Books like Venture Deals: Be Smarter Than Your Lawyer and Venture Capitalist

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 startups.

02

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.

Shares venture capital and startups with Venture Deals: Be Smarter Than Your Lawyer and Venture Capitalist.

03

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.

Both dig into startups.

04

Rework

Jason Fried and David Heinemeier Hansson · Business

Rework is Jason Fried and David Heinemeier Hansson's deliberately provocative argument against most conventional wisdom about building a business.

Shares startups and entrepreneurship with Venture Deals: Be Smarter Than Your Lawyer and Venture Capitalist.

05

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 startups and strategy with Venture Deals: Be Smarter Than Your Lawyer and Venture Capitalist.

06

Beyond Entrepreneurship

Jim Collins & William Lazier · Business

Beyond Entrepreneurship is Jim Collins's first major book, co-written with William Lazier and published in 1992, before the research that produced Built to Last and Good to Great.

Shares entrepreneurship and strategy with Venture Deals: Be Smarter Than Your Lawyer and Venture Capitalist.

07

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 startups and entrepreneurship with Venture Deals: Be Smarter Than Your Lawyer and Venture Capitalist.

08

Do More Faster: TechStars Lessons to Accelerate Your Startup

Brad Feld and David Cohen · Business

Do More Faster is a collection of short essays and lessons drawn from the TechStars accelerator program, organized by Brad Feld and David Cohen, the program's co-founders.

Shares startups and entrepreneurship with Venture Deals: Be Smarter Than Your Lawyer and Venture Capitalist.

09

Founders at Work: Stories of Startups' Early Days

Jessica Livingston · Business

Founders at Work is Jessica Livingston's collection of interviews with the founders of some of the most influential technology companies of the late twentieth and early twenty-first centuries.

Shares startups and entrepreneurship with Venture Deals: Be Smarter Than Your Lawyer and Venture Capitalist.

10

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 strategy with Venture Deals: Be Smarter Than Your Lawyer and Venture Capitalist.

11

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 Venture Deals: Be Smarter Than Your Lawyer and Venture Capitalist.

12

Scaling Up: How a Few Companies Make It...and Why the Rest Don't

Verne Harnish · Business

Scaling Up is Verne Harnish's update to his earlier Mastering the Rockefeller Habits, substantially revised and expanded to cover the full range of challenges a company faces as it grows from a small entrepreneurial team to a scaled organization.

Shares entrepreneurship and strategy with Venture Deals: Be Smarter Than Your Lawyer and Venture Capitalist.