256 Must-Read Content For All Tech Entrepreneurs
Over the past few months, I have been reading a lot of articles and gathering tons of information about tech startups as I set to launch my first one this fall. I’ve saved many of my favorites and, rather than keeping them to myself, I decided to share my bookmarks to the public.
The list I’ve compiled below have been filtered and I’ve only selected to publish the best of the best articles and videos. I urge all entrepreneurs who is serious about starting their own tech startup to read those articles as there are tons of golden nuggets to be taken away from them.
This list isn’t meant to be consumed all at once. Instead, you should use this bookmark as a resource list that you can always come back and reference. I’ll be constantly updating this list as I come across new well-worthy articles (if you have any article recommendations, please feel free to submit the links in the comments section below). Enjoy:
* Highly recommended
Entrepreneurship
- The Secret Formula To Success Is… – By Stanley Tang
- 5 Biggest Mistakes Entrepreneurs Make [VIDEO] – By Jeff Kaplan
- Interview With Gary Vaynerchuk – By Stanley Tang
- Top 5 Tips For Entrepreneurial Success – By Richard Branson (Open Forum)
- A Dozen Don’ts For Entrepreneurs – By Guy Kawasaki (Open Forum)
- Startup Lessons Learned From Warren Buffett – By Luo Hoffman (Venture Beat)
- 33 Quotes To Fuel Your Entrepreneurial Flames – By Adam & Matthew Toren (Young Entrepreneur)
- 10 Inspiring TED Talks For Startups [VIDEO] – By Audrey Watters (Read Write Web) *
- Kevin Rose’s 10 Tips For Entrepreneurs – By Elyssa Pallai (Read Write Web)
- Talent Is Not Enough [VIDEO] – By Gary Vaynerchuk
- 37 Pithy Insights From Street-Smart Entrepreneurs – By Dharmesh Shah (OnStartups)
- Are You Really An Entrepreneur? – By Bernard Lunn (Read Write Web)
- Common Characteristics of the Best Entrepreneurs – By Chris Bennett (Young Entrepreneur)
- Wannabe Entrepreneur Symptoms and Cures – By Gabriel Weinberg
- The Power of Ignorance – By Anthony Tjan (Harvard Business Review)
General Startup Advice
- How To Start A Startup – By Paul Graham *
- The Art of the Start [VIDEO] – By Guy Kawasaki *
- The Pmarca Guide To Startups (Part 1, Part 2, Part 3, Part 4, Part 5) – By Marc Andreessen
- Getting Real: The Smarter, Faster, Easier Way To Build A Successful Web Application – By 37signals *
- Milestones To Startup Success – By Sean Ellis (Startup Marketing) *
- Ten Rules For Web Startups – By Evan Williams *
- 12 Months To Startup – By Kimberly Stans (Entrepreneur)
- Mark Zuckerberg: The Three Keys To Facebook’s Success [VIDEO] – By Mark Zuckerberg
- What Startups Are Really Like – By Paul Graham
- Startup Therapy: Ten Questions To Ask Yourself Every Month – By Jason Cohen (A Smart Bear)
- Be Good – By Paul Graham *
- Loic Le Meur’s Ten Rules For Startup Success – By Michael Arrington (TechCrunch)
- Startup Failures: Five Ways To Crash Your Startup, Which Will You Pick? by Dharmesh Shah (OnStartups)
- 36 Startup Tips: From Software Engineering to PR and More! by Alex Iskold (Read Write Web)
- How To Save Money During The Early Days of A Startup – By Dan Martell (Mint)
- Startups: 10 Things Most MBA Schools Won’t Teach You – By Dharmesh Shah (OnStartups)
- Napster: The Inside Story and Lessons For Entrepreneurs – By Don Dodge
- Startups In 13 Sentences – By Paul Graham
- The 18 Mistakes That Kill Startups – By Paul Graham
- The Hardest Lessons For Startups To Learn – By Paul Graham
- 10 Principles For Not Killing A Startup – By Greg Boutin (Read Write Web)
- 5 Tips For Managing A Growth-Stage Company – By Clate Mask (Venture Beat)
