Business Book Club
Top founders join Sam Brown to discuss the most powerful insights from the world's best business books. Each episode focuses on a key business book, extracting actionable lessons for entrepreneurs and leaders. The podcast aims to help listeners apply proven strategies to their own ventures.
Episodes
The Road Less Stupid by Keith Cunningham | with guest David Hunt
Success isn't always about making brilliant, lightning-fast decisions; more often than not, it is simply about making fewer stupid ones. The Road Less Stupid by Keith Cunningham—the real-life mentor behind Rich Dad Poor Dad—is a practical guide designed to help founders and CEOs avoid the "stupid tax" that kills most startups.Joining me today is David Hunt. David is a heavyweight in the clean ener
Be More Pirate by Sam Conniff Allende | with guest Spencer Gallagher
If you feel like you're constantly fighting "the way things have always been done," this episode is your permission slip to stop. Be More Pirate by Sam Conniff Allende is the ultimate manifesto for the modern rebel, proving that the most successful founders don't follow the rules—they rewrite them.Joining me is Spencer Gallagher. At 27, Spencer built Blue Halo into a £12 million revenue powerhouse
The Psychology of Money by Morgan Housel | with guest Luke Tobin
What if building massive wealth had nothing to do with your IQ and everything to do with your behavior? The Psychology of Money by Morgan Housel proves that managing cash is a soft skill, not a math problem. This book isn't just for stock investors; it is mandatory reading for founders of all types because your relationship with risk, runway, and your own ego will literally make or break your busi
Built to Sell by John Warrillow | with guest Martin Harper
If your business relies entirely on you to function, you haven't built a company—you've built a job. Built to Sell by John Warrillow is the ultimate playbook for escaping the "owner's trap." It reveals exactly how to stop selling your personal time and start building a valuable, scalable asset that thrives without you.Joining me today to unpack this playbook is Martin. With nearly 20 years of hand
The Daily Stoic by Ryan Holiday and Stephen Hanselman | with guest Nitin Sharma
Building a business will test every part of you—your patience, your discipline, and your ability to handle absolute chaos. The Daily Stoic by Ryan Holiday and Stephen Hanselman channels over two centuries of ancient wisdom from thinkers like Marcus Aurelius and Seneca into sharp, daily meditations for modern life. It won't give you the answers to your business problems, but it will completely chan
Leadership Strategy and Tactics by Jocko Willink | with guest Chris Morrow
If your startup feels like a daily fire drill, this is the battlefield-tested playbook you need to stop reacting, step back, and get your team to actually want to follow you.Jocko Willink isn't an academic theorist. He is a retired Navy SEAL commander who took high-stakes, life-or-death combat situations and translated them into practical, no-nonsense tactics for the business battlefield.Joining m
Let Your Life Speak by Parker Palmer | with guest Jerry Colonna
If you walk through the business section of a bookstore, you will see countless books on ROI, scaling, and operational systems. But you won't see many books that actually teach you how to be a good leader.Let Your Life Speak by Parker Palmer isn't a traditional business book—it's a modern touchstone for authentic leadership. Palmer's life's work centers on helping people align their inner truth wi
Poor Charlie's Almanack by Charlie Munger | with guest Eric Jorgenson
Charlie Munger was Warren Buffett's right-hand man and the architect behind the Berkshire Hathaway empire. But his definitive book, Poor Charlie's Almanack, is not an investing guide. It is a masterclass in human psychology, decision-making, and avoiding stupidity.Joining me to unpack these exact mental tools is Eric Jorgenson. Eric is the CEO of Scribe Media and the mastermind behind The Almanack
High Output Management by Andy Grove | with guest Tom Hunt
If you look at the bookshelves of the world's most successful CEOs, you will almost always find a copy of High Output Management by Andy Grove.Grove was the CEO of Intel. He treated management as an engineering problem, focusing entirely on leverage and maximizing production. But how do you apply theories from the 1980s to a fully remote business today?To help me explore that, I am joined by Tom H
Eat That Frog! by Brian Tracy | with guest CJ Bilangino
Stop confusing being busy with being productive.The ability to concentrate single-mindedly on your most important task, do it well, and finish it completely is the key to success. But how do you actually execute that when you are drowning in a sea of emails, Slack messages, and daily fires?Joining me to share his exact productivity playbook is CJ Bilangino, CEO of Gorilla Commerce. CJ has led fina
The Hard Thing About Hard Things by Ben Horowitz | with guest Dr. Minshad Ali Ansari
With over a million copies sold, Ben Horowitz’s The Hard Thing About Hard Things is considered the definitive manual for startup founders facing impossible decisions. It is the raw, unfiltered story of how to run a company when absolutely nothing is going according to plan.Joining me today is Dr. Minshad, CEO and founder of Bionema Group, a UK-based ag-tech company working on biological solutions
