The Library of Noah: Resources for Those in Startups and Tech
The most helpful resources related to startups, founding a company, and tech that I have come across.
This is not meant to be a comprehensive list. This list is meant to try and cut through a lot of the noise, save people time, and accelerate their learning by providing quick access to what I have found to be extremely helpful resources. The very best of all of all of the newsletters, posts, slide decks, books, and tools that I have come across.
This list is also reflective of my career growth, interests, industry, and the stage of my startup, DeepTrust.
Worth highlighting, this list will continue to change and evolve over time. My goal is to update this list on a regular basis, and I hope that future-me is far wiser than current-me, and can make sound judgments about what resources I believe to be worthy of this list.
I also want to call out the fact that there are people far more accomplished than me, and far smarter than me, who have done great things and accumulated great knowledge. Go find those people, follow them, and learn from them. But hopefully in the meantime, this list can help you get started, and can point you in the direction of some of these people. Its contents will grow and evolve as I do.
It also goes without saying, but I am not the author of any of the materials listed below.
Finally, since I’ve been speaking with a number of college students recently, resources most relevant for those starting or early in their career will be marked with an * .
Thought Leaders:
Topics: 0-1 Product Market Fit | Founding a Company | GTM
Why you should care: The best person I have found for keeping you grounded and focused as you launch a company with practical advice and steps. Great at cutting through the noise and identifying what is most important. The best starting point for new and early founders.
Topics: Silicon Valley | Venture Capital | Tech | Startups
Why you should care: Great perspective on tech, startups, and venture capital on a broader scale. Great education on how “the game” is played.
Topics: Cybersecurity | Startups | Tech
Why you should care: Unique perspectives and great insights into how the cybersecurity industry works with a startup focus. Practical advice for those building in the space.
Topics: Startups | Data | Venture Capital
Why you should care: Peter is Head of Insights at Carta and frequently shares useful insights around the health of the startup industry along with trends and analysis.
Topics: Tech | Product Management | Startups | Career Growth
Why you should care: Nate provides excellent analysis of broader trends and news in tech along with practical advice for what it means for you. Nate's Tik Tok is more relevant for this than his LinkedIn. I would recommend following him there.
Topics: Product Marketing | Positioning | Messaging | Web Design
Why you should care: Robert is the best resource I have come across when it comes to helping companies refine their value proposition, positioning, and messaging. He provides great practical advice and tips for how to help your business resonate better with customers.
Topics: Startups | Tech | Founding a Company | Fundraising
Why you should care: Paul is a Silicon Valley legend and a co-founder of Y Combinator (not that accolades matter for this list). Paul provides incredible guidance and resources for all things startups and tech. His essays are a treasure trove of useful information and practical advice.
Weekly Newsletters:
The Path to Product-Market Fit
Topics: 0-1 Product Market Fit | Founding a Company | GTM | Sales
Great for: Founders, early employees at startups
Topics: Silicon Valley | Venture Capital | Tech | Startups
Great for: Anyone working in tech or VC
Topics: Cybersecurity | Startups | Tech
Great for: Anyone working in cybersecurity, IT, or Ops
Topics: Tech | Product Management | AI | Startups
Great for: Anyone working in tech or interested in tech
Topics: Picking a Career | Growing Up | Career Strategy
Great for: Anyone early in their career or evaluating their next step.
