October 1 is the deadline for applications to ‘Cuse Tank, a $20,000 business idea competition open to all Syracuse University students as part of Family Weekend. Hosted by the LaunchPad, the event will feature in-person pitches with judges who are successful entrepreneurs and investors, and SU parents. Use our simple online application, now open through October 1. There will be a pitch preparation workshop on Monday, October 4 from 3 p.m. to 5 p.m. in the LaunchPad with tips from peer mentors who have won multiple campus competitions.

‘Cuse Tank will be held in Bird Library on Friday, October 8, from 2 p.m. to 5 p.m.

The LaunchPad team can help get you ready to compete.  Sign up for mentoring and pitch practices by e-mailing us:  https://launchpad.syr.edu/

The LaunchPad is pleased to be expanding its curated collection of many entrepreneurship and innovation related books available via Syracuse University Libraries. Print copies of the books can be found in the bookshelves at the entry to the LaunchPad, first floor of Bird Library, while eBook versions of many titles are available. To explore the titles on a dynamic guide featuring book covers, book descriptions, subject lists, and links to each book’s catalog record and eBook version (when available), visit this link. We think there’s nothing like reading a good book over a cup of tea, so stop by in person and browse our collection.

The Blackstone LaunchPad Entrepreneurship Book Collection started with a large list of titles developed by Blackstone LaunchPad Executive Director Linda Dickerson Hartsock, along with books recommended by aspiring student entrepreneurs. Linda then crowdsourced book suggestions on multidisciplinary topics related to innovation and entrepreneurship from faculty, staff, and students across many academic programs and disciplines.

Librarian for Business, Management, and Entrepreneurship Stephanie JH McReynolds selected and ordered relevant titles for the collection as well.

Former Syracuse University Libraries’ Research Reputation Graduate Assistant Ashley N. Downs transformed the PDF title and author version of this list into a dynamic guide featuring book covers, book descriptions, links to each book’s catalog record and eBook version (when available), as well as for arranging the over 300 book titles into easy-to-browse subject lists.

The collection continues to grow every year, and certain titles have been adopted as suggested reading by faculty teaching entrepreneurship and related subjects.

If you have recommendations for books that could added to the collection, feel free to e-mail those suggestions for consideration, along with titles and authors, to LaunchPad@syr.edu

You can easily browse the most current version of Blackstone LaunchPad book collection titles here at https://researchguides.library.syr.edu/launchpadbooklist.

The subject lists include both the print and eBook versions (if available) of each title.

Here are some quick links to the most current collection:

• Complete Book List (eBooks & Print Books)
• eBooks Only

Links organized by topic area:

• Autobiography & Biography
• Creativity
• Design
• Empowerment
• Funding, Patents, & Business Law
• History & Economics
• Leadership & Teams
• Marketing
• Social Entrepreneurship
• Strategy & Planning
• Technology & Data

Below is a list of current titles in the collection as of September 2021. Some are in print, some eBook and some in both versions. 

Happy reading!

