Ryan DeissCo-Founder & CEO, The Scalable Company

Top 3 Books for Launching Your Business

31 May 2026 · 1 min

Watch on YouTube

1:14

In this concise YouTube video, seasoned entrepreneur Ryan Deiss (27 years of experience, over 20 launched businesses) shares his curated reading list to help early-stage founders grow from $0 to $500K. He recommends three core books: (1) Ready, Fire, Aim by Michael Masterson, a playbook for moving from idea to launch and scaling by focusing on acquiring money from strangers; (2) The Mom Test by Rob Fitzpatrick, a practical guide to asking the right customer‑feedback questions to avoid building unwanted products; (3) $100M Leads by Alex Hormozi, a definitive guide to lead generation, the foundation for sales, profit, and brand growth. He also adds a bonus recommendation, The War of Art by Steven Pressfield, which tackles internal resistance and the need to ship. Throughout, Deiss emphasizes actionable insights, the importance of correct questioning, and the psychological hurdles that can stall progress, positioning each book as a step‑by‑step tool for founders aiming to reach their first half‑million in revenue.

Chapters

I've launched over 20 businesses in my 27 years of entrepreneurship. Here are 3 books worth reading from $0 to $500K. First, we've got Ready, Fire, Aim by Michael Masterson. This is the playbook for going from idea to launch to scale. It focuses on things that matter most at this stage, which is getting strangers to give you money. This is the book I still reference all the time anytime I'm launching a new business. Uh, number 2, we've got The Mom Test, Rob Fitzpatrick. Shortest, most useful book on customer feedback I've ever read. And it matters because most founders, when we're thinking about launching a new product, ask our customers questions And frankly, we get encouraging answers. We wind up building stuff that people don't even want. That's a book that's going to ask you how to ask the right kind of questions so you build something that people want. Third, we got $100 Million Leads, Alex Hormozi. Literally everything in business— sales, profit, happy customers, billion-dollar brands— all downstream from your ability to get leads. This is the definitive book on lead generation, which is why it's a must-read at this stage. Uh, bonus— don't have it here, left it at home because I read all the time— War of Art by Steven Pressfield. It's not a business book per se, but this is a book about overcoming that internal voice that whispers, let me research that one more thing one more time while just another month goes by without a sale. If you're stuck at zero, you don't have a business problem, you have a resistance problem. Read the book, then ship something.