2026 Venture Capital Reading List

**SPEAKER_1** (0:00)
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**Ashu Garg** (0:39)
Mine in Sapiens is always, you know, stuck with me, which is every great company is a religion, and every exceptional founder is a prophet.

**Scott McGrew** (0:54)
I'm Scott McGrew. Welcome to Sand Hill Road.
Welcome to our 2026 Venture Capitalist reading list full of great books this summer. Longtime listeners know there's a question I ask at the end of all of my interviews. What is a book that has been valuable to you, that, you know, you keep by your bedside? And I always remind people it can be Winnie the Pooh. It doesn't have to be, you know, crossing the chasm.

**Leah Solivan** (1:27)
Okay.

**Scott McGrew** (1:28)
So here we go. Let's start with Leah Solivan, general partner at Fuel Capital and creator of Task Rabbit.

**Leah Solivan** (1:36)
One of my favorite books that literally changed my life is Jessica Livingston's Founders at Work.
And I was a young engineer at IBM in Boston when I read it. And reading that book actually gave me the courage to quit my job and become an entrepreneur.

**Scott McGrew** (1:54)
That's huge.

**Leah Solivan** (1:55)
And I was able to tell Jessica that, you know, years ago and I brought the book to like a Y Combinator demo day to have her sign it. But it still means a lot to me today. And I really want her to do another version volume of it, like part two, part three, part four.

**Alice Bentink** (2:11)
Rene Redzepi is a work in progress. Have you heard of Rene Redzepi? He, for a long time, was the world's best chef.
And it is his diary of what does it mean to be the world's best chef? So you're running a three-mission-start restaurant.

**Scott McGrew** (2:28)
Alice Bentink, entrepreneur first.

**Alice Bentink** (2:30)
What is your life like? How are you making decisions? How does the creative process work? How do you hold your team to account? Like what does it take to be very best in the world at something that is in this, you know, he's taking a lot of risks in the same way a founder would. He's having to come up with a product that is unique and differentiated. He's under intense scrutiny.
There are so many parallels with the founder journey. I absolutely love it. Also comes with a, if you buy it in a bundle, it comes with a cookbook.

**Scott McGrew** (3:01)
Legendary David Spreng, not shy with 18 IPOs. He knows an opportunity when he sees it. And you pulled it out of your, yeah, there it is.

**David Spreng** (3:10)
My backpack, yep.

**Scott McGrew** (3:11)
Oh, outstanding. All money is not created equal.

**David Spreng** (3:13)
Yeah.

**Scott McGrew** (3:15)
Tell me about that one. Let me say that you wrote it.

**David Spreng** (3:19)
Yes, I did write it. Yes.
Well, I just felt that the world needed a definitive source of truth about debt. The jacket says how entrepreneurs can crack the code to getting the right funding for their startup. And I think that's a good summary.

**Scott McGrew** (3:45)
As you heard, I put people on the spot. They don't know I'm going to ask about their favorite book unless, of course, they listen to the summer book episode. And often people try to list several.

**Caitlin Holloway** (3:57)
There are two books, if I may.

**Scott McGrew** (3:58)
No, you may not.

**Caitlin Holloway** (3:59)
Okay, one it is.

**Scott McGrew** (4:02)
Here's Caitlin Holloway from 776

**Caitlin Holloway** (4:05)
The book I will pick is Creativity, Inc. by Ed Catmull.
I think it is one of the best undercover business books. People think it was a book written for filmmakers about the creative process. It is, and it absolutely can be used for that. But there are so many lessons. That really has been my blueprint for helping companies grow and develop. Ed Catmull is absolutely a genius through and through.
He's that silent partner that stood behind Steve and John, and he really was the technical genius. But at the heart of it, it was all of his leadership and direction that really built and shaped the culture that Pixar was known for.