• #Girlboss by Sophia Amoruso
• $100 Startup: Reinvent the Way You Make a Living Do What You Love and Create a New Future by Chris Guillebeau
• 101 Design Methods by Vijay Kumar
• 4-Hour Workweek: Escape 9-5, Live Anywhere, and Join the New Rich by Timothy Ferris
• ABA Consumer Guide to Obtaining a Patent: A Practical Resource for Helping Entrepreneurs & Innovators Protect Their Ideas by Rich Goldstein
• Abundance: The Future is Better Than You Think by Peter H. Diamandis
• Adventures of Ideas by Alfred North Whitehead
• Adversity to Advantage: How to Overcome Bullying & Find Entrepreneurial Success by Randy Ginsburg
• Age of Insight by Eric R. Kandel
• Agile Product Development: How to Design Innovative Products That Create Customer Value by Tathagat Varma
• Algorithms to Live By: The Computer Science of Human Decisions. (No Rights Us) by Brian Christian
• All in Startup: Launching a New Idea When Everything is on the Line by Diana Kander
• All Marketers are Liars: The Underground Classic That Explains How Marketing Really Works– and Why Authenticity Is the Best Marketing of All by Seth Godin
• Art of Critical Making by Rosanne Somerson and Mara Hermano
• Art of People: 11 Simple People Skills That Will Get You Everything You Want by Dave Kerpen
• Art of The Start 2.0: The Time-Tested, Battle-Hardened Guide for Anyone Starting Anything by Guy Kawasaki
• Art of The Start: The Time-Tested, Battle-Hardened Guide for Anyone Starting Anything by Guy Kawasaki
• Art of War by Sun Tzu
• Ascent of Money: A Financial History of The World by Niall Ferguson
• Autobiography of Benjamin Franklin by Benjamin Franklin
• B Corp Handbook: How to Use Business as A Force for Good by Ryan Honeyman
• Be Fearless: 5 Principles for a Life of Breakthroughs and Purpose by Jean Case
• Benjamin Franklin: An American Life by Walter Isaacson
• Big Picture: On the Origins of Life, Meaning, And the Universe Itself by Sean Carroll
• Biomimicry for Designers: Applying Nature\’s Processes and Materials in The Real World by Veronika Kapsali
• Biomimicry: Innovation Inspired by Nature by Janine Benyus
• Bitcoin and Cryptocurrency Technologies: A Comprehensive Introduction by Arvind Narayanan
• Black Tax by Shawn Rochester
• Black Woman Millionaire: A Revolutionary Act that Defies Impossible by Venus Opal Reese
• Blue Ocean Strategy: How to Create Uncontested Market Space and Make Competition Irrelevant by Chan Kim
• Blue Sweater: Bridging the Gap Between Rich and Poor in An Interconnected World by Jacqueline Novogratz
• Bold: How to Go Big, Achieve Success, and Impact the World by Peter H. Diamandis
• Boulevard of Broken Dreams: Why Public Efforts to Boost Entrepreneurship and Venture Capital Have by Josh Lerner
• Brand Brilliance: Elevate Your Brand, Enchant Your Audience by Fiona Humberstone
• Building A Social Business by Muhammad Yunus
• Built to Last: Successful Habits of Visionary Companies by Jim Collins
• Burn the Business Plan: What Great Entrepreneurs Really Do by Carl Schramm
• Business Model Generation: A Handbook for Visionaries, Game Changers, and Challengers by Alexander Osterwalder
• Business Networking for Veterans: A Guidebook for a Successful Military Transition into the Civilian Workforce by Mike Abrams, Michael Lawrence Faulkner, Andrea Nierenberg
• Business of Good: Social Entrepreneurship and The New Bottom Line by Jason Haber
• Business Plans Handbook (Volumes 32 & 37) by
• Can\’t Hurt Me: Master Your Mind and Defy the Odds by David Goggins
• Challenger Customer: Selling to The Hidden Influencer Who Can Multiply Your Results by Brent Adamson
• Change by Design: How Design Thinking Transforms Organizations and Inspires Innovation by Tim Brown
• Chief Marketing Officers at Work by Josh Steimle
• Clicks and Mortar: Passion-Driven Growth in an Internet-Driven World by David S. Pottruck, Terry Pearce
• Confidence Gap: A Guide to Overcoming Fear and Self-Doubt by Russ Harris
• Constructing Organizational Life by Thomas B. Lawrence and Nelson Phillips
• Contagious: Why Things Catch on by Jonah Berger
• Corporate Startup: How Established Companies Can Develop Successful Innovation Ecosystems by Tendayi Viki
• Crack the Funding Code by Judy Robinett
• Creative Economy: How People Make Money from Ideas by John Howkins
• Creative Intelligence: Harnessing the Power to Create Connect and Inspire by Bruce Nussbaum
• Creative Priority: Putting Innovation to Work in Your Business by Jerry Hirshberg
• Crossing the Chasm: Marketing and Selling High-Tech Products to Mainstream Customers by Geoffrey Moore
• Data Science for Business by Foster Provost
• Data Visualisation: A Handbook for Data Driven Design by Andy Kirk
• Design as Art by Bruno Munari
• Design Basics by Stephen Pentak
• Design of Everyday Things by Donald A. Norman
• Design Process by Karl Aspelund
• Design Studies: A Reader by Hazel Clark and David Brody
• Design Thinking for The Greater Good: Innovation in The Social Sector by Jeanne Liedtka
• Design Thinking: New Product Development Essentials from the PDMA by Michael Luchs, Scott Swan, Abbe Griffin
• Diffusion of Innovations by Everett M. Rogers
• Discover Your True North by Bill George