Topics: Tech | Jobs | Meetups | Networking
Great for: Anyone in Silicon Valley looking for networking events, startup jobs, and tech news
Specific Blogs, Posts, & Educational Resources:
Career Strategy and Advice
Reconsidering Career Optionality (Blog) *
The Cost of Apathy (Newsletter) *
Choose Good Quests (Blog)
Take Asymmetric Bets (Blog) *
Cities and Ambition (Blog)*
Stay shameless (Post) *
Where To Build Your Startup (Blog)
How to build a network from scratch (Tik Tok) *
The Four Kinds of Luck (Newsletter)
Pmarca Guide to Career Planning: Where to go and why (Newsletter) *
How to do Great Work (Newsletter)
How to Start a Startup (Blog)
Understanding risks with your equity as a startup employee (LinkedIn Post)
Social Capital in Silicon Valley (Newsletter)
Changing my mind on remote, moving the team back to San Francisco (Newsletter)
The Renaissance of Rise and Grind (Newsletter)
Most People Won’t (Post)
The Need to Read (Blog)
Don’t Make me Fire you (Newsletter)
What You’ll Wish You’d Known (Blog - Advice for those in high school or college) *
The Lesson to Unlearn (Blog) *
Mean People Fail (Blog)
Creating Your Own Career (Newsletter) *
The Great Decoupling: Labor, Growth, and the Technology Paradox (Newsletter)
Brutally Honest Advice for Men To Win In Their 20s (Video) *
On Writing
The Importance of Writing (Post)
Putting Ideas Into Words (Blog)
To become a better cybersecurity startup founder, you need to master writing (Newsletter)
Write Simply (Blog)
Writing, Briefly (Blog)
Write Like You Talk (Blog)
On Storytelling and Crafting a Compelling Vision
Tell Good Stories (Newsletter)
Cultivating Cults (Newsletter)
Soft Power in Tech (Newsletter)
On Optimism
The Glass-Half War: Empty or Full? (Newsletter)
I Choose Optimism (Newsletter)
On Building a Startup, PM Fit, and GTM (Especially 0-1)
Product Market Fit and Business Development: Rob Snyder (Video)
The Physics of Startups (Newsletter)
Waves, dams, and rivers - How demand works at scale (Newsletter)
The Toll Booth (Newsletter)
How to run a pre-PMF sales call (Newsletter)
Demand =/= "people who want to buy your product (Newsletter)
How Plaid Found Pull (Newsletter)
Waves of demand (Newsletter)
The half-hour of power (Newsletter)
"Nice to have" vs. "Need to have" (Newsletter)
The two foundational models (Newsletter)
How to “build something people want” (Newsletter)
Killing wishful thinking (Newsletter)
(un)learning sales (Newsletter)
How to talk with customers (LinkedIn Post)
PM Fit and Repeatability (LinkedIn Post)
Founder Led Sales (Newsletter)
Founder Led Sales (Linkedin Post)
Find the Fast Moving Water (Newsletter)
Milestones that matter on your $0-$1M ARR journey (Newsletter)
The Product Market Fit Score (v1) (Newsletter)
The startup community is failing founders (Newsletter)
Why your value prop sucks (Newsletter)
The simplest way to think about product-market fit (Newsletter)
The five levels of product market fit (Newsletter)
Production systems vs. demand-response systems (Newsletter)
Don’t do things that scale (Newsletter)
It’s the messaging, stupid (Newsletter)
Fooled by scalability (Newsletter)
B2B product market fit workshop (LinkedIn Post)
Product Market Fit: The Founder’s Guide (LinkedIn Post)
Be Weird (Newsletter)
Sales Demos for $0-$1M ARR (Slide Deck)
$0-$1M ARR, Made Simple (Slide Deck)
13 Years Of Brutally Honest Business Advice in 90 Mins (Video)
On Positioning and Messaging
How to Sharpen Your Homepage Positioning and Messaging (Video)
How to position your product (LinkedIn Post)
Effective website layouts (LinkedIn Post)
Effective website hero template (LinkedIn Post)
How specific should your startup’s positioning be? (LinkedIn Post)
Your messaging to create demand is different from your messaging to capture demand (LinkedIn Post)
Positioning and market maturity (LinkedIn Post)
On VC and Fundraising
How to Raise Money (Blog)
The Puritans of Venture Capital (Newsletter)
Mo' Money, Mo' Problems (Newsletter)
Institutionalized Belief In The Greater Fool (Newsletter)
Eat What You Kill - The Meritocracy of Venture Capital (Newsletter)
The Tail That Wags The Dog (Newsletter)
The Siren Song of Raising a Venture Fund (Newsletter)
The Equity Equation (Blog)
On Building in CyberSecurity
Security awareness won’t save us, and people will continue clicking on links (as they should) (Newsletter)