- The 5 Most Common Mistakes Made By Startups – By Korri Ellis (Every Joe)
- 5 Reasons To Create Your First Startup – By Chris Campbell (Particle Tree)
- A Student’s Guide To Startups – By Paul Graham
- Most Common Early Startup Mistakes – By Mark Suster (Both Sides of the Table)
- How To Succeed Like Apple – By Jason Baptiste
- 9 Conflicting Tips For Startups – By Brian Wynne Williams (Viget)
The Idea
- Ideas For Startups – By Paul Graham *
- How To Find An Idea For A New Startup – By Andrew Warner (Mixergy)
- Developing New Startup Ideas – By Chris Dixon *
- Your Idea Sucks, Now Go Do It Anyway – By Jason Cohen (A Smart Bear)
- How To Find Startup Ideas – By Matt Cutts
- Six Principles For Making New Things – By Paul Graham
- Organic Startup Ideas – By Paul Graham
- Great Ideas Derive From Well-Rested Minds [VIDEO] – By David Heinemeier Hansson
- Not Disruptive, And Proud of It – By Jason Cohen (A Smart Bear)
- Startup Ideas We’d Like To Fund – By Paul Graham (Y Combinator)
- The 10 Most Tempting Software Startup Categories – By Dharmesh Shah (OnStartups)
- Entrepreneur’s Annual 100 Brilliant Ideas – By Kara Ohngren and Jennifer Wang (Entrepreneur) *
- HOW TO: Pick The Perfect Name For Your Startup – By Frances McInnis (Mashable)
- Naming Your Startup – By Chris Dixon
Product Strategy
- Marc Andreessen: Product vs Business – By Marc Andreessen *
- Pandas and Lobsters: Why Google Cannot Build Social Applications… – By Adam Rifkin *
- Real Unfair Advantages – By Jason Cohen (A Smart Bear) *
- Getting To Product-Market Fit – By Patrick Vlaskovits (Startup Marketing)
- How I Am Measuring Product-Market Fit – By Ash Maurya
- Customer Development Methodology – By Steve Blank *
- Customer Development For My Web Startup (Part 1, Part 2) – By Ash Maurya
- You’re A Little Company, Now Act Like One – By Jason Cohen (A Smart Bear)
- Rethinking The Product Development Process [VIDEO] – By Steve Blank
- Evangelizing For The Learn Startup [VIDEO] – By Eric Ries
- Product Design Debt vs Technical Debt – By Andrew Chen *
- Picking The Right Programming Language For Your Startup – By Chris Cameron (Read Write Web)
- Sell It Before You Build It – By Babak Nivi (Venture Hacks)
- The Bootstrapper’s Guide to Launching New Products – By Darren Dahl (Inc.)
- Competition Is Overrated – By Chris Dixon
- The Bowling Pin Strategy – By Chris Dixon
- How to Cross the Chasm – By Chris Spagnuolo (Edge Hopper)
- Build An Insanely Great Web Service – By Bernard Lunn (Read Write Web)
- Creating Your Vision, Mission, Strategy and Plan – By Bernard Lunn (Read Write Web)
- Releasing Early Is Not Always Good? Heresy! – By Jason Cohen (OnStartups)
- Should Tech Startups Outsource Product Development? – By Vivek Wadhwa (TechCrunch)
- Build What Had Previously Not Been Possible – By Jason Baptiste
- Beyond Aesthetics: Design Tips For Startups – By Thomas Petersen (Black & White)
- 5 Damn Easy Ways To Improve User Experience – By Jon Phillips (Spyre Studios)
Running The Company
- Notes On Leadership: Be Like Steve Jobs,… And Bill Campbell, And Andy Grove – By Ben Horowitz (TechCrunch) *
- The Difference Between Leadership and Management [VIDEO] – By Carly Fiorina *
- How Andreessen Horowitz Evaluates CEOs – By Ben Horowitz *
- Why CEOs Should Tell It Like It Is – By Ben Horowitz *
- Leaders – By Fred Wilson (A VC)
- The New Rules of Leadership – By Inc. Staff
- Leadership Isn’t About You – By Marshall Goldsmith (Harvard Business Review)
- Steve Jobs Speaks Out: On His Management Style – By CNN Fortune
- The Manager’s Cheat Sheet: 101 Common-Sense Rules For Leaders – By Inside CRM Editors *
- 8 Tips on How to Be a More Successful CEO – By Inc.
