Best Books for Internet Entrepeneurs

Yesterday I posted about the essence of entrepreneurship: using innovation to exploit change, mentioning that the rest was just “details.”  Since a couple people asked, I thought I’d point out some sources of knowledge for filling in some of those details.

Now, I love Peter Drucker and his overall philosophy of entrepreneurship and management… However, I wouldn’t really recommend his books if you’re in a hurry to absorb the most entrepreneurial knowledge in the shortest amount of time.  So, I’ll do you the favor (having read way to many business books myself ) of saving you the time, and reducing it down to a list of only four books that I think you could read consequently know far more than most people trying to start businesses.

First, you’ll note that nothing in the list of four contains anything specific to the Internet, technology or software.  That’s because those things change too fast, and by the time it’s in hardcover the information is too old to be useful.  There are some great blogs and online resources — not to mention real-time sources like Twitter — that are fantastic for that.  Instead, I wanted to recommend a few books I thought would be timeless.   As an added benefit, most of these books are very easy, fast reads (you can finish all of them in a weekend).  They’ll sit on your shelf and you’ll refer to them time and time again.

Here goes:

Art of the Start by Guy Kawasaki contains some of the most down-to-earth and reasonable advice for anyone starting a new company.  Guy was the guru behind the Apple Macintosh’s user-centered marketing programs, and has gotten involved with dozens of startups since then (if you’ve ever visited Threadless.com, you’ve been to one of them).  He covers extensive ground in a concise format: product positioning, bootstrapping, raising capital, partnering, building a team, branding.  Guy has an optimistic, positive tone that’s grounded in pragmatic solutions.

There are thousands of books on the subject of selling.  Let me save you time: Jeffrey Gitomer’s Red Book of Selling is the best of them.  Even if you don’t think your business is going to be oriented around traditional sales processes (e.g., you’re planning an Internet business that will “sell itself” through online marketing, etc.) you’ll still benefit from this short manifesto.  Let me give you a hint: you’re always selling! Maybe you aren’t selling a product, but you’ll be selling yourself, your vision, your team, your idea.

For marketing, I love Seth Godin.  It’s really hard to choose which of his books I’ll recommend over all the others, but I’ve settled on Purple Cow.  I think this best summarizes his overall thesis, which is to make your business really stand out from the competition through extraordinary differentiation.  When you can achieve that, it’s your customers who will do most of your marketing for you.  What really makes this book shine are the real-world case studies that will serve as a catalyst for your own ideas.

So — you’ve read the three books above.  But maybe you’re hungry for more?  Rather than read more business books, I’m going to support a meme started over at Techcrunch: read science fiction.  If you enjoy technology and the Internet, then here are some of the best authors who hit on themes you’ll find close to your heart: Vernor Vinge, Charlie Stross, Cory Doctorow, Neal Stephenson and Bruce Sterling.

How about you?  Like my list?  Hate it?  Think someone else should be mentioned (non-fiction or science-fiction)?  I’d love to hear your thoughts!