Jessica was the reason Steve & I got into Y Combinator - without her, there'd be no reddit. She collected interviews with a range of founders talking about the early days of their companies and it did a lot to demystify starting a startup for the two of us, a couple recent college grads.

One of my favorite books. Great to hear those stories, and the Q&A format makes it super easy to read. One question for Jessica though: how do we start a movement for V2 of this book? I think it's time :)

One day Amazon pushed Founders at Work into my recommendations list while I was researching oral histories and narratives (I also highly recommend "Please Kill Me," an oral history of punk rock by Legs McNeil) At the time, I was a working writer and interested in how to write sentences that sounded like people talking. (The format for Founders at Work is Q&A) I had never considered starting a company before and always assumed founders/entrepreneurs were jugular-seeking Gordon Gecko-types. I ordered the book on a whim, started it late on a Sunday night and didn't sleep until it was finished. Jessica showed founders to have more in common with struggling artists than Masters of the Universe. Within weeks, I talked two friends into starting our company, Submittable. Five years later, we're the fastest growing tech company in Montana. It's fair to say, we wouldn't exist if I hadn't read the book. If you're interested in starting a company or anything, the book in an invaluable read.

Excellent book! Jessica does a great job of extracting helpful information from these founders. Here are some of my favorite quotes and lessons from her book: http://blockshelf.com/founders-a...

Dave, I started another version years ago but between YC and 2 small children, I don't have those beautiful, long chunks of time needed to work on a book. I'll try though!