Founders Podcast

Founders's top picks

What Founders uses or recommends most, ranked by how often and how strongly. Paid ads are left out.

All 31 of Founders's picks

• Estée Lauder autobiography Uses and recommends it "One of my favorite entrepreneurs of all time is Estée Lauder. I think I've read her autobiography three or four times. I've done probably two or three episodes on that book. Her strategy of giving free samples — shifting money from her advertising budget into production to give away product — is a cornerstone idea that connects directly to Claude Hopkins' principles." Only Founders
• Sam Walton: The Inside Story of America's Richest Man Recommends it "Highly recommend reading the book. If you haven't read Sam's autobiography, I would start with that first. But if you had read Sam's autobiography, I would definitely buy this book. I will leave a link down below. If you buy the book using that link, you'll be supporting the podcast at the same time. That is 434 books down, 1,000 to go." Only Founders
• The Mind of Napoleon Recommends it "That is an excerpt from the book I'm going to talk to you about today and one of my favorite books that I've ever read. It's called The Mind of Napoleon. Highly recommend buying the book immediately. Essentially what it is is just 300 pages of just Napoleon in his own words speaking directly to you." +1 other
• Distant Force: A Memoir of the Teledyne Corporation and The Man Who Created It Recommends it "The other book is called Distant Force, a memoir of the Teledyne Corporation and the man who created it, written by George Roberts. If you can get your hands on the book — it's out of print, it's really hard to buy — I highly recommend it." Only Founders
• The Outsiders Recommends it "That is an excerpt from one of the two books I'm going to talk to you about today. That book is The Outsiders, written by William Thorndike. I went through both books and pulled out all the highlights, removing anything that's not about how he approached his work and how he built his company — and hopefully there are some ideas in here that you and I can use." +1 other
• My Life in Advertising Recommends it "I highly recommend reading both his autobiography, My Life in Advertising, and his book on advertising called Scientific Advertising. I spent the last 10 hours compiling all my notes and highlights for both books — 300, maybe 320 pages of the most important lessons from working 16 hours a day for five decades." Only Founders
• Scientific Advertising Recommends it "I highly recommend reading both his autobiography, My Life in Advertising, and his book on advertising called Scientific Advertising. I finished reading Scientific Advertising and I'm like, god damn, this is good. David Ogilvy said essentially he built the foundation for his giant advertising agency just on the work alone of Claude Hopkins." Only Founders
• Chronicles Volume 1 Recommends it "I really would really recommend for you to pick up this book on a weekend trip or something, because it's just phenomenally well-written and it's so hard to describe. I think it's probably the best written autobiography I've ever read in my life." Only Founders
• A Small Difference Recommends it "This is a very unusual book. It reads like a diary. What's so fascinating about this is he's 90 years old, he has seven decades of entrepreneurial experience in this book. What I found most interesting is not the company history of the company he founded, but essentially he has all these ideas and maxims and basically sayings and beliefs that he's accumulated and essentially just extols his philosophy almost like you're reading a diary." Only Founders
• The Nolan Variations Recommends it "That is an excerpt from the book that I'm going to talk to you about today, which is The Nolan Variations: The Movies, Mysteries, and Marvels of Christopher Nolan. One of my favorite books I ever read. I would encourage you to buy this book, read this book, but you should look at the pictures because then you see how he maps everything out." Only Founders
• The Merchant Bankers Recommends it "This is the second or third time I read the book. Never made an episode on it before. I bought a bunch of copies of this book and given them away to friends. Highly recommend reading the book. That is 425 books down, 10,000 to go." +1 other
• Zero to One: Notes on Startups, or How to Build the Future Recommends it "I think this is probably the only business book, maybe the only business book worth reading. I think I've read this three or four times by now. Highly recommend reading the full book." Only Founders
