Business Books & Co.

Trader Joe's is an iconic American grocery chain. And yes, there was an actual Trader Joe. In this episode we interview Patty Civalleri, the co-author with Joe Coulombe of Becoming Trader Joe: How I Did Business My Way and Still Beat the Big Guys. Founded as a small chain in California in the 1960s, Trader Joe’s has gone on to become one the most unique and influential grocery re

We discuss the 2017 memoir Am I Being Too Subtle?: Straight Talk From a Business Rebel by Sam Zell. Zell was the billionaire founder of Equity Residential, Equity International, and EQ Office. In addition he had controlling interests in several other large enterprises, perhaps most controversially Tribune Media. Am I Being Too Subtle? describes Zell’s upbringing, career, business

Love him or hate him, Elon Musk is perhaps the most accomplished and influential leader in today's business landscape. Dive into the definitive biography, Elon Musk by Walter Isaacson, on our latest episode. Spanning 700 pages, this epic authorized account lays bare the polarizing man behind the innovations, exposing both triumphs and flaws. We dissect the biography's strengths and

The Presentation Secrets of Steve Jobs: How to Be Insanely Great in Front of Any Audience by Carmine Gallo is a self-help book for anyone who regularly makes presentations. Whether you're an executive, analyst, marketer, or teacher this book will help you improve the impression you make on an audience. By utilizing the legendary keynotes of Steve Jobs as a model, the book presents

How the Internet Happened: From Netscape to the iPhone by Brian McCullough is a history of the companies, entrepreneurs, technologists, and financiers who launched the modern online world. Covering the years 1993 to 2008, this sweeping volume helps the reader understand not only who the important players were in fostering online communities, e-commerce, social networks, and connect

The Lean Startup by Eric Ries is a modern management classic. It's about bringing the scientific method to the forefront at the start of a new enterprise. Instead of following a classic waterfall development methodology, Ries emphasizes the importance of building quick MVPs that are easily testable based on actionable metrics. Although just a dozen years old, The Lean Startup philo

This month we read How to Win Friends and Influence People by Dale Carnegie. First published in the 1930s, How to Win Friends and Influence People is one of the most popular self-help books of all time. Carnegie’s suggestions for how to achieve the title’s objective are largely based on anecdotal wisdom, but the anecdotes are numerous and often hard to argue with. While some of

Season 3 was a landmark season for our show. We read some amazing books and interviewed some award-winning authors. In this episode we discuss the highlights of Season 3. We pick the best and worst books we read. And we provide a behind the scenes look at our author interviews. Plus, we preview Season 4. Show Notes Season 3 Listener Survey via Google Forms David Kopec on Return to

Layered Money: From Gold and Dollars to Bitcoin and Central Bank Digital Currencies by Nik Bhatia is one of the most popular books in the world of bitcoin. But it's much more than that. The first half of the book is a history of monetary systems. This sets the stage for a dive into the world of bitcoin, including what makes it special and how it differs from the currencies that pre

Titan: The Life of John D. Rockefeller, Sr. is an epic biography of the industrialist by acclaimed author Ron Chernow. Rockefeller was the founder of Standard Oil, a company that was notorious for its monopolization of the oil industry in the late 19th century. An adept businessman and talented strategist, Rockefeller was demonized throughout his career for his sometimes brutal tac