Business Books & Co.

King of Capital: The Remarkable Rise, Fall, and Rise Again of Steve Schwarzman and Blackstone by David Carey and John Morris is more than just a book about Blackstone—it’s a history of private equity. Carey and Morris explain the sometimes esoteric world of this segment of high finance. They recount its cycles of booms and busts from the 1980s through the 2010s, and explain how Blackstone navigate...

In The Hard Thing About Hard Things, venture capitalist Ben Horowitz recounts lessons he learned about how to run a Silicon Valley startup, largely from his time as the CEO of Loudcloud, which later became Opsware. Horowitz provides specific advice about hiring, firing, managing emotions, handling growth, deciding whether or not to sell, and everything in-between. His thoughts are sometimes unconv...

Instant: The Story of Polaroid covers the rise, heyday, and decline of Polaroid Corporation. It has a particular focus on the personality and management style of Edwin Land, Polaroid’s innovative and dynamic founder, who was an inspiration to Steve Jobs. Polaroid’s niche in the marketplace and the strategic mistakes that led to Polaroid’s decline are other major themes of the book. We were pleased...

Measure What Matters, by venture capitalist John Doerr, is about OKRs—Objectives and Key Results—an approach to goal setting. Doerr evangelizes the use of OKRs and explains how they can help any organization better align its direction and continually evaluate its success. OKRs are a simple concept, but the book elucidates them with many anecdotes about their use in varying organizations, including...

We interviewed Eric Berger, the author of Liftoff: Elon Musk and the Desperate Early Days That Launched SpaceX. It's about the journey of grit, resilience, and unbridled optimism that turned a scrappy startup into the premier space company of the 21st century. Eric utilized full access at SpaceX to get the inside story from employees and Elon Musk himself. Most of the book focuses on the exciting...

Over the past year we've read some fantastic books... and some that were not so fantastic. In this episode we break down the best and worst books of season 2. We also discuss our picks by category including entrepreneurship, career, and story. Finally, we have a meta discussion about the show and say goodbye to our valued co-host, Eli. Show Notes List of Read Books Eli's Dog's Instagram Follow us...

Amazon Unbound is the story of how Jeff Bezos has managed his business empire over the past decade. It picks up where author Brad Stone’s last Amazon book, The Everything Store, left off circa 2013. Stone chronicles Bezos’s incredible attention to detail on Amazon projects like the Echo and the Fire Phone, as well as his stewardship of The Washington Post and Blue Origin; and controversies from hi...

This month we read Radical Candor by Kim Scott, a people management guide developed through Scott’s years of working as a manager in high tech. Scott led the AdSense, YouTube, and DoubleClick teams at Google and served as a faculty member at Apple University. Radical Candor is about fostering relationships where people sincerely care about one another but are also able to challenge each other dire...

This month we read Brick by Brick: How LEGO Rewrote the Rules of Innovation and Conquered the Global Toy Industry by David C. Robertson and Bill Breen. After facing lackluster growth in the 1990s, iconic toy brand LEGO undertook a program of radical innovation under a turnaround artist CEO. Unfortunately, the turnaround resulted in an even worse situation, with LEGO facing a deficit so large in 20...

When Hema Hattangady became the CEO of Bangalore, India based Conzerv in 1996, it was a struggling producer of energy meters. Over the next decade Hattangady led the transformation of Conzerv from a family-owned enterprise with $1 million in revenue into one of India’s leading energy management corporations. In 2009 the company was acquired by Schneider Electric. In Lift Off, Hattangady tells the...

No Filter: The Inside Story of Instagram by Sarah Frier covers Instagram’s rise from a two-person startup to the second largest social network in the world. Along the way, Frier explores Instagram influencers, the network’s effect on teens, and its sometimes rocky existence within the confines of its parent company, Facebook. Frier had significant access to key players in the story and chose to sp...

Shoe Dog is a memoir by Phil Knight, the founder of Nike. Knight recounts building Nike on a shoestring budget by importing shoes from a Japanese manufacturer, battling banks and supply issues to grow the company, innovating with their own designs, and sustaining the morale of a motley crew of colleagues through the process. We discuss Knight’s powerful memoir and its insight into entrepreneurship...

