The Essential Technology Start-Up Book List Dave Litwiller

Originally Published April 2011

Updated April 2014

Narratives

Walker, J., (1989). The Autodesk File: The No-Holds-Barred Story of the Making of a Software Company.

Thousand Oaks, USA: New Riders Publishing.

The Autodesk File captures the growth of the company and its products from their beginnings through IPO

from the documents that were used within the company at the time.

http://www.fourmilab.ch/autofile/afpdf.zip

Stone, B., (2013). The Everything Store. New York, USA: Little, Brown.

The story of building Amazon describes the relentless drive and energy required to build and sustain an

industry-defining company from start-up to scale, taking it from its beachhead vertical to many sectors.

http://www.amazon.ca/The-Everything-Store-Bezos-Amazon-ebook/dp/B00BWQW73E

Kidder, T. (1981). The Soul of a New Machine. New York, USA: Back Bay.

The Soul is a suspenseful description of the challenges for an organization and its people of bringing a

complex technology to life. Soul is a Pulitzer Prize winning book.

http://www.amazon.ca/The-Soul-A-New-Machine/dp/B00008RWB6

Kaplan, S. J., (1994). Startup: A Silicon Valley Adventure. New York, USA: Penguin.

Startup is one of the best written books about the creation and fostering of a high profile, highly funded

company and its travails getting market adoption for an early pen-based computer.

http://www.amazon.com/Startup-Silicon-Adventure-Jerry-Kaplan/dp/0140257314

Taylor, S. and Schroeder, K., (2003). Inside Intuit. Boston, USA: Harvard Business School Press.

Inside Intuit details the trials and path to success of an exemplary customer-driven, user feedback premised

business. http://www.insideintuit.com/

Venture Capital, Term Sheets and Business Formation

Nesheim, J.L. (2000). High Tech Start Up: The Complete Handbook for Creating Successful New High

Tech Companies. New York, USA: The Free Press.

High Tech Start Up is the definitive guide to understanding venture capital term sheets. It also provides a

very good overview of the emotional demands placed on the founder to successfully start a technology-

based business, grow it, and achieve liquidity.

http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/068487170X/qid=1096675033/sr=ka-1/thenesheimgroup

Metrick, A. (2007). Venture Capital and the Finance of Innovation. Hoboken, USA: Wiley.

Venture Capital profiles the empirical and statistical drivers of the venture capital industry, as well as

valuation models, to help the entrepreneur prepare and negotiate most productively when seeking venture

capital financing. http://ca.wiley.com/WileyCDA/WileyTitle/productCd-EHEP000064.html

General Management

Stalk, G. and Hout, T. (1990). Competing Against Time. New York, USA: Free Press.

This book powerfully describes the competitive advantage and adaptability conferred by fast cycles of

action. http://www.bcg.com/expertise_impact/publicationdetails.aspx?id=tcm:12-14119

Cohen, D. and Feld, B. (2011). Do More Faster. Hoboken, USA: Wiley.

Do More Faster is a full playbook for the start-up phase, most applicable to mobile app, social media, and

web services ventures. It captures a great deal of the intensive mentorship guidance from the TechStars

program to help young Web 2.0 companies start quickly and make the most of their potential.

http://www.domorefasterbook.com/

Kotter, J. (1990). A Force for Change. New York, USA: Free Press.

A Force for Change is a concise look at the differences between leadership and management, and how to do

both simultaneously and well.

http://www.amazon.ca/Force-For-Change-Leadership-Management/dp/0029184657

Horowitz, B., (2014). The Hard Thing About Hard Things. New York, USA: HarperCollins.

Horowitz describes the CEO’s role, especially when pushing for the highest growth and valuation. It is

most relevant for building enterprise software businesses. Functional emphasis is often placed on sales and

product management. http://hardthings.bhorowitz.com/

Grove, A. S., (1983). High Output Management. New York, USA: Random House.

This is the classic book on effective management of people and projects by the former CEO and chairman

of Intel. It is a must-read for people coming into supervisory and management positions for the first time.

http://www.amazon.com/High-Output-Management-Andrew-Grove/dp/0679762884

Bell, C.G., (1991). High-Tech Ventures: The Guide for Entrepreneurial Success. Reading, USA: Addison-

Wesley.

High Tech Ventures was one of the first and still most relevant guides describing an analytical approach to

moving an embryonic technology-based business toward much greater scale and success.

http://www.amazon.com/High-tech-Ventures-Guide-Entrepreneurial-Success/dp/0201563215#_

Sloan, A. P., (1990). My Years With General Motors. New York, USA: Doubleday.