• Do the Kind Thing: Think Boundlessly, Work Purposefully, Live Passionately by Daniel Lubetzky
• Don\’t Make Me Think, Revisited: A Common-Sense Approach to Web Usability by Steve Krug
• DotCom Secrets: The Underground Playbook for Growing Your Company Online by Russell Brunson and Dan Kennedy
• Drawing Is Thinking by Milton Glaser
• Drive: The Surprising Truth About What Motivates Us by Daniel H. Pink
• Driver in The Driverless Car: How Our Technology Choices Will Create the Future by Vivek Wadhwa and Alex Salkever
• Effective Executive: The Definitive Guide to Getting the Right Things Done by Peter Drucker
• Effecutation: Elements of Entrepreneurial Expertise by Saras D. Sarasvathy
• Elon Musk: Tesla, SpaceX, And the Quest for A Fantastic Future by Ashlee Vance
• Emotional Intelligence: Why It Can Matter More Than IQ by Daniel Goleman
• Employee Engagement by Emma Bridger
• Entrepreneur Equation: Evaluating the Realities, Risks, and Rewards of Having Your Own Business by Carol Roth
• Entrepreneurial Bible to Venture Capital: Inside Secrets from The Leaders of The Startup Game by Andrew Romans
• Entrepreneurial Group: Social Identities, Relations, And Collective Action (Kauffman Foundation Series on Innovation and Entrepreneurship) by Martin Ruef
• Entrepreneur\’s Guide to Law and Strategy by Constance E Bagley
• Entrepreneurship for The Creative and Cultural Industries by Bonita M. Kolb
• Entrepreneurship in The Creative Industries: An International Perspective edited by Colette Henry
• Everything Store: Jeff Bezos and the Age of Amazon by Brad Stone
• Evil by Design: Interaction Design to Lead Us Into Temptation by Chris Nodder
• Executive Director\’s Guide to Thriving as A Nonprofit Leader by Mim Carlson
• Experimental Capitalism: The Nanoeconomics of American High-Tech Industries (Kauffman Foundation Series on Innovation and Entrepreneurship) by Steven Klepper, edited by Serguey Braguinsky, David A. Hounshell, John H. Miller
• Explaining Creativity by Keith Sawyer
• Exponential Organizations: Why New Organizations Are Ten Times Better, Faster, and Cheaper Than Yours (and What to Do About It) by Salim Ismail
• Fire Starter Sessions: A Soulful + Practical Guide to Creating Success on Your Own Terms by Danielle Laporte
• Form A Partnership: The Complete Legal Guide by Denis Clifford
• Foster Your Passion: A Guide to Finding Your Passion and The Tools You Need To Foster It by Hayley Foster
• Founders at Work: Stories of Startups\’ Early Days by Jessica Livingston
• Founder\’s Dilemmas: Anticipating and Avoiding the Pitfalls That Can Sink a Startup by Noam Wasserman
• Four Steps to the Epiphany by Steve Blank
• Functional Art: An Introduction to Information Graphics and Visualization by Alberto Cairo
• Fundable Startup: How Disruptive Companies Attract Capital by Fred M. Haney
• Future Agenda: Six Challenges to the Next Decade by Caroline Dewing and Tim Jones
• Geek Girl Rising: Inside the Sisterhood Shaking Up Tech by Heather Cabot
• Geek Silicon Valley by Ashlee Vance
• Get There Early by Bob Johansen
• Getting Beyond Better: How Social Entrepreneurship Works by Roger L. Martin
• Getting to Yes: Negotiating Agreement Without Giving In by Roger Fisher
• Girls Think of Everything: Stories of Ingenious Inventions by Women by Catherine Thimmesh
• Good Profit: How Creating Value for Others Built One of The World\’s Most Successful Companies by Charles Koch
• Good to Great by Jim Collins
• Grit: The Power of Passion and Perseverance by Angela Duckworth
• Group Genius: The Creative Power of Collaboration Paperback by Keith Sawyer
• Hard Thing About Hard Things: Building A Business When There Are No Easy Answers by Ben Horowitz
• HBR Guide to Buying a Small Business by Richard Ruback
• Heavy Hitter I.T. Sales Strategy: Competitive Insights from Interviews With 1,000+ Key Information Technology Decision Makers and Top Technology Salespeople by Steve Martin
• High Output Management by Andrew S. Grove
• Hooked: How to Build Habit-Forming Products by Nir Eyal
• How Did You Do It, Truett?: A Recipe for Success by Cathy Truett
• How Exceptional Black Women Lead: Unlocking the Secrets to Creating Phenomenal Success in Career and in Life by Avis Jones-DeWeever
• How the Internet Became Commercial: Innovation, Privatization, And the Birth of a New Network by Shane Greenstein
• How to Change the World by David Bornstein
• How to Form a Nonprofit Corporation by Anthony Mancuso
• \”How To\” Grants Manual: Successful Grantseeking Techniques for Obtaining Public and Private Grants by David G. Bauer
• How to Use Graphic Design to Sell Things, Explain Things, Make Things Look Better, Make People Laugh, Make People Cry, and (Every Once in a While) Change the World by Michael Bierut
• How We Got to Now: Six Innovations That Made the Modern World by Steven Johnson
• Hypomanic Edge: The Link Between (A Little) Craziness And (A Lot Of) Success in America by John Gartner
• Idea Factory: Bell Labs and The Great Age of American Innovation by Jon Gertner
• In the Company of Women: Inspiration and Advice from Over 100 Makers, Artists, and Entrepreneurs by Grace Bonney