- How To Be An Effective CEO – By Bernard Lunn (Read Write Web)
- How to Find the Right Management Style – By Chris Musselwhite (Inc.) *
- Startup Founders Should Flip Burgers – By Mark Suster (Both Sides of the Table)
- People Management: Startup Teams Should Dip But Not Skip – By Mark Suster (Both Sides of the Table) *
- Avoid Decision By Indecision – By Mark Suster (Both Sides of the Table)
- How To Communicate With Your Investors Between Board Meetings – By Mark Suster (Both Sides of the Table)
- Running More Effective Board Meetings At Startups – By Mark Suster (Both Sides of the Table)
- Taking The Mystery Out of Scaling a Company – By Ben Horowitz
- How To Scale Without Losing Your Shirt – By Bernard Lunn (Read Write Web)
- Startups Must Hire The Right People and Watch Every Penny. Or Fail. – By Michael Arrington (TechCrunch) *
- How To Save Money Running A Startup (17 Really Good Tips) – By Jason Calacanis *
- Why Startups Should Train Their People – By Ben Horowitz *
Startup Culture
- Apple’s Startup Culture – By Nilofer Merchant (Business Week) *
- Startup Culture Lessons From Mad Men – By Brian Halligan (OnStartups)
- Things Startup Do and Don’t Need – By Chris Dixon
- Startup Culture: 23 Insights From The NetFlix Culture Deck – By Dharmesh Shah (OnStartups)
- Thirteen Key Characteristics of a Great Startup Culture – By Greg Gottesman (Tech Flash)
- Personality of a Company: Establishing Culture and Values Early On [VIDEO] – By Jeff Kaplan
- Promote Self-Discipline – By Susan Heathfield (About.com)
- Why You Can’t Work at Work [VIDEO] – By Jason Fried *
Assembling Your Team
- How To Pick A Co-Founder – By Navai Ravikant (Venture Hacks) *
- Hiring Employee #1 – By Jason Cohen (A Smart Bear) *
- Beginner’s Guide To Finding The Right Business Partner – By Neil Patel (Quick Sprout)
- Six Clues To Find Your Ideal Startup Co-Founder – By Marty Zwilling (Young Entrepreneur)
- What To Look For In A Business Co-Founder – By Jason Baptiste
- Finding Great Developers – By Joel Spolsky (Joel on Software) *
- How To Hire A Programmer To Make Your Ideas Happen – By Derek Sivers *
- How To Hire An A-Team – By Bernard Lunn (Read Write Web)
- Build Your Management Team – By Stever Robbins (Entrepreneur)
- How to Build Your Management Team – By Inc. Staff
- How To Assemble The Perfect Team – By Jun Loayza *
- The New Rules of Hiring – By Inc. Staff
- How To Use Social Media As A Recruiting Tool – By Tiffany Black (Inc.) *
- Hiring Your First Employee: 10 Steps Uncle Sam Requires You Follow – By Caron Beesley (Young Entrepreneur)
- What To Look For In Hiring a VP of Engineering For Your Internet Startup – By Tom Pinckney (Chris Dixon)
- The Power of “In Person” – Why Distributed Teams Are Less Effective – By Mark Suster (Both Sides of the Table)
- How To Improve Hiring At Startups – By Mark Suster (Both Sides of the Table)
- Hiring Is Obsolete – By Paul Graham *
- Everything You Ever Wanted To Know About Advisors (Part 1, Part 2) – By Babak Nivi (Venture Hacks)
- Why is it Hard to Bring Big Company Execs into Little Companies? – By Ben Horowitz
Sales & Marketing
- 54 Ways To Generate Website Traffic – By Stanley Tang *
- If You Build It, They Won’t Come – By Jason Baptiste *
- Startup Marketing: Getting Off The Ground Floor – By Sean O’Malley
- Building Startup Sales Teams: Tips For Founders – By Dharmesh Shah (OnStartups)
- My 8 Commandments For Marketing Your Startup – By Jon Miller (Gigaom)
- How Not To Market Your Startup – By Neil Patel (Quick Sprout)
- What’s Your Viral Loop? Understanding the Engine of Adoption – By Andrew Chen *
- 5 Crucial Stages in Designing Your Viral Loop – By Andrew Chen *
- Viral Marketing Is Not A Marketing Strategy – By Andrew Chen *
- 4 Ways to Master Social Media Marketing – By Michael Mothner (Inc.)
