1. Startups Everywhere

Founder’s Field Guide | Readings & Miscellany Over the past several years, I’ve compiled a set of entrepreneurship-related resources to use in the class that I teach at Yale SOM, Founder’s Practicum. The resources + tools cover a range of topics — from early stage financing to building a team to design to branding. This list is in no way comprehensive — it simply includes things that I’ve come across in the course of my research that I thought might be useful for other founders who are launching new ventures. It is a living document, so things are added occasionally to provide additional context or removed if they seem less relevant. If you have any suggestions for readings to add, please add them in the comments. The gender and ethnic diversity of the authors (and, therefore, the perspectives) is not where I’d like it to be. So if you have any good recommendations for readings by female or ethnically diverse authors in particular, please comment or send me an email at [email protected]/* */ Otherwise, enjoy. Before you start Articles/videos: How to Start a Startup by Paul Graham Why not to Start a Startup by Paul Graham Strategy Letter 1: Ben & Jerry’s vs. Amazon by Joel Spolsky Entrepreneur’s Anonymous by The Economist Top 5 Pieces of Advice for Founders by Dennis Crowley How to launch a startup without writing a line of code by Dharmesh Shaw Lessons Learned from Bill Gross’ 35 IPOs/Exits and 40 Failures by Howard Morgan Building Great Founding Teams by Steve Blank Forming Startup Founder Teams by Evangelos Simoudis Founder’s Agreements by David Touve The Idea Maze by Chris Dixon Ten Rules for Web Startups by Evan Williams It’s Not a Lottery Ticket, It’s a Company by Phin Barnes How to Make Sense of Conflicting Startup Advice by Mark Suster Looking for Love in All the Wrong Places by Steve Blank Listening to Shame by Brene Brown (first 7 minutes) Deep Dives: Zero to One: Notes on Startups, or How to Build the Future by Peter Thiel The Hard Thing About Hard Things by Ben Horowitz The Founder’s Dilemmas by Noam Wasserman (particularly Part II: Founding Team Dilemmas)* Getting Started Articles/videos: Why the Lean Startup Changes Everything by Steve Blank Generation Flux’s Secret Weapon by Robert Safian The Management Framework that Propelled LinkedIn to a $20 Billion Business by First Round Review 10 Laws of Cloud Computing by Bessemer Venture Partners Build Products by Christina Cacioppo Year End Round Up by Alexis Lloyd (list of interesting tech-related links by @nytlabs; great for idea generation) 10 Things That Changed How I Thought About Building Things by Brendan Baker (curated list of other resources) Deep Dives: Founders at Work by Jessica Livingston Getting Real: The Smarter, Faster, Easier Way to Build a Successful Web Application by 37 Signals Evernote: Growth Options in January 2011 by Hiam Mendelson (Stanford GSB Case) Disciplined Entrepreneurship by Bill Aulet Product/Market Fit Articles/videos: How to Launch a Product without Writing any Code by Tal Raviv How to be a Founder Worth Coding For by Dan Sullivan and Galen Sanford (video) 8 Essential Questions You Need to Ask About Your Business Model by Alex Osterwalder Product/Market Fit by Marc Andreesen Be Socratic by Brad Feld (Focus on the Five Why’s, which we’re likely to ask you!) AngelList Pivoted Four Times to Get it Right When Has a Consumer Startup Hit Product/Market Fit by Andrew Chen Minimum Viable Product: A Guide by Eric Ries (video) Know Your Customer’s “Jobs to be Done” by Clayton M. Christensen, Taddy Hall, Karen Dillon, and David S. Duncan Deep Dives: Lean Startup by Eric Ries Business Model Canvas by Alex Osterwalder Running Lean by Ash Mayura Talking to Customers Articles/videos: Customer Development: How to Develop your Customers like you Develop your Product by Venture Hacks Retooling Early Stage Product Development by Steve Blank (podcast) How to Run a User Interview by Emmett Shear 12 Tips for Early Customer Development Interviews by Giff Constable Lean Product Manager by Dan Olsen (video) Deep Dives: Talking to Humans by Giff Constable Four Steps to the Epiphany by Steve Blank The Entrepreneur’s Guide to Customer Development by Brant Cooper and Patrick Vlaskovitz Tools: A Few Good Online Survey Tools by Eric Leland Competitive Strategy Articles/Videos: What Happened When Marissa Mayer Tried to Be Steve Jobs by Nicholas Carlson How Competition Strengthens Startups by Andrew Burke and Stephanie Hussels Multi-Sided Platforms by Andrei Hagiu and Julian Wright Deep Dives: The Innovator’s Dilemma & The Innovator’s Solution by Clayton Christensen Competitive Strategy by Michael Porter (it’s a classic for a reason and surprising useful for startup comp strat) Photos from Unsplash Developing a Revenue Model Readings: Web and Mobile Revenue Model Hackpad Revenue Models: Data by Fred Wilson Revenue Models: Peer-to-Peer by Fred Wilson Revenue Models: Licensing by Fred Wilson Revenue Models: Commerce by Fred Wilson Revenue Models: Transaction Processing by Fred Wilson Revenue Models: Advertising by Fred Wilson Revenue Models: Gaming by Fred Wilson Revenue Models: Mobile by Fred Wilson Freemium and Freeconomics by Fred Wilson How to Get Good at Making Money by Jason Fried What is Business Model by Andrea Ovans Deep Dives: Lean Startup by Eric Ries Business Model Canvas by Alex Osterwalder Pricing Your Product Readings: The Sequoia Guide to Pricing by Sequoia Capital How to Price and Sell Your Startup’s Product by Tomasz Tunguz Freemium Software: A Guide for Startups by IVP Don’t Leave Money on the Table with this Crash Course in Pricing by First Round Review Making Freemium Work by Vineet Kumar/HBR Is it Time to Rethink Your Pricing Strategy by Andreas Hinterhuber and Stephan Liozu When Customers Help Set Prices Pricing, Pricing, Pricing podcast by Mark Cranney, Martin Casado, and Scott Kupor of Andreesen Horowitz Pricing Free podcast by Mark Cranney, Martin Casado, and Scott Kupor of Andreesen Horowitz Deep Dives: The Dynamic Effects of Bundling as a Product Strategy by Vineet Kumar and Timothy Derdenger Building a Brand Readings: This Startup Cracked a $2.4 Billion Market with Branding by First Round Review Finding Your Brand’s Identity by Ana Bianchi Creating Your Logo Design by Ana Bianchi Neil Blumenthal: 3 Lessons Learned from Building Warby Parker by Neil Blumenthal (video) Jeff Raider, Harry’s and Warby Parker (podcast) How to Name Your Startup by Gimlet Media (podcast) Positioning Your Startup is Vital — Here’s How to Nail It by First Round Review Deep Dives: Positioning: The Battle for Your Mind by Al Ries and Jack Trout Brand Thinking by Debbie Millman Crossing the Chasm and Inside the Tornado by Geoffrey Moore Designing Brand Identity by Alina Wheeler Case Study|Rapha: Rapha: Building a Brand Through Creativity by Angus Montgomery When Branding Means Living Life by Karen Summerson (video) Brands: Rapha by Manufacture Magazine On Passion, Obsession and Why Your Brand Should Take Sides by Jocelyn Glei Case Study|Asana: Circling Ourselves: The Story Behind Asana’s Rebrand by Micah Daigle Finding Clarity and Energy: Learnings from Redesigning Asana by Vanessa Koch Design Readings: A Beginner’s Guide to Pairing Fonts by Ian Yates Deep Dives: The Design of Everyday Things by Donald Norman The Shape of Design by Frank Chimero Hack Design (Online, weekly design course) Tools: Typography: Font Squirrel TypeKit Lost Type League of Moveable Type Google Web Fonts Hoefler & Co. Fonts in Use Color: Kuler 0to255 Hailpixel Palleton Pictaculous Photos/Images: Unsplash Gratisography Stocksy PicJumbo Death to Stock Photo FromOldBooks.org Flickr Pixabay Pexels Subtle Patterns Tiny Eye (lets you search Flickr by color) Icons The Noun Project Flat Icon Genericons Symbol Set Font Awesome UI/UX