Cybersecurity is not a market for lemons. It is a market for silver bullets. (Newsletter)
Cybersecurity technology adoption cycle and its implications for startups and security teams (Newsletter)
Most of the security teams’ work has nothing to do with chasing advanced adversaries (Newsletter - 2nd half of this one specifically)
Cybersecurity marketing: in need of fundamental change (Newsletter)
To become a better cybersecurity startup founder, you need to master writing (Newsletter)
Every successful security platform started as a point solution (Newsletter)
There are no magic bullets, and every purchasing decision in security comes with trade-offs (Newsletter)
Platforms vs. best of breed is a wrong way of looking at the industry (Newsletter)
10 principles for doing security and building cybersecurity products have remained unchanged since 1995 (Newsletter)
Platforms vs. best of breed is a wrong way of looking at the industry (Newsletter)
Inverted crossing the chasm problem in cybersecurity: what founders and investors need to keep in mind (Newsletter)
Cybersecurity technology adoption cycle and its implications for startups and security teams (Newsletter)
Looking for ways to promote products and services that make cybersecurity a better place: five unique case studies (Newsletter)
19 plus one traction channels for growing a cybersecurity startup: a founder’s guide (part 1 of 3) (Newsletter)
19 plus one traction channels for growing a cybersecurity startup: a founder’s guide (part 2 of 3) (Newsletter)
19 plus one traction channel for growing a cybersecurity startup: a founder’s guide (part 3 of 3) (Newsletter)
Psychology of marketing and selling cybersecurity (Newsletter)
Time to trust: what it is, why cybersecurity startups must shorten it to accelerate growth, and how to do it (Newsletter)
How to Get Your Company Through Vendor Onboarding (Newsletter)
On the Art of Selling to Cybersecurity People (Newsletter)
Misc.
Thoughts on the eve of AGI (Post)
Ask Good Questions (Newsletter) *
The Value Cycle (Newsletter)
Embrace the Nuance (Newsletter)
The Rising Generation (Newsletter) *
Intellectual Seatbelts (Newsletter)
Slow down to speed up (Newsletter)
100% in or 0% in (Newsletter)
Why product & engineering is insufferable (Newsletter)
The case against experimentation (Newsletter)
It’s simpler & dumber than it seems (Newsletter)
Move faster (Newsletter)
Keep the Team Small Pre PM Fit (LinkedIn Post)
Is it Worth Being Wise? (Blog)
Heresy (Blog)
How to Disagree (Blog)
What You Can’t Say (Blog)
The Levers of Innovation (Newsletter)
For Whom Shall We Build? (Blog)
Books:
The Mom Test by Rob Fitzpatrick
Founding Sales by Peter R Kazanjy
Cyber for Builders by Ross Haleliuk
$100 Million Offers: How To Make Offers So Good People Feel Stupid Saying No by Alex Hormozi
$100 Million Leads: How to Get Strangers To Want To Buy Your Stuff by Alex Hormozi
Job Hunting Tips
VC Job Boards *: A lot of VC firms have their own job boards with roles at their portfolio companies. This is a great way to find available jobs at funded startups that might not have as many applicants. Identify top VC firms by stage (series Seed, A, B, C, etc.). Search for the portfolio jobs at each firm. A search might look like “a16z portfolio jobs” or “YC portfolio jobs” or “Accel portfolio jobs”.
Tools:
Networking / Finding a Co-Founder:
Cerebral Valley events
SF IRL events
Outbound / Sales
Clay - Best for finding leads
Phantombuster - Best for automated workflows
Instantly - Best for email campaigns
I hope you enjoyed this blog! Please subscribe and share with your friends. New subscribers help assure me that people care and let me know that I should keep putting these out.
A little about me…
I'm a co-founder at DeepTrust where we help security and fraud teams reduce the risk of financial losses from live voice and video based attacks with intelligent call security across VoIP platforms. DeepTrust uses real-time conversational telemetry, layered threat detection, and org specific knowledge bases to identify both conventional and deepfake threats then deliver just-in-time personalized security coaching to employees in calls.
If you’re interested in learning more, or have additional questions about deepfakes, I’d love to chat! Feel free to shoot me an email at noah@deeptrust.ai.