- Social Media Marketing Beginner’s Guide – By Jon Rognerud (Marketing Pilgrim)
- 30 Tips for Using Social Media in Your Business – By April Joyner (Inc.) *
- Three Steps To Building An Online Brand – By Bernard Lunn (Read Write Web)
- How To Get PR For Your Startup: Fire Your PR Company – By Jason Calacanis (Business Insider) *
- 6 Ways To Get Press For Your Startup Without Hiring A PR Firm – By Dan Frommer (Open Forum)
- How To Write A Winning Press Release: The Step-By-Step Guide – By Shira Levine (Open Forum)
- 75 Big Marketing Ideas For Small Marketing Budgets – By Matthew Ringer (Smal Biz Bee)
- The 10 Most Common Publicity Mistakes – Don’t Sabotage Your Success! – By Bill Stoller (Business Know-How)
- 10 Tips for Bootstrapping Your Marketing – By Inc. Staff
- Mediocre Marketing: How NOT To Describe Your Startup – By Dharmesh Shah (OnStartups)
- Tech Support *is* Sales – By Jason Cohen (A Smart Bear)
Business Model & Monetization
- 5 Business Models For Social Media Startups – By Jun Loayza (Mashable) *
- My Favorite Business Model – By Fred Wilson (A VC)
- Business Models For Startups – By Steve Blank
- 10 New Business Models For This Decade – By Trend Firm & Strategy Boutique Thaesis
- The 5 Most Innovative New Online Business Models In 2010 – By Rohit Bhargava (Open Forum)
- Business Models On The Web – By Michael Rappa (Digital Enterprise)
- What’s A Startup? First Principles – By Steve Blank *
- Innovation In Business Models [VIDEO] – By Jeff Raikes
- No Plan Survives First Contact With Customers – Business Plans vs Business Models – By Steve Blank
- How To Design Your Business Model As A Lean Startup? – By Tor Gronsund
- Struggling To Monetize Web 2.0 – By Dion Hinchcliffe (Social Computing Journal)
- Your Ad-Supported Web 2.0 Site Is Actually A B2B Enterprise In Disguise – By Andrew Chen
- Ad-Based vs Directo Monetization: Which One Is Better For You? – By Andrew Chen
- Web 2.0 = Web App + 2 Founders + 0 Revenue – By Don Dodge
- How To Create A Profitable Freemium Startup – By Andrew Chen *
- Free! Why $0.00 Is The Future of Business – By Chris Anderson (Wired) *
- Why It Pays to Give Away the Store – By Katherine Heires (Business 2.0)
- User Growth vs Revenue (Why “Free Only” May Limit Growth) – By Sean Ellis (Startup Marketing)
- Founder Showcase: Phil Libin (CEO of Evernote) Keynote [VIDEO] – By Phil Libin
- What Does The “Media Business Model” Mean? – By Chris Anderson (The Long Tail)
- 5 Ways to Monetize the Future of News Media – By Lauren Indvik (Mashable)
- 10 Tips For Monetizing Social Traffic Through Virtual Currency – By Anu Shukla (Inside Facebook)
- Social Network Monetization – Deeper Insights – By Sampad Swain
- 5 Things That Make Your Social Network Monetize Like Crap – By Andrew Chen
Venture Capital, Funding & Equity
- How To Fund A Startup – By Paul Graham *
- A Fundraising Survival Guide – By Paul Graham
- Debt, Equity and a Third Thing That Might Work Better – By Seth Godin *
- Raising Capital: Closing The Deal – By Joe Beninato
- Five Myths About Financing Startups That Hurt Entrepreneurs – By Scott Shane (Small Biz Trends)
- How To Raise Venture Capital – By Neil Patel (Quick Sprout)
- 9 Quick Tips Learned While Raising $33 Million In Venture Capital – By Dharmesh Shah (OnStartups)
- Critical Factors For Obtaining Venture Funding – By Bill Reichert (Garage Technology Ventures)
- The 5 Most Common Mistakes Startups Make With VCs – By Scott Edward Walker (Venture Beat)
