Library

Books I keep coming back to.

A working shelf on selling, negotiating, leading, and building marketplaces, plus the thinking behind The Fifteen.

Sales

For anyone selling something that takes more than one conversation to buy.

  • SPIN Selling

    Neil Rackham

    Based on research into thousands of sales calls. Why good questions beat good pitches on large purchases.

  • The Challenger Sale

    Matthew Dixon & Brent Adamson

    Top performers teach the customer something new rather than simply building rapport.

  • To Sell Is Human

    Daniel H. Pink

    Nearly everyone is persuading someone. How to do it without being pushy.

Negotiation

For the week before the deal, and the room itself.

  • Getting to Yes

    Roger Fisher & William Ury

    Negotiate on interests, not positions, and know your alternative before you sit down.

  • Negotiation Genius

    Deepak Malhotra & Max H. Bazerman

    Harvard Business School's guide to preparation, creating value, and handling bad-faith tactics.

  • Never Split the Difference

    Chris Voss

    An FBI hostage negotiator on listening, labelling emotions, and getting to 'that's right.'

Leadership

Teams that perform because they feel safe, not in spite of it.

  • The Fearless Organization

    Amy C. Edmondson

    The research behind psychological safety: teams that can admit mistakes outperform those that can't.

  • High Output Management

    Andrew S. Grove

    A manager's real output is the output of their team.

  • The Hard Thing About Hard Things

    Ben Horowitz

    An honest account of running a company when there's no clear right answer.

Marketplaces

The economics behind everything I've built.

  • Who Gets What — and Why

    Alvin E. Roth

    A Nobel laureate on market design, and why some marketplaces work while others fail.

  • Matchmakers

    David S. Evans & Richard Schmalensee

    How two-sided platforms create value by bringing buyers and sellers together.

  • The Cold Start Problem

    Andrew Chen

    How networks get started, and the tipping points that make them hard to beat.

Community

The thinking behind The Fifteen.

  • The Art of Gathering

    Priya Parker

    Why getting people together deserves a clear purpose, and how to give it one.

  • Bowling Alone

    Robert D. Putnam

    How American community life frayed, and what that has cost us.