Entrepreneurship

The top 12 books about startups, funding, building lasting companies by sales

There are 100’s of books written by Silicon valley founders and leaders on the topic of funding, starting companies and building organizations to last. The top 10 in terms of number of copies of books sold are

  1. The Lean Startup by Eric Ries (2 million copies sold)
  2. The Hard Thing About Hard Things by Ben Horowitz (1 million copies sold)
  3. Zero to One by Peter Thiel (1 million copies sold)
  4. The Innovator’s Dilemma by Clayton M. Christensen (800,000 copies sold)
  5. The Startup Owner’s Manual by Steve Blank (700,000 copies sold)
  6. The Art of StartUp by Guy Kawasaki (600,000 copies sold)
  7. Crossing the Chasm by Geoffrey A. Moore (500,000 copies sold)
  8. The Startup of You by Reid Hoffman and Ben Casnocha (400,000 copies sold)
  9. The Lean Product Playbook by Dan Olsen (300,000 copies sold)
  10. The Startup Owner’s Finance Book by Steve Blank and Bob Dorf (200,000 copies sold)
  11. Venture Deals by Brad Feld and Jason Mendelson (150,000 copies sold)
  12. The Angel Investor’s Handbook by David S. Rose (100,000 copies sold)

Here is a one sentence summary on each of these books

  • The Lean Startup by Eric Ries: Build a minimum viable product (MVP) and test it with customers as soon as possible.
  • The Hard Thing About Hard Things by Ben Horowitz: Be prepared to make tough decisions, and don’t be afraid to fail.
  • Zero to One by Peter Thiel: Focus on creating new markets, not competing in existing ones.
  • The Innovator’s Dilemma by Clayton M. Christensen: Incumbent companies often fail to innovate because they are too focused on their current customers.
  • The Startup Owner’s Manual by Steve Blank: The four steps to starting a successful business are customer discovery, customer validation, customer creation, and customer scaling.
  • The Art of StartUp by Guy Kawasaki: Build a strong brand, tell a compelling story, and create a passionate community around your product.
  • Crossing the Chasm by Geoffrey A. Moore: When you’re launching a new product, you need to first focus on early adopters, then move on to the early majority.
  • The Startup of You by Reid Hoffman and Ben Casnocha: Your career is like a startup, and you need to be constantly learning and growing.
  • The Lean Product Playbook by Dan Olsen: Use a lean approach to product development to reduce risk and increase your chances of success.
  • The Startup Owner’s Finance Book by Steve Blank and Bob Dorf: Understand the financial side of your business so you can make informed decisions.
  • Venture Deals by Brad Feld and Jason Mendelson: Learn how to negotiate venture capital deals so you can get the best possible terms.
  • The Angel Investor’s Handbook by David S. Rose: Learn how to become an angel investor and help early-stage startups succeed.
Entrepreneurship

Book review: Zero to One – Peter Thiel

“Zero to One” is a book that challenges entrepreneurs to think beyond incremental progress and instead aim to create something new and valuable, to go from “zero to one.”

Written by Peter Thiel, a Silicon Valley entrepreneur and venture capitalist who co-founded PayPal and was an early investor in Facebook, the book presents a contrarian view of business and innovation.

Zero to One Book

Thiel argues that competition is overrated and that startups should aim to create monopolies, as they provide the most value to both the company and society.

He also stresses the importance of having a clear vision for the future and the ability to execute on that vision, as well as the need for a strong team.

Created with Nighcafe AI

He argues that startups should focus on creating something new and unique, rather than simply competing in existing markets.

The Hollywood script summary!

If I were younger, created by Dall-E

FADE IN:

We open on PETER THIEL, a brilliant and eccentric entrepreneur, sitting in his office in Silicon Valley. He’s deep in thought, staring at a whiteboard covered in equations and diagrams.

PETER THIEL (V.O.) The world is changing faster than ever, but progress seems to have slowed down. We need to find a new path to innovation.

We see a montage of Silicon Valley tech companies, all working on incremental improvements to existing products. PETER THIEL shakes his head in disappointment.

