startups Book Summaries

The 22 Immutable Laws of Marketing by Al Ries and Jack Trout is a must-read classic in the marketing world. It reveals that branding success comes from being first and unique in the market, not from having the best product. A practical guide loaded with examples from Coca-Cola, Apple, Toyota, etc.

Zero to One is about the future of technology and a guide for startup business founders. Peter Thiel is a billionaire entrepreneur and investor that shares many unconventional ideas. He says entrepreneurs should avoid competition. Instead build a (legal) monopoly selling something completely new and incomparable.

The 4-Hour Workweek is about building a passive income business so we can escape the usual 40-hour workweek, and design our ideal lifestyle. Tim Ferris also shows how we can improve our productivity by following the 80/20 rule and a 'low information diet.'

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.

Start With Why says that great companies, organizations, and leaders are those who first understand their 'Why' - their purpose, cause, or reason for existing. Simon Sinek shows how leading companies like Apple inspire extraordinary loyalty with a strong focus on 'Why' they do what they do, not 'What' they sell, or 'How' they do things.

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.