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Founders know that even during the dog days of summer, continuous learning plays a vital role in building a thriving business. For this reason, �ƶ����� has curated a selection of books handpicked by our team and the leaders driving our portfolio companies forward. 

These books dive deep on a range of topics–from insightful business strategies, to inspirational memories, to apocalyptic worlds. We hope that these reads, penned by some of today’s most compelling thinkers, will offer valuable wisdom and perspective to fuel your entrepreneurial journey. 

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1. The Charisma Myth: How Anyone Can Master the Art and Science of Personal Magnetism by Olivia Fox Cabane
2. Essentialism by Greg McKeown
3. Turn the Ship Around! by David Marquet
4. The Soul of a New Machine by Tracy Kidder
5. The Vitality Imperative by Mickey Connolly, Jim Morton, Richard McDonald 
6. Play Bigger: How Pirates, Dreamers and Innovators Create and Dominate Markets by Al Ramadan, Dave Peterson, Christopher Lochhead and Kevin Maney
7. Seveneves by Neal Stephenson 
8. The Three-Body Problem by Cixin Lu
9. Challenger: A True Story of Heroism and Disaster on the Edge of Space by Adam Higginbotham 
10. Never Split The Difference by Chris Voss
11. First, Break All The Rules by Marcus Buckingham
12. Drive by Daniel H. Pink

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From Brandon Nott, Chief Product Officer at Amelia: 

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The Charisma Myth: How Anyone Can Master the Art and Science of Personal Magnetism by Olivia Fox Cabane

What if charisma could be taught? What you’ll find in this book is practical magic: unique knowledge, drawn from a variety of sciences, revealing what charisma really is and how it works.

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Essentialism by Greg McKeown‍

In a world that continues to move faster and exposes us to increasingly more information, focusing on the critical tasks that will make a difference becomes harder and harder. Brandon recommends Essentialism, as it provides a roadmap for how to be more effective by doing fewer things. 

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From Dorian Selz, Founder & CEO of Squirro: 

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Turn the Ship Around! by David Marquet‍

Dorian recommends this book to anyone interested in leadership philosophy; it details how Captain David Marquet transformed the crew of the worst-performing nuclear submarine in the US Navy, into the best, within a year’s time. 

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From Alex Collmer, Founder & CEO of Vidmob: 

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The Soul of a New Machine by Tracy Kidder‍

This is one of Alex’s all time favorites, featuring, “one of the best opening chapters of any business book ever.” Winner of the Pulitzer Prize and the American Book Award, this book lays the foundation for understanding what it took to develop the new precursor technology to the desktop PC and presents a humanistic perspective of the computer engineers who brought innovation to the marketplace. 

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From Nick Misner, VP Product & Operations at Cybrary:

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The Vitality Imperative by Mickey Connolly, Jim Morton, Richard McDonald ‍

This book is all about return-on-effort; it’s about leading organizations in ways that produce great results and are deeply satisfying for both employees and shareholders. For Nick, “this book changed the way I think about relationships and I go back to it frequently as it is a well-spring of best practices for leading teams. It focuses on the work that we, as individuals, can do to act as connected leaders within our organizations.”

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From Klee Kleber, Co-Founder and Partner of �ƶ�����: 

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Play Bigger: How Pirates, Dreamers and Innovators Create and Dominate Markets by Al Ramadan, Dave Peterson, Christopher Lochhead and Kevin Maney‍

You cannot build a legendary company without building a legendary category. In this farsighted, pioneering guide, the founders of Silicon Valley advisory firm Play Bigger rely on data analysis and interviews to understand the inner workings of “category kings”— companies such as Amazon, Uber, and IKEA—that give us new ways of living, thinking or doing business, often solving problems we didn’t know we had.

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Seveneves by Neal Stephenson ‍

This is one of Klee’s favorite science fiction books from the last few years, for those wanting a true escape to a dystopian future. After an unexplained event shatters the Moon into fragments, Earth becomes uninhabitable and humankind must enter space to find a new means of survival. Neal Stephenson weaves science, philosophy, technology, and literature into a work of fiction that offers a portrait of a future that is both extraordinary and eerily recognizable. 

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From Jim Curry, CEO & Co-Founder of �ƶ�����: 

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The Three-Body Problem by Cixin Lu‍

From Hugo Award-winning author Cixin Lu, the most prolific science fiction writer in the People's Republic of China, the Three-Body Problem is the first novel in the Remembrance of Earth’s Past Trilogy. It is an action-packed saga of how humanity's first contact with extraterrestrial life divided Earth between those welcoming the superior beings and those fighting the alien invasion.

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Challenger: A True Story of Heroism and Disaster on the Edge of Space by Adam Higginbotham ‍

The explosion of the space shuttle Challenger was a defining moment in twentieth-century history, one that changed the way America thought of itself and its optimistic view of the future. In this gripping chronicle, Higginbotham examines the costs of innovation, political positioning, clashing personalities, mismanagement, and a series of internal NASA decisions that partly led to the spacecraft’s sudden destruction upon liftoff. This is a worthwhile read for anyone interested in learning about management process and failure, as Higginbotham meticulously explores the missteps and negligence that allowed the tragedy to occur. 

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From Olivia Cannell, Associate at �ƶ�����: 

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Never Split The Difference by Chris Voss

Olivia would recommend this book to anyone, as every aspect of our lives involves some form of negotiation, from a child’s bedtime, to a business deal, to a high-stakes hostage crisis. Chris Voss, a former expert FBI hostage negotiator, relays the set of tools necessary to connect with others, influence them, and negotiate for what you want. 

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From the �ƶ����� Team: 

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First, Break All The Rules by Marcus Buckingham ‍

�ƶ����� has had a crush on Marcus Buckingham and his work for a couple of decades. In this book, he dignifies the role of the people manager, demonstrates how the best managers buck conventional wisdom, and how they use a deep understanding of each team member’s natural strengths to build well-rounded teams out of sharp, self-aware individuals.

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Drive by Daniel H. Pink‍

�ƶ�����’s final pick for the summer is Drive because author Daniel Pink drives home the notion that you cannot mandate people to create great customer outcomes. Instead, it comes from talented people having the opportunity to volunteer their best. In this book, Pink makes a compelling case for this view of motivation and how companies can help people discover it and foster it. 

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Happy Reading, 

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The information in this blog post is provided in good faith without any warranty. It does not constitute investment advice, recommendation, or an offer of any services or products of �ƶ����� Management and it is not intended to provide a sufficient basis on which to make an investment decision. This document is provided for educational purposes only. Discussions of current or former �ƶ����� portfolio companies are intended for educational and discussion purposes only. Any portfolio company so discussed has been selected based on objective, non-performance based criteria.

This content does not constitute or form part of an offer of any investment advisory services of �ƶ����� Management, LLC, nor does it constitute or form part of an offer to issue or sell, or of a solicitation of an offer to subscribe or buy, any securities or other financial instruments, nor does it constitute a financial promotion, investment advice or an inducement or incitement to participate in any product, offering or investment.

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