Books Recommended by Craig Pearce
Read the interview: Craig Pearce
In Craig Pearce’s words:
If you read to maintain motivation and be entertained, I recommend a few books that in addition to telling great stories, also contain lessons and learnings. You won’t gain many step-by-step type lessons from these books but you will come away realizing that not all startups, regardless of what stage they are in, are as well polished as they make you think. You will realize that they make mistakes and struggle through the same things you struggle through when first starting out. I find this helps motivate me.
12 books recommended by Craig Pearce
The Lean Startup
by Eric Ries
If you are reading to learn skills that can be implemented in your startup, I’d recommend The Lean Startup: How Today's Entrepreneurs Use Continuous Innovation to Create Radically Successful by Eric Reis and actually avoid its predecessor The Four Steps to the Epiphany: Successful Strategies for Products That Win by Steve Blank until later in your career.
The Everything Store: Jeff Bezos and the Age of Amazon
by Brad Stone
My favourite business book is likely The Everything Store: Jeff Bezos and the Age of Amazon. It is full of great wisdom and learnings from the building of Amazon. It’s both informative and entertaining. I think it is a must read for anyone starting a business in tech.
Founders At Work: Stories of Startups’ Early Days
What probably helped, ironically, was the feeling of confusion when reading the book Founders at Work: Stories Of Startups Early Days. I read the book when I first became interested in startup culture and I was under the impression there was a formula for success… Read the full quote
What probably helped, ironically, was the feeling of confusion when reading the book Founders at Work: Stories Of Startups Early Days. I read the book when I first became interested in startup culture and I was under the impression there was a formula for success that all startups had followed. While reading the various stories contained within the book, I was confused when every company seemed to follow a different path to success; founders came from different backgrounds, different motivations and started at different ages. There are themes, in many of these stories, but it was the realization that you don’t have to be a 20-something, Stanford Grad, with a Computer Science degree to start a company that really helped me pursue my interest in startups.
The Four Steps to the Epiphany
by Steve Blank
If you are reading to learn skills that can be implemented in your startup, I’d recommend The Lean Startup: How Today's Entrepreneurs Use Continuous Innovation to Create Radically Successful by Eric Reis and actually avoid its predecessor The Four Steps to the Epiphany: Successful Strategies for Products That Win by Steve Blank until later in your career.
The Art Of Racing In The Rain
by Garth Stein
Prior to getting into books about business and startups, I read mostly fictional books, and mostly about dogs (think Marley and Me or The Art of Racing In The Rain).
The Four: The Hidden DNA of Amazon, Apple, Facebook, and Google
I am currently reading The Four: The Hidden DNA of Amazon, Apple, Facebook, and Google. I was introduced to the author, Scott Galloway during his appearance on the aforementioned Recode Decode podcast, specifically episode released on September 14. His opinion and thoughts on the big… Read the full quote
I am currently reading The Four: The Hidden DNA of Amazon, Apple, Facebook, and Google. I was introduced to the author, Scott Galloway during his appearance on the aforementioned Recode Decode podcast, specifically episode released on September 14. His opinion and thoughts on the big 4 (Apple, Amazon, Facebook and Google) lead me to research him. I put a hold on his book from my local library and waited a few weeks. A great thing about this book is its recency, for example, it includes Amazon’s recent acquisition of WholeFoods. So far, it has covered, in entertaining detail, Amazon and Apple. The author writes with great knowledge, mixed with the right amount of wit. The author argues that Apple is sex, Google is God, Facebook is love and Amazon is our gut. By aligning with these roles in our lives, they have become wildly successful. I hope to hear an expansion of his positions he discussed on the podcast, and hope to apply some of strategies into my own startup.
Marley & Me: Life and Love with the World’s Worst Dog
by John Grogan
Prior to getting into books about business and startups, I read mostly fictional books, and mostly about dogs (think Marley and Me or The Art of Racing In The Rain).
The Wal-Mart Effect: How the World’s Most Powerful Company Really Works–and How It’s Transforming the American Economy
The first book I read about business was The Walmart Effect. I think I picked it up at an airport and read the entire thing on the ensuing plane ride. It was this book that got me interested in reading about the early stages of companies. I would have never guessed they could be so entertaining.
Unsaid
I don’t read a ton of non-business books, but my favourite is likely Unsaid by Neil Abramson. It’s a great story about a veterinarian, who has died and her husband who must take on her responsibilities beyond what he would ever imagine. Although I was… Read the full quote
I don’t read a ton of non-business books, but my favourite is likely Unsaid by Neil Abramson. It’s a great story about a veterinarian, who has died and her husband who must take on her responsibilities beyond what he would ever imagine. Although I was originally drawn by the labrador retriever on the cover (I have two), the story is more about a chimpanzee embattled in a legal fight.
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