What books would you highly recommend to a first time tech startup founder?

For inspiration, I would recommend the biographies of Richard Branson & Steve Jobs. Some of the best lessons to come from these books revolve around the importance of hard work, perseverance, and how to pick yourself back up when things don't go your way.

There are so many other books I could point you to, but to start with try http://37signals.com/rework - I have seen first-hand through my consulting experience some of these recommendations help early-stage startups.

Be it tech or non-tech what is important is the founder who starts the company. If you become a great founder you will surely run a great company. Here are few books for the founder:
1. The Start-up Owner’s Manual: This is an excellent workbook for those who want to create a start-up business. The authors focus on the problems of today’s start-ups, clarify upcoming questions, and explain them using a highly practice-oriented solution approach. It also contains more than 40 helpful checklists for all project phases, as well as special explanations for digital start-ups and spin-offs.
2. Tools of Titans: Well-known investor and advisor Tim Ferriss interviewed about 200 true “world-class performers” and collected success tips and stories from them. Ferriss shares insights about success story on over 700 pages with his readers. He does not just give away tips and tricks but manages to relate them to everyday life without any problems. It provides answers to burning questions about the biggest movers, motivation, and productivity.
3. The Hard Thing About Hard Things: Ben Horowitz knows how to handle crises. In a captivating way, he talks about his experiences as founder and CEO, and also how fast a favorable wind can turn for a company. With incredibly much effort he manages to save his own company from bankruptcy. Based on this experience his tips are based on what counts in turbulent times. He also explains how to carry out dismissals in a fair manner. His narrative is peppered with anecdotes and humorously written.
4. Zero to One: You should probably know Peter Thiel as one of PayPal s co-founder and one of the first Facebook investors. His book is an undoubtedly favourite one of those founders who think unconventionally, are daring and full of new ideas. He makes some worthy claims, for example, that monopolies are welcomed and are the basis for innovation. However, he substantiates these theses with justifications that are not easily dismissed. The guidebook is aimed at founders who want to build a technology company.
5. Who: Most start-ups mistakenly focus on finding the answer to the question “what?” And not “who?” — meanwhile, the incorrectly raised question leads to increased costs and risks. Creating a team, searching for talent, attracting new customers, and expanding and consolidating your target audience all respond to the question “who”, and the answer lies among the main topics of this book.
6. The Lean Start-up: The book subheading that points the target audience as “fast, risk-free and successful start-up companies” promises a lot. This book tells you how to develop a startup with minimal resource costs in terms of maximum constraints and many potential challenges. If you are just starting your way in the world of technological entrepreneurship and want innovation to be fully measurable and measurable, be sure to read it. The approach mentioned here can be used not only in IT, but also in other areas.
7. The Ideal Executive: The book tells a story about a mythical creature that the author compares with a fabulous unicorn. That mythical creature is the ideal leader. It is beautiful, but it does not exist in nature. However, few people know about it or at least think about it. Many companies are confident that such a person can be trained, educated, or it is better to hire someone already prepared. However, they just get one disappointment after another. And all because the ideal manager must combine the qualities that are too much for one person.
8. Rework: 37 Signals is the perfect model of a modern company. Right now, it is known as Basecamp, but the transformation from its beginning to what it is currently is a lesson to know what to do and what not to do in a company. The book is divided into different topics or one-page recipes that address all the issues you need to know when starting a business: experiment and test before planning, making quick decisions, measuring, not copying, creating a culture, etc.
9. The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People: If you want to run a business, you should be effective and productive. Well, with this best seller Stephen Covey you will discover 32 principles that, once you get them habitual in your life, will help you to be a person (as the book says) highly effective. It is an all-terrain book, which adapts to any profession and place, and whose principles are more ethical and mental than practical. You will not find the magic formula to be effective, but you will have to cook it through the principles that are seen in the book.
10. Leading at the Speed of Growth: If your business is growing faster than planned and you, like any parent, are at a loss, what to do with it, then this book is what you need. The authors wrote a guide on all stages of the company’s development, up to a list of what to do during each of these stages, and what better to refuse.

Besides if you do have any questions give me a call: https://clarity.fm/joy-brotonath