THE Startup HUB

We’ve hand-picked books, articles and videos to assist you in your startup journey. Whether you’re leading a pre-seed startup or preparing for an IPO, these resources will help you.

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Startup basics

If you’re just starting out we recommend to begin with these 3 books that will give you a good foundation for your startup.

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Obviously Awesome

Why it’s important: This is one of the best books out there when it comes to positioning your product. It will help you map out and understand the unique values your product has.

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The Lean Startup

Why it’s important: This book will teach you how to adopt a lean and agile approach to creating your startup. It revolutionized the way people think about building startups.

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The Hard Thing About Hard Things

Why it’s important: It’s a personal account of the author’s experience leading a startup. It’s packed with advice and practical strategies you can use to build your startup.

The single biggest reason why start-ups succeed

You might think a great idea is all it takes for your startup to succeed. In this TED Talk, Derek Sivers explains why you’d be wrong about that.

Product discovery

Product discovery is the foundation of your product. And that applies not only to new startups but to well-established startups as well…

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Inspired: How to Create Tech Products Customers Love

Why it’s important: This book teaches you how to make your product user-centric and create a strong strategic vision. It’s a must-read.


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Continuous Discovery Habits

Why it’s important: While you might know that product discovery is important, this book advises product teams to make discovery continuous and gives you reasons why.

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The Jobs To Be Done Playbook

Why it’s important: Here you’ll learn all about the JTBD product theory. It will help you understand and apply it so you could satisfy the needs of your customers.

Product Discovery – Teresa Torres

In this video, Teresa Torres explains why the usual product discovery just won’t cut it for modern products.

More videos from Teresa Torres →

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MVP DEVELOPMENT

Reaching the market with a product that solves your users’ main pain points can be tricky. Here are a few articles that can help you achieve that.

See all MVP articles →

What makes us feel good about our work?

Behavioral economist Dan Ariely discusses human motivation and the conditions under which we do good work. If you’re leading a startup, it will help you understand how to inspire and motivate your employees so you can achieve results.

Marketing & growth

How do you market your product? How do you turn your MVP into a successful product? These books can help you answer that question.

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Traction: How Any Startup Can Achieve Explosive Customer Growth

Why it’s important: The book focuses on growth, it identifies 19 different channels to gain traction, along with a framework you can use to leverage them.

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Made to Stick: Why Some Ideas Survive and Others Die

Why it’s important: The book answers the question: “What makes an idea stick?” And it gives you a model you can use to predictably create such ideas.

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Contagious: How to Build Word of Mouth in the Digital Age

Why it’s important: How do you make your product go viral? This book covers 6 key principles you can see in viral products.

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Cognitive biases & principles that affect your UX

The UX part of your product is as important as the coding part. Here you’ll find many psychological “tricks” you can use in your UX design to make it more user-centered.

Fundraising

Your idea could be the best in the world, but you need funds to make it. These books will help you raise funds with proven techniques and methods.

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The Art of Startup Fundraising

Why it’s important: Fundraising is one of the main problems startups face. In this book, the author covers all aspects of it, from initial preparations to storytelling.


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Pitch Anything: An Innovative Method for Presenting, Persuading, and Winning the Deal

Why it’s important: If you can’t pitch the product it doesn’t matter how good it is. Here’ you’ll learn a science-based method to create an effective pitch.