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Startup founders, what books did you find most helpful?

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Re: Startup founders, what books did you find most helpful?

#2

Post by python_kiss »

About 14 months ago, I had little knowledge of how to execute a startup. In particular, I wasn't familiar with any online marketing tactics. The following books helped me a lot in that respective, and more:

1. Positioning, 22 Immutable Laws of Marketing/Branding, Focus, Marketing Warfare

2. Purple Cow, All Marketers are Liars, Permission Marketing (I didn't like "The Big Moo", "Free prize inside" or "Small is the new Big").

3. Founters At Work

4. Wikinomics, Wisdom of Crowds, The Tipping Point (Blink! was alright). I am looking forward to reading "The Long Tail" and "The starfish and the spider"...has anyone read them yet?

6. Why We Buy

7. Hackers and Painters

8. The E-Myth revisited

9. The Art of the Start

10. On War, The Art of War by Machiavelli and Sun Tzu (not exactly for startups, but definitely useful)

11. Crossing the Chasm

Re: Startup founders, what books did you find most helpful?

#3

Post by danw »

python_kiss wrote: post #2

About 14 months ago, I had little knowledge of how to execute a startup. In particular, I wasn't familiar with any online marketing tactics. The following books helped me a lot in that respective, and more: 1. Positioning, 22 Immutable Laws of Marketing/Branding, Focus, Marketing Warfare 2. Purple Cow, All Marketers are Liars, Permission Marketing (I didn't like "The Big Moo", "Free prize inside" or "Small is the new…

Very good list. I've been compiling a list for a while now using google notebook. Its a big mess and many of the books I have yet to read but it links to a few good lists such as the ones on joelonsoftware and onstartups.

http://www.google.com/notebook/public/14636089903511277449/BDQiPSgoQ98yW0vQh

Also python: long tail is a good read, drags out a bit though. Possibly more my attention span at fault there.

Re: Startup founders, what books did you find most helpful?

#5

Post by bootload »

danw wrote: post #3
python_kiss wrote: post #2

About 14 months ago, I had little knowledge of how to execute a startup. In particular, I wasn't familiar with any online marketing tactics. The following books helped me a lot in that respective, and more: 1. Positioning, 22 Immutable Laws of Marketing/Branding, Focus, Marketing Warfare 2. Purple Cow, All Marketers are Liars, Permission Marketing (I didn't like "The Big Moo", "Free prize inside" or "Small is the new…

Very good list. I've been compiling a list for a while now using google notebook. Its a big mess and many of the books I have yet to read but it links to a few good lists such as the ones on joelonsoftware and onstartups. http://www.google.com/notebook/public/14636089903511277449/BDQiPSgoQ98yW0vQh Also python: long tail is a good read, drags out a bit though. Possibly more my attention span at fault there.

great list. I'll take some time to go through this. To this I'd add the

- JOS software reading list [0]

- JOS management reading list [1]

There are gaps in these lists but pretty much cover the best for both programmers & business - types. But the lists needs updating as I note pg's 'Painters & Hackers' is not listed nor is Cal Hendersons 'Building Scalable Websites' [3].

Reference

[0] Joel On Software 'Book Review, reading list'

http://www.joelonsoftware.com/navLinks/fog0000000262.html

[1] Joel On Software, 'Management reading list'

http://www.joelonsoftware.com/articles/FogCreekMBACurriculum.html

[3] Cal Henderson, 'Building Scalable Web Sites, 978-0596102357':

http://www.amazon.com/Building-Scalable-Web-Sites-Applications/dp/0596102356

Re: Startup founders, what books did you find most helpful?

#6

Post by danw »

bootload wrote: post #5
danw wrote: post #3

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Very good list. I've been compiling a list for a while now using google notebook. Its a big mess and many of the books I have yet to read but it links to a few good lists such as the ones on joelonsoftware and onstartups. http://www.google.com/notebook/public/14636089903511277449/BDQiPSgoQ98yW0vQh Also python: long tail is a good read, drags out a bit though. Possibly more my attention span at fault there.

great list. I'll take some time to go through this. To this I'd add the - JOS software reading list [0] - JOS management reading list [1] There are gaps in these lists but pretty much cover the best for both programmers & business - types . But the lists needs updating as I note pg's 'Painters & Hackers' is not listed nor is Cal Hendersons 'Building Scalable Websites' [3]. Reference [0] Joel On Software 'Book Review,…

Hackers and Painters is on my list three times :)

I'm going to have to check out Cal Hendersons book sometime but first I have to make a good site then I can worry about scaling it.

Re: Startup founders, what books did you find most helpful?

#7

Post by danw »

pg wrote: post #4

Tufte's Visual Display of Quantitative Information and Carnegie's How to Win Friends and Influence People .

Win friends is great. I managed to find an old yellowing copy at the local library shelved under economics :) For those too AD to read it you can just check out these lists of rules to follow on wikipedia:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/How_to_Win_Friends_and_Influence_People

Re: Startup founders, what books did you find most helpful?

#8

Post by bootload »

danw wrote: post #6
bootload wrote: post #5

Earlier quoted context omitted.

great list. I'll take some time to go through this. To this I'd add the - JOS software reading list [0] - JOS management reading list [1] There are gaps in these lists but pretty much cover the best for both programmers & business - types . But the lists needs updating as I note pg's 'Painters & Hackers' is not listed nor is Cal Hendersons 'Building Scalable Websites' [3]. Reference [0] Joel On Software 'Book Review,…

Hackers and Painters is on my list three times :) I'm going to have to check out Cal Hendersons book sometime but first I have to make a good site then I can worry about scaling it.

yeah shows how much I read. Hence why i like short lists. Take the time to also listen to CH on Carson Workshops [0] & this one [1]. Also check out the O'Reilly chapter from the book [2].

[0] Carson Workshops, 'The Future of Web Apps, carsonworkshops.com/summit, Cal Henderson'

http://media.libsyn.com/media/carsonsystems/Cal_Henderson.mp3

[1] Carson Workshops, 'Building Enterprise Web Apps on a Budget – How We Built Flickr, ~ 10Mb, 10 min.'

http://odeo.com/audio/1207043/view

[2] O'Reilly, 'O'Reilly, Building Scalable Web Sites, Cal Henderson. Chapter 5: Data Integrity and Security, ~ 5Mb'.

http://www.oreilly.com/catalog/web2apps/chapter/index.html

Re: Startup founders, what books did you find most helpful?

#9

Post by danw »

bootload wrote: post #8
danw wrote: post #6

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Hackers and Painters is on my list three times :) I'm going to have to check out Cal Hendersons book sometime but first I have to make a good site then I can worry about scaling it.

yeah shows how much I read. Hence why i like short lists . Take the time to also listen to CH on Carson Workshops [0] & this one [1]. Also check out the O'Reilly chapter from the book [2]. [0] Carson Workshops, 'The Future of Web Apps, carsonworkshops.com/summit, Cal Henderson' http://media.libsyn.com/media/carsonsystems/Cal_Henderson.mp3 [1] Carson Workshops, 'Building Enterprise Web Apps on a Budget – How We Built…

Ahh, if only google notebook would actually structure the data in a pretty way just like your numbered citations
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