Wish you a happy new year 2011. A new year is a good time for a new start. In the last month, I have been reading a few books on startups. I like to share with you these books:

The Art of the start by Guy kawasaki is a good book on understanding how to pitch your company to venture capitalist, new hires, and the market.

The Innovators Dilemma by Clayton Christensen differentiates between sustaining innovation and disruptive innovation. Innovation is a new way to do things. Disruptive innovation disrupts the existing market. For eg, offshoring is a disruptive innovation in the early 90s. Big companies are best suited to bring sustaining innovations. Startups are best suited to bring disruptive innovations to the market.

Crossing the chasm by Geoffrey Moore explains how companies go from early markets to mainstream markets. Early markets are dominated by visionary buyers who are technology enthusiasts. Buyers in mainstream markets require references and competitive products before buying a disruptive product. This book gives a few tips of how to do it.

Books offer good advice. But, they can't beat execution. My best book of all time is Sam Walton - Made in America. It describes how Sam Walton built Walmart with great execution skills and copying the competition with great speed. I feel Microsoft is built around similar lines.

Wish you a happy new year 2011, and a great start to the year.