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April 11, 2020

Amazing books every startup entrepreneur and founder should read now

Amazing books every startup entrepreneur and founder should read now.

When asked about the keys to success, Warren Buffett said that he reads 500 pages every day. He claims, “That’s how knowledge works. It builds up, like compound interest.”

Mark Cuban, another iconic entrepreneur says he reads about 3 hours a day. When asked about why he devotes so much time to books, he explained. “I feel like if I put in enough time consuming all the information available, particularly with the net making it so readily available, I can get an advantage in any technology business.”

Other famous startup founders like Bill Gates reads 50 books a year and Elon Musk claims to have taught himself to build rockets by reading.

You get the point. Some of the busiest and most successful people make the time to read. Not only is reading essential for gaining knowledge as an entrepreneur, but it’s an important part of growing your knowledge base, getting exposure to new ideas and changing your modes of thinking.

In a digital world, it’s the norm to default to podcasts, YouTube videos, a quick blog post or the occasional TedTalk to source knowledge. Not that there’s anything wrong with these mediums, but you don’t always get the juicy details that 300 pages will give you. If you’re an entrepreneur who aspires to turn your startup into a successful business, then you’ll want to start cracking open books — or doing so on a more regular basis.

So, where do you start? Not all books offer quality advice and it can be time consuming to sift through reviews to discern quality from fluff. Knowing this, the startup insurance company, Embroker, put together a guide of the best startup books to help point you in the right direction.

They broke these up into three categories for entrepreneurs who are looking to scale their business: growth hacking and scaling, books to read before pitching VCs, and entrepreneurship and startup stories.

● Growth hacking books— These are good reads for the entrepreneur who is specifically interested in what they can do to scale their business — e.g. mastering marketing, product development, sales, and other areas are crucial in growth hacking.

● Books to read before pitching VCs — This section is for founders who are ready to start raising venture capital (beyond what they’ve bootstrapped). If you’re in need of some advice on how to pitch venture capitalists, how to understand VC deal structures and strategies or how to choose the right investors and VC partners, these books are for you.

● Entrepreneurship and startup stories — There’s a lot of value in knowing the stories of other startups: what they’ve been through, what worked and what didn’t. If anything, reading these can be encouraging to let you know you’ve not in the trenches alone. This section speaks to books that cover the ups and downs of entrepreneurship and the startup experience.

More details like an overview of the books, key takeaways and who they’re written for can be found in this full startup book list.

— Keilah Keiser is a freelance writer and content curator with a focus on business development and startups. When she’s not behind a screen, you’ll find her hiking in sunny San Diego with her dog.

• Posted 4.11.20 at 07:12 am by Roy Osing
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