Top 10 Entrepreneur Books, #2

to Read this Summer

from Overview Partners.com 05/14 enhanced by Peter/CXO Wiz4biz 7/14

5. Myth of the Visionary. Last summer, we featured Eric Ries’s The Lean Startup on our summer reading list for entrepreneurs — and for good reason. Ries’s book was an absolute home run in the startup community and was widely praised by entrepreneurs and critics alike. This summer, you can build on Ries’s ideas by diving into Cooper and Vlaskovits’s bestseller, which explains why you’re not the visionary you think you are — yet.

6. Using Lean Analytics [to grow your business] Building on the “lean” theme, this detailed resource, highlights the value of measuring & analyzing key data as your business grows. As serial entrepreneurs Croll and Yoskowitz show, lean analytics can help you identify problems quicker, find customers more efficiently, and focus on the initiatives, processes, & opportunities that matter most to a scaling company. The book features more than 30 case studies and features insight from over 100 entrepreneurs and investors.

7. Venture Deals. Speaking of Feld, how could we leave one of the entrepreneurial rock star’s newest books off our summer reading list? The second in a series of four books about creating, running, & managing a startup company, Feld documents the sometimes complex dynamics of building communities of entrepreneurs in places other than Silicon Valley. With more than 20 years of experience as an entrepreneur & investor, Feld’s book provides practical advice that will help entrepreneurs in virtually any city to build a healthy, mutually beneficial entrepreneurial eco-system.

8. Nail it, then Scale it. When most entrepreneurs create a business, they do so knowing that, at a minimum, > 70 % of startups fail. What’s the reason for such a high flame out rate? According to Furr and Ahlstrom, it’s not that entrepreneurs do the wrong things – it’s that they do the right things in the wrong order. In this book, Furr, a BYU professor & Stanford University PhD, and Ahlstrom, a well-known entrepreneur & investor, deliver a methodology for perpetual innovation that’s based on pattern recognition of timeless innovation principles & practices.

9. Running Lean. Okay, one last book in the realm of the Lean Startup. In Running Lean, Maurya explains why the concept of the Lean Startup is so critical to innovation, walking readers through a strategy for achieving product/market fit and maximizing your efforts. Ultimately, the founder & CEO of two technology companies delivers a resource that acclaimed entrepreneur & investor Brad Feld says is a “must read” for any entrepreneur intent on founding a company or adopting the Lean Startup approach.

10. Business Model Generation. While many startup & expansion-stage companies have already developed a business model, this guidebook from Osterwalder, a serial entrepreneur, and Pigneur, a Swiss professor, can help you refine & perfect it. Co-created by business model experts from around the world, the book features innovative techniques from leading businesses like 3M & Deloitte that encourage entrepreneurs to challenge the accepted rules of business model design.

Comments: Do you know any other “great” books?