The 5 Dysfunctions of a Team by Patrick Lencioni | with guest Alisa Cohn
Even smart, well-funded executive teams fail.Patrick Lencioni's masterpiece, The 5 Dysfunctions of a Team, exposes the silent killers of company growth and provides a practical framework to turn a group of capable individuals into a truly cohesive unit.Joining me to unpack this framework is Alisa Cohn, an award-winning executive coach who was named the #1 Startup Coach in the world and has worked
Profit First by Mike Michalowicz | with guest Sabrina Chevannes
If you are tired of looking at your bank account and wondering where all that top-line revenue went, this episode is for you.Mike Michalowicz built and sold multiple million-dollar companies before writing Profit First, a system now used by over 600,000 businesses to grow leaner and more profitable.Joining me to unpack these principles is Sabrina Chevannes, founder of the award-winning No BS Agenc
Poor Charlie's Almanack by Charlie Munger | with guest Alex Melia
Who is Charlie Munger? Warren Buffett called him "our generation's Benjamin Franklin." Bill Gates hailed him as "one of the sharpest minds in business."As Buffett's right hand at Berkshire Hathaway for 45 years, Munger helped achieve staggering 19.8% annual returns—double what the S&P 500 achieved in the same period.In this episode, we dive into his legacy: Poor Charlie's Almanack.Joining me i
Thinking in Bets by Annie Duke | with guest Jordan Staab
Most founders treat business decisions like chess, assuming that if they make the right move, they'll get the right outcome. But business isn't chess; it's poker.You can make the perfect decision and still lose. You can make a terrible decision and get lucky.Joining me to unpack this superb book is Jordan Staab, CEO of BetterFinances.org. Jordan is a serial entrepreneur who has raised over $200 mi
Rocket Fuel by Gino Wickman & Mark C. Winters | with guest Jodie Imam
Do you know anything about James Couzens or Roy Disney? Probably not. But you know their partners: Henry Ford and Walt Disney.Walt Disney dreamed up the characters; Roy made the numbers work. Henry Ford revolutionized the car industry; James Couzens implemented the systems to scale it.This is the core concept of Rocket Fuel: The relationship between a Visionary (the dreamer) and an Integrator (the
How to Get Rich by Felix Dennis | with guest Alex Bodini
Unlike most business books, How to Get Rich doesn't sugarcoat the sacrifices, the ego, or the sheer obsession required to build wealth.The late Felix Dennis—founder of Maxim magazine was one of Britain's richest self-made men. As he wrote How to Get Rich, he sat on a goldmine of hard-won lessons. He explains how wealth is really made and why most people will never do what it takes.Joining me to un
High Output Management by Andy Grove | with guest Rich Willan
If there is a Bible for Silicon Valley CEOs, it is High Output Management by Andy Grove.Though this isn't just a book—it is the operating system that helped Intel scale to become the world's largest semiconductor manufacturer. It is the framework used by leaders at Apple, Facebook, and Google. But does a book written about a chip manufacturer in the 80s actually apply to modern creative businesses
Breaking the Habit of Being Yourself by Joe Dispenza | with guest Annika Lundström
Joe Dispenza is a New York Times bestseller known for bridging the gap between neuroscience, epigenetics, and human potential. He challenges the idea that we are hardwired to be a certain way for the rest of our lives.In this episode, Annika Lundström, former Youth Olympian and founder of the medtech startup Reminded, explains how she used the principles of this book to transition from high-level
Radical Candor by Kim Scott | with guest Ramsey Marwan
Kim Scott is a heavyweight in the tech world, having coached CEOs at companies like Dropbox and Twitter and led teams at Google and Apple University.In this episode, Ramsey Marwan, co-founder of MG Relations, unpacks how Radical Candor became a turning point in his career. He explains why "ruinous empathy" is the most dangerous trap for nice founders and why the best managers are the ones willing
The Almanack of Naval Ravikant by Eric Jorgenson | with guest Caitlin Rozario
Most entrepreneurs are stuck in a race they never signed up for, chasing a version of success that leaves them burnt out and unfulfilled. In this episode, Caitlin Rozario, founder of Interlude, deconstructs the wisdom of The Almanack of Naval Ravikant. Caitlin shares her raw journey of shutting down her software business to pivot toward her "zone of genius”—revealing that the most successful peopl
Is Business Book Club worth your time? Start here
I ask founders: Which book has had the biggest impact on your business, or life?We speak about 3 lessons from the book - and crucially - what the real impact has been for them.Most of my guests are successful entrepreneurs and have read hundreds of books. Im asking for the one that's have the most impact. Then the most valuable learnings from the most valuable book.Listen to absorb the most valuab
