I started my first venture-backed high-tech startup in 1989. I wish the books below were available to me then. I recommend them to anyone I come across who wants to do a startup. Both are well reviewed and readily available at your favorite online bookstore.
Old school, New school
These books are the entrepreneurs’ own stories. High Stakes, No Prisoners follows one deal (Vermeer which became MS Frontpage) from idea all the way through completion whereas Founders at Work is written in an interview style covering about 30 companies in 10-20 page chapters each.
The biggest difference is the timeframe. High Stakes is a pre-bubble, Web 1.0 timeframe deal whereas Founders is spot-on in the Web 2.0 space. I suggest you avoid the temptation to skip to the Web 2.0 book thinking it may more accurately represent the task you see ahead. The detail covered in High Stakes is priceless and the same people are still out there.
High Stakes, No Prisoners
A Winner’s Tale of Greed and Glory in the Internet Wars
by Charles H. Ferguson (2001)
This book was riveting for me. Change the names and I lived a parallel story. The author provides very detailed insight into how to actually start a company and is very keen on how the venture capital world works. As well he covers the process of being shopped and acquired. These are things you hope to have happen – well at least the acquisition part – so learn it here or in real-time.
Founders at Work:
Stories of Startups’ Early Days
by Jessica Livingston (2007)
Here the author interviews the founders of a large number of firms, some small and some large, one that sold for $400M (Hotmail) and some that haven’t sold (yet). From WebTV, Adobe, Paypal to Web 2.0 familiars Flickr, Blogger and 37Signals. Lots of insights here, not quite the heavy read as High Stakes but very valuable and very timely.
I hope you find these books useful and enjoyable; maybe they’ll come in handy for your next startup adventure.
