On VC books

A list of reading suggestions for those new to venture capital

By popular request, a lightweight and live list of books I recommend for folks that want to learn more about venture capital and the technology industry. While this list is primarily for undergraduates and doesn’t assume any prior knowledge of the sector, the range spans from high level, quick page turner overviews, to in-depth cap table modeling walkthroughs.

• The Hard Thing About Hard Things by Ben Horowitz. Honest, hilarious, and humble, it’s the best manual for figuring out what actually matters when building a startup and therefore, investing in one.

• Zero to One by Peter Thiel - a book about tech, business, careers, and life. Based on Peter Thiel’s popular CS183 class on startups at Stanford University.

• Secrets of Sand Hill Road by Andreessen Horowitz managing partner Scott Kupor contains no actual secrets, but is a good primer on best practices of venture capital.

• The Score Takes Care of Itself by Bill Walsh is beloved in tech circles. Focusing on building a high performance culture across the entire organization, the lessons are applicable to both business and life.

• Venture Deals - Be Smarter Than Your Lawyer And Venture Capitalist by Brad Feld and Jason Mendelson of Foundry Group is great for an in-depth education about the various terms and structures in venture capital investments, once you’re ready to learn more. There’s also an associated online class.

• The Lean Startup by Eric Ries. A cult classic.

• VC: An American History by Tom Nicholas.

• Valley of Genius by Adam Fisher.

• Hooked: How to Build Habit-Forming Products by Nir Eyal.

• Lean In by Sheryl Sandberg is a great career guide not just for women, but for everyone who feels like the odd one out in the room. Should probably be mandatory reading for all managers, too.

• The Power Law: Venture Capital and the Making of the New Future by Sebastian Mallaby.

• I also recommend the 20 Min VC podcast by Harry Stebbings: great for understanding the qualitative factors that best in class investors use to analyze investments in startups. Start from the oldest episodes (back when they were truly 20 minutes long) and work forwards.