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 Founder Memoirs for timeless

  1. Elon Musk cover

    Walter Isaacson

    An inside look at the drive and chaos behind Musk's empire.

    Isaacson spent two years shadowing Elon Musk across Tesla, SpaceX, the founding of his AI work, and the takeover of Twitter. The book traces Musk's traumatic...

    1 founder recommend Get the book ↗
  2. Shoe Dog cover

    Phil Knight

    The raw, unvarnished story of how Nike almost didn't make it.

    Phil Knight recounts the founding of Nike, from importing Onitsuka Tiger shoes as a young entrepreneur to building a global brand. The memoir is candid about the...

    1 founder recommend Get the book ↗
  3. Creative Capital cover

    Spencer E. Ante

    The biography of the man who invented venture capital.

    Spencer Ante tells the life story of Georges Doriot, the French immigrant, Harvard Business School professor, and World War II general who founded American Research...

  4. Liar's Poker cover

    Michael Lewis

    An insider's account of 1980s bond-trading excess.

    Liar's Poker is Michael Lewis's memoir of his years as a bond salesman at Salomon Brothers during the boom of the 1980s. It captures the brash, money-obsessed culture...

  5. Made in Japan cover

    Akio Morita with Edwin M. Reingold and Mitsuko Shimomura

    How Sony turned bold product bets into a global brand.

    Akio Morita recounts founding Sony in postwar Japan and building it into a global electronics powerhouse. He describes the conviction-driven product decisions behind...

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