Lost and Founder
A Painfully Honest Field Guide to the Startup World
Ratings13
Average rating4.2
Short, intense, honest, and helpful. I heard Rand in an interview - I think maybe on Indie Hackers (aside, great podcast). The book has been in my to read for sometime. Essentially, I see this narrative as a salve for those in the thick of starting up. It is a reminder of what you need to do, stand to lose or gain, and one path through. Ultimately, it seems a lot of what Rand has to say must still be pushed and struggled through...and not just chosen from a book.
Good luck, fellow founders!
Supreme in its practical knowledge. I found in it the stuff I looked for in other startup books.
This book definitely deserves 5 stars for its new insights and candid storytelling, but I have mixed feelings.
It's been eye-opening in getting a better understanding of things like a VC's perspective or keeping focus while growing (instead of diversifying too much). However, the honesty of Rand can be very intentionally painful and makes you wonder if he would really learn from his mistakes, even though he wrote a whole book about his learnings.
A fairly typical startup story where the writer realizes that tech blogs aren't trustworthy (gasp!) and that building successful startup is harder than VCs would have you believe (gasp!).
But it is well written and so a nice summer evening read.
In this book Rand Fishkin presents a very transparent and refreshing account of what it's like being a founder. Rand discusses topic that rarely make it to the public sphere when it comes to entrepreneurship (depression, financial difficulties, layoffs, lack of direction etc).
3 stars and not 4 because it's not super well written.