Tech Startup Academy programme.

Whether you’re trying to sell a software solution or a new energy drink, you need to determine your product’s positioning so you deliver the most compelling messages to the right audience. April Dunford walks you through her tried and tested positioning process while peppering in humorous personal stories and anecdotes. I love this book as much for the priceless business content as for April’s wit.

As the subtitle says, there are few people who have the experience and expertise to write “The time-tested, battle-hardened guide for anyone starting anything.” Guy Kawasaki brings the right blend of easy-to-understand brand and business advice mixed with a foundation of ethics and generosity. If you only want one startup book in your library, this is the one.