The Modern Founder's Library: 30 Books on Product, Growth, Leadership, and Personal Effectiveness

Shahzod Umurzakov, CEO TASS Vision

1. “The Mom Test” by Rob Fitzpatrick
A practical guide to customer development: how to talk to customers properly and avoid getting false validation for your ideas.

2. “The Fourth Industrial Revolution” by Klaus Schwab
About the transformation of the economy under the influence of new technologies and how the digital revolution is changing industries.

3. “Zero to One” by Peter Thiel
A book about creating innovative companies and building monopolies through unique solutions.

Rustam Khamdamov, founder of BILLZ

1. “Good to Great” by Jim Collins
About discipline, culture, and the strategy for sustainable growth.

2. “The Hard Thing About Hard Things” by Ben Horowitz
An honest conversation about difficult management decisions, layoffs, and crises.

3. Paul Graham’s Blog
Essays by the co-founder of Y Combinator about startups, focus, and entrepreneurial thinking.

4. “High Growth Handbook” by Elad Gil
A practical guide for companies in the scaling stage.

5. “Way of the Wolf” by Jordan Belfort
About sales, influence, and building a systematic funnel.

6. “High Output Management” by Andrew Grove
About managing teams and operational efficiency.

Chingiz Daulatbayev, founder of TrustMe

1. “Antifragile” by Nassim Taleb
Why those who know how to use chaos and uncertainty become stronger.

2. “How to Win Friends and Influence People” by Dale Carnegie
About soft skills and working with people.

3. “Made in America” by Sam Walton
The story of the creation of Walmart and the company’s corporate culture.

4. “Shoe Dog” by Phil Knight
The story of the creation of Nike — about risk, doubts, and persistence.

5. “Good to Great” by Jim Collins

6. “My Life and Work” by Henry Ford
About the industrial revolution and entrepreneurial thinking.

7. “The Lean Startup” by Eric Ries

8. “Startup Hero” by David S. Rose
Practical advice for founders from an investor.

9. “Elon Musk” by Walter Isaacson
A biography of the entrepreneur who scales ambitions to a cosmic level.

Askhat Adhamov, founder of MoonAI

1. “Good to Great” by Jim Collins
An investigation into what distinguishes outstanding companies from merely successful ones.

2. “The One Thing” by Gary Keller
About focusing on the key priority and eliminating the unnecessary.

3. “Never Split the Difference” by Chris Voss
About negotiations, boundaries, and the ability to manage the process.

4. “The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People” by Stephen Covey
A classic of personal effectiveness and leadership.

5. “Steve Jobs” by Walter Isaacson
A biography of the co-founder of Apple — about vision, toughness, and creating iconic products.

6. “The Lean Startup” by Eric Ries
The Lean Startup methodology: rapid hypotheses, testing, and working with feedback.

7. “Reinventing Organizations” by Frederic Laloux
About new management models and evolutionary companies.

8. “The Happiness Advantage” by Shawn Achor
About the impact of environment on growth and success.

Beibut Zhanturin, CEO of Prosper Pay

1. “Deep Work” by Cal Newport
About the value of deep, focused work in an era of constant distractions.

2. “No Rules Rules” by Reed Hastings
About how Netflix built a corporate culture of freedom and responsibility, betting on adult professionals capable of making decisions without bureaucracy.

3. “The Aquarium” by Viktor Suvorov
An autobiographical novel by a former GRU officer about the internal structure of Soviet military intelligence.

4. “Principles” by Ray Dalio
About radical transparency, a feedback culture, and decision-making based on algorithms and objective data.