Readings: Complete Beginner’s Guide to Interaction Design by UX Booth Google Design Sprint by Jake Knapp Startups This is How Design Works Writing First Design by Jonas Downey The Making of Tiiny by Kevin Rose Why You Need a Prototype and How to Build One by Ximena Vengoechea User Research Quick and Dirty by Michael Margolis (video) 9 Basic Principles of Responsive Web Design by Sandijs Ruluks Usability 101: Introduction to Usability by Jakob Nielsen Deep Dives: Lean UX by Jeff Gothelf Smashing UX Design by Jesmond Allen Don’t Make Me Think by Steve Krug On Web Typography by Jason Santa Maria UX Project Checklist Tools: Sketch (wireframing) InvisionApp (clickable wireframes) Balsamiq (wireframing) Unsplash (free stock photos) Pinterest (bookmarking site to pull together inspiration) Experiment Mixtape prototyping exercise by Stanford d.School Keynote (wireframing//great if you’re already familiar with Keynote) Social Media & Content Marketing Readings: Email Marketing Field Guide, How to Avoid Spam Filters, and Common Rookie Mistakes by Mailchimp Hubspot Email Marketing Strategy by Hubspot The Marketers Guide to Transactional Email by Kissmetrics Blog Topic Generator by Hubspot The Anatomy of a Perfect Social Media Post by Stephanie Frasco Marketer’s Guide to Instagram by Kissmetrics 25 Brands That Are Killing it on Instagram by Meredith Lepore How to Share to Social Media if You Don’t Have Time by Kevan Lee 39 Blogging Tools to Help You Work Faster, Write Better and Land More Readers by Kevan Lee The Seven Deadly Sins of Startup Marketing by Jennifer Aaker and Andy Smith Deep Dives: The Elements of Content Strategy by Erin Kissane Viral Marketing for the Real World by Duncan J. Watts, Jonah Peretti, and Michael Frumin How Stories Drive Growth: Brit + Co. by Jennifer Aaker and Deborah Schifrin (Case Study, Stanford GSB) How Stories Drive Growth: Skype by Jennifer Aaker and Deborah Schifrin (Case Study, Stanford GSB) Tools: Hootsuite (social media scheduling) Mailchimp (email) SailThru (email) TinyLetter (email) Public Relations Articles/videos: How do you Get Media Coverage for Your Startup by Dharmesh Shah Startups and the Media by Wade Roush (video) Tools: HARO (Help a Reporter Out) HackPR MuckRack Analytics Readings: Analytics 3.0: Measurable Business Impact from Analytics and Big Data by Harvard Business Review Startup Metrics for Pirates by Dave McClure (video) Cohort Analysis by Rick Klau The Beginners Guide to Conversion Rate Optimization Vanity Metrics vs. Actionable Methods by Eric Ries Lean Analytics by Ken Norton (video) Deep Dives: Lean Analytics: Use Data to Build a Better Startup Faster by Alistair Croll et. al. Tools: Google Analytics Mixpanel Kissmetrics Chartbeat Compete Alexa Comscore Quantcast Customer Acquisition Readings: Your First 100 AdWords Conversions by Google Ventures (video) How to Create a Customer Acquisition Plan for Startups by Ryan Gum Using Keyword Planner to Get Keyword Ideas and Traffic Forecasts by Google Diligence at Social Capital: Part 1 by Jonathan Hsu Diligence at Social Capital: Part 2 by Jonathan Hsu Diligence at Social Capital: Part 3 by Jonathan Hsu Understanding Customer Acquisition Costs by Rob Moffat Deeper Dive: Traction: A Startup Guide to Getting Customers by Gabriel Weinberg Tools: Optimizely (A/B Testing) Unbounce (A/B Testing) Visual Website Optimizer (A/B Testing) Startup Sales Readings: The Science of Building a Scalable Sales Team by Rick Klau Your Product Demo Sucks Because It’s Focused on Your Product by First Round Review Building a Sales and Marketing Machine by David Skok The Science of Building a Scalable Sales Team by Google Ventures On Selling by Mark Suster The 39 Best Pieces of Sales Advice You’ll Hear this Year by Wiley Cirelli How to Sell Enterprise Customers by Todd Vollmer Looking to Scale Your Sales: Seven Bullets to Dodge by Deeper Dive: Aligning Strategy and Sales by