Books about starting a company: finding the idea, raising money or bootstrapping, building the first team and surviving the early years. Most are written by founders and investors about companies they actually built or funded.
This list holds 49 books published between 2016 and 2026, 3 with an audiobook edition. A book is on it only when starting a company is a central subject of the book, judged from the book's own description, not when it comes up in passing. The most-rated on Amazon come first.
Cliff Lerner · 2017
Explosive Growth is a Business Book like no other. This compelling and inspiring narrative gives entrepreneurs a step-by-step playbook to achieve explosive growth, combining lively and often hilarious storytelling, proven tactics, and numerous case studies to…
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Jonathan Siegel · 2017
THE SAN FRANCISCO FALLACY IS NOT ABOUT SAN FRANCISCO.Rather, it's about the herd instincts that drive tech companies to set up shop there, and the mistakes these herd instincts lead to. Most importantly, it's about how to avoid making these same mistakes…
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Cameron Herold · 2023
As founder and CEO, you know you need to hire a COO. You need a COO who can help you build the company you don’t know how to build on your own. The Second in Command is your go-to guidebook when you’re ready to scale up. Cameron Herold details every aspect of…
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Brian Requarth
The entrepreneurial journey is lonely, especially if you’re looking to start a business in Latin America, where opportunities are ripe but resources are scarce. Brian Requarth is well acquainted with the challenges unique to this part of the world, having…
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Dave Gerhardt · 2022
You’re part of an elite group of builders, creators, and innovators who have accomplished something few can claim: you’ve founded a company. Now the challenge of standing out in the crowd begins, and how you differentiate yourself counts. Building a brand and…
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How to Optimize, Automate, and Outsource Everything in Your Business
Ari Meisel · 2016
Nick Sonnenberg and Ari Meisel recently launched a profitable Virtual Assistant (VA) business in just one day, challenging the startup mentality that every new venture requires months of planning and a large investment of capital. Their VA business was born…
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Rob Kornblum · 2016
Start Your New Company, Get the Freedom You Have Always Dreamed Of What if you could break free of the corporate rat race? How would your life be different if you owned your own business? Entrepreneurship is the ultimate mid-life career change. Startup…
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Ryan Roberts
When you’re launching a startup, one of the most important elements is the legal work involved. Unfortunately, it’s easy for many entrepreneurs to ignore startup legal work or make costly mistakes that could derail their business before it gets off the…
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Chris Cooper · 2019
There’s never been a better time to be an entrepreneur, and yet finding the blueprint that can help you start or grow your business is a huge challenge. Every day, thousands of blog posts, podcasts, and videos are posted to guide and inspire entrepreneurs…
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Don Wenner · 2021 · Audiobook
At the tail end of your company’s startup phase, the same opportunities that generate revenue and fuel growth also bring new challenges. You need to hire, and train, rock-star team members, scale operations, prioritize opportunities, “wow” customers, and…
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Kurt Davis · 2022
Execute a lighthouse deal to catapult your startup over the chasm of early adopters and into the land of new opportunities with trillion-dollar companies. Navigate to the Lighthouse explains how to do that, using strategic business development as a…
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Brook Eddy · 2023
Isolated, broke, and restless in a drafty mountain A-frame with colicky twins, Brook Eddy needed a path out. This is the story of one woman’s passionate spirit and how it transformed despair into entrepreneurial success. STEEPED: Adventures Of A Tea…
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Lorenzo Gomez
In 1998, the thought of launching a startup in San Antonio was ludicrous, but that didn’t stop Rackspace’s founders from planting their flag in the heart of Texas. Just over two decades later, the scrappy little underdog that no one believed in is a…
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Debi Kleiman
For entrepreneurs, pitching is do or die. To succeed with your startup, you must persuade investors, advisors, customers, and other potential partners to join you on your journey. It can be intimidating, but First Pitch is here to help. Based on her…
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Matthew Bertulli
We’re living in a new era in retail. Anything can be purchased anywhere, at any time. We have entered an age when advanced communication technology, once the exclusive privilege of large, wealthy companies, is available to anyone. Ecommerce has rewritten the…
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Joshua H. Davidson
It's no secret--starting a company is hard. So many decisions are interdependent on factors outside of our control. Some founders follow a business plan; Others operate by the seat of their pants. But all entrepreneurs need a personal framework to follow. …
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Business Lessons from America's Gadget Guy
Richard Thalheimer · 2020
Open a door into the complex and active mind of Sharper Image founder, Richard Thalheimer. This successful entrepreneur shares stories about creating his visions, taking risks, sharing rewards, cultivating generosity, and showing respect, as well as knowing…
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Lynsie Campbell · 2021
Most of the founder stories we hear are the successful ones, the ones with happy endings. This is not that kind of story. Being a founder comes with only one guarantee: at times, the obstacles will be so absurdly difficult they will seem almost comical.…
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How We Started and Scaled a Global Lighting Brand
Cole Zucker · 2023 · Audiobook
Successful entrepreneurship is not a straight line. It’s a thrilling, unpredictable roller coaster full of extreme ups and downs. Flipping the Switch is the story of Cole and Guillaume, two guys who left their respective home countries of America and France…
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The Startup Culture Guide
Simon D’Arcy · 2023
Leaders and founders know that company culture is important and that if they don’t get it right, it will cost them in the long run. This book is a proven step-by-step guide for discovering, designing, and evolving your culture as you scale.
