LIVE in 24hrs - Dave Gerhardt - Author of Founder Brand

Hey RB2Bers -

Over the past 10 years I’ve read over 250 books about startups. Here are the 8 books that got me from $0-$25m ARR with zero funding - in order of impact - and what I learned from each of them:

1/ Four Steps to the Epiphany by Steve Blank

I re-read the first half of this book each time I start a startup. It’s dense, but there is no better description of exactly the steps to take to reduce your chance of failure to ZERO. Takeaway - build your audience of buyers before you launch, or you’re screwed.

2/ Founder Brand by Dave Gerhardt

This has been more impactful than anything I’ve ever done in business, ever. Yes, I have magical alignment in that I am my ICP and my ICP lives on LinkedIn. Even if you do not have that alignment, Founder Brand content creation is an automated trust-building machine and will pay huge dividends.

And by the way - he’s coming on Inbound-Led Outbound Live tomorrow!

Sign Up Here

3/ ReWork by 37 Signals 

The OG SaaS bootstrappers give many great takes on the benefits of creating a business outside of the VC ecosystem. I think you should read this book, then immediately do Y-Combinator’s Startup School, and land somewhere in the middle.

4/ Y-Combinator Startup School 

These guys understand the importance of pursuing growth as a key metric, but can skew towards making you think you should try to go big (because many of the biggest have gone through YC). As I said above, land somewhere between here and Rework.

5/ The Hard Thing About Hard Things by Ben Horowitz

Such an incredible articulation of so many of the things that make the CEO job so difficult. Must-read for any aspiring Founders to know what you’re getting yourself into.

6/ The Great CEO Within by Matt Mochary

Excellent description of how your journey and experience will likely change if you achieve product-market fit. I have read this book many times, and each time a different part resonates with me. Most recent thing: “Find a mentor, find a therapist, find a group of peers.” 

7/ $100m Offers by Alex Hormozi

“Have an offer so good your prospects will feel stupid not doing it.” Read, and re-read again. Then look yourself in the mirror and ask yourself if that statement is true for you. If not, make it true … And when you do, everything in your life will change.

8/ Purple Cow by Seth Godin

Nothing describes the necessity of being different more articulately than this book. Make yourself a Purple Cow so that you actually get talked about. It’s within your control, so do it.

TAKEAWAY

These books have formed my beliefs about how successful startups happen. 

You reading this today - and RB2B going from $0-$3m in 30 weeks with 5 people - is the result of me picking up Founder Brand by Dave Gerhardt two years ago.

It planted a seed that led to a rabbit hole that kept giving me enough back that I just kept digging. 

But should you spend a bunch of time and money building your Founder Brand?

When should you? When shouldn’t you? 

What if you could ask DG - the guy who LITERALLY wrote the book on it?  

Well … 

You can.  

Dave Gerhardt is on Inbound-Led Outbound LIVE this week. 

Tuesday, Nov 5, 3pm ET. 

Sign up here.