• Pulitzer: A Life in Politics, Print, and Power Recommends it "That is an excerpt from a book that I recently reread and the one I'm going to talk about today, which is Pulitzer: A Life in Politics, Print, and Power, written by James McGrath Morris. I think the framing of putting Pulitzer alongside these other robber barons is really important and really anchors the immensity of his accomplishment. If you take into account where he started, his life story is both one of the most inspiring life stories you can read about, but also a cautionary tale." Only Founders
• Jony Ive: The Genius Behind Apple's Greatest Products Recommends it "I decided to reread this book. The first time I read this book was probably five years ago. And I wanted to read this book because I think it perfectly follows what you and I discussed last week." +1 other
• Shoe Dog Recommends it "What I consider a nearly perfect entrepreneurial autobiography. I've read this book, I don't know, three or four times. Every time I reread it, I learn something new and it just gives me a ton of energy." +2 others
• Running Down a Dream: How to Thrive in a Career You Actually Love Recommends it "I'd recommend buying the book and watching the video. I literally have personally used ideas that I discovered in this talk to build this podcast." Only Founders
• Jeff Bezos shareholder letters Recommends it "Go and read all of Jeff Bezos's shareholder letters. The very first one he writes in 1997 where he talks about it's day one. He repeated that it's day one for Amazon for two decades." Only Founders
• One Piece (Netflix live-action series) Recommends it "There's this great show on Netflix I actually started watching as I started researching Oda. It's a live-action adaptation of One Piece that I actually highly recommend. I thought originally I would just watch it with my son. I watch it way more by myself and I find it very engaging actually." Only Founders
• Who Is Michael Ovitz? Recommends it "I think Ovitz's autobiography, Who Is Michael Ovitz?, is one of the best entrepreneur autobiographies ever written." Only Founders
• Game of Thrones Recommends it "I have a slight obsession with Game of Thrones. It's my favorite show ever and I love the books." +2 others
• The Fish That Ate the Whale Recommends it "One of my favorite maxims in the history of entrepreneurship comes from this guy named Sam Zemurray. There's this fantastic biography of him called The Fish That Ate the Whale. The line from it: if you know your business from A to Z, there's no problem you can't solve." +2 others
• The Hour of Fate Recommends it "There's actually an entire book about that. I did an episode on the book called The Hour of Fate, which was the rivalry and then the partnership and then back to the rivalry between Theodore Roosevelt and J.P. Morgan. It's a fascinating book if you're looking for something to read about that time period." Only Founders
• A Man for All Markets Recommends it "Thorp's still alive. It's episode 222. One of the best autobiographies I've ever read. It's called A Man for All Markets if you want to learn more about Thorp." Only Founders
• In the Company of Giants Recommends it "There's this great book called In the Company of Giants. I really recommend buying it and reading it. I'm shocked I come across people that haven't. It's infinitely readable and it's just full of great advice." Only Founders
• Creative Selection Recommends it "There's this other great book I've read three times. I've done like one or two podcasts on. It's called Creative Selection. It's written by this guy named Ken Coienda and it's about the golden age of Apple when Steve goes back the second time." Only Founders
• Total Recall Recommends it "It's an excellent book, by the way. It's called Total Recall." Only Founders
• How SpaceX Works Recommends it "A few weeks ago, I just did this episode called How SpaceX Works. Huge chunks of that episode is about this idea. If you haven't listened to it, I'd highly recommend going back and listening to it after this." Only Founders
• Bob Dylan's Autobiography Recommends it "I read Bob Dylan's autobiography, which is excellent. I did an episode on it. It's episode 259 if you ever want to listen to it." Only Founders
• Creativity Inc. Recommends it "There is like a 20-page afterward that I highly recommend you read. It's in Ed Catmull's autobiography called Creativity Inc. It's called The Steve Jobs We Knew." Only Founders
• The Master: The Long Run and the Beautiful Game of Roger Federer Recommends it "And before I get into this incredible book that I read about Roger Federer, which is called The Master, the Long Run and the Beautiful Game of Roger Federer, written by Christopher Clarey" Only Founders
• Open Recommends it "This is the book that over the years has been the most requested book for me to cover on the podcast. I had a hard time putting it down. It turns out it is as good as everybody told me that it was." Only Founders
• Nothing matches.