At MentorCruise, we are all about growing on top of the experience of others. As part of that, we've connected and asked dozens of entrepreneurs, CEOs and marketing directors about their favourite books – and here are the answers.
A startup is an ever-living collection of systems interacting with each other. Be it hiring, product, growth or operations, at the core is an engine of how a business is running. Get new building blocks from these books!
A fantastic book that helps you systemise your business as if you are going to sell (even if you aren't).
Recommended by Harry O'Connor, Founder / MD @ Digital Agencies
Most startups fail. But many of those failures are preventable. The Lean Startup is a new approach being adopted across the globe, changing the way companies are built and new products are launched.
Recommended by the experts and mentors at MentorCruise
Make book by Pieter levels is something I highly recommend. It's a blue print to build successful micro startups. It has helped me immensely in product, pricing, growth, and design.
Recommended by Hari Dulipudi, Serial Microstartup Maker
This is my #1 recommendation for anyone starting a SaaS company. It's got a perfect combination of actionable frameworks, personal stories, and practical advice.
Recommended by Corey Haines, Founder of SwipeFiles.com
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.
Recommended by the experts and mentors at MentorCruise
Instead of building solutions looking for customers, Embedded entrepreneurs find customers and build a solution with them. They join communities and take these learnings and transform them into products people need.
Recommended by Maddy Agrawal, Founder @ Startup to Scaleup
The classic book that needs to be read by all founders that want to systemize and step back from their business.
Recommended by Harry O'Connor, Founder / MD @ Digital Agencies
Growth is the key to success. It's the ability to attract new customers, build new relationships, and grow your business. Learn more about the books that will help you get there.
Why do some great ideas make it big while others fail to take off? Translating an idea into widespread impact depends on one thing only: whether it can achieve “high voltage”—the ability to be replicated at scale.
Recommended by Ziga Berce, Head of Marketing @ Taia
Andrew Chen's book on network effects. Absolute must-read for anyone building a marketplace, community, or app with a social component.
Recommended by Corey Haines, Founder of SwipeFiles.com
How to talk to customers & learn if your business is a good idea when everyone is lying to you. The quick and easy handbook about how to get more learning and more sales out of your customer conversations. Even when everyone is lying to you.
Recommended by the experts and mentors at MentorCruise
Bob Moesta, lifelong innovator and coarchitect of the 'Jobs to be Done' theory, shares his approach for flipping the lens on sales. Bob shifts the focus of sales from selling, to helping people buy and make progress in their lives--demand-side sales.
Recommended by Sandeep Medisetti, Head of Sales @ Almabase Inc
Smart entrepreneurs know that the key to success isn’t the originality of your offering, the brilliance of your team, or how much money you raise. It’s how consistently you can grow and acquire new customers (or, for a free service, users). That’s called traction, and it makes everything else easier—fund-raising, hiring, press, partnerships, acquisitions.
Recommended by the experts and mentors at MentorCruise
How do you keep your business running? How do you keep your employees happy? How do you keep your customers happy? These are the questions that are most important to many businesses and founders.
You hear second-hand accounts of all the legendary startups like PayPal, Hot Or Not, Yahoo! But do you actually know their stories? I found the founding stories to be incredibly entertaining and enlightening to think from first principles.
Recommended by Corey Haines, Founder of SwipeFiles.com
Startup founders need to learn how to turn numbers into a story that any human can understand. This book explains how to do so. I recommend this to my mentees whenever possible.
Recommended by Lloyd Jacob, 5x Founder, YC Grad
A classic that should be read by everyone in business. How can good companies, mediocre companies, even bad companies achieve enduring greatness?
Recommended by Harry O'Connor, Founder / MD @ Digital Agencies
Pricing decisions are among the most important and impactful business decisions that a manager can make. The framework weaves together the latest thinking from academic research journals, proven best practices from the leading pricing experts.
Recommended by Maddy Agrawal, Founder @ Startup to Scaleup
While the book itself hasn't motivated me to decrease my work time to just a mere 4 hours per week, it's definitely a good counterargument against the trend of 'busywork'. The urge to automate mundane work that takes a lot of time has left us all happier.
Recommended by Dominic Monn, Founder @ MentorCruise
For doing a self-evaluation on how you can succeed in your startup venture and understanding the numbers. Following 4 simple principles can simplify accounting and make it easier to manage a profitable business by looking at bank account balances.
Recommended by Eric Jude, Mentor @ Seedstars
Building great products is one of the most important things to ensure your business is successful. Great products are satisfying to use, are scalable and enforce viral loops.
If you could only read one book on product management, this would be it. Marty has had a long and storied product management career, and is the founder of Silicon Valley Product Group. Great book as it really paints a clear way of creating products that inspire
Recommended by Mo Ghahroudi, Senior Product Lead @ Klarna
The key to building successful products is being able to go through the build, measure, learn loop as fast as possible. This book outlines a framework created at Google Ventures to do so in 5 days.
Recommended by Mo Ghahroudi, Senior Product Lead @ Klarna
The key to building successful products is being able to go through the build, measure, learn loop as fast as possible. This book outlines a framework created at Google Ventures to do so in 5 days.
Recommended by Alexander Estner, Founder & Startup Consultant
It basically talks about the process of building a movie at Pixar – which is a product too. How do you build a product with a team of 300 plus people.
Recommended by Colleen Graneto, Product Manager @ Airbnb
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?
Recommended by the experts and mentors at MentorCruise
In order to succeed, body and mind of an entrepreneur need to work at the highest level. It's not coincidence that personal growth is important for CEOs all around the world.
An easy and proven way to build good habits and break bad ones. This breakthrough book from James Clear is the most comprehensive guide on how to change your habits and get 1% better every day.
Recommended by the experts and mentors at MentorCruise
Start With Why shows that the leaders who’ve had the greatest influence in the world all think, act, and communicate the same way — and it’s the opposite of what everyone else does.
Recommended by Alexander Estner, Founder & Startup Consultant
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