Lost and Founder: A Painfully Honest Field Guide to the Startup World

Product Information

It's not so rosy and always rewarding as it's proclaimed and Rand has done a wonderful job of breaking those stereotypes with this book. This book is exactly this opportunity, delivered with grace, sincerity, and incredible self-awareness. This is not only a startup story but also a practical guide to marketing management based on genuine numbers and real names. Some flywheel-unsticking examples, Yelp paying for references, Yelp giving badges out with links back to Yelp, etc.

Rand Fishkin, the founder and former CEO of Moz, reveals how traditional Silicon Valley "wisdom" leads far too many startups astray, with the transparency and humor that his hundreds of thousands of blog readers have come to love. As a story alone this book is a very thoughtful, somewhat detailed review of how they got to where they are today, including the mistakes.You may not always personally agree with Rand or have made different decisions, but this book is refreshingly honest. You won't find a more honest, raw, and helpful look into the trenches of founding a tech startup than this book. With this attitude, you can't help but want him to win - and in the long-term I have no doubt he will. This is a MUST read for anyone interested in how business, and startups in particular, function, prosper, grow, exit, disappear or muddle along.

I'd put this in the Top 10 list of reads for anyone that's looking to start a company, but more importantly - wants to do it right.

That means if you’re after the big bucks, you’re probably better off working for a market leader than setting up your own company. On top of his incredible candor, the fact that Rand packages this all together with humility and humor is the icing on my favorite (book) cake of the year.

Came at an opportune time for me while I was navigating and making important choices from my own startup.The good: A refreshing book with a raw and truthful perspective on the problems that plague founders and that SV has chosen to hide for long. Lots of people wanted to book vacation home rentals online, but there wasn’t a simple, user-friendly service out there.