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.
13 books on Hiring, Team & Culture for timeless
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What separates merely good companies from truly great ones.
Jim Collins and his research team studied companies that made a sustained leap from good to great results and compared them to peers that did not. They identify common...
2 founders recommend Get the book ↗
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Turn hard bargaining situations into brilliant outcomes with proven frameworks.
Drawing on decades of Harvard research and teaching, Malhotra and Bazerman provide frameworks and strategies for negotiating in difficult situations. They cover...
1 founder recommends Get the book ↗
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The definitive account of Silicon Valley's biggest fraud.
John Carreyrou reconstructs the rise and collapse of Theranos, the blood-testing startup that claimed to revolutionize diagnostics with a single drop of blood. He...
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Negotiate from your own strengths, not someone else's playbook.
Shell lays out an information-based approach to negotiation grounded in your personal bargaining style rather than rigid tactics. He walks through a six-step framework...
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The end-to-end manual for landing a product manager job.
Cracking the PM Interview demystifies the product manager role and the hiring process at major tech companies. It covers what PMs actually do, how to position a...
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Handle high-stakes conversations without going silent or going to war.
The authors define crucial conversations as those where stakes are high, opinions differ, and emotions run strong. They offer a step-by-step method for staying in...
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Break every hard talk into three conversations you can actually manage.
Drawing on the Harvard Negotiation Project, the authors argue that every difficult conversation is really three: the what-happened conversation, the feelings...
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Great managers break conventional rules to grow people's strengths.
Based on Gallup's massive study of managers and employees, the authors find that great managers reject received wisdom and instead build on each person's natural...
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Sustained passion and perseverance beat raw talent.
Angela Duckworth argues that the key to high achievement is not talent but grit, the combination of passion and sustained perseverance toward long-term goals. She...
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Learn to ask the questions that surface what users really do.
A practical guide to planning and conducting user interviews that yield genuine insight rather than confirmation of what you already believe. Portigal covers...
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Great leaders multiply the intelligence of their teams.
Based on research across more than 150 leaders, Wiseman distinguishes Multipliers, who amplify the intelligence and capability of those around them, from Diminishers,...
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Belonging, candor, and purpose are what make groups click.
Coyle goes inside high-performing groups, from Navy SEALs and IDEO to the San Antonio Spurs, to find what makes their cultures work. He distills culture down to three...
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Your culture is what your people do, not what you say.
Horowitz argues that culture is defined by how people actually behave, especially when leaders are not watching. He draws lessons from unlikely leaders including the...
Questions, answered
What books do founders recommend?
Founders on the eChai network recommend titles like Good to Great, Negotiation Genius, and Bad Blood. 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.
