Vyapar chief hooked to 'From Impossible to Inevitable', recommends it to every startup boss

Sumit Agarwal, CEO of Vyapar, calls himself an avid reader. Currently, the accounting app boss is hooked to the 'From Impossible to Inevitable' by Jason Lemkin and Aaron Ross.

“This book has the intriguing seven building blocks of hypergrowth for a company. It is not your conventional book with an aspiring story. It has all the tactics, strategies that a startup boss needs, and every entrepreneur must give it a read to improve their marketing spacing techniques.

"The authors have brilliantly broken-down points, and the book has helped me as an entrepreneur to implement my predictability by keeping my business in check. If I were to put it in simpler terms this book is filled with ingredients and recipes that one needs to achieve success,” he told ET Panache.

This book, Agarwal says has helped widen his vision to attain immense amount of success for his company.

Listing his must-read books, the Bengaluru-based boss said, 'The Hard Thing About Hard Things' by Ben Horowitz endows one realistic expression, ‘Life is hard, embrace it’.

"This book is not a guide for things to do in order to avoid blunders, but what to do after you have committed a blunder. It taught me that when a catastrophe hits, I should not stop and mull over it but rather move on and focus on what can bring me out of the situation.

"It is a company; it is going to face tough situations and I should embrace this fact rather than letting this setback affect me. This motto has helped me stay calm and encouraged me to look for solutions,” he added.

Number two on the list for Agarwal is 'Measure What Matters' by John Doerr. He explains, “This is a fundamental learning book for entrepreneurs. I own a startup company and I have read a lot of management learning books, but this one taught me the importance of the basics.

"It taught me the importance of goal-setting agendas for the future of my company, and how necessary it is to follow the OKRs (Objective and key results) in a company.”

'Five Dysfunctions of a Team' by Patrick Lencioni is next on his list.

“I'm not a solo entrepreneur, I have my ace co-founders by my side and this book has helped me understand the causes of misunderstanding that can lead to dysfunction in a team. This book states the five very common yet calamitous dysfunctions in a team that lead to disharmony,” he said.

Number four on the startup boss's list is 'High Output Management' by Andrew Grove. “This is indeed one beaming piece of marvelous work. It taught me that if you want to become a better manager and improve the output of your association, then it is consequential to train yourself. It gives an insight on how to manage short-term objectives based on long-term plans,” he said.

The top-five are rounded-up by, 'Good to Great' by Jim Collins.

“It is a great book that gives a solution to one of the most head-scratching questions- ‘Between two companies that have the same dynamics and resources, how does one accomplish great success while the other settles for mediocrity?’

"This book inspired me to not settle for just good, and rather aim for and achieve greatness,” Agarwal concluded.