If you want the honest founder memoirs
Hagiography-free founder narrative. Knight on Nike's two-decade middle, Brennan-Jobs on what it cost to be raised by one of the cultural archetypes, Horowitz on the worst months of being CEO, Stone's outsider biography of Bezos and Amazon.
- 01
Shoe Dog
PickPhil Knight · 2016
The best founder memoir ever written. The fact that it's not a tech book is part of why.
Read if you are a founder slogging through the un-glamorous middle years and need to know it ends.
memoir350p+beginner - 02
Small Fry
PickLisa Brennan-Jobs · 2018
The counterweight to every Steve Jobs biography you've read. Required, uncomfortable reading.
Read if you have read multiple Jobs biographies and want the perspective they all elide.
memoir200–350pbeginner - 03
The Hard Thing About Hard Things
PickBen Horowitz · 2014
The closest thing to a war diary that a Valley CEO has ever published — and the rare founder book that's better the second time.
Read if you are a first-time founder or CEO and want a realistic preview of the role.
memoir200–350pintermediate - 04
The Everything Store
Brad Stone · 2013
The closest thing to a primary source on how Amazon actually got built, written before the company controlled its own narrative.
Read if you are building or scaling a company that wants to import Amazon-style operating mechanisms.
narrative350p+beginner