• Incorporate Your Business by Anthony Mancuso
• Inevitable: Understanding The 12 Technological Forces That Will Shape Our Future by Kevin Kelly
• Influence: The Psychology of Persuasion by Cialdini, Robert B
• Infographic Guide to Science by Tom Cabot
• Innovating: A Doer\’s Manifesto for Starting from A Hunch, Prototyping Problems, Scaling Up, And Learning to Be Productively Wrong by Luis Perez-Breva
• Innovation and Entrepreneurship by Peter Drucker
• Innovation and Scaling for Impact: How Effective Social Enterprises Do It by Christian Seelos
• Innovation Blind Spot: Why We Back the Wrong Ideas and What to Do About It by Ross Baird
• Innovation Code: The Creative Power of Constructive Conflict by Jeffrey Thomas Degraff
• Innovator’s Dilemma by Clayton Christensen
• Innovators: How A Group of Hackers, Geniuses, And Geeks Created the Digital Revolution by Walter Isaacson
• Intelligent Investor: The Definitive Book on Value Investing. A Book of Practical Counsel by Benjamin Graham
• Invention of Enterprise: Entrepreneurship from Ancient Mesopotamia to Modern Times Edited (Kauffman Foundation Series on Innovation and Entrepreneurship) by David S. Landes, Joel Mokyr, William J. Baumol
• Investing in Patents: Everything a Startup Investor Needs to Know About Patents by Russell Krajec
• It\’s Not How Good You Are, It\’s How Good You Want to Be: The World\’s Best-Selling Book by Paul Arden by Paul Arden
• King of Capital: The Remarkable Rise, Fall, And Rise Again of Steve Schwarzman and Blackstone by David Carey
• Knowledge is Beautiful by David McCandless
• Launch Pad: Inside Y Combinator, Silicon Valley\’s Most Exclusive School for Startups by Randall Stross
• Lead Your Tribe, Love Your Work: An Entrepreneur\’s Guide to Creating a Culture that Matters by Piyush Patel
• Leadership Is an Art by Max Depree
• Leadership Step by Step: Become the Person Others Follow by Joshua Spodek
• Lean Out by Dawn Foster
• Lean Product Design and Development Journey: A Practical View by Marcus Vinicius Pereira Pessoa
• Lean Startup: How Today\’s Entrepreneurs Use Continuous Innovation to Create Radically Successful Businesses by Eric Ries
• Lean UX: Designing Great Products with Agile Teams by Jeff Gothelf
• Leapfrog by Nathalie Molina Niño and Sara Grace
• Lifecircle Leadership: How Exceptional People Make Every Day Extraordinary by Kimberly Townsend
• Lightning in A Bottle by David Minter and Michael Reid
• Lightning In a Bottle: How Entrepreneurs Can Harness Their ADHD to Win by John M. Torrens
• Long Tail by Chris Anderson
• Loonshots: How to Nurture the Crazy Ideas that Win Wars, Cure Diseases, and Transform Industries by Safi Bahcall
• Losing My Virginity: How I Survived, Had Fun, And Made a Fortune Doing Business My Way by Richard Branson
• Made to Stick: Why Some Ideas Survive and Others Die by Chip Heath and Dan Heath
• Managing the Nonprofit Organization by Peter Drucker
• Massive Change and the Institute Without Boundaries by Bruce Mau
• Mastering Bitcoin: Programming the Open Blockchain by Anas Antonopoulos
• Mastering the VC Game: A Venture Capital Insider Reveals How to Get from Start-Up to IPO On Your Terms by Jeffery Bussgang
• Mental Toughness for Women Leaders: 52 Tips to Recognize and Utilize Your Greatest Strengths by Larae Quy
• Microtheory Of Innovative Entrepreneurship by William J. Baume
• Modern Monopolies: What It Takes to Dominate the 21st Century Economy by Alex Moazed and Nicholas L. Johnson
• Money of Invention: How Venture Capital Creates New Wealth Hardcover by Paul A. Gompers
• Monk and the Riddle: The Education of a Silicon Valley Entrepreneur by Randy Komisar with Kent Lineback
• My Inventions: The Autobiography of Nikola Tesla by Nikola Tesla
• Myth of Meritocracy: Why Working-Class Kids Get Working-Class Jobs by James Bloodworth
• Networking China: The Digital Transformation of The Chinese Economy by Yu Hong
• Never Split the Difference: Negotiating as If Your Life Depended on It by Voss, Christopher
• New Ideas About New Ideas: Insights on Creativity from the World\’s Leading Innovators by Shira P. White with G. Patton Wright.
• Next Generation Business Strategies for The Base of The Pyramid: New Approaches for Building Mutual Value by Ted London
• Nolo\’s Guide to Single-Member LLCs: How to Form and Run Your Single-Member Limited Liability Company by David Steingold
• Nolo\’s Patents for Beginners by David Pressman
• Not So Obvious: An Introduction to Patent Law and Strategy by Jeffrey Schox
• On Her Own Ground: The Life and Times of Madam C.J. Walker by A\’Lelia Bundles
• Only Sales Guide You\’ll Ever Need by Anthony Iannarino
• Originals: How Non-Conformists Move the World by Adam Grant
• Outsiders: Eight Unconventional CEOs and Their Radically Rational Blueprint for Success by William Thorndike
• Oxford Handbook of Diversity in Organizations edited by Regine Bendl, Inge Bleijenbergh, Elina Henttonen, Albert J. Mills
• Oxford Handbook of Meaningful Work edited by Ruth Yeoman, Catherine Bailey, Adrian Madde, Marc Thompson
• Patent It Yourself: Your Step-by-Step Guide to Filing at the U.S. Patent Office by David Pressman
• People\’s Tycoon: Henry Ford and The American Century by Steven Watts
