Table of Contents
Startups
The Hard Thing about Hard Thing
Startups are trial by fire in which one has to be constantly learning and evolving. The book’s author, Ben Horowitz highlights real problems and issues that entrepreneurs face with no easy way out.
Ben disseminates learnings from his own career starting as an engineer at NetLabs and then at LoudCloud, and then Opsware. The book provides insights and strength to overcome many low moments during the entrepreneurial journey. HP acquired Opsware for over $1 billion in 2007. Ben Horowitz set up a venture capital fund with Marc Andreessen to fund and coach technology founders.
If you are a start-up founder or thinking of launching a start-up or just curious to know the work environment in a startup then read The Hard Thing about Hard Thing: Building a Business When There Are No Easy Answers.
You can read about beginnings and evolution of technology industry at Information Technology Revolution section of our site.
Crossing the Chasm
Crossing the Chasm has been the go-to book for technology entrepreneurs since 1991 when its first edition was published. The core theme of the book is that there is a vast chasm between the early adopters and the early majority where there are revenue and profitability.
A start-up journey in crossing the chasm helps them to become successful and failure to do so lets them die. The book introduces a three-step strategy that can be applied by a start-up to make this journey. Start-up positioning is very important for customer acceptance. The third edition published in 2015 has updated examples and case studies reflecting the internet age.
Zero to One
Zero to One author, Peter Thiel, held regular lectures at the Stanford University in 2012 on computers and startup’s. One of the students, Blake Masters’ made notes from Thiel’s Stanford CS183 class. The book Zero to One is based on these class notes and is a refined version.
“Zero to One”, meaning creating solutions where there were none before which is like going from 0 to 1. The book gives a completely new perspective on what basis one should start a company. Though towards the end, there was too much focus on trivial and uninteresting things but it ends with a philosophy called Singularity where there is infinite hope for the future.
Peter Thiel is one of the founders of PayPal and has been the earliest investor in Facebook. In 2011, Peter Thiel started the Thiel Fellowship which is a two-year program for young people who want to build new things.
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