Library
The right book for the problem you have now.
A curated shelf of 49 books for first-time founders — paired with the seven stages of the 7P Framework and the founder problem each one solves. Every book personally read. Every summary ends with a Practice Card.
49 books · 7 stages · 1 Practice Card each
Hover a stage to see the founder problem it covers. Books are grouped by their primary stage; many also support a secondary stage.
Purpose
8 booksPurpose
Man's Search for Meaning
Viktor Frankl
For when endurance becomes the only thing left.
PersistencePurpose
Start With Why
Simon Sinek
For clarifying the reason your company deserves to exist.
Purpose
Drive
Daniel Pink
For when you can't figure out what motivates anyone — including yourself.
Purpose
The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People
Stephen Covey
For when your daily reactions don't match the founder you want to be.
Purpose
Ikigai
Héctor García & Francesc Miralles
For finding work that's meaningful, possible, and yours.
PersistencePurpose
It's not how good you are, it's how good you want to be
Paul Arden
For when ambition feels like the only honest measure left.
Purpose
Psycho-Cybernetics
Maxwell Maltz
For when your self-image quietly caps what your company can become.
PersistencePurpose
Beyond Entrepreneurship 2.0
Jim Collins & Bill Lazier
For when you want the founder bible written by someone who actually built one.
People
People
8 booksPeople
The Five Dysfunctions of a Team
Patrick Lencioni
For when team meetings produce decisions that nobody actually executes.
People
Multipliers
Liz Wiseman
For when you suspect you're a smart leader but a draining boss.
People
On Becoming a Leader
Warren Bennis
For when 'leader' is the role you walked into without learning it.
People
What Got You There Won't Get You There
Marshall Goldsmith
For when the strengths that got you here are now what's holding you back.
People
Dare to Lead
Brené Brown
For when the leadership being asked of you is harder than the work you actually love.
PurposePeople
How to Win Friends and Influence People
Dale Carnegie
For when you keep losing the room and don't know why.
PainPeople
Never Split The Difference
Chris Voss
For when negotiation has become a verb you're afraid of.
PainProfitsPeople
Getting to Yes
Roger Fisher, William Ury & Bruce Patton
For when adversarial wins keep costing you the relationship.
Pain
Pain
7 booksPain
Innovation and Entrepreneurship
Peter Drucker
For when 'opportunity' feels mystical and you want it to be discoverable.
ProvePain
The Art of the Start
Guy Kawasaki
For when you don't know which of the founder-tasks comes first.
ProductPain
Influence: The Psychology of Persuasion
Robert Cialdini
For when you can't tell why some pitches land and others don't.
ProvePain
Change by Design
Tim Brown
For when you keep shipping things that don't fit the people you built them for.
ProductPain
Inspired
Marty Cagan
For when product feels like guesswork and you want the discipline.
ProductPain
The Art of Innovation
Tom Kelley
For when creativity feels like a personality trait — and you want it to be a process.
ProductPain
Well-designed
John Kolko
For when designing for users keeps becoming designing by committee.
Product
3 booksProduct
Don't Make Me Think
Steve Krug
For when users keep getting confused by the thing you built to help them.
Product
The Design of Everyday Things
Don Norman
For when blame for misuse keeps falling on the user instead of the design.
Product
Made to Stick
Chip & Dan Heath
For when your idea is good but it's not landing.
Pain
Prove
6 booksProve
The Lean Startup
Eric Ries
For when you've been building too long and you're scared of the silence at launch.
Prove
Zero to One
Peter Thiel
For when 'better than competitors' feels like the wrong answer to the wrong question.
PainProve
Competitive Advantage
Michael Porter
For when 'first-mover' isn't actually a strategy and you need a real one.
Prove
Blue Ocean Strategy
W. Chan Kim & Renée Mauborgne
For when the market you're chasing is bloody and you suspect there's a clearer one.
Prove
Good Strategy, Bad Strategy
Richard Rumelt
For when your strategy doc is full of goals and empty of logic.
Prove
The 22 Immutable Laws of Branding
Al & Laura Ries
For when 'brand' feels like a vibe — and you want a discipline.
Profits
3 booksProfits
Business Model Generation
Alexander Osterwalder
For when the unit economics are vague and you suspect you don't actually have a business.
Profits
Free
Chris Anderson
For when 'free with upsell' feels like the answer — and you need to know why it might be the trap.
Profits
Built to Last
Jim Collins
For when you're optimizing for a quarter when you should be designing for a decade.
Persistence
Persistence
14 booksPersistence
Mindset: The New Psychology of Success
Carol Dweck
For when every setback starts feeling like proof you are not good enough.
PeoplePersistence
Atomic Habits
James Clear
For when discipline keeps depending on motivation that keeps disappearing.
Persistence
The Power of Habit
Charles Duhigg
For when you keep promising yourself you'll change a behavior — and keep not doing it.
Persistence
Meditations
Marcus Aurelius
For when the mind itself is the obstacle.
Persistence
The Obstacle Is the Way
Ryan Holiday
For when the next step looks like a wall — and you've forgotten that walls are paths.
PurposePersistence
The Subtle Art of Not Giving a F*ck
Mark Manson
For when caring about everything is making you incapable of caring about anything.
Persistence
Essentialism
Greg McKeown
For when your week is full and your progress is empty.
Persistence
Thinking, Fast and Slow
Daniel Kahneman
For when your gut keeps making decisions your spreadsheet would have stopped.
ProvePersistence
Thinking in Bets
Annie Duke
For when you keep judging decisions by outcomes instead of by quality of bet.
Persistence
Decisive
Chip & Dan Heath
For when the four villains of decision-making keep ambushing you in the same week.
Persistence
The Hard Thing About Hard Things
Ben Horowitz
For when nothing else helps — and the loneliness of the hard week is what you actually need named.
PeoplePersistence
The Power of Now
Eckhart Tolle
For when the future you can't control is preventing you from doing what you can.
Persistence
Switch
Chip & Dan Heath
For when you know what to change but can't make it stick.
Persistence
The Dip
Seth Godin
For when 'should I quit?' is the only question that matters this week.
Summaries rolling out
The first batch of in-depth summaries is being written now — every book on this shelf will get its own page with a deep summary, key takeaways, and a Practice Card. Click any book to see its current state.