• Philanthro-Capitalism: How the Rich Can Save The World by Matthew Bishop
• Pitch Anything: An Innovative Method for Presenting, Persuading, And Winning the Deal by Oren Klaff
• Pitching & Closing: Everything You Need to Know About Business Development, Partnerships, and Making Deals that Matter by Alexander Taub
• Platform Revolution by Sangeet Paul Choudary, Geoffrey G Parker, and Marshall Van Alstyne
• Platform: Get Noticed in A Noisy World by Michael Hyatt
• Pocket Universal Principles of Design: 150 Essential Tools for Architects, Artists, Designers, Developers, Engineers, Inventors, and Managers by William Lidwell
• Post-Capitalist Entrepreneurship: Startups for the 99% by Boyd Cohen
• Pour Your Heart into It: How Starbucks Built a Company One Cup at A Time by Howard Schultz
• Power of Little Ideas: A Third Way to Innovate for Market Success by David C Robertson
• Predictably Irrational by Dan Ariely
• Predicting the Turn: The High Stakes Game of Business Between Startups and Blue Chips by Dave Knox
• Presentation Secrets of Steve Jobs: How to Be Insanely Great in Front of Any Audience by Carmine Gallo
• Presentation Techniques: A Guide to Drawing and Presenting Design Ideas by Dick Powell
• Present-Future Leader: How to Thrive in Today\’s Economy by Randall Wolken
• Principles: Life and Work by Ray Dalio
• Prior-Service Entrepreneur: The Fundamentals of Veteran Entrepreneurship by Michael Kaplan
• Profit from Your Idea: How to Make Smart Licensing Deals by Richard Stim
• Purpose Economy by Aaron Hurst
• Purpose Is Profit: The Truth About Starting and Building Your Own Business by Ed McLaughlin
• Radical Candor: Be a Kick-Ass Boss Without Losing Your Humanity by Kim Scott
• Raising Venture Capital for The Serious Entrepreneur by Dermot Berkery
• Raw Data: Infographic Designer\’s Sketchbooks by Steven Heller
• Research Methods for Product Design by Alex Milton
• Rise: The Veteran\’s Field Manual for Starting Your Own Business & Conquering the Online Economy by Wes O\’Donnell
• Running Lean: Iterate from Plan A to A Plan That Works by Ash Maurya
• Scaling Up Excellence: Getting to More Without Settling for Less by Robert Sutton
• Screw Business as Usual by Richard Branson
• Search by John Battelle
• Sell More Faster: The Ultimate Sales Playbook for Start-Ups by Amos Shwartzfarb
• Seventh Sense: Power, Fortune, And Survival in The Age of Networks by Joshua Cooper Ramo
• Shark Tales: How I Turned $1,000 into a Billion Dollar Business by Barbara Corcoran
• Shifting Your Music into a Career: A Guide for Independent Artists to be Full Time Artists by Anthony Obas
• Shoe Dog: A Memoir by The Creator of Nike by Philip H. Knight
• Six Thinking Hats by Edward de Bono
• Sketching: Drawing Techniques for Product Designers by Koos Eissen
• Small Is the New Big: And 183 Other Riffs, Rants, And Remarkable Business Ideas by Seth Godin
• Smarter Faster Better: The Secrets of Productivity in Life and Business by Charles Duhigg
• Snowball: Warren Buffett and the Business of Life by Alice Schroeder
• So What? Who Cares? Why You? by Wendy Kennedy
• Social Entrepreneur\’s Playbook, Expanded Edition: Pressure Test, Plan, Launch and Scale Your Social Enterprise by Ian C. Macmillan
• Social Entrepreneurship: A Skills Approach by Christopher Durkin
• Socio-Tech Innovation: Harnessing Technology for Social Good by edited by Latha Poonamallee, Joanne Scillitoe, Simy Joy
• Solomon’s Knot: How Law Can End the Poverty of Nations (Kauffman Foundation Series on Innovation and Entrepreneurship) by Robert D. Cooter, Hans-Bernd Schäfer
• Soul of a New Machine by Tracy Kidder
• Spark: The Revolutionary New Science of Exercise and the Brain by John Ratey
• Start Something That Matters by Blake Mycoskie
• Startup by Elizabeth Edwards
• Startup CEO A Field Guide to Scaling Up Your Business by Matt Blumberg
• Startup Communities: Building an Entrepreneurial Ecosystem in Your City by Brad Feld
• Startup Community Way by Brad Feld and Ian Hathaway
• Startup Equation: A Visual Guidebook to Building, Launching and Scaling Your Startup by Steven Fisher
• Startup Game: Inside the Partnership Between Venture Capitalists and Entrepreneurs by William H. Draper
• Start-Up of You: Adapt to the Future, Invest in Yourself, and Transform Your Career by Reid Hoffman
• Startup Playbook: Founder-to-Founder Advice from Two Startup Veterans by Rajat Bhargava and Will Herman
• Startup Playbook: Secrets of the Fastest-growing Startups from Their Founding Entrepreneurs by David S. Kidder
• Startup Way: How Modern Companies Use Entrepreneurial Management to Transform Culture and Drive Long-Term Growth by Eric Ries
• Startup: The Complete Handbook for Launching a Company for Less by Elizabeth Edwards
• Steal Like an Artist by Austin Kleon
• Steal the Show: From Speeches to Job Interviews to Deal-Closing Pitches, How to Guarantee a Standing Ovation for All the Performances in Your Life by Michael Port
• Storyscaping: Stop Creating Ads, Start Creating Worlds by Gaston Legorburu
• Succeeding at Social Enterprise: Hard-Won Lessons for Nonprofits and Social Entrepreneurs by Social Enterprise Alliance
