Must-Read Books for Early-Stage Startup Founders
I get it—if you’re an early-stage tech founder, you’re probably tired of hearing about cap tables, pitch decks, and AI. It’s time to shift gears and focus on actually getting started and building valuable products. I’ve been in your shoes, navigating the ups and downs of launching a startup. Back in 2016, when I first had my startup idea, I was just a UX designer with no clue about business or the startup world. We relied heavily on The Lean Startup, which talks about using the MVP as a “proof of concept” to validate your idea. But I learned that before you even get to the MVP, you need to do some serious research and low-cost experiments. That’s the best way to minimize risk and avoid getting stuck in the MVP trap.
So, I’ve put together this list of books that really helped me, and I hope they’ll set you on the right path too. While I don’t agree with everything in them, I believe they offer valuable insights for your early startup journey. Let’s dive in!
Monetizing Innovation: How Smart Companies Design the Product Around the Price by Madhavan Ramanujam and Georg Tacke
Monetizing Innovation is one of my latest reads, and I love how it focuses on gathering customer willingness to pay early in the discovery phase. While some advisors think the business model can be figured out later, the earlier you know, the better. Madhavan and Georg show how to design products with pricing at the core of the strategy. Key takeaways include:
Design around willingness to pay and benefits, not just features.
Focus on value-based pricing.
Integrate pricing early in development.
Avoid over-engineering your MVP.
Test pricing to reduce failure risk.
Use pricing as a growth lever.
Fall in Love with the Problem, Not the Solution: A Handbook for Entrepreneurs by Uri Levine
This is one of my recent reads as well, and it’s a fantastic collection of Uri’s founding stories and experiences supporting his startups and others. In Fall in Love with the Problem, Not the Solution, Uri emphasizes focusing on solving real problems rather than becoming fixated on a single solution.
Start with a problem that affects many people.
Be willing to pivot or abandon your solution if it doesn’t solve the core issue.
Embrace failure as a step toward success.
Understand your customers deeply before scaling.
Build a lean, agile team focused on learning quickly.
Always validate your ideas with data and feedback.
Escaping the Build Trap: How Effective Product Management Creates Real Value by Melissa Perri
If you’re a startup tech founder, learning about product management is fundamental. You’re the product leader and should have a deep understanding of product strategy, vision, roadmap, analytics, and development processes. It’s a vast discipline that takes time to master. Escaping the Build Trap: How Effective Product Management Creates Real Value by Melissa Perri is a fantastic resource to help you avoid the MVP trap and focus on real value creation. Here are some important insights I found particularly valuable:
Emphasize outcomes over outputs to ensure your product meets user needs.
Develop a clear product strategy that aligns with business goals.
Utilize the Product Strategy Canvas to visualize and communicate your strategy.
Foster collaboration across teams to drive effective product development.
Prioritize customer feedback to refine your offerings.
Establish metrics for success that focus on value delivery.
The Mom Test: How to talk to customers & learn if your business is a good idea when everyone is lying to you by Rob Fitzpatrick
Don’t ask your mom what she thinks of your idea. She loves you and will lie to your face! This is a reminder to ask the right questions to truly validate your business ideas and avoid bias. In The Mom Test, Rob teaches how to get honest feedback from customers.
Focus on customers’ past behaviors, not their opinions.
Ask open-ended like, "What are your biggest challenges with XYZ?"
Avoid pitching your idea during conversations.
Validate the problem, not just the solution.
Embrace negative feedback as valuable.
Let customers share their pain points instead of selling your product.
Why Startups Fail: A New Roadmap for Entrepreneurial Success by Tom Eisenmann
Tom Eisenmann, a Harvard Business School professor and experienced startup advisor, delivers practical advice in Why Startups Fail: A New Roadmap for Entrepreneurial Success. Drawing from his deep understanding of the startup world, Eisenmann explains why many startups fail and how you can steer clear of those pitfalls. Here are some key takeaways:
Timing matters; launching your product at the right time is crucial.
Find your product-market fit; ensure what you’re offering genuinely solves a problem.
Grow carefully; avoid scaling too quickly without a solid foundation.
Build a strong team and navigate any conflicts with your co-founders.
Learn from your mistakes; use them as opportunities for growth.
Plan for financial hurdles; have a clear strategy for funding and managing cash flow.
Testing Business Ideas: A Field Guide for Rapid Experimentation by David J. Bland and Alexander Osterwalder
If you’re brand new to product design and development, Testing Business Ideas: A Field Guide for Rapid Experimentation by David J. Bland and Alexander Osterwalder might seem a bit overwhelming. Take a deep breath and dive in—an advisor can help you select the right experiments to validate your business concepts. The book offers a structured approach to testing ideas quickly and effectively. Key takeaways include:
Define clear hypotheses for what you need to test.
Employ diverse testing methods such as prototypes and surveys.
Focus on learning from experiments, not just confirming your ideas.
Iterate rapidly based on feedback to improve your concepts.
Engage with real customers to test assumptions and gather insights.
Measure and track results to understand what’s working and what isn’t.
Hacking Growth: How Today's Fastest-Growing Companies Drive Breakout Success by Sean Ellis and Morgan Brown
As a first-time founder with a background in UX design, I didn’t know what I didn’t know. Hacking Growth: How Today’s Fastest-Growing Companies Drive Breakout Success by Sean Ellis and Morgan Brown was a game-changer for me. It guided me in becoming more data-driven and taught me the importance of closely monitoring metrics throughout the entire customer journey, from acquisition to monetization.
Identify and refine your product’s must-have features to ensure strong market fit.
Adopt a growth hacking mindset to drive rapid experimentation and innovation.
Focus on data-driven decisions to optimize every phase of the customer journey.
Continuously test and iterate on strategies to improve results.
Leverage customer feedback to refine and enhance your offerings.
Use metrics to guide growth and make informed decisions for scaling your business.
Hooked: How to Build Habit-Forming Products by Nir Eyal
In Hooked: How to Build Habit-Forming Products, Nir Eyal dives into what makes products truly engaging and hard to put down. He introduces the Hook Model, which breaks down the process into four steps: Trigger, Action, Variable Reward, and Investment. Here are some key takeaways that stood out to me:
Identify both external and internal triggers to get users started.
Keep actions simple and easy to encourage people to engage.
Offer variable rewards to keep users coming back for more.
Encourage user investment to make your product more valuable.
Aim for long-term habits, not just quick fixes.
Understand what motivates your users to create products they’ll love.
Best of luck on your journey! Remember, it’s a marathon, not a sprint—it takes time.
If you need support along the way, I’m here to help. I empower early-stage tech startup founders with product-market fit strategies and fractional product leadership. My goal is to ensure your product is valuable to customers, viable in the market, and that your startup is well-positioned for the next funding round. Please feel free to reach out @www.adrianatt.com or @Linkedin