Top Startup books recommended by experts

At MentorCruise, we are all about making the most out of the experience of others. As part of that, we've connected and asked dozens of experts and professionals about their favourite Startup books – and here are the answers.

Table of Contents

Fundamentals of Startup

Understanding the concepts of Startup starts with understanding the fundamentals. On your way to mastery, it's crucial for you to understand how certain concepts were derived, and why things work like they do. Starting with these resources is the best way to do so.

The Startup Checklist: 25 Steps to a Scalable, High-Growth Business

The Startup Checklist is the entrepreneur's essential companion. While most entrepreneurship books focus on strategy, this invaluable guide provides the concrete steps that will get your new business off to a strong start. You'll learn the ins and outs of startup execution, management, legal issues, and practical processes throughout the launch and growth phases, and how to avoid the critical …

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Zero to One: Notes on Startups, Or How to Build the Future

The great secret of our time is that there are still uncharted frontiers to explore and new inventions to create. In Zero to One, legendary entrepreneur and investor Peter Thiel shows how we can find singular ways to create those new things. Thiel begins with the contrarian premise that we live in an age of technological stagnation, even if we’re too distracted by shiny mobile devices to notic…

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Venture Deals: Be Smarter Than Your Lawyer and Venture Capitalist

Be Smarter Than Your Lawyer and Venture Capitalist is a must-have resource for any entrepreneur, venture capitalist, or lawyer involved in VC deals as well as students and instructors in related areas of study. “It's a textbook on venture capital deals.

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The $100 Startup

Chris identified 1,500 individuals who have built businesses earning $50,000 or more from a modest investment (in many cases, $100 or less), and focused on the 50 most intriguing case studies. In nearly all cases, people with no special skills discovered aspects of their personal passions that could be monetized, and were able to restructure their lives in ways that gave them greater freedom a…

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Traction: How Any Startup Can Achieve Explosive Customer Growth

How any Startup can Achieve Explosive Customer Growth, the founder of search engine Duckduckgo, Gabriel Weinberg, shares a fresh way for businesses to think about different phases of growth, with practical tips on how to test and use 19 potential channels to get more customers and achieve massive growth.

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Good to Great: Why Some Companies Make the Leap ... and Others Don't

Good to Great: Why Some Companies Make the Leap... and Others Don't is a management book by Jim C. Collins that describes how companies transition from being good companies to great companies, and how most companies fail to make the transition

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Additional Startup Reading

These books are not required for you to learn Startup, but they are highly recommended for you to deepen your knowledge.

What Customers Want: Using Outcome-Driven Innovation to Create Breakthrough Products and Services

In a book that challenges everything you have learned about being customer driven, internationally acclaimed innovation leader Anthony Ulwick reveals the secret weapon behind some of the most successful companies of recent years. Known as "outcome-driven" innovation, this revolutionary approach to new product and service creation transforms innovation from a nebulous art into a rigorous scienc…

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BE 2.0 (Beyond Entrepreneurship 2.0): Turning Your Business into an Enduring Great Company

What's the roadmap to create a company that not only survives its infancy but thrives, changing the world for decades to come?
Nine years before the publication of his epochal bestseller Good to Great, Jim Collins and his mentor, Bill Lazier, answered this question in their bestselling book, Beyond Entrepreneurship.
Beyond Entrepreneurship left a definitive mark on the business community…

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Startup CEO: A Field Guide to Scaling Up Your Business (Techstars)

"Startup CEO is the definitive book for any CEO―first time or otherwise―of a high-growth company. While dozens of books have been written about starting businesses, it's time for entrepreneurs to focus on scaling them. Matt shows them how."

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Hooked: How to Build Habit-Forming Products

Why do some products capture widespread attention while others flop? What makes us engage with certain products out of sheer habit? Is there a pattern underlying how technologies hook us? Nir Eyal answers these questions (and many more) by explaining the Hook Model—a four-step process embedded into the products of many successful companies to subtly encourage customer behavior. Through consecu…

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High Growth Handbook

Every high-growth company eventually needs to tackle thet same set of challenges around organizational structure, late-stage funding and secondary stock sales, culture, internationalization, hiring executive for roles the founders don’t understand, buying other companies, and more. This is the handbook for navigating those challenges.

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The Hard Thing About Hard Things

"The Hard Thing About Hard Things" by Ben Horowitz is a guide for entrepreneurs and leaders that offers practical advice on managing difficult situations in business, including laying off employees, handling investor relationships, and making tough decisions.

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Specializations and Deeper Startup Knowledge

You've got your basics in order – time to move on to some advanced and specialized concepts. Startup is evolving every day, these books can help you master it.

Mastering the VC Game

Jeffrey Bussgang is one of a very few people who have played on both sides of this high-stakes game. Now he draws on his unique perspective to offer high-level insights, colorful stories, and practical advice gathered from his own experience as well as from interviews with dozens of the most successful entrepreneurs and VCs. He reveals how to get noticed, perfect a pitch, and negotiate a partn…

Recommended by the experts and mentors at MentorCruise

Mastering the VC Game: A Venture Capital Insider Reveals How to Get from Start-up to IPO on Your Terms

Jeffrey Bussgang is one of a very few people who have played on both sides of this high-stakes game. Now he draws on his unique perspective to offer high-level insights, colorful stories, and practical advice gathered from his own experience as well as from interviews with dozens of the most successful entrepreneurs and VCs. He reveals how to get noticed, perfect a pitch, and negotiate a partn…

Recommended by the experts and mentors at MentorCruise

Unlock AI Mastery: Secrets to Accelerate Business Growth and Dominate Competitors with Proven AI Strategies

In today's fast-paced digital landscape, artificial intelligence (AI) is not just a tool—it's a game-changer. Unlock AI Mastery demystifies AI and reveals practical strategies for leveraging its transformative power to revolutionize your business. Whether you're a seasoned entrepreneur or just starting out, this comprehensive guide provides actionable insights into harnessing AI to streamline …

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This list is curated by MentorCruise and can include Amazon affiliate links. Have any other suggestions? Add here.

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