PETER THIEL (V.O.) We’re stuck in a world of competition, where everyone is fighting over a slice of the same pie. What we need is a new philosophy of innovation. We need to go from zero to one.

PETER THIEL starts writing furiously on a notepad, scribbling down his ideas. We see glimpses of his past – co-founding PayPal, investing in Facebook – as he talks about the importance of building something new and revolutionary.

PETER THIEL (V.O.) We can’t just copy what’s already been done. We need to create something that’s never existed before.

We see PETER THIEL giving a lecture to a group of young entrepreneurs, urging them to take risks and think big. He talks about the power of monopoly, and how creating a unique product or service is the key to success.

PETER THIEL Competition is for losers. If you want to create something truly great, you need to find a way to be the only one doing it.

We see PETER THIEL mentoring a young startup founder, pushing her to think beyond the bounds of what’s possible. We see the company grow and succeed, thanks to PETER THIEL’s guidance.

PETER THIEL (V.O.) The world needs more innovation, more creativity, more boldness. It’s time to go from zero to one.

FADE OUT.

investing

How to write, publish, edit & distribute a book – A resource for book writers in 2023

Writing a book is a big amount of effort and commitment!

There’s a ton of steps involved, from brainstorming to publishing. Let me break it down if you are so inclined.

NightCafe AI generated

Writing a Book:

  1. Idea generation: Think of a topic you’re passionate about and come up with some killer ideas.
  2. Research: Look up some background info and gather facts that’ll help you develop your story and characters.
  3. Outline: Sketch out a rough draft of your book, including the main plot and chapters.
  4. First draft: Start writing your first draft. Don’t worry about being perfect, just focus on getting your ideas on paper.
  5. Revision: Read through your draft and make any necessary changes to improve the flow and structure.
  6. Beta readers: Get some feedback from beta readers on what they liked and what could be improved.
  7. Edit: Use the feedback to make any necessary edits to your manuscript.
  8. Final draft: After polishing your manuscript, give it one final read-through before it’s ready for publishing.
fotor. AI generated

Publishing:

  1. Self-publish or traditional: Decide whether you want to self-publish or try for a traditional publishing house. My publishing is Diamond Consulting, easy to work with. They helped with editing, proof reading, layout, cover design and distribution. The book is available now on Amazon, Barnes and Noble, Apple iBooks (more coming soon).
  2. Submit your manuscript: If you choose traditional publishing, submit your manuscript to agents or publishers who accept unsolicited submissions.
  3. Negotiate the contract: If your manuscript gets accepted, negotiate the terms of your publishing contract.
  4. Editing: Work with an editor to make any necessary edits to your manuscript. My editor was ok, not a great experience. Choose one that knows your space. Its okay to pay more for this.
  5. Proofreading: Have your manuscript proofread by a pro to ensure there are no errors. I had an awful experience with Fiverr for proof reading.
  6. Layout: Format your manuscript according to publishing standards.
  7. Cover design: Work with a graphic designer to create a dope cover that’ll attract readers. My graphic design HDMXPublishing (Hamaad) was awesome. Based in London, the guy was fast, reliable and consistent.
  8. Print and distribute: Once everything is complete, print and distribute your book.
  9. Consider all book formats: Ebook (ePub), Hard cover (if this is a publication people will cherish), Paperback (for folks that like paper in their hands) and Audio book.
  10. ISBN: I got an ISBN for the eBook from myidentifers.com ($295 for 10) but used Kindle ISBN (free) for the Amazon paperback version and Barnes & Noble ISBN (free) for the B&N paperback version. Every version of your book needs a different ISBN – audio, eBook, paperback and hardcover.

