Books like Crossing the Chasm

01

The Innovator's Dilemma

Clayton M. Christensen · Business

Christensen's argument, published in 1997, is deceptively simple: the very practices that make companies excellent at serving their current customers — listening carefully, investing in proven technologies, targeting the most profitable segments — are precisely what causes them to miss disruptive innovations.

A kindred business read.

02

Blue Ocean Strategy

W. Chan Kim and Renée Mauborgne · Business

Blue Ocean Strategy is Kim and Mauborgne's case that the most successful companies don't compete in existing markets by beating rivals at their own game — they create new market spaces where competition is irrelevant.

A kindred business read.

03

Zero to One: Notes on Startups, or How to Build the Future

Peter Thiel · Business

Zero to One began as notes from a Stanford course Thiel taught on startups in 2012, assembled into a book with co-author Blake Masters.

Both dig into startups.

04

Obviously Awesome

April Dunford · Business

Obviously Awesome is April Dunford's practical guide to product positioning — the often misunderstood discipline of defining where your product fits in the competitive landscape so that the right customers immediately understand its value.

Shares marketing and startups with Crossing the Chasm.

05

Traction: How Any Startup Can Achieve Explosive Customer Growth

Gabriel Weinberg and Justin Mares · Business

Traction is Gabriel Weinberg and Justin Mares's systematic guide to customer acquisition for startups.

Shares marketing and startups with Crossing the Chasm.

06

Product-Led Growth

Wes Bush · Business

Product-Led Growth is Wes Bush's guide to a go-to-market strategy in which the product itself is the primary vehicle for customer acquisition, conversion, and expansion — rather than sales and marketing teams that generate leads and hand them to the product.

Shares marketing and startups with Crossing the Chasm.

07

Hacking Growth

Sean Ellis and Morgan Brown · Business

Hacking Growth is Sean Ellis and Morgan Brown's guide to building a growth function — an organizationally distinct, cross-functional team focused on finding and exploiting opportunities to accelerate customer acquisition, retention, and revenue.

Shares marketing and startups with Crossing the Chasm.

08

Competing Against Luck

Clayton M. Christensen · Business

Competing Against Luck is Clayton Christensen's most complete development of the Jobs to Be Done framework, which he introduced briefly in The Innovator's Solution.

Shares marketing and product strategy with Crossing the Chasm.

09

Growth Hacker Marketing

Ryan Holiday · Business

Growth Hacker Marketing is Ryan Holiday's short, accessible introduction to a marketing philosophy that emerged from Silicon Valley startups in the early 2010s.

Shares marketing and startups with Crossing the Chasm.

10

Predictable Revenue

Aaron Ross and Marylou Tyler · Business

Predictable Revenue is Aaron Ross's account of the outbound sales system he built at Salesforce that generated over $100 million in recurring revenue.

Shares startups and b2b with Crossing the Chasm.

11

The Cold Start Problem

Andrew Chen · Business

The Cold Start Problem is Andrew Chen's framework for understanding network effects — the phenomenon where products become more valuable as more people use them — and the specific challenge every such product faces at launch: it has no network, and no value, until it does.

Shares startups and product strategy with Crossing the Chasm.

12

All Marketers Are Liars

Seth Godin · Business

All Marketers Are Liars — later republished as All Marketers Tell Stories — is Seth Godin's argument that successful marketing is not about facts or features but about stories that confirm what consumers already believe about the world.

Both dig into marketing.