So you’re thinking about startups
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So you’re thinking about startups

Whether you’re interested in entrepreneurship or want to join a startup, here are some resources that can help you feel prepared

Books

Do you all have a general idea of the kind of problem you want to solve? Do you need to validate that your target market sees the same problem? Or are people saying nice, encouraging things, and you're worried they aren't giving you helpful feedback?

  • The Mom Test: How to Talk to Customers & Learn If Your Business Is a Good Idea When Everyone Is Lying to You, by Rob Fitzpatrick (Author | Amazon | Kindle)

Are you building a consumer business, and you want to validate demand before investing heavily?

  • The Right It: Why So Many Ideas Fail and How to Make Sure Yours Succeed, by Alberto Savoia (Author | Amazon | Kindle)

Do you want a full roadmap, from ideation through launch, and you know you need to start with demand validation?

  • Disciplined Entrepreneurship, by Bill Aulet (Author | Amazon | Kindle)

Do you have a product or prototype, but now you're realizing that you need to niche down to your initial ICP (the one for whom the product you're solving is Oxygen or Aspirin level, not just Vitamin)?

  • Click, by Jake Knapp and John Zeratsky (Author | Amazon | Kindle)

Are you struggling to have useful conversations with your engineers or technical cofounder? Do they keep building something different than what you had in your head?

  • User Story Mapping, by Jeff Patton (Author | Amazon | Kindle)

Other books for later on:

Do you and your cofounders need to get on the same page about how a funded tech startup operates?

  • High Growth Handbook, by Elad Gil (Author | Amazon | Kindle)

How does software engineering work at modern tech companies?

  • An Elegant Puzzle: Systems of Engineering Management, by Will Larson (Author | Amazon | Kindle)

How to talk to colleagues without being an a-hole?

  • Radical Candor, by Kim Scott (Author | Amazon | Kindle)

Is your organization growing and you’re trying to figure out how to make it grow in sensible ways?

  • Team Topologies: Organizing Business and Technology Teams for Fast Flow, by Matt Skelton & Manuel Pais (Author | Amazon | Kindle)

Do people keep talking about “agile” or “scrum” and you have no idea what they mean?

  • Learning Agile: Understanding Scrum, XP, Lean, and Kanban, by Jennifer Greene & Andrew Stellman (Author | Amazon | Kindle)

Slacks and other communities

  • Rand’s Leadership Slack: https://randsinrepose.com/welcome-to-rands-leadership-slack/ (free, large, well run, more engineering-focused, but plenty of channels for founders and entrepreneurs as well as networking and lifestyle)