Startup Revolution

3 Books for Startups
This is the order we would read these books in AND we would read them all since each speaks to a different aspect of a startup's journey.

Bold: Go Big or Go Home
We are starting this list of 3 books for startups with Bold: How To Go Big, Create Wealth and Impact the world because it has the best crowdfunding summary we've ever read.

Since finding money is usually the #1 issue most startups face and many have questions about crowdfunding read Diamandis & Kotter's book first. Chances are, if you are a startup, you are already "thinking exponentially", but this is a great and inspirational read.

The section on preparing your psyche for the exponential startup journey is another standout mustread for startup entrepreneurs.

Tilt: Shifting Your Business From Products To Customers
Tilt is another great startup read. Niraj Dawar has the shift from products to customers SO RIGHT. He even knows why its so hard to change our thinking from How Much More Can We Sell to What Else Do Our Customers Need. If Bold has the best crowdfunding summary we've read Tilt describes marketing's hard to change muscle memory. Go downstream if you want to win.

Start with Why: How Great Leaders Inspire Everyone To Take Action
Every business starts with a passionate why. Some like Tom's shoes, Zappos and Amazon know and don't lose their why. Some companies such as Walmart, Kodak and Xerox lose or have their why get fuzzy. A bad rain falls when your lose your WHY or your why doesn't evolve, respond to feedback and grow. Just as important as the Lean Startup by Ries Start with Why should be a compulsory read for any startup.

The common elements to all three of these books are:

* Share your honest passion and be all in.
* Think BIG and DIFFERENT and prepare yourself for pain such thinking brings.
* Focus on customers and LISTEN and don't get too attached to anything.

Remember Ferris Beuller's words:

Ferris: Not that I condone fascism, or any -ism for that matter. -Ism's in my opinion are not good. A person should not believe in an -ism, he should believe in himself. I quote John Lennon, "I don't believe in Beatles, I just believe in me." Good point there. After all, he was the walrus. I could be the walrus. I'd still have to bum rides off people.

Stay OPEN and read, read and read some more. Good luck. Marty and team http://www.curagami.com

Music For Startups
Listening to Simon Sinek read Start With Why during my drive to the James Cancer Center in Columbus it struck me that this book may be more important for startups than Eric Ries' Lean Startup.

I'll use our founding of Curagami as an example. Had I read Sinek's book before reading Ries I would have altered my startup's (http://www.Curagami.com ) process. We jumped right into the HOW and WHAT of the company giving up our WHY much too easily.

This means more WHY work was required. A company''s WHY, the reason it exists, needs to inform everything from strategy and tactics (it's HOW and What) to who the company hires. Sinek notes how companies with clear WHYs such as Southwest and Apple KNOW WHO TO HIRE.

He discusses something called The Celery Test. Imagine you are at a party and four people suggest products your new company should sell:

* M&M's.
* Rice Milk.
* Oreos.
* Celery.

You follow your friends' advice and buy all of those items in order to do market research. Someone observing your checkout wouldn't know what YOU or by extension your company was after. Now imagine your WHY is to create a company that promotes health.

Instantly we know your visit to the grocery store will only include 2 of the four products. Your WHY defines the boundaries needed to focus your research. Your WHY informs or should inform every aspect of what you do.

Sinek's ideas are so clear and consistent with Curagami's vision we will be sharing more details about the collision of favorite ideas (Gladwell''s Tipping Point, Moore's Chasm and Kim's Blue Oceans) soon. If you are creating or thinking about creating a new company read Start With Why AND The Lean Startup.