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‹ The Founder Bookshelf

Founders at Work cover

Founders at Work

Stories of Startups' Early Days

What really happened in the earliest days of famous tech startups.

by Jessica Livingston

A collection of candid interviews with founders of companies like Apple, PayPal, Hotmail, Flickr, and Adobe about the chaotic beginnings of their startups. Rather than polished retrospectives, the conversations surface the false starts, rejections, pivots, and lucky breaks behind well-known successes. The through line is how ordinary and uncertain even legendary startups felt from the inside.

For founders living through their own uncertain early days, this book is reassurance backed by evidence: nearly every famous startup looked fragile and improvised at the start. It is a primary-source education in how real companies actually get off the ground.

Where to get it

Questions, answered

What is Founders at Work about?

For founders living through their own uncertain early days, this book is reassurance backed by evidence: nearly every famous startup looked fragile and improvised at the start. It is a primary-source education in how real companies actually get off the ground.

Where can I find books founders recommend?

The eChai founder bookshelf ranks the books founders in the network recommend to each other.

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