Gaming industry under DDoS attack. Get DDoS protection now. Start onboarding

Products

  1. Home
  2. Blog
  3. 5 books about how to make a cool product
Industry trends

5 books about how to make a cool product

  • September 13, 2018
  • 2 min read
5 books about how to make a cool product

We start a regular column about books that inspire Gcore’s employees to create first-class cloud services.

In the first post our Vice President of Products Sam Davis tells about five major books that motivate and help get on the right path to create a business and manage it.

1. Delivering Happiness by Tony Hsieh

Why read. If you want to learn how to make a product quickly and efficiently, this book is for you. This is a story about different aspects of starting and running a business, building a brand, customer attitude formation, corporate culture and improvement of employee productivity. This is not just a book but a guide to action and a great motivator.

For whom. A must-read for technical support executives and HR managers.

2. Losing My Virginity by Richard Branson

Why read. Branson is not the last person in the world economy. By his own example he shows that you should never give up, not be afraid of difficulties and should not postpone what you can do right now. I like his approach to the development and launching products.

For whom. A must-read for startupers and anyone who wants to run his/her own project.

3. Rework. Business without Prejudices by Jason Fried and David Heinemeier Hansson

Why read. Rework. Business without Prejudices presents interesting approaches to doing business as well as useful tips from the founders of the famous company—37signals. For example, how to make good products with small, but highly effective teams, how to prioritize product development, how to build up customer relationships.

For whom. A must-read for all product and project managers.

4. Pour Your Heart Into It: How Starbucks Built a Company One Cup at a Time by Howard Schultz

Why read. This is a book about how Starbucks built the most famous coffee brand in the world. It is particularly interesting from the standpoint of management and marketing: how to manage the growing company and how to scale a business.

For whom. A must-read for all.

5. An Autobiography by Lee Iacocca

Why read. Just an interesting story of a man who created Ford Mustang and then brought up Chrysler. There are no team management secrets or other life hacks in this book, but it contains quite a detailed model of American corporations.

For whom. A must-read for those who want to learn how to save money and optimize a budget.

Related articles

5 insights on AI infrastructure from Nexus Luxembourg 2026

Nexus Luxembourg is Europe's premier AI and technology summit, and this year's edition brought together more than 10,000 visitors, 150+ speakers, and 250 startups from over 50 countries. Gcore CEO Andre Reitenbach joined LuxProvide's Arnaud

An isometric illustration of a secure server rack with a shield icon and glowing data activity.
AI sovereignty isn’t politics: it’s a sales requirement

Across Europe, I keep seeing the same pattern in public sector deals, regulated industries, and anything that smells like critical infrastructure: "AI sovereignty" has moved from a nice-to-have to the first real checkpoint in the deal. Not

World map showing interconnected data flow across continents with glowing orange lines.
Move fast, don't break compliance: what every founder should know

2025 quietly became the year DDoS stopped being a "big company" problem. The bandwidth record was broken several times in a single year, each new peak holding for weeks rather than years. In one quarter alone, providers blocked roughly 20 m

Christos Flores speaks about building a human-centered European social network with Monnett.
Building a human-centered European social network: interview with Christos Floros, founder of Monnett

Social media has become one of the most powerful layers of modern civic life. It shapes how people communicate, how public opinion forms, how trust spreads — and how manipulation can scale. For Christos Floros, founder of Monnett, this is n

A glowing digital map of Europe with numerous bright data points and network connections.
Is Europe ready for its own AI infrastructure? What a room full of builders, politicians, and investors actually think

Panels about AI sovereignty tend to follow a predictable arc. Someone invokes GDPR. Someone else mentions hyperscalers. A politician says something optimistic. Everyone applauds and goes home.Last week's Gcore AI panel in Luxembourg didn't

When your AI agent looks like an attack: the new security reality for startups

The first time your agent gets blocked, it feels like a bug.The user asked it to do something simple: browse, check availability, gather information, maybe submit a form. The agent does it efficiently—and then hits a wall: CAPTCHA, throttli

Subscribe to our newsletter

Get the latest industry trends, exclusive insights, and Gcore updates delivered straight to your inbox.