• Success and Luck: Good Fortune and The Myth of Meritocracy by Robert H. Frank.
• Summary of Principles: Life and Work by Ray Dalio by
• Sustainability Generation: The Politics of Change & Why Personal Accountability is Essential Now! by Mark C. Coleman
• Tactics of Hope: How Social Entrepreneurs Are Changing Our World by Wilford Welch
• Tao Of Leadership: Lao Tzu\’s Tao Te Ching by John Heider
• Ten Types of Innovation: The Discipline of Building Breakthroughs by Larry Keeley
• Term Sheets & Valuations – An Inside Look at The Intricacies of Venture Capital Term Sheets & Valuations by Alex Wilmerding
• Testing Business Ideas by David Bland
• That\’s What She Said: What Men Need to Know (and Women Need to Tell Them) About Working Together by Joanne Lipman
• Think Like a Freak: The Authors of Freakonomics Offer to Retrain Your Brain by Steven D. Levitt
• Thinking with Type: A Critical Guide for Designers, Writers, Editors, & Students by Ellen Lupton
• Thinking, Fast and Slow by Daniel Kahneman
• Third Wave: An Entrepreneur\’s Vision of The Future by Stephen Case
• This is Service Design Doing: Applying Service Design Thinking in the Real World: A Practitioners\’ Handbook by edited by Marc Stickdorn
• This is Service Design Methods: A Companion to This is Service Design Doing by edited by Marc Stickdorn
• Thoughts on Interaction Design by Jon Kolko
• Thriving on Chaos by Tom Peters
• Time to Trust: Mobilizing Humanity for a Sustainable Future by Mark C. Coleman
• Tipping Point by Malcolm Gladwell
• To Sell Is Human: The Surprising Truth About Moving Others by Daniel Pink
• Tom Peters Essentials: Design by Tom Peters
• Tom Peters Essentials: Leadership by Tom Peters
• Tom Peters Essentials: Talent by Tom Peters
• Tom Peters Essentials: Trends by Tom Peters
• Total Inventor\’s Manual: Transform Your Idea into a Top-Selling Product by Sean Michael Ragan
• Travels of A T-Shirt in The Global Economy: An Economist Examines the Markets, Power, And Politics of World Trade by Pietra Rivoli
• Truthful Art: Data, Charts, and Maps for Communication by Alberto Cairo
• Tubes: A Journey to the Center of the Internet by Andrew Blum
• Turn Ideas into Products: A Playbook for Defining and Delivering Technology Products by Steve Johnson
• Uncontainable by Kip Tindell
• Understanding Social Enterprise: Theory and Practice by Rory Ridley-Duff
• Undoing Project: A Friendship That Changed Our Minds by Michael Lewis
• Universal Principles of Design by William Lidwell
• Upstarts: How Uber, Airbnb, And the Killer Companies of The New Silicon Valley Are Changing the World by Brad Stone
• Use Your Difference to Make a Difference: How to Connect and Communicate in a Cross-Cultural World by Tayo Rockson
• Value Proposition Design: How to Create Products and Services Customers Want by Alex Osterwalder, Yves Pigneur, Greg Bernarda, Alan Smith; Designed by Trish Papadakos.
• Valuing an Entrepreneurial Enterprise by David B. Audretsch and Albert N. Link
• Venture Deals by Brad Feld and Jason Mendelson
• Venture Deals: Be Smarter than Your Lawyer and Venture Capitalist by Brad Feld
• Venturesome Economy: How Innovation Sustains Prosperity in A More Connected World (Kauffman Foundation Series on Innovation and Entrepreneurship) by Amar Bhidé
• Visual Miscellaneum: A Colorful Guide to the World\’s Most Consequential Trivia by David McCandless
• Visual Notes for Architects and Designers by Norman Crowe
• Vital Voices edited by Alyse Nelson, paintings by Gayle Kabaker
• Way Things Work by David Macaulay
• We Were Yahoo! From Internet Pioneer to the Trillion Dollar Loss of Google and Facebook by Jeremy Ring
• Weird Ideas That Work by Robert I. Sutton
• What Every Angel Investor Wants You to Know: An Insider Reveals How to Get Smart Funding for Your Billion-Dollar Idea by Brian Cohen
• What It Takes: Lessons in the Pursuit of Excellence by Stephen A. Schwarzman
• What Makes a Leader by Daniel Goleman
• Where Good Ideas Come From: The Natural History of Innovation by Steven Johnson
• Where to Play: 3 Steps for Discovering Your Most Valuable Market Opportunities by Marc Gruber and Sharon Tal
• Who Not How by Dan Sullivan and Benjamin Hardy
• Whole New Mind by Daniel H. Pink
• Wicked Problems: Problems Worth Solving by Jon Kolko
• Wikinomics: How Mass Collaboration Changes Everything by Don Tapscott
• Wild Ride: Inside Uber\’s Quest for World Domination by Adam Lashinsky
• Will It Fly? by Thomas K. Mcknight
• Winning the Story Wars: Why Those Who Tell–And Live–The Best Stories Will Rule the Future by Jonah Sachs
• Wisdom of Crowds Paperback by James Surowiecki
• Year Up: How A Pioneering Program That Teaches Young Adults Real Skills for Real Jobs- – With Real Success by Gerald Chertavian
• Yes, You Can Do This! How Women Start Up, Scale Up, and Build the Life They Want by Claudia Reuter
• Young Entrepreneur\’s Guide to Starting and Running a Business: Turn Your Ideas into Money! by Steve Mariotti
• Your Next Big Idea by Samuel Sanders
• Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance by Robert Pirsig
• Zero to One: Notes on Startups, or How to Build the Future by Peter Thiel, Blake Masters