Editing and proofreading:

  1. Editing: Hire a pro to review your manuscript and give suggestions.
  2. Revision: Make revisions based on the editor’s feedback.
  3. Proofreading: Have your manuscript proofread to ensure it’s error-free.
Fotor: AI generated image

Layout and cover design:

  1. Layout: Format your manuscript according to industry standards.
  2. Cover design: Work with a graphic designer to create a sweet cover that’ll grab readers’ attention.
  3. Print and distribute: Once everything is complete, print and distribute your book.
  4. Think about size (5X8 is for Paperback Amazon and 5.25X8 for Barnes and Noble)
investing

All newsletter statistics – Substack, Beehiv, Revue

The number of paid newsletters is about 131K (Substack, Beehiiv, Revue, MailerLite, etc.) across all the major subscription services.

Since I have an email list of about 300 email newsletter owners (none of them believe they are in the top 100 overall by newsletter subscription revenue), I thought I’d run a survey (via email – so meta).

Here are the numbers, without all the drama of charts and graphs.

The average newsletter has over 20+ paid subscribers and 100’s of free subscribers.

If you segment the newsletters there are 5 segments you can come up with.

  1. Topic / category : News , technology, finance, etc.
  2. Price of newsletter per month: <$5, $5 – $10, $10 – $25 and > $25
  3. By # of paying subscribers: < 100, 100 – 500, > 500
  4. By primary revenue model: Subscriptions or Sponsorships (advertising)
  5. By frequency of publication: Daily, Multiple times a week, Weekly

Topical news, politics and general news / sports make up the top categories.

Most newsletters are priced between $5 and $10 per month.

Over 87% of newsletters have fewer than 100 paying subscribers.

Only 21% of newsletters have ads / sponsors while 79% exclusively rely on paid subscriptions.

91% of subscribers publish multiple times a week, while 6% once a week and the rest daily.

investing

Book launch: Easy Introduction to Stock Trading

I launched my book “Easy Introduction To Stock Trading“.

If you want to trade & invest in stocks and and options, but dont know where to start this is the right book for you.

This book is a jargon-free, easy to understand, question and answer format style publication. I will walk you through a series of frequently asked questions to help you understand the market, trading, risk management and options to get you started.

It is short (90 pages) and you can finish reading it in less than 3 hours. It is also very inexpensive at $9.99 for a Kindle version, since I wanted to have more people get access to it.

If you still cannot afford it, by all means, please email me and I will make it available to you.

What I would like is to please write about it (on WhatsApp), share this post on Facebook, Instagram or Twitter.

It would be a great help if you can leave a review on my Amazon page.

investing

Apple $AAPL services revenue is something to watch for this quarter

Apple’s Services revenue comprises a variety of different products and services, including:

  • The App Store
  • Apple Music
  • Apple Arcade
  • Apple TV+
  • iCloud
  • Apple Pay
  • Apple Card
  • Apple News+
  • Apple Fitness+
  • Apple Books
  • Apple Care+

These services are available to Apple customers around the world and are a key part of Apple’s overall business strategy.

$AAPL services revenue growth

As you can see, Apple’s services revenue has been growing steadily over the past few years. In the most recent quarter, Apple’s services revenue grew by 6.4% year-over-year.

I am watching growth from $AAPL card and fitness+ for future growth as Apple Mac sales slow down.

Entrepreneurship, Tips

How to be a good writer- Amazon style

When I worked at Amazon, most of my days were spent writing or reading narrative style documents. Most everyone has heard of the 6 page narrative that Amazon prefers over PowerPoint presentation. I read many newsletters but most do not measure up to the quality and usefulness of an Amazon document.

Most newsletters writers are not story tellers and that’s what causes me to unsubscribe quickly.

While there are a lot of resources on how to write like an Amazon person, I have yet to see a good writeup on the difference between plots (fiction) and structures (non-fiction) style writing.

Fictional stories have plot

Fiction stories have plots. They are formulaic. Here are some examples.