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Rags Gupta · 2021
Here’s a little secret: Most tech startups get to One. They build a product, land some customers, and close funding. The harder part? Getting from One to Ten. Tech founders struggle to progress past early adopter customers and founder-led sales, to grow…
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Joe Colopy
Your startup can be successful without venture capital. Joe Colopy did it. So can you. In 2002, Colopy co-founded Bronto Software and, over the next thirteen years, grew it to over $40 million in revenue and 250 employees until it was acquired for $200…
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Elliot Lum
Millennial entrepreneurs are a different breed from the innovators who preceded them. Elliot Lum interviewed young CEOs in cities across the country to discover what motivates this new generation of business leaders and how they deal with the stress and…
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Beck Bamberger · 2025
Flack Fairy noun: a savvy public relations expert who makes media appear and stories take shape from seemingly nothing (magical)As a venture-backed startup founder, you know how to pitch a VC and get a signed term sheet, but can you land a headline in a…
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Shiv Narayanan · 2024
Exiting a business is a life-changing event for a founder. Yet most founders never get there. The number one reason? Their revenue isn’t predictable enough. What most founders don’t realize is how close they are to achieving the exit of their dreams. Revenue…
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John Hittler · 2022
Historically, only one in ten companies succeed at scaling using the current standard growth practices. So why would anyone copy that formula to succeed? What if you could dramatically increase your odds of success simply by engaging in counterintuitive…
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Applied Wisdom from My Work with Dell, Costco, Amazon, and Multiple Start-ups
Carolyn Lowe · 2021
It’s the question emerging entrepreneurs and burgeoning business leaders ask themselves every day: Am I doing this right? Markets fluctuate and trends come and go, but some principles of the business world are here to stay. Founders and leaders need to know…
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Mandy Gilbert
When you start your own business, it’s a liberating feeling. You weren’t happy with the direction your career was going, you didn’t like the work culture around you, or you saw a better way of doing things, so you took the plunge. However, the burden is now…
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A Founder's Guide to Building a High-Performing Engineering Team
David Dettmer · 2022
You have the idea, the drive, and now the capital to create the company you’ve always envisioned. Now comes the most important part: assembling a team of high performers. To build a sustainable business, you need engineers who can execute on common goals.…
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Steve Distante · 2023
Pitchology noun pitch-ol-o-gy: the art and science of planning and executing a thoughtful, intentional fundraising strategy that attracts the right investors and keeps your business on the right path. As an entrepreneur, you've poured passion and…
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Jeffrey P. Kiplinger · 2023
You've devoted your life to becoming an expert in your field. Now you’re ready to start a company and profit from your specialized skills. Jeffrey Kiplinger once stood in your shoes, trapped in a corporate job, but dreaming of breaking free. Let him lead the…
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Matty Wishnow · 2023
Entrepreneurs all want the same thing: growth. Exceptional growth. Rapid growth. Only recently though, in the age of lean startups and growth hacks, have we begun to think that there might be a formula for achieving it. Still, the failure rate for startups is…
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Marcus Harvey · 2023
Marcus Harvey created his first T-shirt in high school. Today, he’s the founder and CEO of Portland Gear, one of the region's most respected apparel brands. But the entrepreneurial journey is never that simple. Refreshingly honest and relatable, Product of…
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Jason Van der Schyff · 2021
Focus. Consistency. Imperfection. The list of attributes needed for the leader of a startup to succeed is shorter than you may think. A clear focus will help you stay on track, and consistency, in mindset and follow-through, is crucial. But it’s the ability…
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How to Start Your Brand with Zero Experience
Dylan Trussell · 2026
After reading this book, you'll know exactly how to start your brand. Founding a company is the hardest thing you'll ever do, but it's so much easier than leaving your dreams unpursued. It's not for everyone, yet something still compels you to dive into the…
