Summer Reading List for Entrepreneurs

Posted on June 7th, 2007 by Paul Freet.

Summer is a great time for reading. Lazy weekend afternoons. Quiet evenings on the back porch after putting the kids to bed and it is still light out. A day at the lake or at the beach. Plenty of down time to get in some reading. To keep you from reading trashy novels, I have put together a list of a few books that I suggest every technology entrepreneur should be reading and re-reading.

The first is Crossing the Chasm by Geoffrey Moore. If you hear poeple talking about things like ‘early adoptors’ or ‘early majority’, they are referring to the classes of customer described in this book. He also lays out the strategy for finding an entry point in a market. I cannot possibly do this book justice - go get it.

The next book I recommend is The Innovator’s Dilemma by Clayton Christensen. Clayton is a Harvard professor who lays out the case for why big companies cannot do true disruptive innovations. He explains what they are and in multiple real case studies shows how small innovative companies have taken out large established businesses. And, it was not due to mistakes by the incumbents, they made the right decisions at every step of the process. One of the most inspirational books I have ever read. After reading this, you will stop worrying so much about the big boys crushing your business. If you’re smart, they will ignore you

The last one on my list (I don’t want to be cruel), is Founders at Work: Stories of Startups’ Early Days by Jessica Livingston. This book contains interviews with a couple dozen founders of some of the biggest names in technology. This is a brand new book so you’ll have to spring for the hardcover. Find out how successful entrepreneurs got their business started, how they might have changed direction mid-stream, how they dealt with investors and VCs and what it takes to make it big. Great reading.