Entrepreneurship and innovation books beyond the ones listed here may be found by searching in Summon and the Classic Catalog.

Join Michael Gursha ’10, alumni entrepreneur in residence, for an in-person office hour in the LaunchPad on Otober 5 from 3 p.m. to 4 p.m. Gursha is chairman and CEO of Rookie Road, Inc., a one of a kind digital destination that provides the rules, lingo, and gameplay for a variety of sports in an easy to understand way. He became CEO in 2016 after serving as a special advisor to the founder. He has a dual degree from both the S.I. Newhouse School of Public Communications and the Martin J. Whitman School of Management.

Before Joining Rookie Road, Inc., he was inaugural entrepreneur-in-residence at the S.I. Newhouse School of Public Communications at Syracuse University where he also co-taught a course called New Ventures in Media. 

Prior to Newhouse, he was the vice president of strategic initiatives at Curemark, LLC, a New York-based biotechnology company focused on the treatment of neurological disorders.

Earlier in his career, his interest in technology led him to Google, where, at age 18, he spent two summers working in the new business development group at the Mountain View, California headquarters. During his time there, he assisted the team responsible for improving the Google Search Index and supported the director of business development on early-stage partnerships for Google Health.

He serves on the board of directors for America On Tech a non-profit focused on technology education.

Gursha is a member of the advisory board for Oregon Public Broadcasting, the primary television and radio public broadcasting network for the state of Oregon and southern Washington.

In addition, he serves on the board of directors for PowerSpike, a private venture-backed company started by Syracuse University alumni when they were students. 

Gursha is an active advisor to early-stage technology/media companies and has been actively engaged in the Syracuse University student startup scene as a mentor and also as a judge for numerous business plan competitions.

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Sam Hollander has been named the new Program Manager at the Blackstone LaunchPad at Syracuse University.  He will be working with LaunchPad executive director Linda Dickerson-Hartsock to expand programming and capacity to serve the more than 5,000 students, faculty and staff and alumni who are part of the program.  A high-achieving dual Whitman and Newhouse graduate who is completing his studies this fall, Hollander was selected by an interdisciplinary search committee who recognized his longstanding contributions to building the LaunchPad at Syracuse University.

Hollander came to the LaunchPad the first month of his freshman year and literally helped build the program as a student team member throughout his college career.  He has been a Launch student employee for several years, serving as a Blackstone Global Fellow, Rubin Family Innovation Mentor and LaunchPad Orange Ambassador.  As a student, he mentored scores of other student startups and also won top business plan competitions s across campus. 

He is widely admired by faculty, students and alumni he has worked with in his capacity at the LaunchPad and has earned the respect of colleagues at the Blackstone Charitable Foundation and Techstars.

“I’m so glad to be joining the LaunchPad full-time this year,” said Hollander.  “I’m excited to bring my insights and expertise to other student entrepreneurs, as well as help grow one of the top campus innovation hubs in the country.  Being able to work with such collaborative, innovative and entrepreneurial people is a great opportunity to make an impact through the give-first mentality.”

Among the highlights of his student tenure with the LaunchPad, Sam:

• Was selected as a freshman to participate in Techstars Startup Weekend UCLA – a national honor
• Worked with the Syracuse LaunchPad to create and manage the first ever sold-out LaunchPad Syracuse University Techstars Weekend, attended by more than 200 students
• Participated in the first ever Techstars Startup Weekend USA – COVID 19 Innovation and won the distinction as one of the top ten teams in the east, and national event finalist
• Was a LaunchPad Syracuse Todd B. Rubin Innovation Mentor in 2020 – 2021 and coached scores of LaunchPad teams
• Concurrently served as the LaunchPad Syracuse Orange Ambassador in 2020 – 2021, managing multiple events for us and helping us develop a pipeline of new students
• Served as a LaunchPad Syracuse Global Fellow since 2018
• Volunteered as a Peer Mentor for the 2020 – 2021 Inaugural Intelligence ++ program with VPA, InclusiveU and the LaunchPad
• Was selected by the Blackstone Charitable Foundation, Techstars and Future Founders for a prestigious national LaunchPad fellowship, which is a highly competitive program that selects top student entrepreneurs in the country for a 15-week accelerator
• Is a successful student entrepreneur.  He was co-founder of Visos – winner of the Syracuse University 2020 ACC InVenture Prize
• Went on to found his own venture, FSCL, a social impact venture which he has legally incorporated
• Was the first recipient of the LaunchPad Innovation Award – a donor funded innovation grant to accelerate high growth ventures
• Was the winner of number campus business competitions, including the top prize in the 2021 Panasci Business Plan Competition, top prize at the RvD iPrize, top contestant at the NYS Business Plan Competition, as well as top placement in numerous other campus events
• Was the winner of the Syracuse University Hunter Brooks Watson Spirit of Entrepreneurship Award

