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.
5 books on Hiring, Team & Culture for idea & validation
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Turn your hard-won lessons into a system you can repeat.
Dalio distills the life and work principles he developed running Bridgewater into a single framework for making better decisions. He champions radical truth and...
2 founders recommend Get the book ↗
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Great leaders sacrifice their comfort to keep their people safe.
Drawing on the Marine Corps principle that officers eat last, Sinek argues that the best leaders create a 'circle of safety' so their people can focus on shared goals...
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Good design is invisible; bad design is the user's fault you wrongly accept.
Don Norman explains why some everyday objects are a pleasure to use while others are frustrating, blaming bad design rather than clumsy users. He introduces concepts...
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Great teammates are humble, hungry, and smart.
Told first as a fable and then as a practical model, this book identifies three virtues that make someone an ideal team player: humble, hungry, and smart (in the...
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Set the standard, and the winning takes care of itself.
Bill Walsh shares the leadership philosophy he used to turn the worst team in football into a dynasty. His core idea is the Standard of Performance: define and...
Questions, answered
What books do founders recommend?
Founders on the eChai network recommend titles like Principles: Life and Work, Leaders Eat Last, and The Design of Everyday Things. 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.
