Bookstore
The Startup Magazine Entrepreneur’s Bookstore
Below are helpful Editor Selections that provide advice and direction for building your company. Check out our bookstore selections for startups below, and let us know if you have recommendations:
  | The Focused AI Captain: How to Navigate the Storm, Empower Your Crew, and Deliver Real Value By René Esteban Despite $30-40 billion in enterprise investment, 95% of AI pilots fail to generate returns. The problem isn’t the technology. It’s that leaders treat AI transformation like a software deployment instead of the organizational redesign it truly is. The Focused AI Captain cuts through the hype to deliver a battle-tested playbook for executives and transformation leaders tired of wasting millions on initiatives that never scale.Drawing on two decades of experience and insights from over 250 global transformation programs, René Esteban presents the 3D Impact Architecture (Diagnose, Direction, Deliver) and the groundbreaking 10-20-70 Rule: successful AI adoption requires investing just 10% in algorithms, 20% in infrastructure, and a full 70% in people and processes. This isn’t theory. It’s the framework that separates the 5% who succeed from the 95% who fail. The book includes practical diagnostic tools, strategic frameworks for building compelling business cases, and execution playbooks for organizational design, change management, and governance that actually enables innovation instead of blocking it.Whether you’re a C-suite executive facing board pressure, a transformation leader navigating stakeholder resistance, or a functional leader redesigning how your team creates value, this book provides the clarity that large enterprises need most: how to turn AI enthusiasm into measurable business outcomes. The storm is here. This is your guide to commanding it. Read more about The Focused AI Captain |
  | Hero Habits by Michael Hahn In Hero Habits, Michael Hahn provides a realistic leadership fable that will inspire you to reclaim your inner hero at work and at home. James Rizzo is a typical over-achiever, who is struggling after a recent promotion. Over the course of two demanding weeks, James experiences the perfect storm of unexpected challenges that threaten his marriage, career, health, and sanity.During his struggles, James battles The Storm, Energy Vampire, and other bad guys before finding out who the true villain was all along… James’s superhero journey will inspire your own as he discovers the seven Hero Habits from the true inspirational stories of everyday heroes: Captain Courageous, Recognition Man, The Professor and Zen Ninja. Read more about Hero Habits by Michael Hahn |
 | Start for Success: The Entrepreneur’s Guide to Start-ups By Jan Cavelle, Start for Success: The Entrepreneur’s Guide to Start-upsTHE INSIDE PICTURE OF WHAT IT REALLY TAKES TO CREATE A SUCCESSFUL STARTUP Why do some startups succeed and others fail? What is it like to be an entrepreneur? How do others manage to get past their fear, raise funds, deal with seemingly impossible challenges?Find the answers to these questions and more. From discussions on mindset to MVPs, fear to finance, sales and marketing to systems, and the whys and the hows of setting up a business in a way that you can grow and scale successfully and the pitfalls to avoid. Read more about Start for Success |
 | Ideaflow: The Only Business Metric That Matters By Jeremy Utley and Perry Klebahn, Ideaflow: The Only Business Metric That Matters We all want great ideas, but few actually understand how they’re born. Innovation doesn’t come from a sprint or a hackathon–it’s a result of maximizing ideaflow.Jeremy Utley and Perry Klebahn of Stanford’s renowned Hasso Plattner Institute of Design (aka the “d.school”) offer a proven strategy for coming up with great ideas by yourself or with your team, and quickly determining which are worthy. Their insights are drawn from their combined decades of experience leading Stanford’s premier Launchpad accelerator and advising some of the world’s most innovative organizations like Microsoft, Michelin, Keller Williams Realty, and Hyatt. Read more about Ideaflow by Jeremy Utley and Perry Klebahn |
 | Side Hustle: From Idea to Income in 27 Days By Chris Guillebeau, Side Hustle: From Idea to Income in 27 Days is a great “startup” book to help you find income outside of your day job.Designed for the busy and impatient, this detailed roadmap will show you how to select, launch, refine, and make money from your side hustle in under a month.A side hustle is more than just another stream of income, it’s also the new job security. When you receive paychecks from different sources, it allows you to take more chances in your “regular” career. More income means more options. More options equals freedom. You don’t need entrepreneurial experience to launch a profitable side hustle. Read more about Side Hustle |
  | Today’s Inspired Latina (Vol III): Life Stories of Success in the Face of Adversity By Today’s Inspired Latina is a book series of inspiration and hope, a poignant collection of personal stories that will inspire you. These are success stories that need to be read and will motivate our startup communityBy overcoming barriers, self-doubts and other obstacles, these Latinas are a great example of how inspiration and perseverance can lead to happiness and success in business and life.It’s a positive, empowering read for anyone sitting on a dream and thinking it can’t come true. Read more about Today’s Inspired Latina (Vol III) |