The search committee included: Todd Moss, Department Chair, EEE, Whitman; John Torrens, Deputy Chair, EEE, Whitman and Faculty Entrepreneur in Residence at the LaunchPad; Don Carr, Director of the VPA MFA program, School of Design, and Faculty Entrepreneur in Residence at the LaunchPad; Ben Ford, LaunchPad Student, 2021 – 2022 Rubin Family Innovation Mentor, iSchool and Whitman student; Kayla Simon, Engineering and Computer Science alum, former LaunchPad student employee, founder of In-Spire, now an innovation engineer with Relativity Space; and Julia Haber, Newhouse alum, former LaunchPad student, founder of Vision E-club at Syracuse, founder of WAYV and Home from College

The LaunchPad Program Manager supports the mission of the Blackstone LaunchPad, which is part of SU Libraries.  The LaunchPad is Syracuse University’s innovation hub, connecting the entire University’s resource-rich ecosystem with a global network that provides support for aspiring entrepreneurs, inventors and creators.

The position encompasses communications, outreach, events planning and management, as well as other strategic initiatives.  A highly collaborative role, the program manager works with LaunchPad staff and academic units across campus to deliver effective programs that support the student experience and Syracuse University’s Academic Strategic Plan to create an innovation ecosystem across the institution that prepares participants to be trailblazers in an entrepreneurial world.

Excitement is building for ‘Cuse Tank, a $20,000 student startup competition hosted by the LaunchPad during Family Weekend on Friday afternoon, October 8.  A distinguished panel of visiting judges who are top investors and entrepreneurs will award cash prizes to best ideas by student startups.  Have you applied?  Use our simple online application, now open through October 1.

The competition will be held in Bird Library on Friday, October 8, from 2 p.m. to 5 p.m.  ‘Cuse Tank is a “Shark Tank” style pitch competition open to all SU students across all academic majors who are creating innovative new products, services and technologies in exciting industry sectors. Prize funding helps take the most promising ideas through next steps from concept to commercialization. How successful is ‘Cuse Tank? In the past five years, Syracuse University LaunchPad students have gone on to raise almost $55 million in competition follow-up funding to start and scale their business ventures. In fact, a 2017 LaunchPad alum scored a $1 million deal from the Sharks this past season. Others have gone on to become leading innovators at companies like Virgin Galactic and more.

The LaunchPad team can help get you ready to compete.  Sign up for mentoring and pitch practices by e-mailing us:  https://launchpad.syr.edu/

We’re thrilled that Kelsey Davis is visiting from Los Angeles and hosting a casual Coffee & Tea Pop-Up in the LaunchPad on Tuesday, September 21 from 12:30 p.m. to 2 p.m. Join us in Bird Library for refreshments and to have an energized casual conversation with Kelsey, a dynamic LaunchPad, Whitman, Newhouse and Techstars LA founder who was recently named to Forbes 30 Under 30.  CLLCTVE is the portfolio platform connecting creators to their next opportunity. Its community-driven technology enables freelancers to build their own world online without creating any code, any website, or any resume – showcasing their creative capabilities and engaging with brands all in one place. With a community of thousands of creators, CLLCTVE has the ability to match brands and creators for opportunities based on brands’ needs and creators’ interests and experience.

Connect with Kelsey, Founder + Chief Executive Officer: WWW.CLLCTVE.COM

Want to learn about financing — from scrappy startup, to more than a billion in equity and debt financing, to an IPO? The LaunchPad is thrilled to host an expert on navigating the capital continuum on Friday, October 8 at noon. Join us for an informal pizza lunch in the Peter Graham Scholarly Commons (Room 114, just adjacent to the LaunchPad in bird Library) with Burt Podbere, Chief Financial Officer for CrowdStrike. Since joining the company, Podbere has been instrumental in establishing the company’s long-term financial management strategy and developing the company’s global expansion strategy.  Since joining CrowdStrike in 2015, he has helped secure approximately $1 billion in equity financing through several funding rounds, including the company’s 2019 IPO, and approximately $1.5 billion in secured and unsecured debt.

CrowdStrike is a leading cybersecurity company protecting customers from all cyber threats by leveraging its Security Cloud to stop breaches. From its inception in 2011, driven by George Kurtz’s vision, CrowdStrike was created as a different kind of cybersecurity company. Cloud-native, CrowdStrike immediately brought a threat perspective, effectiveness, scalability, and flexibility never seen before in the industry – seamlessly aligning people, technology, and processes. The CrowdStrike Falcon platform has revolutionized enterprise security for the cloud era. Its single lightweight-agent architecture leverages artificial intelligence (AI) and offers real-time protection and visibility across the enterprise, preventing attacks on endpoints and workloads on or off the network.

Before joining CrowdStrike, Podbere has worked in Canada, Europe, and the U.S., garnering extensive knowledge of domestic and international finance, SaaS businesses, and international operations.  He was previously, CFO, OpenDNS, Inc. and CFO, Net Optics, Inc.  He is a graduate of McGill University.

Podbere will also be joining us October 8 as a distinguished judge for ‘Cuse Tank as part of Family Weekend.

This session is a must for any startup who wants to learn the art and science of scaling and financing growth.