My Years describes early scaling of General Motors at nearly unprecedented levels. It looks at the

emergent issues encountered and overcome in technology, operations, markets, financial controls and

human resources. It is most relevant for companies poised to take a large market.

http://blogs.hbr.org/2014/03/my-years-with-general-motors-fifty-years-on/

Rodgers, T.J., Taylor, W., and Foreman, R. (1992). No-Excuses Management: Proven Systems for Starting

Fast, Growing Quickly and Surviving Hard Times. New York, USA: Doubleday.

No Excuses Management details the systems for goal setting and performance management used by the

fiery founder-CEO of Cypress Semiconductor during its heyday of battling and succeeding in the hyper-

competitive memory chip business.

http://www.amazon.com/No-Excuses-Management-Systems-Starting-Surviving/dp/0385426046

Colley J.L., et al. (2007). Principles of General Management: The Art and Science of Getting Results

Across Organizational Boundaries. New Haven, USA: Yale University Press.

Principles of General Management lays out planning, analysis, monitoring, reporting and corrective action

methods suitable for organizations of all sizes.

http://yalepress.yale.edu/book.asp?isbn=9780300117097

Business Model Generation and Tuning

Mullins, J. and Komisar, R. (2009). Getting to Plan B: Breaking Through to a Better Business Model.

Boston, USA: Harvard Business School Press.

Getting to Plan B describes methods, tools and techniques for monitoring the performance of a

hypothesized or current business model, and developing data-driven, fact-based indicators from which to

evolve to a better business model.

http://www.amazon.com/Getting-Plan-Breaking-Through-Business/dp/1422126692

Blank, S. G. (2007). The Four Steps to the Epiphany: Successful Strategies for Products that Win. USA.

The Four Steps details an iterative strategic and tactical process based on rigorous feedback for aligning

company development with that of the product and the customer base in a rapidly growing enterprise.

http://www.amazon.com/Four-Steps-Epiphany-Steven-Blank/dp/0976470705

Finance and Accounting

The Harvard Business Essentials Series (2002). Finance for Managers. Boston, USA: Harvard Business

School Publishing.

Finance for Managers is a primer for non-financial entrepreneurs and executives on financial terms and

activities in order to credibly discuss financial projections, monitoring and reporting with prospective and

current investors, as well as other stakeholders.

http://hbr.org/product/harvard-business-essentials-guide-to-finance-for-m/an/8768-PBK-ENG

Product Management

Davidow, W. (1986). Marketing High Technology. New York, USA: The Free Press.

Marketing High Technology is a look at the successful strategy used by Intel in its early days of becoming

a microprocessor pioneer by creating a more complete product in the eyes of customers and faster cycles of

action than the competition.

http://www.amazon.com/Marketing-High-Technology-William-Davidow/dp/002907990X

Also, noted above, The Four Steps to the Epiphany is an important work for strategic product management,

and, The Hard Things About Hard Things discusses product manager training.

Research & Development

Reinertsen, D. G. (2009). The Principles of Product Development Flow – Second Generation Lean Product

Development. Redondo Beach, USA: Celeritas Publishing.

Flow is a comprehensive toolkit to help instrument and manage R&D activities for more rapid, adaptable

and predictable outcomes. The principles it describes can help with every type of R&D methodology, from

agile software development to phase-gate hardware and capital equipment creation.

http://www.amazon.com/Principles-Product-Development-Flow-Generation/dp/1935401009

McConnell, S. (1996). Rapid Development: Taming Wild Software Schedules. Redmond, USA: Microsoft

Press.

Rapid Development is an unrivalled look at scheduling, monitoring and providing course corrections for

complex engineering projects. It is written based on software development efforts, but the empirics and

techniques are extensible to nearly any type of engineering project. The sections devoted to project

recovery are especially useful.

http://www.amazon.com/Rapid-Development-Taming-Software-Schedules/dp/1556159005

Jones, C., (1997). Applied Software Measurement: Assuring Productivity and Quality. New York, USA:

McGraw-Hill.

Applied Software Measurement is a tour de force of quantitatively estimating and measuring productivity

and quality in software system design, delivery and maintenance.

http://www.amazon.com/Applied-Software-Measurement-Assuring-Productivity/dp/0070328269

Presentations

Weissman, J. (2009). Presenting to Win. Upper Saddle River, USA: FT Press.

Presenting to Win is the best book on making business and financial presentations, written by the most

successful coach of CEOs preparing for IPO roadshows.

http://www.amazon.ca/Presenting-Win-Telling-Updated-Expanded/dp/0137144172

Professional Services

Maister, D.H. (1997). Managing the Professional Services Firm. New York, USA: Free Press.

-and-

Baschab, J. and Piot, J. (2005) The Professional Services Firm Bible. Hoboken, USA: Wiley.

Managing the Professional Services Firm and The Professional Services Firm Bible provide firm-level

views of developing, promoting and delivering professional services. These books are widely extensible to

the professional services elements of consultative selling and service-augmented product delivery in high

technology.

http://www.amazon.com/Managing-Professional-Service-David-Maister/dp/0684834316

http://www.amazon.com/Professional-Services-Firm-Bible/dp/0471660485

Marketing

Jeffery, .M. (2010) Data-Driven Marketing. Hoboken, USA: Wiley.

