Books like Super Pumped: The Battle for Uber

01

Bad Blood: Secrets and Lies in a Silicon Valley Startup

John Carreyrou · Business

Bad Blood is Wall Street Journal reporter John Carreyrou's account of Theranos, the blood-testing startup founded by Elizabeth Holmes that claimed its proprietary technology could run hundreds of diagnostic tests from a single finger-prick of blood.

A kindred business read.

02

The Everything Store: Jeff Bezos and the Age of Amazon

Brad Stone · Business

The Everything Store is Brad Stone's account of Amazon's founding and growth from a book retailer to one of the most powerful companies in the world.

A kindred business read.

03

No Filter: The Inside Story of Instagram

Sarah Frier · Business

No Filter is Sarah Frier's account of Instagram's founding, its acquisition by Facebook, and the decade-long tension between Instagram's founders and Mark Zuckerberg over what the product should become.

Shares startup culture and silicon valley with Super Pumped: The Battle for Uber.

04

Shoe Dog: A Memoir by the Creator of Nike

Phil Knight · Memoir

Shoe Dog is Phil Knight's account of the first two decades of Nike, from the $50 loan he borrowed from his father in 1964 to fund his first shipment of Japanese running shoes to the company's IPO in 1980.

A kindred business read.

05

Build

Tony Fadell · Business

Tony Fadell was the engineer who built the iPod, the executive who led the team that created the original iPhone, and the founder of Nest, the thermostat company he sold to Google for $3.2 billion.

Both dig into startup culture.

06

Financial Shenanigans

Howard M. Schilit · Business

Financial Shenanigans is Howard Schilit's guide to the tricks companies use to make their financial results look better than they are — and how a careful reader of financial statements can spot them before they explode.

Both dig into corporate governance.

07

Lights Out

Thomas Gryta · Business

Lights Out chronicles the destruction of General Electric under Jeff Immelt, who took over from Jack Welch in September 2001 and left in 2017 having overseen one of the largest collapses of corporate value in American history.

Both dig into leadership failure.

08

Lost and Founder

Rand Fishkin · Business

Rand Fishkin built Moz, the SEO software company, from a bootstrapped consultancy into a venture-backed business with millions in revenue — and then watched it nearly collapse under the weight of that growth.

Both dig into startup culture.

09

Platform Revolution

Geoffrey G. Parker, Marshall W. Van Alstyne, and Sangeet Paul Choudary · Business

Platform Revolution is the most systematic treatment available of how platform businesses — companies that facilitate interactions between two or more distinct groups — work differently from traditional pipeline businesses.

Both dig into disruption.

10

Power and Prediction: The Disruptive Economics of Artificial Intelligence

Ajay Agrawal, Joshua Gans, and Avi Goldfarb · Business

Power and Prediction is the second book from Ajay Agrawal, Joshua Gans, and Avi Goldfarb — the economists behind Prediction Machines — and it takes a more pointed look at what cheap AI-driven prediction actually disrupts.

Both dig into disruption.

11

Startup

Jerry Kaplan · Business

Startup is Jerry Kaplan's account of GO Corporation, the pen-computing company he co-founded in 1987 and ran until it collapsed in 1994.

Both dig into silicon valley.

12

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.

Both dig into disruption.