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.
21 books on Marketing & Growth for timeless
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Design grounded in how people actually think and act.
This book distills psychology and behavioral research into 100 short, practical insights about how people see, read, remember, decide, and act. Each entry pairs a...
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An unverified title attributed to Bernadette Jiwa.
No published book with this exact title by Bernadette Jiwa could be verified. Jiwa is a real and well-known brand storytelling author, but her catalog includes titles...
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Make the customer the hero and your brand the guide.
Miller adapts the seven elements of a classic story into a marketing framework where the customer is the hero and the brand is the guide who helps them win. He shows...
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How to build and manage brands as strategic assets.
Aaker presents a systematic framework for building brand equity through clear brand identity, positioning, and management. Drawing on real cases from Saturn, GE,...
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The candid principles behind one of advertising's greatest careers.
Ogilvy's first and most personal book lays out the operating principles of his agency and his craft. He covers how to run an agency, get and keep clients, build great...
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A practical, visual playbook for building brand identity systems.
Wheeler lays out a structured, repeatable process for creating and managing brand identity, from research and clarifying strategy through design, identity systems, and...
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Stop competing on the same axis as everyone else.
Moon argues that competition makes companies converge until products in a category become indistinguishable, and that real differentiation requires breaking from the...
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Give value repeatedly, then make the ask that converts.
A practical guide to social media marketing built on the boxing metaphor of jabs (value-giving content) leading to a right hook (the ask). Vaynerchuk argues that...
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Brands earn respect, but Lovemarks earn loyalty beyond reason.
Roberts argues that brands have run out of emotional fuel and that the future belongs to Lovemarks: brands that inspire loyalty beyond reason through love and respect....
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Small shifts in wording can dramatically change how people respond.
Berger shows how subtle choices of words can change minds, build relationships, and drive action. He identifies categories of language (such as words that signal...
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The foundational textbook that defined modern marketing as a discipline.
Kotler's landmark text frames marketing as an analytical, managerial discipline built around analysis, planning, implementation, and control. It introduces the...
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Indian society read through fifty years of its advertising.
Ambi Parameswaran analyzes over a hundred Indian advertisements to trace how the country's culture, politics, and economy evolved over fifty years. He shows how...
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The legendary adman's practical playbook for advertising that sells.
A richly illustrated, opinionated guide to advertising from one of its most successful practitioners. Ogilvy covers how to write copy and headlines, make effective...
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In a crowded market, being boring is the biggest risk of all.
Seth Godin argues that traditional advertising no longer works and that the only way to stand out is to make something remarkable, a Purple Cow worth talking about. He...
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Build a sales story that makes your difference the obvious choice.
Dunford presents a step-by-step structure for a sales pitch that helps customers make confident buying decisions while positioning your product to win. She argues the...
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Marketing a service means selling a promise, not a product.
Harry Beckwith offers short, punchy lessons on marketing services, which cannot be touched, tasted, or test-driven before purchase. He argues that service marketing is...
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Hospitality, not just service, is the real competitive edge.
Meyer chronicles his rise from a single Manhattan restaurant to a hospitality empire, sharing the philosophy of enlightened hospitality behind it. He argues that...
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Replace interruptive ads with stories audiences choose.
McKee and Gerace argue that traditional interruptive advertising is losing its power and that story-driven marketing is the path forward. They apply McKee's principles...
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A whole marketing strategy that fits on a single page.
Allan Dib presents a simple framework for building a complete marketing plan on one page, organized around the before, during, and after phases of the customer...
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Marketing is the generous act of helping someone solve a problem.
Seth Godin reframes marketing as serving a specific audience rather than shouting at everyone. He argues you should find the smallest viable market, understand their...
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What people hear matters more than what you actually say.
Luntz draws on years of polling and focus-group testing to explain why certain words and phrases resonate while others fall flat. He lays out ten rules of effective...
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