startups Book Summaries

Elon Musk is a biography of the man who led Tesla, SpaceX and PayPal. Musk inspires many people with his futuristic plans for new technologies, and his seemingly unstoppable ability to overcome all obstacles. But his employees are often pushed to their limit, trying to reach impossible deadlines.

Steve Jobs is the official biography of the co-founder of Apple and Pixar. He had an intense passion to create revolutionary products like the iPhone, iPad, iPod, iTunes, and Macintosh computers. His personality was an unusual mix of Zen hippie and brash business visionary.

Shoe Dog is an inspiring story of entrepreneurship from Nike's founder Phil Knight. He started as a regular kid who loved running and built the largest sportswear brand ever. But there were many challenging times that Nike barely survived.

The 4-Hour Workweek is about escaping the default 9-5 rat race and designing your ideal lifestyle. Tim Ferriss says we can improve our productivity by eliminating, automating and outsourcing the work we don't enjoy. He also shows how to build a passive income business to fully liberate our time.

Zero to One is a guide for business startup founders. Peter Thiel shares many unconventional ideas such as why entrepreneurs should avoid competition and instead build (legal) monopolies. He also offers fascinating predictions about the future of technology.

Start With Why explains that great companies clearly communicate WHY they exist (besides making money). They attract loyal followers through a common purpose, cause or mission. But most leaders are uninspiring because they focus too much on WHAT they do and HOW they do it.

Hooked shows how to create digital products that are engaging, compelling and habit-forming. Nir Eyal reveals how big tech companies like Google, Twitter and Facebook keep us coming back to their apps over and over again. His "Hooked Model" has 4 steps: trigger, action, variable reward and investment.

The Lean Startup shows how to achieve business success by learning what customers want fast. Eric Ries explains how to launch a minimum viable product, why you should ignore vanity metrics, and how to use 'split-testing' to avoid wasting years of your life building a product nobody wants.