12/24/2017 Books every MBA should read - Business Insider

7 books every MBA should read before they

look for a job
DANIEL MCAULEY, MEDIUM
NOV. 13, 2015, 11:39 AM

I consider myself incredibly fortunate to have spent

my summer in Palo Alto, California, interning on
the data science team at Wealthfront, a startup
innovating in the financial services sector.

I learned an incredible amount over those 12 weeks,

not only about the job I was doing but about the
many other areas of our business that are crucial to
building a world class company.

And while I had fantastic resources and

opportunities to learn about startups and
hypergrowth companies during my first year
through Wharton and Wharton FinTech, living and
working in Silicon Valley showed me that there is so
much that goes into making a successful technology
company that my peers and I don't get exposure to
as MBA students.
Check these out.

Working with world class designers, engineers, AP Photo/Paul Sakuma

product managers and the rest of my colleagues

over the summer gave me a sense for where some of
these gaps in my knowledge were. The many
conversations I had with my Wealthfront teammates over Blue Bottle Coffee in downtown Palo Alto gave me
insight into what they do every day and where I can learn more.

And because Wealthfront is led by executives from Facebook, LinkedIn, Twitter, Greylock, and many other
Silicon Valley institutions — people who have built and invested in billion dollar businesses — I felt I had to take
full advantage of their knowledge. So I also reached out directly to them to get recommendations on the best
places to read about their respective domains from the perspective of someone without specific knowledge of
their role and how they think.

As a result, I've put together what I now call the MBA Startup Reading List: a collection of books (and a few blog
posts) that constitute the base level of understanding that any MBA student recruiting for startups should have to
interview well and perform in her role.

With more information and understanding, it should be easier to take a little more risk and say no to Goldman
and McKinsey, and instead do something for a living that you actually enjoy. I hope this post provides the
resources that will allow other students to get enough background in these concepts to not only land a role at an

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early stage company they believe in, but perform in that role and add value in domains that don't necessarily fall
under their job descriptions.

1. Management: "The Hard Thing About Hard Things" by Ben Horowitz

This is the one book on the list that I think everyone
needs to read, regardless of whether or not they're an
MBA student or working at a startup. It was
recommended by more than one of the executives I
consulted for advice on this article and was my personal
favorite read this summer.

Ben Horowitz, cofounder and partner at Andreessen

Horowitz and one of Silicon Valley's most respected
entrepreneurs, wrote a management book based on first-
hand experience, rather than theory. In his book,
Horowitz provides insight into the particularly
challenging moments of running and leading a business,
like hiring and retaining the right people, laying
employees off, and managing the politics that come with
trying to simultaneously please investors, managers,
executives and co-founders.

The common theme throughout his shared war stories is

that the hard thing to do and the right thing to do are
usually one and the same.

2. Design: "Universal Principles of

Design" by William Lidwell

The full title of this book is actually "Universal Principles

of Design, Revised and Updated: 125 Ways to Enhance
Usability, Influence Perception, Increase Appeal, Make
Better Design Decisions, and Teach through Design" but
that was a little verbose to make a heading.
Amazon

Rather than dedicating a few hundred pages to a single

set of design paradigms, "Universal Principles of
Design" deliberately allots two pages to each of many concepts. The left side of each two-page layout is dedicated
to theory, with guidance on where to find additional information and resources, while the right side provides
visuals and other examples of the practical application of the theory in the real world.

The book lists these concepts alphabetically, so it reads more like a reference manual than the other books on this
list. This makes "Universal Principles of Design" more challenging to get through the first time around, but
allows you to easily come back to brush up on specific topics down the line.

Wealthfront's VP of Design, Kate Aronowitz, notes, "It's less about teaching someone to design, and more about
the language of how it works. Understanding these principles will allow you to better spot what's working and
what's not and give articulated feedback." I can't really argue with that.

3. Product: "Inspired: How To Create Products Customers Love" by Marty Cagan

While there are many fantastic books out there on product development, "Inspired" was recommended for
several reasons.

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First, the book has been around for about seven years and
therefore presents a proven perspective on product
development. Furthermore, Cagan lays out concepts in a
clear, intuitive manner while delivering content that is
highly practical and aimed at those operating in the real
world. The book also covers all the non-product
challenges that product managers face, such as managing
the often opposing goals of engineering, sales, design,
marketing, executives, customers, and other stakeholders.

If you are applying for a product management role this

book is necessary but not sufficient. However, if this isn’t
the case and you can internalize the lessons taught within
its pages you should have the basis of knowledge to work
with product managers more effectively and better
understand how to engage your users.

4. Data: "Data Smart: Using Data Science

to Transform Information into Insight" by
John Foreman
John Foreman is the Chief Data Scientist at MailChimp
and author of the blog, analyticsmadeskeezy.com. His
book, Data Smart, really is the data science guide for
MBAs.

For starters, it teaches modern statistical approaches and

algorithms using Excel (which you will stretch to its
absolute limits). And it takes content that can often be
challenging and technical, and makes it accessible and
Amazon
understandable. Foreman focuses on the practical
applications of data science techniques, rather than the
theory behind them, giving the material a certain
dimensionality that is often lacking in more technical sources. Importantly, Data Smart contains enough
instruction to start running actual analyses right out the gate.

