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I read 33 books on startups, marketing, and sales. Most are overhyped, but these 7 are absolutely worth your time

  1. 14

    My recommendations for IHers:

    • The Personal MBA by @joshkaufman — everything you need to know about business in one place
    • Zero to One by @peterthiel — strong arguments for niching down and avoiding competition
    • The Mom Test by @robfitz— very quick read that'll teach you how to not bullshit yourself
    • The Four Fits by @bbalfour — series of blog posts that teaches you about essential tradeoffs
    1. 3

      Good list, Mom Test changed my cust dev game forever :)

      What are your main takeaways from Four Fits?

      1. 1

        God i wish I read mom test 10 years ago!

  2. 9

    My top 3 for indie founders:

    1. Building the Right It by Alberto Savoia
    2. The Mom Test by Rob Fitzpatrick
    3. Traction by Gabriel Weinberg
    1. 4

      These are all very good and much better than any referenced in the original list.

      I would add

      • The E-Myth Revisited by Michael Gerber
      • Secrets of Consulting by Gerald M. Weinberg
      • The 22 Immutable Laws of Marketing by Al Ries and Jack Trout
      • Jumpstart Your Business Brain by Doug Hall
      1. 2

        I keep seeing great and bad reviews about e-myth, was about to order it a few times. What are your thoughts on it?

        1. 1

          Very practical on the need the need to make a clear distinction between different mindsets:

          • technician who brings domain knowledge and capability
          • manager who orchestrates the delivery of goods and services
          • entrepreneur who discovers opportunities and brings them to market

          I blogged about it here https://www.skmurphy.com/blog/2008/10/28/entrepreneurial-focus-right-layer-right-problem-right-time/

    2. 2

      Never heard about the first one, what made you put it to top 1?

      1. 1

        It's about making sure you are building some that people want and will pay for. Too many entrepreneurs with an engineering background focus on building a product "the right way" instead of making sure they are building "the right product." This book offers a wealth of practical guidance on how to pretotype (not "prototype") which is about building MVP's to assess desirability. I blogged about it here https://www.skmurphy.com/blog/2012/03/06/pretotyping-techniques-for-building-the-right-product/

  3. 3

    The Horowitz book is good because it is very honest, but it is mostly an entertaining read, not sure how much you can replicate his story.

    Sinek and Holiday are grifter marketers, they are only good for 1 thing and 1 thing only , advance their personal brand. Avoid at all cost.

    I have not read the other books.

    1. 1

      But did you read their books?

  4. 2

    My top is :

    Zero to One by @peterthiel

    The Mom Test by @robfitz

    Don't make me think by Steve Krug

    Hacking Growth by Sean Ellis

  5. 2

    Some great options here.

    A few of mine:

    The Minimalist Entrepreneur: How Great Founders Do More with Less - I picked this up after this episode, https://www.indiehackers.com/podcast/237_sahil_lavingia

    The Infinite Game: How Great Businesses Achieve Long-lasting Success - I like anything from Simon Sinek

    Think Again: The Power of Knowing What You Don't Know - Adam Grant, another great go-to author/blogger

    The Four Agreements
    By: don Miguel Ruiz

    I have many more, but that's a great start.

    1. 1

      Agree, Simon Sinek writes decent pieces

  6. 2

    Lots of great books here. I would like to add

    1. Obviously Awesome by @Aprildunford
    2. Built To Sell by John Warrillow
    3. The Art of Selling Your Business by John Warrillow
    1. 2

      Looks like you're big into flipping businesses game!)

      1. 1

        Surprisingly not. The John Warrillow books had a big impact on me, I think they give you a great understanding on what to expect if you're ever in a position to sell. You never know when you're going to get a good offer or when you'll want to shop your company around so making sure you have expectations in line from the beginning is a good idea.

  7. 2
    1. Almanack of Naval Ravikant - Free
      The foundation. Why you shouldn't work for someone's dream

    2. Minimalist Entrepreneur by @sahil
      The basics and practical guide from idea generation to selling

    3. Don't make me think by Steve Krug
      Design crash course

    4. The 1‑Page Marketing Plan by Allan Dib
      Marketing and sales crash course.

    Then you can go deeper into topics you're struggling with other books.