No Rules Rules: Netflix and the Culture of Reinvention by Reed Hastings and Erin Meyer goes into the details of Netflix's corporate culture of "Freedom and Responsibility." Hastings and Meyer relate how Netflix achieved this culture, and espouse its many supposed benefits. It includes some controversial policies (or lack thereof) and harsh realities for employees. In this episode we discuss the te...

Data Domain was an innovator in the data backup market, and Frank Slootman was its CEO from 2003 until its acquisition in 2009 by EMC. Data Domain used a technique known as data deduplication to make hard disks a viable backup medium for replacing traditional tape based backup solutions. Slootman wrote Tape Sucks as a series of short advice vignettes from one successful startup CEO to others manag...

Stephanie Shirley has been a pioneer all of her life. After coming to England as a child refugee from Nazi Germany, she started one of the first software consulting firms, Freelance Programmers. But it was first in a number of other ways too. It was almost entirely run by women, despite discrimination against women in the technology industry. Its business model, employing women in their free time...

This month we read Creativity Inc. by Ed Catmull and Amy Wallace. Ed Catmull was the cofounder and longtime president of Pixar. Part memoir and part advice for managers of creatives, Creativity Inc. tells the story of Pixar from dream to animation powerhouse. Then it gets into Catmull’s strategies for managing Pixar’s creative success. We discuss the history of Pixar, our key takeaways from the bo...

Daymond John is best known as an investor on ABC’s Shark Tank, but he is also the award winning fashion designer who founded the multi-billion dollar brand FUBU. In The Power of Broke, Daymond explains the strategies that helped him start FUBU, with almost no resources, out of his mom’s house in Hollis, Queens. He then examines the stories of other entrepreneurs who started from nothing. In our se...

We recap the qualities of some of the books we read over the last year in Season 1 of Business Books & Co. Each of us discuss our favorite and least favorite books. We say goodbye to one of our co-hosts, but we will be back next month to start Season 2! You can find our book list from the last year on our website. Other books we recommended: Made in America recommended by David Short One from...

13. Only the Paranoid Survive This month we read the 1997 book Only the Paranoid Survive by Andy Grove. Grove was the long-time storied CEO of Intel. Only the Paranoid Survive is about strategic inflection points in a business. Grove explains how to detect these events, how to respond to them, and recites some war stories. We discuss the book, some strategic inflection points in our own industries...

12. Zero to One We discuss the 2014 book Zero to One by Peter Thiel. In Zero to One, Thiel, a cofounder of Paypal and Palantir, as well as an early investor in Facebook, describes what conditions make for a great startup. Part history lesson, part economics lesson, and part business advice, Zero to One is a succinct book full of powerful ideas. Show Notes Zero to One via Amazon Peter Thiel via Wik...

11. Iacocca: An Autobiography Lee Iacocca was responsible for the introduction of iconic Ford products like the Mustang and Thunderbird. He rose in the ranks to become President, second only to Henry Ford II. As CEO of Chrysler during the early 1980s, he saved the company from bankruptcy and introduced the minivan. He was one of the biggest celebrity executives during the Reagan era. We discuss hi...

10. The Ride of a Lifetime The Ride of a Lifetime is a 2019 memoir about Bob Iger’s journey at Disney. It begins by relaying Iger’s time climbing the corporate ladder, and then does a deep dive into his fifteen years as the company’s CEO, with a focus on acquisitions and mergers. We discuss Iger’s career, the key lessons he learned, and the mergers of Disney with Pixar, Marvell, Lucasfilm, and Fox...

8. Founders at Work Founders at Work is a 2009 compilation of interviews with startup founders by Y Combinator founding partner Jessica Livingston. Interview subjects include the founders of famous brands like Apple, PayPal, and Adobe, as well as lesser known founders with equally remarkable stories. In this episode we discuss recurring themes of the interviews, founders that offered particular in...

7. Setting the Table Setting the Table is a 2006 autobiographical book on management in the hospitality industry by noted restaurateur Danny Meyer. It tells the story of Meyer building his restaurant empire, and recounts many of the lessons he learned along the way. We discuss key takeaways from the book, the book's applicability to management more generally, and our own experiences at Meyer's res...

Ogilvy on Advertising Ogilvy on Advertising is a 1983 book of advertising advice from award winning industry veteran David Ogilvy, the namesake of the advertising agency Ogilvy. It includes advice about working in the advertising industry, developing ads, and appealing to consumers. We discuss key insights from the book and our own experiences in advertising. Show Notes Ogilvy on Advertising via A...