Books like The Power Law

01

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 innovation.

02

The Hard Thing About Hard Things

Ben Horowitz · Business

The Hard Thing About Hard Things is Ben Horowitz's account of what it actually feels like to run a company through crisis.

A kindred business read.

03

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.

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.

Both dig into entrepreneurship.

05

Blitzscaling: The Lightning-Fast Path to Building Massively Valuable Companies

Reid Hoffman and Chris Yeh · Business

Blitzscaling is Reid Hoffman's argument that certain markets — primarily those with strong network effects and winner-take-most dynamics — reward companies that prioritize speed of growth over efficiency, even at the cost of significant operational risk.

Both dig into venture capital.

06

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.

Shares venture capital and silicon valley with The Power Law.

07

How the Internet Happened

Brian McCullough · History

How the Internet Happened covers the commercial history of the internet from the release of Mosaic in 1993 to the launch of the iPhone in 2007 — the window in which the web went from academic experiment to the defining infrastructure of modern life.

Shares silicon valley and entrepreneurship with The Power Law.

08

Disciplined Entrepreneurship

Bill Aulet · Business

Bill Aulet's Disciplined Entrepreneurship is a structured walkthrough of 24 steps for building a new venture, developed from MIT's entrepreneurship curriculum and Aulet's own experience as a serial entrepreneur.

Shares entrepreneurship and innovation with The Power Law.

09

Innovation and Entrepreneurship

Peter F. Drucker · Business

Innovation and Entrepreneurship is Drucker's systematic treatment of a subject that, in 1985, most people still regarded as the province of lone geniuses and lucky accidents.

Shares entrepreneurship and innovation with The Power Law.

10

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.

Shares venture capital and entrepreneurship with The Power Law.

11

Purple Cow: Transform Your Business by Being Remarkable

Seth Godin · Business

Purple Cow is Seth Godin's argument that the era of traditional marketing — mass advertising, interruption, and promotion — is effectively over, and that the only reliable route to growth is making something so remarkable that people talk about it without being paid to.

Shares entrepreneurship and innovation with The Power Law.

12

The Art of the Start 2.0

Guy Kawasaki · Business

The Art of the Start 2.0 is Guy Kawasaki's updated guide to launching a company, product, or movement.

Shares entrepreneurship and innovation with The Power Law.