Curated collection of books, articles, and resources that have shaped our thinking and approach to business, technology, and innovation. Each recommendation has been personally read and found valuable.
| Title | Author | Description | Tags | Link |
|---|---|---|---|---|
Good to Great | Jim Collins | Why some companies make the leap and others don't. Essential reading for understanding sustainable business success. | Buy | |
The Lean Startup | Eric Ries | How today's entrepreneurs use continuous innovation to create radically successful businesses. | Buy | |
Zero to One | Peter Thiel | Notes on startups, or how to build the future. A contrarian perspective on innovation and competition. | Buy | |
The Hard Thing About Hard Things | Ben Horowitz | Building a business when there are no easy answers. Real talk about the challenges of entrepreneurship. | Buy |
by Jim Collins
Why some companies make the leap and others don't. Essential reading for understanding sustainable business success.
by Eric Ries
How today's entrepreneurs use continuous innovation to create radically successful businesses.
by Peter Thiel
Notes on startups, or how to build the future. A contrarian perspective on innovation and competition.
by Ben Horowitz
Building a business when there are no easy answers. Real talk about the challenges of entrepreneurship.
| Title | Author | Description | Tags | Link |
|---|---|---|---|---|
The Innovator's Dilemma | Clayton Christensen | When new technologies cause great firms to fail. Understanding disruptive innovation. | Buy | |
The Design of Everyday Things | Don Norman | The ultimate guide to human-centered design. Essential for understanding user experience. | Buy | |
Hooked: How to Build Habit-Forming Products | Nir Eyal | How successful companies create products people can't put down. | Buy | |
The Pragmatic Programmer | David Thomas & Andrew Hunt | Your journey to mastery, from journeyman to master. Timeless software development wisdom. | Buy |
by Clayton Christensen
When new technologies cause great firms to fail. Understanding disruptive innovation.
by Don Norman
The ultimate guide to human-centered design. Essential for understanding user experience.
by Nir Eyal
How successful companies create products people can't put down.
by David Thomas & Andrew Hunt
Your journey to mastery, from journeyman to master. Timeless software development wisdom.
| Title | Author | Description | Tags | Link |
|---|---|---|---|---|
Thinking, Fast and Slow | Daniel Kahneman | The definitive guide to understanding how our minds work and why we make the decisions we do. | Buy | |
Predictably Irrational | Dan Ariely | The hidden forces that shape our decisions. Understanding human behavior in business contexts. | Buy | |
Nudge: Improving Decisions About Health, Wealth, and Happiness | Richard Thaler & Cass Sunstein | How small changes can have big impacts on decision making and behavior. | Buy |
by Daniel Kahneman
The definitive guide to understanding how our minds work and why we make the decisions we do.
by Dan Ariely
The hidden forces that shape our decisions. Understanding human behavior in business contexts.
by Richard Thaler & Cass Sunstein
How small changes can have big impacts on decision making and behavior.
| Title | Author | Description | Tags | Link |
|---|---|---|---|---|
The Checklist | Atul Gawande | How checklists eliminate errors and accidents across surgery, aviation, and complex systems. The foundational case for operational discipline in high-stakes work. | Read | |
The Cathedral and the Bazaar | Eric S. Raymond | The seminal essay on open source software development and community-driven innovation. | Read | |
The Psychology of Money | Morgan Housel | Timeless lessons on wealth, greed, and happiness. Understanding the human side of money. | Buy | |
Atomic Habits | James Clear | An easy and proven way to build good habits and break bad ones. | Buy |
by Atul Gawande
How checklists eliminate errors and accidents across surgery, aviation, and complex systems. The foundational case for operational discipline in high-stakes work.
by Eric S. Raymond
The seminal essay on open source software development and community-driven innovation.
by Morgan Housel
Timeless lessons on wealth, greed, and happiness. Understanding the human side of money.
by James Clear
An easy and proven way to build good habits and break bad ones.
| Title | Author | Description | Tags | Link |
|---|---|---|---|---|
Meditations | Marcus Aurelius | The personal writings of the Roman Emperor on Stoic philosophy and leadership. | Buy | |
The Art of War | Sun Tzu | Ancient Chinese text on strategy and tactics, applicable to business and life. | Buy | |
Letters from a Stoic | Seneca | Timeless wisdom on living a good life, managing emotions, and finding meaning. | Buy |
by Marcus Aurelius
The personal writings of the Roman Emperor on Stoic philosophy and leadership.
by Sun Tzu
Ancient Chinese text on strategy and tactics, applicable to business and life.
by Seneca
Timeless wisdom on living a good life, managing emotions, and finding meaning.
This reading list is maintained by the Ozcorp Scientific venture studio team. Every book and article here has been read in full and put to work across real company building situations. The list is organized by domain rather than by format, because the most useful distinction for a founder is what problem a book solves, not whether it is a paperback or a PDF.
The business strategy and leadership section opens with Zero to One by Peter Thiel, The Lean Startup by Eric Ries, Good to Great by Jim Collins, and The Hard Thing About Hard Things by Ben Horowitz. These four books together form the most practical introduction to startup thinking available in print. Zero to One addresses how to build a company that creates new value instead of competing. The Lean Startup addresses how to reduce waste through iterative validation. Good to Great identifies the disciplines that separate enduring companies from mediocre ones. The Hard Thing About Hard Things addresses the reality of running a company when none of the standard frameworks apply.
The technology section includes The Innovator's Dilemma by Clayton Christensen, The Design of Everyday Things by Don Norman, Hooked by Nir Eyal, and The Pragmatic Programmer by David Thomas and Andrew Hunt. These cover the structural reasons new technologies displace incumbents, the principles behind products people keep using, and the craft of building software that holds up over time.
The psychology section includes Thinking Fast and Slow by Daniel Kahneman, Predictably Irrational by Dan Ariely, and Nudge by Richard Thaler and Cass Sunstein. The articles and essays section includes The Checklist by Atul Gawande, The Cathedral and the Bazaar by Eric S. Raymond, The Psychology of Money by Morgan Housel, and Atomic Habits by James Clear. The philosophy section includes Meditations by Marcus Aurelius, The Art of War by Sun Tzu, and Letters from a Stoic by Seneca.
Ozcorp Scientific is a venture studio in Puerto Rico. The team works with founders across Puerto Rico, Miami, Research Triangle Park, Raleigh-Durham, and Austin, Texas, building science, health, biotech, and technology companies. This reading list reflects the intellectual inputs the venture studio uses at ozcorp.io/recommendations/reading-list.
We only recommend books and articles that have genuinely influenced our thinking and approach. Each recommendation has been personally read, tested in practice, and proven valuable in real-world scenarios. These resources have shaped our understanding of business, technology, and human behavior.