Earlier today I had the opportunity to meet with a local college student that’s working on a web startup. Being a non-technical founder he had a ton of technology questions. I quickly pointed out that technology isn’t what he needs to focus on right now. Rather, his ability to acquire web traffic and customers will decide the fate of the business.
To help him feel more comfortable with building a web-based startup I recommended he read four books:
- Getting Real – the best product management book for web apps
- The Four Steps to the Epiphany – great how to guide for bringing a new product to market
- The Lean Startup – best practices for testing and iterating in a new business
- The Art of the Start – Guy Kawasaki is the wizard when it comes to startups and what you need to know
Reading these four books will put him ahead of 99% of the other first-time web entrepreneurs and will significantly increase the likelihood of success.
What else? What other books would you add to the list?
David Cummings on Startups 
I would put “Business Model Generation” right up there near the top of all of those books (I’ve read 3 of the 4 – The Lean Startup is quickly moving its way to the top of the stack). Another book that might be interesting to those doing scalable startups is “Venture Deals”. I would also swap Rework for “Getting Real” but they’re both good.
“E-myth” is good for a technical founder, IMO.
Crossing the Chasm by Geoffrey A. Moore
I would add
– Marketing Warfare by Ries&Trout
– The innovator’s solution by Christensen & Raynor
I did a review of those two + the four steps to the epiphany on my blog:
http://summoning-dreams.blogspot.com/search/label/books