- Angels vs Venture Capitalists – By Ben Horowitz
- Angel vs VC? – By Fred Wilson (A VC)
- Common Venture Capital Legal Terms and Conditions – By Gaebler
- Ideal First Round Funding Terms – By Chris Dixon *
- Valuation – By Fred Wilson (A VC)
- How To Pump Up Your VC Valuation – By Matt Bartus
- Want To Know How VC’s Calculate Valuation Differently From Founders? – By Mark Suster (Both Sides of the Table) *
- Audio Podcast: Angel Investing Revealed – By Ron Conway & Mike Maples *
- Inside Entrepreneurship: What Angel Investors Aren’t Looking For – By Susan Schreter (Seattle P-I)
- Four Things Some VCs Do That I Don’t Like – By Ben Horowitz
- What’s The Right Amount of Seed Money To Raise? – By Chris Dixon
- The Problem With Taking Seed Money From Big VCs – By Chris Dixon
- Perfecting Your Pitch – By Bill Reichert (Garage Technology Ventures)
- How To Pitch To A VC or Angel – By Bernard Lunn (Read Write Web)
- How To Nail The Five-Minute Pitch – By Chuck Dietrich (Venture Beat)
- Pitch Yourself, Not Your Idea – By Chris Dixon
- Six Slides – By Fred Wilson (A VC)
- How To Present To Investors – By Paul Graham
- Avoid These Mistakes When Pitching To Investors – By Audrey Watters (Read Write Web)
- Size Markets Using Narratives, Not Numbers – By Chris Dixon
- Five Negotiating Tips For Startups – By Scott Edward Walker (Venture Beat)
- Founder Vesting – By Chris Dixon *
- Ask The Attorney: Founder Vesting – By Scott Edward Walker (Venture Beat)
- Founder Vesting: Five Tips For Entrepreneurs – By Scott Edward Walker (Walker Corporate Law)
- Dividing Equity Between Founders – By Chris Dixon
- Issuing Stock Options? Here’s What You Need To Know – By Scott Edward Walker (Venture Beat)
- Ask The Attorney: Types of Angel Financing – By Scott Edward Walker (Walker Corporate Law)
- Writing A Compelling Executive Summary – By Bill Reichert (Garage Technology Ventures)
- The Hacker’s Guide To Investors – By Paul Graham
- An Engineer’s View of Venture Capitalists – By Paul Graham (Y Combinator)
- The Capital-Raising Ladder – By Bernard Lunn (Read Write Web)
- Top VCs Debate Rising Startup Valuations [VIDEO] – By Michael Arrington (TechCrunch) *
Legal
- The Six Biggest Legal Mistakes Startups Make – By Scott Edward Walker (Venture Beat)
- Entrepreneurs Need To Learn Some Law – By Chris Dixon
- Five Legal Shortcuts No Startup Can Afford – By Marty Zwilling (Young Entrepreneur)
- California Employment Law Traps for the Unwary for Technology and Media Startups – By Antone Johnson (Biznik)
- 5 Legal Mistakes Startups Make While Raising Capital – By Scott Edward Walker (Venture Beat)
- Angel Financing: Legal Tips For Entrepreneurs – By Scott Edward Walker (Walker Corporate Law)
- When Do I Need To Incorporate A Company? – By Yoichiro Taku (Startup Company Lawyer) *
- What Type of Entity Should I Form? – By Yoichiro Taku (Startup Company Lawyer) *
- What State Should I Incorporate In? – By Yoichiro Taku (Startup Company Lawyer)
- How Many Shares Should Be Authorized In The Certificate of Incorporation? – By Yoichiro Taku (Startup Company Lawyer)
- Company Registration Choices – By Bernard Lunn (Read Write Web) *
- How To Select Your Company’s Lawyer – By Caine Moss (Venture Beat)
- Top 10 Reasons Why Entrepreneurs Hate Lawyers – By Scott Edward Walker (Venture Hacks)
Miscellaneous
- Web 2.0 Expo: Gary Vaynerchuk On Building Personal Brand Within The Social Media Landscape [VIDEO] – By Gary Vaynerchuk *
- Web 2.0 Expo: Chris Brogan, “The Serendipity Engine” [VIDEO] – By Chris Brogan