  1. The Three-Act Structure: This is one of the most common plot structures, which involves dividing the story into three main parts – the setup, the confrontation, and the resolution. The first act sets up the story and introduces the main characters and their conflicts. The second act is the confrontation, where the characters face challenges and obstacles, leading to a climax. The third act is the resolution, where the conflicts are resolved, and the story ends.
  2. The Hero’s Journey: This plot structure was popularized by Joseph Campbell’s book “The Hero with a Thousand Faces.” It involves a hero going on a journey or adventure, facing challenges, and transforming as a result. This structure typically includes various stages, including the call to adventure, crossing the threshold, facing trials and tribulations, and returning home transformed.
  3. In Medias Res: This plot structure starts in the middle of the action, with the story unfolding through a series of flashbacks or other narrative devices. This structure can be a bit more complex than other structures but can be effective in creating suspense and intrigue.
  4. Episodic: This structure involves a series of related, but somewhat self-contained episodes or stories. This is often seen in TV shows or anthologies, where each episode has its own arc but contributes to a larger overall story.
  5. Linear: A linear plot structure is a straightforward chronological telling of events from beginning to end, with a clear cause-and-effect relationship between each event.
Non fiction stories have structures

Non fiction stories have structures. They are also formulaic. Here are some examples.

  1. Chronological: This structure presents events or ideas in the order in which they occurred, from beginning to end. It’s a popular choice for biographies, historical books, and memoirs.
  2. Cause and effect: This structure explores the relationship between two or more events or ideas, showing how one leads to the other. It’s often used in books on science, politics, and social issues.
  3. Problem and solution: This structure presents a problem or challenge and then offers a solution or a way to address it. It’s a common structure for books on self-help, business, and leadership.
  4. Compare and contrast: This structure explores similarities and differences between two or more topics or ideas. It’s often used in books on history, culture, and politics.
  5. Listicle or guidebook: This structure presents a series of tips, steps, or pieces of advice on a particular topic. It’s commonly used in books on self-help, cooking, travel, and other practical subjects.

As a newsletter writer, your goal is to get people to read, not just subscribe. I would highly recommend you pick a style that suits you and follow that structure consistently.

Open rates are mostly meaningless except for advertisers. Hang time (time spent reading) is a more useful metric of how useful your content is.

Entrepreneurship

How will Generative AI change stock trading and investing?

One of the most time consuming parts of trading and investing is the research. I spend hours on end looking at data, formatting company information, searching and filtering screeners. Then you have to visually look for patterns in charts as well as remember your rules for the trade.

Bulls? Bears? Unicorns?

That changes dramatically with Generative AI and LLM. Since financial data is available freely, it is not just Bloomberg that has access to stock performance data, revenues and earnings. So you do not have to pay Bloomberg for BloombergGPT.

There are many sources for charting and financial data. I use Tickr for fundamental data and Trading View for charts.

The data synthesis and initial ideas come from my own thesis on swing trades. I use ChatGPT for most of the initial filtering now.

With the right prompts, it cuts the time to generate trade ideas by over 70%.

Artificial Intelligence

AutoGPT – take a BS generator and put it on steroids

GoalGPT from Nando.AI is an absolute waste of time, please dont spend your time on this.

The latest craze of the AI “experts” is AutoGPT. AutoGPT is an open-source application that uses OpenAI’s large language model, GPT-4, to automate the execution of multi-step projects.

AutoGPT works by chaining together LLM “thoughts”, to autonomously achieve whatever goal you set. For example, you can tell AutoGPT what you want the end goal to be and the application will self-produce every prompt necessary to complete the task.

An example of one is GoalGPT by Nando, which I tried and is absolutely useless.

If you know how to ask the right questions (Prompts) you can get some good information from ChatGPT. But with GoalGPT you provide it with some high-level task and it generates cliched nonsense you will find in most content-farmed blogs.

Here’s an example.

The prompt: Create a new business focused on selling courses online with $100.

The response:

📝 Task 1: Develop a website for the business with an easy to use platform and interface.
📝 Task 2: Establish one or more payment systems to handle transactions.
📝 Task 3: Create content and catalog courses that will be offered on the website.

Then it goes on to do what it wants to do anyway, which is those 3 tasks it set out for itself.

On the plus side it is fast. On the minus side – well, it sucks and does nothing that helps you do what you want it to do.

The personal blog of Mukund Mohan