The Startup Playbook

Kidder sat down with 40 real founders — Sara Blakely, Steve Case, Robin Chase, Scott Harrison, and others — and let them tell it straight. The result is a richly visual book organized around principles that actually hold across different business types: pick the right idea, build something dramatically better than what exists, stay lean, maintain conviction. Because the wisdom comes from genuinely diverse founders rather than one author's theory, the range and honesty are higher than most startup books. The honest caveat is that it trades depth for breadth — each founder gets limited space, so this is more reference and inspiration than operational manual. A New York Times bestseller worth keeping on the desk.