Looking for book recommendations. Not the typical "hustle porn" startup books but actual useful stuff about business law, contracts, incorporation, etc. What actually helped you?
"Venture Deals" by Brad Feld - basically required reading if you ever plan to raise money. Explains term sheets, SAFEs, convertibles in plain english
"The Entrepreneur's Guide to Business Law" by Bagley & Dauchy. It's dry but comprehensive. Covers incorporation, IP, employment, securities law. Basically a survey course in a book.
not a book but Stripe Atlas's guides are genuinely excellent and free. their incorporation guide is better than any book I've read on the topic
"Getting to Yes" - not specifically legal but understanding negotiation makes every contract discussion easier. Changed how I approach vendor agreements.
"Profit First" by Mike Michalowicz. Not legal but will save you from the #1 way startups die: running out of money because you don't understand your own finances
Great list! Any recs specifically on intellectual property for software?
"Patent It Yourself" by Nolo is decent if you want to understand patents. For software specifically, most of what you need to know fits in a blog post tbh - copyright is automatic, trade secrets need NDAs, patents are expensive and rarely worth it for early startups.
For open source: "Open Source Licensing" by Lawrence Rosen. Old but still relevant. Understanding GPL vs MIT vs Apache will save you major headaches
Great recs here! Just finished "Venture Deals" based on this thread and it was eye-opening. I had no idea how much complexity there was in term sheets.
Anyone have suggestions for books specifically about SaaS business models? Currently bootstrapping and trying to figure out pricing strategy.
Adding "The Mom Test" by Rob Fitzpatrick to this list. Not legal-focused but crucial for founders - teaches you how to talk to customers without leading them. Has saved me from building features nobody wanted at least twice.
Also seconding "Profit First" - changed how I think about business finances completely.
For anyone interested in the legal side, I'd also recommend checking out the free templates and guides on this site. Found them more practical than any book for actual contract stuff I needed day to day.
That said, "The Entrepreneurs Guide to Business Law" mentioned above is solid for understanding the WHY behind legal concepts.
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