Founders at work
by Jessica Livingston · first published 2007
64% recommend35% neutral1% critical
Why HN recommends it
Interviews with early-stage founders about how their startups began, including pivots, hard times and when to quit. Valued as inspiration and a practical look at startup history for aspiring founders.
Summarised by Claude from recommending comments
Presents the profiles of the founders of thirty-two start-up technology companies, discussing how their ideas originated, the obstacles thay overcame to make their companies grow into successful ventures, and the influence that many of these companies have on the Internet culture.
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Mentions per year
What Hacker News says
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…topic. Most likely it's been done already. Anyway, here's my list: - Monk and the Riddle- Randy Komisar (You HAVE to read this, it puts it in the right perspective. Randy is a genius) - Paypal Wars - Founders at Work- Jessica Livingston
on “Best Books For a Startup?” ↗…An Eternal Golden Braid has been recommended by multiple HN readers in most threads like this. Robert Pirsig's book Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance. How Buildings Learn by Stewart Brand. Founders at Work by Jessica Livingston. Tipping Point by Malcom Gladwell. Freakonomics, by Levitt and Dubner. Against the Gods by Peter Bernstein. The art of war by Sun Tzu. The 33 Strategies of War by Robert Greene.…
on “Ask HN: Books That Gratify One's Intellectual Curiosity?” ↗…- Guy Kawasaki Controlling Software Projects - Tom DeMarco You Can't Teach a Kid to Ride a Bike at a Seminar - David Sandler Carnegie - Peter Krass Do More Faster - Brad Feld and David Cohen Founders at Work - Jessica Livingston But if I had to pick only one: How to Get Rich - Felix Dennis because it got me to dreaming, it's so much fun to read, and for the line, "If it flies, floats or fornicates,…
on “What is the single most influential book every programmer should read?” ↗…and I'd suggest that Salesforce's lawyers look carefully at it. If it is not, then finding prior art may be a challenge. People today are used to subscription-based software distribution. But pick up Founders at Work and read the interview with Arthur van Hoff about Marimba, which was founded in 1996 (after the patent was filed) and was in the business of subscription-based software with automatic updates. He talks…
on “Microsoft patent trolls Salesforce” ↗Founders at Work, her book of founder interviews, is stunningly good. I'm not surprised she's key to YC.
on “Jessica Livingston” ↗…Code". Automation takes you out of the very trenches you have to be in to get to know your code in the first place. The dirtier I get, the better I know my code. (For further reading, Chapter 3 of Founders at Work by Jessica Livingston. Woz (my hero) totally immersed himself in his details without crutches in order to know them as well as anyone ever has.) 8. Collect some statistics Code now, get something working,…
on “10 things you could be doing to your code right now” ↗- The Four Steps to the Epiphany by Steven Blank. [1] - Founders at Work: Stories of Startups' Early Days by Jessica Livingston. [2] [1] http://www.amazon.com/Four-Steps-Epiphany-Steven-Blank/dp/09... [2] http://www.amazon.com/Founders-Work-Stories-Startups-Problem...
on “What are some good books for tech company founders?” ↗…complicated set of love stories set in 19C Russia - brilliantly observed. Godel, Escher, Bach by Hofstadter - an exhilarating skip through the wonderland of western maths, art, music and philosophy. Founders at Work by Jessica Livingston - a great insight into the first computer revolution - interviews with a lot of very interesting people.
on “Ask HN: What are the books that changed the perspective of your life?” ↗…tell you how far to push. One of the things that made me feel much better about this was reading about Woz's obsession with making everything just right when he designed the Apple II. Chapter 3 of "Founders at Work" by Jessica Livingston. Which was Woz, the perfectionist or the pragmatist? (If you don't have the book and haven't read it yet, must reading for all aspiring superstars... http://www.foundersatwork.com/steve-wozniak.html)
on “The Startup Developer Superstar Detection Quiz” ↗…bubble price tags. This is what makes bubbles bubbles: the smartest people you know start acting like complete suckers. It's the professional gambler's dream. Here's Greenspun himself, from the excellent Founders at Work: "...the original sales pitch I made to employees was, 'Come work here. You'll make $150k, maybe $200k a year if you do a great job and you make your customer really happy. We can just do that forever,…
on “Redefining Professionalism for Software Engineers” ↗Founders at Work (of course) "Best Practices"-type books that cover the tools and technology the startup is using, whether its Textmate, Unix, Subversion, whatever. Becoming more efficient is never a bad thing. I'd…
on “Best Books For a Startup?” ↗Nice article. I think a better topic would be, "How Woz Got Things Done." For a quick read, try Chapter 3 of "Founders at Work", which is well worth the price of the whole book. http://www.amazon.com/Founders-Work-Stories-Startups-Problem... This is Jessica Livingston's (of YC) interview of Woz. Specifically I love the way…
on “How Woz Gets Things Done” ↗Jessica Livingston posted her interview of Woz on the Founders at Work website. It's one of my favorite in the book because you really get a sense of the pure hacker/engineering genius Woz is. If you do not already own it, consider buying the book through edw519's link -…
on “How Woz Gets Things Done” ↗Being inspired by Jessica Livingston's "Founders at Work", I've begun working on a book that will tell the stories of the most successful tech founders in Europe: how they started, what were the challenges they faced, what lessons they learned and so on. If…
on “Tell HN: I'm writing the European version of Founders at Work” ↗…(http://ycombinator.com/lib.html)?: Dale Carnegie: How to Win Friends and Influence People Edward Tufte: The Visual Display of Quantitative Information Paul Graham: Hackers and Painters Jessica Livingston: Founders at Work
on “Ask HN : What are some great books an aspiring entrepreneur should read?” ↗