Ryan DeissCo-Founder & CEO, The Scalable Company

5 Business books founders swear by, but should they?

23 Oct 2025 · 1 min

Watch on YouTube

1:19

A YouTube video (Ryan Deiss) giving short, opinionated mini-reviews and star ratings of five business books that founders often recommend. The speaker highlights strengths and weaknesses: one book names the struggles of companies in the $2–6M revenue range but offers limited solutions; another focuses on side-hustles and profiles businesses earning ~$50K (presenter is skeptical); category-creation advice is praised but noted as VC-dependent and difficult to execute; one book’s lesson about variable employee compensation is criticized as wasteful; and Radical Candor is praised as powerful when used well but dangerous in the wrong hands. Tone is conversational and evaluative.

Chapters

I love this book. It gave a name to the pain that entrepreneurs face between that 2 and $6 million range. The problem. It's heavy on solidarity. It's light on solutions. 3.1 out of 5 stars. Comforting. Not exactly a roadmap, by the way. If you want a roadmap, may I suggest. Good book. Well written. But it's profiling people who made at least 50k from their business, and that's just kind of not enough for me. 2.6 out of 5 stars. Just because I'm less into side hustles and more into building something that I can actually sell. Oh, yeah. Category creation sounds really. And when you can pull it off, it's like winning the lottery. I love the book. I love Lockhead, but without his genius and VC funding, you're unlikely to pull this one off. 3.9 out of 5 stars. Love the concept, but it's difficult and it's probably unnecessary. This book taught entrepreneurs that not everyone's motivated by money like we are. So putting all your employees on variable compensation plan is basically like lighting money on fire. And for that reason alone, this book has saved me more cash than any CFO ever has. It gets a 4.5 out of 5 stars. I'm sure there's lots of other great ideas in the book, but that one made it worth it. Holy crap. I love radical candor. In the right hands, it is super powerful, and in the wrong hands, it is basically a permission slip to be a total jerk. 3.9 out of 5 stars. If only because it's kind of hilarious. In the wrong hands.