Startup Resources

Must read books for startups! (Read more about our startup story here)

• The Four Steps to the Epiphany by Steven Gary Blank
  Want to get your product to market faster and cheaper while using valuable customer feedback in the process?  READ THIS BOOK.  Ideal for anyone starting anything.  Get lean, get your product out there and allow your early customers to help identify where to take your product - invaluable!
  
  
• Little Bets by Peter Sims
  What's safer, a little bet or a big bet?  You got it, a little bet.  What types of bets typically lead to breakthrough ideas?  Right again, little bets!  This book is about getting creative, testing your ideas with customers, realizing that "no facts exist inside the building, only opinions", that small wins lead up to big ones.  If you're a startup, guess what?  READ THIS BOOK.
  
  
• Founders at Work by Jessica Livingston
  Wonderful collection of interviews with founders of famous technology companies about what happened in the very earliest days.  Every heard of Apple, Flickr, Hotmail or PayPal?  Get the real true stories of how they started, the challenges they faced and how they ultimately succeeded.  Want to hear from successful startups-turned-giants on what made them grow and triumph?  READ THIS BOOK.
  

Other resources we’ve used and recommend:

• Logo and site design: 99 designs
• File sharing: dropbox  
• Landing pages: Unbounce
• Lead Gen mailing list: MailChimp
• Customer Feedback: Uservoice
• Project Management: BaseCamp
• Analytics
• Google Analytics
  
• Chartbeat – realtime traffic
• Clicktale – screencasts of real visitors and heat maps
•  Customer surveys – Survey Monkey
• Twitter – get connected to the startup community
•  Must follow! VentureHacks, Steve Blank, Paul Graham, Fred Wilson, Eric Ries, Dave McClure, Dan Martell, Jason Fried