The Founder Bookshelf
Books founders recommend to each other. Browse by topic or by where you are as you grow, mark what you've read, and add what's next.
9 books on Finance for idea & validation
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Why thinking differently and better beats being smart.
Drawn from Howard Marks's celebrated investor memos, the book distills his philosophy into themes like second-level thinking, the price-value relationship, and...
1 founder recommends Get the book ↗
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Doing well with money is about behavior, not intelligence.
Through a series of short stories, Morgan Housel argues that financial success is less about what you know and more about how you behave. He explores how greed, fear,...
1 founder recommends Get the book ↗
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Using economics and data to explain the hidden side of everything.
Levitt and Dubner apply economic tools to unconventional questions, from cheating teachers to the inner workings of drug gangs. The book argues that incentives explain...
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Automate your money and spend guilt-free on what you love.
A practical six-week program that teaches young professionals to optimize credit cards, banks, investing, and spending through automation. Sethi argues for spending...
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A two-sided guide to playing the venture game and winning.
Jeffrey Bussgang draws on his experience as both founder and VC, plus interviews with entrepreneurs like Jack Dorsey and Reid Hoffman, to explain how the venture game...
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How economics learned that humans are not perfectly rational.
Thaler tells the story of how behavioral economics grew from a fringe idea into a mainstream discipline. He recounts his own career and the resistance he faced arguing...
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Small design choices can steer better decisions without removing freedom.
Thaler and Sunstein argue that the way choices are presented, the choice architecture, profoundly shapes the decisions people make. They introduce libertarian...
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Inside secrets on venture capital from the people who run it.
Romans compiles advice and insider perspectives from leading venture capitalists, angel investors, and entrepreneurs on how startup funding really works. The book...
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Buy low-cost index funds and stop overthinking it.
Written originally as letters to his daughter, Collins lays out a straightforward approach to building wealth through low-cost broad-market index funds. He explains...
Questions, answered
What books do founders recommend?
Founders on the eChai network recommend titles like The Most Important Thing, The Psychology of Money, and Freakonomics. The bookshelf ranks books by how many founders have read them.
Where can I find a startup reading list?
The eChai founder bookshelf is a curated, founder-recommended reading list you can browse by topic (fundraising, product, hiring) and by stage.
How is the bookshelf ordered?
By recommendation: the more founders mark a book read, the higher it ranks. You can also sort by newest or A to Z.