  | The $100 Startup by Chris Guillebeau A New York Times Bestseller, The $100 Startup, is an easy-to-use guide, with the most valuable lessons from those who’ve learned how to turn what they do into a gateway to self-fulfillment. It’s all about finding the intersection between your “expertise” – even if you don’t consider it such — and what other people will pay for. You don’t need an MBA, a business plan or even employees. All you need is a product or service that springs from what you love to do anyway, people willing to pay, and a way to get paid. Author Chris Guillebeau identified 1,500 individuals who have built businesses earning $50,000 or more from a modest investment (in many cases, $100 or less), and from that group he’s chosen to focus on the 50 most intriguing case studies. In nearly all cases, people with no special skills discovered aspects of their personal passions that could be monetized, and were able to restructure their lives in ways that gave them greater freedom and fulfillment. Read more about The $100 Startup by Chris Guillebeau |
  | Lean Startup by Eric Ries A best selling book that changed how people think about startups. The Lean Startup approach fosters a way of working that inspired a generation of entrepreneurs and founders.Inspired by lessons from lean manufacturing, The Lean Startup relies on “validated learning,” rapid scientific experimentation, as well as a number of counter-intuitive practices that shorten product development cycles, measure actual progress without resorting to vanity metrics, and learn what customers really want. Read more about the lean startup by Eric Ries |
  | To Sell Is Human by Dan Pink This is less a book about the conniving tricks of this slippery trade, and more of a human guide to how sales might work and be successful in the 21st century.Pink’s mantra is that selling is not limited to call centres, shops or garage forecourts. It’s something we all do every day.To Sell Is Human first explains how sales have irrevocably changed thanks to the internet: buyers are now armed with information and are no longer at the mercy of the pushy man in a shiny suit. Then Pink proposes “how to be” in this brave new sales-focused world – attuned to the “customer” and clear with your information, honest, direct and transparent. Read more about To Sell Is Human by Dan Pink |
  | Zero to One by Peter Thiel In Zero to One , legendary entrepreneur and investor Peter Thiel shows how we can find singular ways to create those new things.Thiel begins with the contrarian premise that we live in an age of technological stagnation, even if we’re too distracted by shiny mobile devices to notice. Information technology has improved rapidly, but there is no reason why progress should be limited to computers or Silicon Valley.Zero to One presents at once an optimistic view of the future of progress in America and a new way of thinking about innovation: it starts by learning to ask the questions that lead you to find value in unexpected places. Read more about Zero to One by Peter Thiel |
  | The Hard Thing About Hard Things by Ben HorowitzIn The Hard Thing About Hard Things, Ben Horowitz, co-founder of Andreessen Horowitz and one of Silicon Valley’s most respected and experienced entrepreneurs, draws on his own story of founding, running, selling, buying, managing, and investing in technology companies to offer essential advice and practical wisdom for navigating the toughest problems business schools don’t cover.His advice is grounded in anecdotes from his own hard-earned rise—from cofounding the early cloud service provider Loudcloud to building the phenomenally successful Andreessen Horowitz venture capital firm, both with fellow tech superstar Marc Andreessen – inventor of Mosaic, the Internet’s first popular Web browser. Read more about The Hard Thing About Hard Things by Ben Horowitz |
  | Crossing the Chasm by Geoffrey Moore This is the bestselling guide that created a new game plan for marketing in high-tech industries. Crossing the Chasm has become the bible for bringing cutting-edge products to progressively larger markets.Crossing the Chasm provides new insights into the realities of high-tech marketing, with special emphasis on the Internet. It’s essential reading for anyone with a stake in the world’s most exciting marketplace. Read more about Crossing the Chasm by Geoffrey Moore |
 | How to Write a Nonprofit Grant Proposal: Writing Winning Proposals to Fund Your Programs and Projects by Do you have a nonprofit business idea in mind? Are you thinking of applying for a grant from potential donors? Well, you are on the right track!The first thing that you have to understand is that every single nonprofit organization is unique in its way. Each one of you is fighting to solve a unique problem to serve a specific part of society. Based on that peculiarity, each organization has its unique employees and funding needs dedicated to addressing your set objectives. This simply means that, if you are going to sell your idea to a probable donor, it has to be convincing, persuading and realistic.In this guide, you will learn how to draft a winning nonprofit grant proposal. This will entail all the tips you need to cultivate your writing skills so that you are empowered to draft a successful grant proposal. Read more about Writing Winning Proposals to Fund Your Programs and Projects |