This is a list of Brent's recommended content that I believe would help people in the tech startup space.
Before you start though: should you? Here's a fantastic article on what to consider when evaluating whether you should build a company: Why to Not Not Start a Startup.
Books
I'm listing these books in order of most valuable (and relevant to a SaaS startup) to least valuable/relevant (although still fricken awesome and recommended!):
- High Growth Handbook - Elad Gil
- Venture Deals - Brad Feld, Jason Mendelson
- The Lean Startup - Eric Ries
- The Obstacle Is The Way - Ryan Holiday
- Principles - Ray Dalio
- Zero to One - Peter Thiel
- The Hard Thing About Hard Things - Ben Horowitz
- Good Strategy vs Bad Strategy - Richard P Rumelt
- Ego is the Enemy - Ryan Holiday
- Radical Candor - Jill Scott (probably the best leadership book I've read focusing on interpersonal comms)
- Good to Great - Jim Collins
- High Output Management - Andy Grove
- Accelerate: Building and scaling high performing technology organisations - Nicole Forsgren, Jez Humble, Gene Kim
- Exponential Organisations - Michael S Malone
- Outliers - Malcolm Gladwell
- The Phoenix Project - George Spafford, Kevin Behr, Gene Kim
- Strengths Based Leadership - Tom Rath
Television
- Silicon Valley - a hilarious tech startup show that you can watch with non-tech partners. My friends who've lived in the valley say it's actually surprisingly accurate of how business plays out there.
- Halt and Catch Fire - an interesting take on the early days of the tech industry, with allusions to how Apple and Microsoft started out
Podcasts
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Masters of Scale by Reid Hoffman (co-founder of LinkedIn and a VC)
- especially the bonus 10 Commandments episode
- High Growth in Companies (and Tech)
- The Basics of Growth 1: User Acquisition
- The Basics of Growth 2: Engagement
- B2B2C
- Feedback Loops - Company Culture, Change and DevOps
- Pricing, Pricing, Pricing
-
Open the Pod Bay Doors by Innovation Bay - this is a series of interviews with Australian founders and VCs about the local ecosystem. Best episodes:
- E57 - Geoff McQueen, Accelo - funding and moving a B2B SaaS business to the US
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The Twenty Minute VC
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This Week in Startups (Jason Calacanis) - this guy is the world's most successful angel investor, and is insanely smart. Every episode is packed with learnings, as he doesn't just allow the people he interviews to waffle on with random crap - he brings it back to tangible learnings consistently across episodes
- 860 Elad Gil on technicals of fundraising
- 919 - general info about how startups work with angels and VCs
- 698 - Scaling B2B SaaS from $1m-10m
- 939 - Mel from Canva
- Scaling Your Startup series (919 Funding, 922 Communication, 929 Business Model, 930 Team, 933 Sales, 937 Fundraising, 945)
- E981 - How VCs work and how to win them
- E1206 scaling a sales org
Sales | Scaling Your Startup S2 E3 with GRIN's Brandon Brown and LeadIQ's Mei Siauw | E1206 - This Week in Startups
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https://pca.st/episode/515ea0da-873c-4301-98fc-afedbc50a912 - amazing quick one by the founder of intercom on growing a startup from seed to series A
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Startup Podcast
- How To Value Your Startup
Blogs
Business and Startup
The 10 Commandments of Startup Success by Tim Ferriss (transcript of Masters of Scale podcast)
Network effects by Andreesen Horowitz
What are economic moats and why do they matter?
Metrics investors care about, and growth hacking
Pitch Deck template by Sequoia
Why You Should be Planning for 2020, Not 2019
The Most Important Startup Mistakes to Avoid
How to measure CAC
Liquidation Preference: Your equity could be worth millions - or nothing
SaaS Growth: T2D3 and the case against it
Building a $1b SaaS Unicorn: CEO Guide
So you think you're ready to hire a marketer?
LegalVision's Startup Manual for Founders