Want to know what books Ron Conway recommends on their reading list? We've researched interviews, social media posts, podcasts, and articles to build a comprehensive list of Ron Conway's favorite book recommendations of all time.
In other words, you have to stop thinking like a web designer or a visual designer or a UX designer or an interaction designer and start thinking like a product designer.
In this breakthrough introduction to modern product design, Etsy Creative... more
Ron ConwayUnderstand how to create meaningful online experiences so that users want to come back again and again. (Source)
Ron ConwayThe story of the battle of 300 Spartan soldiers against the Persian army. (Source)
Chris FussellA classic in the special operations community. (Source)
Zach Even EshFrom @SPressfield . I love this excerpt from his book. . It reminds me of many things and people... . people who tell you how to grow your gym yet they have never owned a gym a day in their life. . People who… https://t.co/73UaLfH55K (Source)
Ron ConwayStory of his return to Starbucks, and the success of the company in a tumlutuous economic time in history. (Source)
Now Nick Bilton of the New York Times takes readers behind the scenes with a narrative that shows what happened inside Twitter as it grew at exponential speeds. This is a tale of betrayed friendships and high-stakes power... more
Casey NeistatIts was reading his [Nick's] book Hatching Twitter that literally motivated me, inspired me, gave me the confidence to start my own technology company. (Source)
Santiago BasultoI love to read biographies and stories of companies. Hatching Twitter is a really good book, and if you’re into that sort of books, bios of Steve Jobs (by Isaacsons) or Jeff Bezos are great too. (Source)
Craig PearceIf you read to maintain motivation and be entertained, I recommend a few books that in addition to telling great stories, also contain lessons and learnings. You won’t gain many step-by-step type lessons from these books but you will come away realizing that not all startups, regardless of what stage they are in, are as well polished as they make you think. You will realize that they make... (Source)
Jack DorseyThe first book is a book called The Art Spirit by Robert Henri, who was a painter and I know there’s a lot of affinity for painters in these parts. This is about creativity through the lens of an art student. [...] What he means by this is purely you have to be a master of your own tools. That mastership is not a destination, it is a process and it’s constant practice that gets you there. (Source)
Estella NgQuestion: What five books would you recommend to young people interested in your career path & why? Answer: The Art Spirit by Robert Henri What Me Worry by Andrew Kuo (Source)
From its beginnings in the 1920s until its demise in the 1980s, Bell Labs officially, the research and development wing of AT&T was the biggest, and arguably the best, laboratory for new ideas in the world. From the transistor to the laser, it s hard to find an aspect of modern life that hasn t been touched by Bell Labs.
Why did so many... more
Mark ZuckerbergMy next book for A Year of Books is The Idea Factory: Bell Labs and the Great Age of American Innovation. I'm very interested in what causes innovation -- what kinds of people, questions and environments. This book explores that question by looking at Bell Labs, which was one of the most innovative labs in history. As an aside, I loved The Three-Body Problem and highly recommend it. If you're... (Source)
The fate of a strong-minded housekeeper with a "frizz of reddish hair," just entering the dangerous country of old-maidhood, is unintentionally (and deliciously) reversed by a teenaged girl's practical joke. A college student visiting her aunt for the first time and recognizing the family furniture stumbles on a... more
Lauren MechlingAny Alice Munro story is a horrid story to boil down to an elevator pitch. I still don’t even know what the story Nettles is about, except I know that it’s about a woman who feels at home in the Alice Munro universe: she’s a writer, she’s a Canadian, she’s a mother, she’s sexually alive. (Source)
Ron ConwayExplains how to do the customer development interviews in a way that will get you the most accurate and actionable feedback. (Source)
Mark Zuckerberg[Andy’s] book played a big role in shaping my management style. (Source)
Ben HorowitzAndy Grove, who built himself from nothing to run Intel, stopped what he was doing to teach us his magic. And not through some ghostwriter either — Andy wrote this book himself. What an incredible gift. (Source)
Drew HoustonThe best book on management ever written. (Source)
Where did they get the ideas that made them rich?... more
Paul GrahamProbably the single most valuable book a startup founder could read. (Source)
Ron ConwayCollection of interviews with founders of famous technology companies about what happened in the very earliest days. (Source)
Alexis OhanianA bunch of really great interviews [Jessica] did with a bunch of just OGs of entrepreneurship. (Source)
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Startups search for business models while existing companies execute them. The book offers the practical and proven four-step Customer Development process for search and... more
Ryan HooverToo much (good) info but thankfully there's a summary in the Appendix. (Source)
Matthieu David-ExpertonQuestion: What books would you recommend to young people interested in your career path? Answer: I would recommend the following ones: The Hard Thing About Hard Things Who? How to recruit A players Les Cles du futur by Jean Staune (in French) All the books written by Peter Drucker (The Essentials of Drucker) The 4 steps to the Epiphany by Steve Blank Freakonomics The books by Jack Welsh... (Source)
Craig PearceIf you are reading to learn skills that can be implemented in your startup, I’d recommend The Lean Startup: How Today's Entrepreneurs Use Continuous Innovation to Create Radically Successful by Eric Reis and actually avoid its predecessor The Four Steps to the Epiphany: Successful Strategies for Products That Win by Steve Blank until later in your career. (Source)
In Crossing the Chasm, Geoffrey A. Moore shows that in the Technology Adoption Life Cycle--which begins with innovators and moves to early adopters, early majority, late majority, and laggards--there is a vast chasm between the early adopters and the early majority. While early adopters are willing to sacrifice for the advantage of being first, the early majority waits until they know that the technology actually offers improvements in... more
Drew HoustonIt’s [about] how do technology products make their way from early adopters t the mainstream. (Source)
Ron ConwayBestselling guide that created a new game plan for marketing in high-tech industries. (Source)
Seth GodinThis is a key component in my Purple Cow thinking, but with a twist. I'm not as worried about the chasm as I am about the desire of marketers to go for the big middle. (Source)
Winner of the National Academy of Sciences Best Book Award in 2012
Selected by the New York Times Book Review as one of the best books of 2011
A Globe and Mail Best Books of the Year 2011 Title
One of The Economist's 2011 Books of the Year
One of The Wall Street Journal's Best Nonfiction Books of the Year 2011
2013 Presidential Medal of Freedom Recipient
In the international bestseller, Thinking, Fast and Slow, Daniel Kahneman, the renowned psychologist and winner of the Nobel... more
Barack ObamaA few months ago, Mr. Obama read “Thinking, Fast and Slow,” by Daniel Kahneman, about how people make decisions — quick, instinctive thinking versus slower, contemplative deliberation. For Mr. Obama, a deliberator in an instinctive business, this may be as instructive as any political science text. (Source)
Bill Gates[On Bill Gates's reading list in 2012.] (Source)
Marc AndreessenCaptivating dive into human decision making, marred by inclusion of several/many? psychology studies that fail to replicate. Will stand as a cautionary tale? (Source)
Don't have time to read Ron Conway's favorite books? Read Shortform summaries.
Shortform summaries help you learn 10x faster by:
- Being comprehensive: you learn the most important points in the book
- Cutting out the fluff: you focus your time on what's important to know
- Interactive exercises: apply the book's ideas to your own life with our educators' guidance.