Our goal has always been to give you rare, unprecedented access to the people shaping the tech industry— specifically, the advice that they've gained through experience, or used to get where they are today.
So when we sat down earlier this year to double down on this mission, we wondered who these exceptional people — including leaders at companies like Airbnb, Slack, Warby Parker and the like — idolize and draw their wisdom from. Who do they turn to when they have tough questions or encounter new challenges? And how can we share this bigger, broader store of knowledge with our audience?
As it turns out, tech pioneers tend to be voracious readers, and they like to apply what they read. So, on the precipice of summer vacations for many, we thought it only made sense to share the reads that have inspired the people we look to for the best tactics and solutions.
What follows are top book recommendations sent to us by some of the sharpest folks we've written about and work with to give First Round startups an edge. Bonus: We not only asked them for their top business book from the past year, but the recent bests across genre, and their favorite of all time — leading to a fascinating, counterintuitive web of “people who liked this also liked...” suggestions. (Like most of the advice we feature, we tried to give top billing to the unusual and original. People love Zero to One, but you already knew that.)
We hope you enjoy! Happy summer and happy reading!
Your friendly Review editors,
Camille Ricketts& Shaun Young
Michael Lopp, VP of Engineering at Slack
Michael Lopp's summer got off to an interesting start with him being named VP of Engineering at Slack.
Having led engineering at Pinterest and people ops at Palantir before that, the well-known blogger says the best book he's read in the last year is Boyd: The Fighter Pilot Who Changed the Art of War by Robert Coram — a biography of John Boyd, who many believe to be the best fighter pilot in U.S. history and second only to Sun Tzu when it comes to military theory.
"It's a stunning exploration of how humans can more effectively make decisions," says Lopp.
His other recs:The Great Bridge— "a fascinating read about when bridges were still in beta." And his all time favorite, Hyperion, a modern retelling of the Canterbury Tales known for its incredible attention to world-building detail.
Brian O'Kelley, CEO of AppNexus
Brian O'Kelley, founder and CEO of online advertising platform AppNexus also values good decision making. His top pick this year: Product Strategy for High Technology Companies by Michael McGrath, one of the most detailed guides to product strategy ever written, drawing on over 250 stories from formative years at Apple, IBM and more.
"It's just brilliant, structured thinking on how to make strategy decisions," O'Kelley says.
His other recs: Wolf Hall, immersive and insight historical nonfiction dissecting the fraught politics in the court of King Henry VIII, and his best of all time, Cloud Atlas, a weave of interlocking stories and mysteries told over the span of thousands of years.
Julie Zhuo, VP of Product Design at Facebook
Julie Zhuo, VP Product Design at Facebook, has also achieved fame for her insightful missives on Medium about design and management. Her top pick for the year is High Output Management by Andy Grove, in which the former Chairman and CEO of Intel shares his perspective on building high-productivity teams and motivating talented people.
"I picked up the book after Grove passed away this year and I found it so succinct, so clear, and so packed with easy-to-understand analogies," says Zhuo. "It really gets to the heart of what good management is."
Her other recs:Mindset by Carol Dweck, a close look at how humans can learn and grow throughout their lives if they take the right approach.
"So much of being happy and productive is not about what's happening externally, but what's going on in our own heads. I loved this book for so clearly illustrating that," she said.
Then there's her long-time No. 1, The Phantom Tollbooth.
"To this day, I can think of no better book that captures the imagination, wonder and adventure of life that children so intuitively grasp," she said.
See the rest of the story at Business Insider