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Ali Moiz · 2026
The cure to burnout isn’t vacation. It’s success. You’re the poster child for bootstrapping founders. You’ve slept on your office floor more than once. You listen to all the startup podcasts and read all the success stories, but you’re walking a tightrope…
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How the Best Beauty and Wellness Brands Scale from 1 Store to 100+
Sudheer Koneru · 2026
Your playbook for growing your beauty and wellness empire. The beauty and wellness industry is people-first and location-bound. At its center is the paradox: the thing that makes your first store magical is the thing that prevents the 50th store from…
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Turning Founder Doubt into a Competitive Advantage
Adam Crawshaw · 2026
The Doubt Loop is equal parts candid memoir and tactical field guide for anyone ready to turn startup self-doubt into rocket fuel. Instead of peddling a single silver-bullet fix, Adam Crawshaw rewires the reader's mindset through a three-step rhythm that…
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Your Playbook for the Starting Five to Align, Lead, and Scale Your Business
Tamika Tyson · 2026
Thrive. Scale. Win or Win. A growing company needs more than just hard work and the right mindset to succeed. It needs the right people, in the right roles, working together on the right mission. In Win or Win, Tamika Tyson shares her playbook for building…
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by Gary Garth (Author), Ben Tyson (Foreword) Format: Kindle Edition
Gary Garth · 2023
You have a business but don’t yet have a reputable brand. You’re bootstrapped and need to pinch every penny. You know where you want your business to end up, but you’re uncertain of how to get there and what to do first. The Zero to 100 Million Sales…
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Dan Cleland · 2022
Your must-have machete for the jungle of entrepreneurship. One month after Daniel Cleland scales his startup to seven figures, solidifying its rank in the top three ayahuasca healing centers in the world, COVID-19 obliterates the company’s revenues. He now…
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10 Bootstrapping Principles to Generate Cash and Keep Control
James Benham · 2022
Half a million businesses are started every year in the US and less than 5 percent will successfully raise outside capital. Ninety-five percent of ideas will have to bootstrap to survive. A bootstrapped entrepreneur is someone willing to build what they have…
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Andrew Gazdecki · 2022 · Audiobook
Andrew Gazdecki knows startups. He founded Bizness Apps as a broke, twenty-something entrepreneur and sold it to a private equity firm before the age of thirty-after going head-to-head with Apple over a blanket App Store policy that threatened to ruin him.…
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How to Transform Your Personal Qualities Into A Successful Business
Charles McCarrick · 2022
Many people ask for advice on how to start a business, but rarely how to succeed in business. Charles McCarrick, founder of Micro-Ant, suggests starting with the question: why do you want to go into business? These chapters, childhood stories, and cartoons…
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Ron Lovett · 2022
Make no mistake, your company has a culture, whether you’re intentional about it or not. Corporate culture is ground zero for your organization. If left to chance, corporate culture will fall to the lowest common denominator or the loudest voice, resulting…
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Brendan McGurgan · 2022
SIMPLE Scaling provides the tools to do what so few startups ever manage to do: break free of the gravitational pull of the everyday and shoot for the stars. In clear, unambiguous prose, the ten principles within these pages offer all the knowledge you need…
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Daniel Elizalde · 2022
Most new enterprise software products fail to generate a profit. They fail not because of technical challenges, lack of funding, or market conditions. Instead, new products fail because most companies build products that don't solve a market need, and…
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Raman Sehgal · 2022
Do you ever feel like you’re drowning in your own success? Expertise-based entrepreneurs are excellent at what they do, but that doesn't mean it’s easy to manage a growing service business. Juggling constant client demands against the need to focus on growth…
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Nisa Amoils
Technological innovation is exploding, and venture capitalists are continually looking to invest in the next big thing. But while female pioneers are making remarkable strides across a wide range of emerging tech fields, from robotics to virtual reality to…
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