[redm]

Two classic books that are fast reads and will also help you are 1) The Launchpad (about YC) and 2) The Lean Startup. Both are old books but they cover many of the same concepts and ways of thinking.

I’d add that if you do nothing else, read the first 3 chapters of The Mom Test; it provides a great overview for evaluating ideas.

[cpursley]

Meh, The Lean Startup is a bunch of "our VC funded company did a lot of bla bla bla" with very little detail or actionable information. It could have been a blog post or two.

I'd love some book recommendations with actionable info and with actual details on how to execute.

[rawoke083600]

"E-Myth - Revisited" is very good as an "operational handbook". Basically "systematised" everything and don't do "special request/things" for customers, since most of the time they are not repeatable by other branches or members of staff and get buy-in (for your vision) from your employees. There are many more practical lessons in there.

[tekkertje]

I went through "Running Lean" by Ash Maurya after reading Lean Startup, and it's a lot more practical and full of examples that can be applied in your own business. Only thing is that it's more oriented at consumer startups, so for B2B SaaS I'd recommend "The Startup Owner's Manual" by Steve Blank.

[Reebz]

Disciplined Entrepreneurship by Bill Aulet.

He’s actually had a couple of exits which can’t be said for most authors in the space.

[randomsearch]

Running lean is probably a lot better.

[NeilRamp]

Did you read the whole section of the post where I recommend reading The Mom Test.... ;-)

p.s. I've read Lean Startup, but will check out The Launchpad, thanks!

[redm]

I was agreeing with you. Thats why I said, “if you do nothing else”.

[NeilRamp]

Ah ha, sorry. I misinterpreted your comment :-)

[redm]

I was on my phone so I wasn't commenting at my best. So to be clear, I liked and appreciated your article! The more view points I can read on these topics, the better it is, because there's no one right answer (as I'm sure you've found).

[NeilRamp]

Yeah. It's definitely a case of trying to do the best job quickly. Validation should be an ongoing process for the pretty much the whole lifecycle of a startup. I think most of us aren't that good at it, or subconsciously avoid doing it, a lot of the time. This is my own effort at trying to streamline that process somewhat.

Thanks for your feedback. Genuinely appreciate it!