Not intended to be a complete list. Just the ones I personally feel “rise to the top” when I think of great reads I couldn’t put down and/or have read multiple times.
Highly Recommended Founder / Entrepreneur Books
- Shoe Dog / Phil Knight / The founding + rise of Nike from its earliest days
- The Everything Store / Brad Stone / Jeff Bezos + the rise of Amazon
- Setting the Table / Danny Meyer / Danny’s life story, founding of Gramercy Tavern, Shake Shack, etc. Great stories about delivering exceptional customer experience.
- Play Nice But Win / Michael Dell / Michael’s life story, founding Dell, tactics on leadership
- Pour Your Heart Into It / Howard Schultz / Howard’s life story, founding Starbucks, delivering a great customer experience
- Elon Musk / Ashlee Vance / Musk’s life, founding SpaceX, betting it all on Tesla
- Invested / Charles Schwab / Schwab’s life, evolution of financial services in the US, rise of Charles Schwab Inc
- Cable Cowboy / Mark Robichaux / John Malone and the building of the cable industry
- House of Mondavi / Julia Siler / For folks who like wine, a great read on the history of Napa and the rise of the Mondavi family
Highly Recommended Leadership / Management Books with Tech Angle
- Build / Tony Fadell / Tony’s story, founding Nest, lessons on leadership and management
- Scaling People / Claire Hughes Johnson / Advice on people, scaling and tactical templates for growth from one of Silicon Valley’s top executives who helped build Google and Stripe
- Amp It Up / Frank Slootman / One of the top CEOs of our time shares lessons on leadership, management
- The Hard Thing About Hard Things / Ben Horowitz / One of the best books on being a startup CEO / leader through good and bad times
- Only the Paranoid Survive / Andy Grove / Building Intel, pivoting strategy, leadership/management
- The Outsiders / William Thorndike / Terrific read on how great companies build, allocate capital and compound over time
- The Score Takes Care of Itself / Bill Walsh / Lessons on leadership from legendary football coach
- The Upside of Stress / Kelly McGonigal / Excellent book on managing stress