One thing that separates most startups and hypergrowth companies (the good ones at least) from their
incumbent competitors is a strong adherence to data-driven decision making, at all levels of the organization (see
the section on engineering below for more details). This is a mindset and approach to problem solving that you
must embrace if you are serious about building a career in early-stage technology (I would argue this really
applies to business in general).

If you are analytically-minded and really want to learn what I think is the most technical material in this list you
can do it with this book.

5. Engineering: "Wealthfront Engineering Blog" by Avery Moon

This was the domain that I found most challenging to provide a recommendation for.

Because software engineering is so orthogonal to the typical MBA skillset, it is really difficult to recommend a text
that is sufficiently comprehensible while still accomplishing our goal of providing perspective on how to think
like an engineer.

Fortunately, Avery Moon, Wealthfront’s VP of Research & Engineering, has published some really pithy blog
posts on decentralized learning using data and the engineering-driven culture at Wealthfront that I think provide
this perspective while being very accessible to non-engineers. I’ve also included Avery’s post on disruptive
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companies and hypergrowth because it provides

additional color and is generally a must-read.

Lastly, I think that “learning by doing” applies here:

Taking an introductory programming course or two
through Coursera or Udacity is probably the most
effective and rewarding process for developing real
technical empathy and an understanding of how
your engineering colleagues approach problems.
Writing code is fun, not scary (trust me!)

6. Growth: "Crossing the Chasm:

Marketing and Selling Disruptive
Products to Mainstream
Customers" by Geoffrey A. Moore
This is one of those books that everyone in Silicon
Valley has read (probably more than once).

Geoffrey Moore shows how successful technology

product adoption follows a pattern called the
“Technology Adoption Life Cycle”. Beginning with
the innovators and early adopters in a particular
market, a deadly chasm separates the early majority,
late majority and laggards. After laying out this
framework, Moore goes on to explain how
companies have successfully “crossed the chasm”
before and why those that failed to make this
seemingly miraculous transition did so.

The third edition of "Crossing the Chasm" has been

updated to include more recent examples of high-
tech companies that made this perilous marketing
transition, such as Salesforce, VMware, and Mozilla. wealthfront.com

This edition also includes two new appendices, that

cover Moore’s subsequent work from "Inside the
Tornado" and the "Four Gears Model for Digital Consumer Adoption", respectively.

7. Finance: "Venture Deals: Be Smarter Than Your Lawyer and Venture

Capitalist" by Brad Feld, Jason Mendelson

If you are working for a venture capital-backed company you need to understand how its capital structure
impacts your economic situation in different outcomes for the firm.

In "Venture Deals", Brad Feld and Jason Mendelson explain the ins and outs of venture capital from the
perspective of the entrepreneur, demystifying the term sheet and explaining the tradeoffs between economic
value and control.

In addition to covering the technical aspects of venture, the book covers the various participants in the
fundraising process and how the capital structure of a venture backed firm is meant to align and protect their
respective interests.

"Venture Deals" does a remarkable job of making venture capital understandable and approachable, which is
probably one reason it is Amazon’s #1 Best Seller in the Venture Capital category. I actually took Brad and
Jason’s course through the Kauffman Fellows Academy and have been recommending their book ever since.

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A career perspective

While these seven domains cover what I think are all

the bases, I do have one final reading assignment for
my MBA compatriots: the Silicon Valley Career Guide.
Wealthfront’s co-founder and Chairman, Andy
Rachleff, put together a resource for job seekers in the
Valley that is now table stakes for anyone looking to
join an early stage company. And if you are looking for
a starting point for deciding which companies you
should be targeting, the 2016 Wealthfront career-
launching companies list is a very good place to start.

Remember, you aren’t reading all of this material

because you want to join just one startup. You’re doing
it because you want to give yourself a foundation upon
which to build a career working for many successful
companies, maybe even starting your own.

This short video of Andy answering a few questions

about startups and careers in Silicon Valley is a great
starting point for understanding how he and many
others think about the true risk profile of a career in
startups.

Above all else

Ultimately, the reason you want to understand all of

these different professional disciplines boils down to
empathy; if you have a better understanding of what
Amazon your colleagues are doing and, more importantly, what
mental models they use and how they think in general,
you can work faster, ship better product, better delight
your customers, build more valuable businesses and forge stronger relationships. I hope that this becomes a
resource for anyone interested in working at early stage technology companies to do all of these things more
successfully.

Finally, I want to sincerely thank Andy Johns, Kate Aronowitz, Andy Rachleff, Avery Moon, ASHLEY FIEGLEIN
JOHNSON, eshmu, alison rosenthal, Adam Nash, Kate Wauck, Philip De Cortes, Roberto Medri and everyone
else I worked with at Wealthfront this summer. I am beyond excited to be joining such a world-class team full-
time in December. I can’t wait to build a truly great company with you all.

Read the original article on Medium. Copyright 2015.

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