This book provides a comprehensive overview of ROI-based, data-driven marketing techniques which

apply to efforts both on- and off-line.

http://www.amazon.ca/Data-Driven-Marketing-Metrics-Everyone-Should/dp/0470504544

Halligan, B. and Shah, D. (2010). Inbound Marketing: Get Found Using Google, Social Media and Blogs.

Hoboken, USA: Wiley.

Inbound Marketing is a thorough tactical guide to web and social media marketing for businesses.

http://inboundmarketing.com/book

Sales

Coonradt, C. (2007). The Game of Work. Layton, USA: Gibbs Smith.

The Game is a detailed guide to setting goals, gaining personal commitment from staff, and stoking

competitive instincts in a sales organization. It applies also to other easily measured environments.

http://www.amazon.com/Game-Work-The-Charles-Coonradt/dp/1423630858

Bosworth, M. T. (1995). Solution Selling: Creating Buyers in Difficult Selling Markets. New York, USA:

McGraw-Hill.

Solution Selling provides a tactical master class for conducting and influencing the sales process in large

transaction price business-to-business technology sales, especially IT.

http://www.amazon.com/Solution-Selling-Creating-Difficult-Markets/dp/0786303158

Miller, G. (2009). Spent: Sex, Evolution and Consumer Behaviour. New York, USA: Penguin.

Spent describes the basis in evolutionary psychology for what drives consumer behaviour. It draws

connections to what works, what doesn’t, and why in consumer products, video and social media games, as

well as web services.

http://www.amazon.com/Spent-Sex-Evolution-Consumer-

Behavior/dp/B002ZNJWHW/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1302875176&sr=1-1

Goldstein, N.J., Martin, S.J., and Cialdini, R.B. (2008) Yes!: 50 Scientifically Proven Ways to be

Persuasive. New York, USA: Free Press.

Yes! delivers behavioural psychology research on influencing people, updating Cialdini’s classic book on

the subject, Influence. The ideas Yes! presents are important to make the most of any type of person-to-

person selling or persuasion effort, as well as enhancing products, games, incentives, and service offerings

to be most compelling.

http://www.amazon.com/Yes-Scientifically-Proven-Ways-

Persuasive/dp/1416576142/ref=sr_1_3?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1302875213&sr=1-3

Governance

Conger, J. A. et al (2009). Boardroom Realities: Building Leaders Across Your Board. San Francisco,

USA: Jossey-Bass.

Boardroom Realities is current look at how to build and deliver leadership from the boardroom, optimizing

performance and impact of the board of directors for the organization.

http://www.josseybass.com/WileyCDA/WileyTitle/productCd-0470391782.html

Nadler, D., Behan, B., and Nadler, M. (2006). Building Better Boards: A Blueprint for Effective

Governance. San Francisco, USA: Jossey-Bass.

Building Better Boards taps the collective experience of a large number of seasoned corporate directors to

convey a range of methods and techniques to achieve efficient and effective board operation.

http://www.amazon.ca/Building-Better-Boards-Blueprint-Governance/dp/078798180X

Feld, B., and Ramsinghani, M. (2014). Startup Boards. Hoboken, USA: Wiley.

Startup Boards is a unique and comprehensive guide to the practical issues of making the board of directors

work well in a start-up. http://www.amazon.ca/Startup-Boards-Getting-Board-Directors/dp/1118443667

Also, The Four Steps to the Epiphany, noted above, describes in detail a recommended set of interaction

points for the board of directors overseeing start-up and growth stage technology businesses to help shape

the development of the business and its main product platform.

Intellectual Property Licensing

Megantz, R. (2002) Technology Management. Hoboken, USA: Wiley.

Technology Management is a thorough tour through the world of licensing technology both out and in.

Note that this book largely pre-dates the widespread use of open source technologies and the particular

issues for IP licensing and recommitment which come in open source.

http://ca.wiley.com/WileyCDA/WileyTitle/productCd-0471200182.html

Compiled By:

David J. Litwiller is a senior executive in high technology, based in Waterloo, Ontario. His background is

in wireless devices, precision electro-mechanics, semiconductors, electro-optics, MEMS, biotech

instrumentation, and enterprise software. He serves as an advisor for various private corporations in

matters of strategy, technology, operations, and business development. Mr. Litwiller is the author of

“Rapid Advance - Mergers & Acquisitions, Partnerships, Restructurings, Turnarounds and Divestitures in

High Technology”.

http://www.amazon.com/Rapid-Advance-Acquisitions-Partnerships-

Restructurings/dp/1439200874/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1287516364&sr=1-1.