- How To Make Wealth – By Paul Graham *
- What Kate Saw in Silicon Valley – By Paul Graham
- Why To Start A Startup In A Bad Economy – By Paul Graham
- Five Founders – By Paul Graham
- How To Be Silicon Valley – By Paul Graham
- The Future of Web Startups – By Paul Graham
- Predictions For 2010 and the New Decade – By Don Dodge *
- SaaS – New Software Model, New Challenges – By Don Dodge
- 5 Reasons Google and Search Won’t Dominate The Next Decade – By Yuli Ziv (Mashable)
- Losing Andrew Carnegie – By Seth Godin *
- Tech Startups vs Rock Bands – By Stanley Tang
- 12 Facts About Entrepreneurs That Will Likely Surprise You – By Dharmesh Shah (OnStartups)
- Why You Need To Be In Silicon Valley – By Naval Ravikant (Startup Boy)
- Want to Know the Difference Between a CTO and a VP Engineering? – By Mark Suster (Both Sides of the Table)
- 73.6 of all Statistics are Made Up – By Mark Suster (Both Sides of the Table) *
- They Will Steal Your Idea. They Cannot Steal What Really Matters. – By Jason Baptiste *
- Is an MBA a Plus or a Minus in the Startup World? – By Vivek Wadhwa (TechCrunch)
- Why We Prefer Founding CEOs – By Ben Horowitz
- Tim O’Reilly: The Oracle of Silicon Valley – By Max Chafkin (Inc.)
- How Facebook is Becoming the Next Myspace – By Blair Mathis (Laptop Logic)
- Build To Fail: How Companies Like Google, IDEO and 37signals Build Failure-Tolerant Systems For Anything! – By Andrew Chen
- No Time to Read This? Read This – By Sue Shellenbarger (Wall Street Journal)
- Which Would You Choose: Work vs Family – By Jun Loayza
- Why I Sold Zappos – By Tony Hsieh (Inc.) *
Awesome post Stanley!
Awesome Stanley, really great stuff, going to read now 🙂 Tweeted it out!
Thanks for mention Stanley. This is one crazy list 🙂
Btw, there is a follow-up post on Lean Startup Business Models on http://bit.ly/BizModTest
@tor
how many links you have in your bookmarks? I suppose those 256 is only about entrepreneur you have 😉 really i am curios hoe many yo have
I have around 350-400 bookmarks just about entrepreneurship. I cut it down by 100 based on what I thought were the best
keep on touch soon (regarding all those links) btw… in total, how many bookmarks you have in total?
This is an amazing and inspiring list.
I’ll retweet and tell our subscribers 🙂
Thanks Stanley!
-Edwin Ryan
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[…] 17 year old entrepreneur (!!!) compiled a massive list of 256 articles for tech entrepreneurs. I don’t think I’ll make it through all of this, but it’s a great resource and kudos to him […]
What a comprehensive list! Thank you!!!!!
Just what I was looking for. Looking for cloud virtualisation and surfing through I found this post on Yahoo and I found what I was looking for. I’ve bookmarked this post for future reference and will return soon 🙂 Is there an RSS option? Nice article – Thanks
I am honored to be on the list, thank you 🙂
[…] a shout-out to Stanley Tang. While compiling this list, I constantly referred to his blog post: 256 Must-Read Content for All Tech Entrepreneurs. It’s a great […]
It’s like an early Christmas present. Thanks for these…I guess I now know what I’ll be “absorbing” for the next month or two!
What a comprehensive list! Thank you!!!!!
Thanks!
[…] a shout-out to Stanley Tang. While compiling this list, I constantly referred to his blog post: 256 Must-Read Content for All Tech Entrepreneurs. It’s a great resource. This entry was posted in Startup and tagged List, Startup by […]