  8. 2

    Super helpful, thanks Denis.

    1. 0

      Glad you liked it! What are your favorites?

  9. 2

    Thanks for sharing, those are indeed good books

    1. 0

      Welcome! What are your other favorities?

  10. 2

    Great, thanks for sharing.

  11. 2

    Fun read! Thanks for sharing. Nice takeaways

  12. 1

    Just purchased these books- super excited to gain more knowledge.

  13. 1

    I'd add "Monetizing Innovations".

  14. 1

    thanks for sharing

    1. 1

      This comment was deleted 2 years ago.

  15. 1

    Thanks!
    God my reading list is forever extending 😅

  16. 1

    The book the lean startup has to be on this list! 🙃

    1. 1

      Thanks alot. Registared

    2. 1

      I wish I found more insights in it. 4 Steps to Epiphany helped me more.

  17. 1

    When it comes to acquiring new customers, there’s no better way to make an impact than by targeting individuals who are already willing and able to pay for your product or service. By focusing on quality over quantity, you can ensure that each new customer brings value not only to your bottom line but also to your overall customer base. And when those customers come from within a tightly targeted group like 100 paying users in one day, the results can be truly spectacular!

    So how do you go about getting 100 paying users in one day? Well, there's no single answer to that question since every business is different. However, there are certain things you can do to increase your chances of success:

    1 . Start by creating an irresistible offer. Our offer was a free trial with no credit card required, so people could try our product without any risk.

    2 . Make sure your website is optimized for conversions. We used lead capture forms and pop-ups to make it easy for people to sign up for our free trial.

    3 . Use social media to drive traffic to your website. We promoted our offer on Facebook and Twitter, and saw a significant increase in traffic as a result.

    4 . Reach out to bloggers and journalists who might be interested in writing about your product . We contacted several bloggers and journalists who were interested in writing about us, and this helped us reach even more people .

    5 . Finally , stay focused and don't give up ! It takes hard work and dedication but if you keep at it , you ' ll eventually see results.

    As a business owner, you know that growth is key to success. But what if you could achieve explosive growth in just one day?
    Believe it or not, this is possible – with the help of 100 paying users.

    You should definitely check out our 100K MRR plan . And the best part is that it's completely affordable and scalable.

    So whether you're just starting out or you're looking for ways to grow your business, this plan is perfect for you.

    1. 2

      Liked your insights, but the Gumroad page looked confusing. Three prices, 2000 words of text, some Notion template coming soon etc. I think I would subscribe if you made it stupid simple what's going on on the page.

      Rewrite it to a 12-year-old self, then give 3 shots of whiskey to your friend and ask him to read it. That's how you test the marketing copy.

      1. 1

        lol okay I'll break it to 12 year old self !
        thanks : )

  18. 1

    I'll add some o those to my reading list. Thanks for sharing. Have you read: The 22 Immutable Laws of Marketing? I enjoyed it

    1. 1

      I haven't read that many marketing books cause been studying it for 5 years!) Had a little overdose and now it's uncommon for me to get new insights. But I like marketing books which turn complexity into simplicity, so may want to check it out :)

  19. 1

    I've heard about some of these before, but haven't had the chance to sit down and actually read them.

    I'm trying to learn as much as I can when it comes to improving my latest project and making it more appealing (ie. selling it better).

    Thanks for sharing!

    1. 0

      Will be a biased comment, but I think you'll love denisshatalin.com/10K and gum.co/skillers !

      One helps you get SaaS to traction, the other helps you avoid most common mistakes :)

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    This comment was deleted 2 years ago.

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    This comment was deleted 2 years ago.

  22. 45

    This comment was deleted a year ago.

      1. 1

        you should edit your post to h/t Primer and replace it with his comment here

        1. 1

          This comment was deleted a year ago.

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              This comment was deleted a year ago.

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        This comment was deleted a year ago.

    1. 2

      The Hard Thing About Hard Things was a fantastic read...

      1. 1

        Really enjoyed it!

        The biggest surprise was to hear that even the companies going to IPO are few weeks away from bankruptcy.

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