Why I prioritize certain books and magazines over endless information noise
Reading is one of my favorite pastimes. Had I more spare time, I would spend a good portion of it reading books and magazines.
Entrepreneurial life is busy, and that’s why I have to apply a strategic approach to my reading: Strategy doesn’t just say what you’re doing, it also says what you are not doing.
Here are the magazines I read regularly, and the books I read recently.
Magazines
1. The Economist
The Economist is my go-to source to know what’s going on in the world. It has a decidedly global and liberal position, which matches well with my core beliefs: As an entrepreneur, I am a strong defender of meritocracy. As an active reserve general staff officer, geopolitics is close to my heart. As an engineer, I like the Technology Quarterly sections and the occasional special reports that broaden my horizon. And as a citizen of a small neutral country, I know that our prosperity comes from being open and liberal, rather than from fencing up our country.
Last but not least, the weekly format keeps me off social media and tabloids for news consumption. I believe it is much better to get well-researched news once a week, rather than being constantly bombarded with trash news.
2. Harvard Business Review
Quality news is one part of the story. As an entrepreneur, I have been living in my own little company world for almost 10 years now. For most problems, I just have what I call “n=1 experience”: My experience is limited to exactly one company.
Although I am convinced that we are not doing too bad a job, my experience is still pretty limited in the wider context.
That’s where the Harvard Business Review comes in. Its articles are well-researched and often include insights from surveying 150+ companies. Reading those articles helps me leave my n=1 bubble at least for a little while.
3. Medium
In contrast to quality news and research results, Medium offers individual views of a wide range of authors on a broad range of topics. Whilst individual views might not always apply to my activities, they have helped me open doors to new approaches, ideas, or subjects I wouldn’t have been able to touch on without Medium.
Medium is my go-to source when I want to learn about a new topic such as setting up a BI platform, AI in compliance management, or migrating our cloud infrastructure to Kubernetes.
Just like Harvard Business Review, the individual views of a wide range of Medium authors help me leave my n=1 bubble when getting immersed in a new topic where I have zero or very little knowledge.
Books
Looking back on my journey as the Founder & CEO of Yonder, a B2B SaaS company, three books perfectly illustrate the three key challenges of building a SaaS company:
- Selling your product
- Building your product
- Growing the user base of your product
Before we start looking at these three challenges, let me add a personal note.
In my humble view, there are only two ways to start a B2B SaaS company. Either you sleep in the server room, building a product and praying that somebody will ever buy it. Or you run around selling a product that doesn’t exist yet and build it once a first customer confirms interest.
We chose the second option. That’s the reason I read the following three books in the order, as outlined below.
1. Selling your product
Entering Startupland by Jeffrey Bussgang describes all commercial functions a young company needs, and how they evolve when the company grows.
I love the terms “jungle”, “dirt track” and “highway” to describe a company’s stage. This is helpful, as not all commercial functions are needed in the “jungle” or “dirt track” phase yet. Focus is key in any startup, so knowing in which phase your company is and using plain terms for it makes a lot of sense.
The book also gives an unvarnished insight into what startup life is really about, providing helpful guidance for hiring and new hires. When selling B2B, new hires often come from larger companies, and they often need a cultural adjustment when joining a startup.
2. Building your product
Building Great Software Engineering Teams by Josh Tyler describes how to recruit, hire, and manage the engineering team that builds your product.
My favorite chapter in the book describes why Josh Tyler doesn’t allow Java in technical interviews. He argues that just because Java can be used for almost anything, it’s often not the best choice. Engineers who know only about Java aren’t curious and learnable enough to thrive in today’s fast-moving, full-stack software universe.
The technical and commercial functions in a SaaS company often have very different priorities, interests, and mindsets. As the CEO of a SaaS company, I am spending time on both the technical and commercial side, trying to balance the two sides.
3. Growing the user base of your product
The Cold Start Problem by Andrew Chen bridges the technical and commercial sides of a SaaS company. It’s all about growing the user base of your product, using examples from well-known companies such as Slack, Tinder, Uber, and more.
Growing users is all about creating network effects. To understand what a network effect is, consider the telephone: The value of the telephone system increases exponentially with the number of users joining the network. It’s the same for all SaaS products that require interactions between users.
Here, the commercial and technical sides of a SaaS company come together. What unique feature could we throw into the market to reach the tipping point of increasing numbers of users beyond all expectations? How hard will it be to build this feature, and what tech talent do we need to accomplish this?
Conclusion
There is one last book I would like to recommend to busy entrepreneurs.
Four Thousand Weeks by Oliver Burkeman painfully reminds readers how finite our time on Earth is. It reminds us how little we leave behind once we’re gone — I love the term “cosmic insignificance”.
As an entrepreneur, it’s good to be bold. It’s good to be convinced that you can achieve the imaginable. But never forget how insignificant you are in cosmic terms.