Frank V. Cespedes To Sell is Human by Dan Pink **Watch Death of a Salesman and Glengarry Glen Ross Business/Partnership Development Articles/videos: Partnerships for Startups Part 1 and Part 2 by Tom Tunguz Who Ya Gonna Call: A Tale of Two Announcements by John O’Farrell Startup Business Development 101 by Holger Luedorf Deep Dives: Building a Company Culture Readings: How Dave Goldberg of SurveyMonkey Built a Billion $ Business and Still gets Home by 5:30 by Dave Goldberg (video) A Company that Profits as it Pampers Workers Unconscious Bias @ Work by Google Ventures (video) Culture by Reed Hastings http://techcrunch.com/2014/04/12/culture-eats-strategy-for-breakfast/ http://www.uxmatters.com/mt/archives/2015/10/integrated-approaches-to-constant-personal-learning-improvement-and-maturity.php Deep Dives: High Output Management by Andy Grove The Everything Store: Jeff Bezos and the Age of Amazon by Brad Stone Building a Strong Team Readings: A Primer for Startups and Job Seekers to BOTH win the Talent War by Tammy Han How to Hire a Product Manager by Ken Norton Hiring a Designer: Hunting for the Unicorn by Braden Kowitz How Top Startups Pay Designers by Daniel Burka Hiring a Designer: How to Review Portfolios by Chad Thornton How to Operate by Keith Rabois (video) The New Science of Building Great Teams by Alex “Sandy” Pentland Hiring Technical Talent Readings: Why you can’t find a Technical Co-Founder by Elizabeth Yin Why you can’t find a Technical Co-Founder: Part II by Elizabeth Yin Moneyball Startup Recruiting by Victor Wong How Etsy Grew their Number of Female Engineers by Almost 500% in One Year by First Round Review (video) How to Hire a Developer http://www.joelonsoftware.com/articles/FieldGuidetoDevelopers.html http://blog.learningbyshipping.com/2015/04/07/hiring-your-first-product-manager/ Sourcing Readings: Strategic Sourcing from Periphery to Core by Mark Gottfredson, Rudy Puryear, and Stephen Phillips Company Formation Readings: Organizing your Company by Adam Dinow Fundraising Readings: What I Wish I Knew Before Pitching LinkedIn to VCs by Reid Hoffman LinkedIn Pitch Deck by Reid Hoffman This Week in Venture Capital with Mark Suster (video) The “Too Rich to Succeed” Challenge Facing Startups by [email protected]/* */ Moz’s $18 Million Venture Financing: Our Story, Metrics and Future by Rand Fishkin How to Bootstrap by Spencer Fry Fundraising Panel at Female Founders Conference 2014 by Y Combinator How Much Funding is Too Little? Too Much? by Marc Andreesen The Secret History of Silicon Valley by Steve Blank Deep Dive: Venture Deals: Be Smarter than your Lawyer and Venture Capitalist by Brad Feld Mastering the VC Game by Jeffrey Bussgang The Business of Venture Capital: Insights from Leading Practitioners on the Art of Raising a Fund, Deal Structuring, Value Creation, and Exit Strategies by Mahendra Ramsinghani Raising Venture Capital for the Serious Entrepreneur by Dermot Berkery What Every Angel Investor Wants You to Know: An Insider Reveals How to Get Smart Funding for Your Billion Dollar Idea by Brian S. Cohen When Things Go Wrong Readings: ArsDigita: From Startup to Bust by Philip Greenspun The Psychological Price of Entrepreneurship by Jessica Bruder In 30 Days, My Startup will be Dead How Startups Should Die by Jason Freedman My Startup Failed and this is What it Feels Like by Nikki Durkin When Should I Sell or Shut Down My Startup? by Wilson Sonsini + Jason Calcanis Deep Dive: Hatching Twitter: A True Story of Money, Power, Friendship and Betrayal by Nick Bilton HBS Cases + Readings on Entrepreneurship and Lean Startup Dropbox: “It Just Works” by Thomas R. Eisenmann, Michael Pao and Lauren Barley Customer Discovery and Validation for Entrepreneurs by Frank V. Cespedes, Thomas Eisenmann and Steven G. Blank Customer Visits for Entrepreneurs by Frank Cespedes Aardvark by Thomas R. Eisenmann Rent the Runway by Thomas R. Eisenmann