The Definitive Reading List for Technology Investors and Founders

Hey you, it’s time to take a beat. Here’s a happy reminder. If you only take time off for the actual holiday days and weekends between now and January 1st, you have 14 days to do something other than think about work. You’ve gone hard all year. It’s about time to sit down for a moment.  

If you’re flying somewhere, have a book in hand for those long lines, takeoffs, and taxis. If you’re driving, grab that book on audio. If you’re going nowhere but a comfy chair in your house, put a tea/bourbon in the other hand and enjoy the stillness. Having a great book will make each of those scenarios better. A good reading list might be a way to kickstart part of your brain you haven’t had a chance to use in a while. Or it might be your favorite hobby, and you’re trying to decide what to choose from the ample buffet of options.  

Either way, we have you covered. Thanks to a combination of personal team favorites, Internet research, some AI, and good old-fashioned crowdsourcing, we’ve built the ultimate list of books for technology investors and founders. We categorized them by audience and topic and wrote a brief synopsis for each, so it'll be quick to find something interesting. (There's even a piece of fiction on the list, in case you need to take a real mental break over the next six weeks.)  

Enjoy the read. Follow up with us to tell us what you chose and what you thought of it!   ‍

The Best Books for Technology Investors  ‍

These books provide practical advice, strategic thinking, and insights into the venture capital ecosystem, making them compelling and useful for current and would-be investors.  

1. ‍The Business of Venture Capital: Insights from Leading Practitioners on the Art of Raising a Fund, Deal Structuring, Value Creation, and Exit Strategies: This comprehensive guide covers everything from fundraising and deal structuring to portfolio management and exit strategies.  ‍
2. The Power Law: Venture Capital and the Making of the New Future: This book shows how venture capitalists use the power law to identify and invest in high-potential companies to shape the future of technology innovation.  ‍
3. Venture Capital Investing: The Handbook of Private Debt and Private Equity: The book clarifies the nuances, complexities, and opportunities of private debt and equity through an overview of the strategies and processes of investing in private markets. ‍
4. The Intelligent Investor: The book is considered a seminal work in the field of value investing. It offers investing guidance focused on discipline, risk management, and knowing the difference between investing and speculating.  
5. ‍Venture Deals: Be Smarter Than Your Lawyer and Venture Capitalist: This book is a comprehensive guide to venture capital deals, covering topics such as negotiation, term sheets, and shareholder agreements.  

The Best Books for Technology Startup Founders  ‍

These books offer strategic guidance, practical advice, and innovative thinking, making them especially valuable for technology startup founders navigating the challenging journey from idea to successful business.  ‍

All About the Money  ‍

1. ‍Secrets of Sand Hill Road: Venture Capital and How to Get It: An insider's perspective on how venture capital firms operate and what investors look for, the book provides entrepreneurs with strategies for securing venture capital funding.  ‍
2. The Startup Game: The book is a guide to raising VC money and building a successful startup company from the perspective of a successful venture capitalist.   ‍
3. The Art of Startup Fundraising: Pitching Investors, Negotiating the Deal, and Everything Else Entrepreneurs Need to Know: This book is a comprehensive guide to startup fundraising that covers pitching, negotiating, and structuring the fundraising process.   ‍

All About Products  ‍

1. ‍Hooked: How to Build Habit-Forming Products: For tech startup founders looking to understand user engagement and product design, this book offers a framework for building products that captivate users and keep them coming back.  ‍
2. Crossing the Chasm: Marketing and Selling Disruptive Products to Mainstream Customers: This book is a guide for startups transitioning from early adoption to the mainstream market. It provides strategic frameworks for successfully marketing and selling innovative products.  ‍
3. Pillar-Based Marketing: Content marketing can widen the sales funnel and increase conversions when it's done right. The book uses consumer behavior data and psychology research to show how to capture superior marketing results. ‍

Cross-over Winners  ‍

If you’re only going to read one book, reference this list. These selections are on the top lists for investors and entrepreneurs.  ‍

1. ‍The Lean Startup: How Today's Entrepreneurs Use Continuous Innovation to Create Radically Successful Businesses: Called “essential reading for investors,” this book introduces the lean startup methodology, emphasizing the importance of agility and rapid iteration in developing successful startups.
2. ‍The Innovator's Dilemma: When New Technologies Cause Great Firms to Fail: Even successful companies can lose their market leadership when confronted with disruptive technologies, and this book explains how to recognize and adapt to technological changes to avoid failure and maintain competitive advantage.
3. ‍Zero to One: Notes on Startups, or How to Build the Future: Considered a “must-read” for any entrepreneur or venture capitalist who wants to create new value, the book offers wisdom on startup innovation, competition, and building a successful business from the ground up.  
4. ‍The Hard Thing About Hard Things: Building a Business When There Are No Easy Answers: This memoir provides insights into the challenges and rewards of building a startup company through insights and personal anecdotes.  ‍

Fiction That Feels a Bit Too Real (but Still Entertains)  ‍

1. ‍The Circle: When Mae Holland goes to work for the Circle, the world’s most powerful internet company, she feels she’s gotten the opportunity of a lifetime. What begins as a captivating story of ambition and idealism becomes a heart-racing story of suspense that raises questions about memory, history, privacy, democracy, and the limits of human knowledge.