8 Books EVERY SaaS Founder Should Read

It's a common myth that founders have to make all the mistakes themselves to be successful. A Harvard Business School study in 2008 found that already-successful entrepreneurs are far more likely to succeed again (34% success rate for their next companies), whilst serial founders with a previously failed company had almost exactly the same follow-on success rate as first-time founders (22%). Also, the authors did find one variable that predicted entrepreneurial success: education.

Success matters, and learning from the successful matters.

Top SaaS founders don't make all the mistakes themselves. They learn from others, follow best practices, break rules when needed, and know what works for them.

Every founder is different. Every startup is different.

But one thing is certain. Reading can accelerate growth for your startup big time and get you ahead of competition as a SaaS founder.

Also, reading makes you a better writing. And writing concise copy is something almost all founders are skilled in - whether it's writing a crispy cold email to your first potential customer, a convincing pitch to investors, or LinkedIn DM to an employee you want onboard.

As a SaaS founder I consistently read around 20-40 books per year, and have encoded it into a habit in my daily routine - even in to my identity. Majority of those books are in business and startups. Let's dive into my favourite reads in SaaS.

Here are 8 books you need to read to get ahead of competition as a SaaS founder - to learn from the best and take growth to the next level.

The SaaS Playbook tells you how to build a lean million-dollar SaaS, market against large competitors, and use your position as startup/scaleup as your unfair advantage.

Leveraging the 4 moats of SaaS: 1. network effects (integrations), 2. strong brand, 3. owned traffic channels, and 4. high switching costs.

Author: Rob Walling, a serial founder with notable exit of SaaS platform Drip, investor in >170 startups, and author of 4 books on startups. Rob started TinySeed - the first accelerator for SaaS bootstrappers, as well as the SaaS bootstrapping community MicroConf.

Read full summary of The SaaS Playbook.

Check out The SaaS Playbook on Goodreads.

Obviously Awesome tells you about the most essential activity in a company - positioning your product and business so customers 1. get it, 2. buy it and 3. love it.

Author: April Dunford, a positioning guru, and former tech executive has spent a long career with position products and bringing them to market at B2B tech startups, as well as at larger companies like IBM.

Read full summary of Obviously Awesome.

Check out Obviously Awesome on Goodreads.

Sell more by using transparency and honesty to build trust and credibility with clients. 'How Unexpected Honesty and Understanding the Buying Brain Can Transform Your Results'.

Author: Todd Caponi, a famous sales expert with more than 20 years in the sales industry. He spent 4 years building Chicago-based PowerReviews as its CRO. As founder of Sales Melon LLC, he is now a keynote speaker.

Read full summary of The Transparency Sale.

Check out The Transparency Sale on Goodreads.

How to grow a SaaS company, build a compelling brand story to scale, and optimize likelihood of a great exit for the founder.

Author: Andrew Gazdecki, an author and growth-minded entrepreneur. He started broke in his early 20s, developing business apps, then selling to a PE firm before the age of 30. Gazdecki has led over 100 employees in his own companies, worked as a growth consultant for several multimillion-dollar startups, and been featured in TechCrunch numerous times.

Read full summary of Getting Acquired.

Check out Getting Acquired on Goodreads.

A how to guide on using content and storytelling as founder to give marketing superpowers. Build your personal brand as founder - and use it to grow.

Author: Dave Gerhardt, a startup CMO turned founder. With a growth journey as VP of Marketing at Drift to a $1B valuation and over 150K followers on LI, Dave is an influential figure in B2B marketing and content strategy.

Read full summary of Founder Brand.

Check out Founder Brand on Goodreads.

SaaS are generally built to be sold. This is a handbook on how to build a SaaS that can be bought and how to strategically approach conversations with potential buyers - and building a common vision together. A common problem is starting this process way too late. Instead, start build strategic relationships from day 1.

Also, remember: startups are not sold, they are bought. So, build to be bought.

Author: Ezra Roizen, founder and now investment banker experienced in M&A. Sold one of his own companies to SAP.

Read full summary of Magic Box Paradigm.

Check out Magic Box Paradigm on Goodreads.

Quite well put in the title - how to build a product that sells itself. Use growth loops and engineering to acquire customers, instead through a traditional sales team. Not all SaaS should do a PLG motion - but all SaaS founders can benefit from thinking in terms of building in growth in to their products to get some unfair advantages.

Author: Wes Bush, founder and president of the Product-Led Institute, successfully built demand for several high growth companies, including attracting over 100,000 users in less than one year for video SaaS company Vidyard.

Read full summary of Product-Led Growth.

Check out Product-Led Growth on Goodreads.

How to become a founder that works smarter, not harder. And build a profitable business while your at it. You need less than you think.

Author: Jason Fried, the co-founder and CEO of Basecamp - a B2B SaaS for project management, as well as the software development company 37signals. Jason has also written several books on the topic of entrepreneurship and work, including Rework and Remote.

Read full summary of Rework.

Check out Rework on Goodreads.

These are some top reads if you are a founder building and growing a SaaS company. Whether it's your first one, or you are serial entrepreneur - these books will help you build a world-class company, avoid some costly mistakes, and beat competition.