Lost and Founder cover art

Lost and Founder

Preview

£0.00 for first 30 days

Try for £0.00
Pick 1 audiobook a month from our unmatched collection - including bestsellers and new releases.
Listen all you want to thousands of included audiobooks, Originals, celeb exclusives, and podcasts.
Access exclusive sales and deals.
£7.99/month after 30 days. Renews automatically. See here for eligibility.

Lost and Founder

By: Rand Fishkin
Narrated by: Rand Fishkin
Try for £0.00

£7.99/month after 30 days. Renews automatically. See here for eligibility.

Buy Now for £12.99

Buy Now for £12.99

Confirm Purchase
Pay using card ending in
By completing your purchase, you agree to Audible's Conditions of Use and authorise Audible to charge your designated card or any other card on file. Please see our Privacy Notice, Cookies Notice and Interest-based Ads Notice.
Cancel

About this listen

Penguin presents the audiobook edition of Lost and Founder written and read by Rand Fishkin.


Everyone knows how a startup story is supposed to go: a young, brilliant entrepreneur has an cool idea, drops out of college, defies the doubters, overcomes all odds, makes billions and becomes the envy of the technology world.

This is not that story.

Rand Fishkin, the founder and former CEO of Moz, is one of the world's leading experts on SEO. Moz is now a $45 million a year business, but Fishkin's business and reputation took 15 years to grow, and his startup began not in a Harvard dorm room but as a mother-and-son family business that fell deeply into debt.

Now Fishkin pulls back the curtain on tech startup mythology, exposing the ups and downs of startup life that most CEOs would rather keep secret. For instance: a minimally viable product can be destructive if you launch at the wrong moment. Growth hacking may be the buzzword du jour, but initiatives to your business can fizzle quickly. Revenue and profitability won't protect you from layoffs. And venture capital always comes with strings attached.

In Lost and Founder Fishkin reveals the mostly awful, sometimes awesome truth about startup culture with the transparency and humour that his hundreds of thousands of blog readers have come to love. Fishkin's hard-won lessons are applicable to any kind of business environment and this book can help solve your problems, and make you feel less alone for having them.

©2018 Rand Fishkin (P)2018 Penguin Audio
Business E-Commerce Entrepreneurship Small Business Software Development Software Inspiring Thought-Provoking
activate_Holiday_promo_in_buybox_DT_T2

Listeners also enjoyed...

Super Founders cover art
The SaaS Playbook cover art
$100M Leads cover art
The Lean Startup cover art
A World Gone Social cover art
The Hard Thing About Hard Things cover art
The Mom Test cover art
Hooked: How to Build Habit-Forming Products cover art
Hustle Harder, Hustle Smarter cover art
The Ultimate Sales Machine cover art
The Founder's Dilemmas cover art
The Science of Growth cover art
Accelerated Startup cover art
Shoe Dog cover art
Book Summary: Crossing the Chasm cover art
Employee to Entrepreneur cover art

What listeners say about Lost and Founder

Average customer ratings
Overall
  • 5 out of 5 stars
  • 5 Stars
    178
  • 4 Stars
    30
  • 3 Stars
    7
  • 2 Stars
    0
  • 1 Stars
    0
Performance
  • 5 out of 5 stars
  • 5 Stars
    170
  • 4 Stars
    22
  • 3 Stars
    3
  • 2 Stars
    0
  • 1 Stars
    0
Story
  • 5 out of 5 stars
  • 5 Stars
    165
  • 4 Stars
    23
  • 3 Stars
    8
  • 2 Stars
    1
  • 1 Stars
    0

Reviews - Please select the tabs below to change the source of reviews.

Sort by:
Filter by:
  • Overall
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    5 out of 5 stars

Must Listen

Incredible (and very honest insight) from Rand - a must read for both founders & investors!

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.

You voted on this review!

You reported this review!

  • Overall
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    5 out of 5 stars

Informative and Inspiring

I would recommend this book as a priority read to anyone thinking of starting any ambitious business. Having the author narrate it gives it even greater impact. I can’t wait to get going!!!

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.

You voted on this review!

You reported this review!

  • Overall
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    5 out of 5 stars

Frank, thought provoking

Have followed Rand's progress for years. Regards appreciate the open, informative approach that Rand advocates in his writing, and business.

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.

You voted on this review!

You reported this review!

1 person found this helpful

  • Overall
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    5 out of 5 stars

Shared experiences

As a 'founder' for the last 11 years I really enjoyed this book and could draw so many parrallells. Thanks Rans and good luck

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.

You voted on this review!

You reported this review!

  • Overall
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    5 out of 5 stars

Honest

Honest and unabridged version of how to start, grow, succeed, fail, succeed again, and step down of a great business.

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.

You voted on this review!

You reported this review!

  • Overall
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    5 out of 5 stars

brutally honest

A brutally honest account of running your own business. Despite the fact that Moz is a much larger business than mine, I can still take a lot of the lessons taught by Rand and apply them to my own business. This book is based on the SEO industry, but you don't need to be in the industry to find this book interesting, it's about business and the lessons in it can be learnt by any business.

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.

You voted on this review!

You reported this review!

  • Overall
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    5 out of 5 stars

Essential Listening

Seriously enjoyed listening to this.
Learnt a lot about the mysterious world of startup company management and funding.
Performance by Rand was great - I could imagine him sharing him his story directly to me (in person).
In summary - just buy this - you won't regret it.

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.

You voted on this review!

You reported this review!

  • Overall
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    5 out of 5 stars

Fantastic, Insightful & Raw

It couldn’t have been easy to write this book. Being this willing to be transparent and honest with the reader (or listener) takes courage and deep self reflection.
The result is a hugely useful book for business leaders on all levels. There’s lessons in here for everyone.

Definitely in my top 10 books to recommend

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.

You voted on this review!

You reported this review!

  • Overall
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    4 out of 5 stars

A great listen!

Very interesting listen and some relatable topics and insights. Although for some reason i was expecting a bit more, not sure exaxtly what.

The journey never ends...
Good luck Rand!

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.

You voted on this review!

You reported this review!

  • Overall
    4 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    4 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    5 out of 5 stars

Fantastic, honest and eye-opening

I really enjoyed this book. I work in Digital Marketing as a partner at an agency and I could really connect with a lot of the material and experiences Rand shares. Sure I was curious to find out what actually happened at Moz and to Rand, having only picked up snippets in the corridors of conferences, but this book is raw, honest and real.

I picked up some great advice and affirmation of my own principals and practices, that I know will make me a better leader moving forward.

What didn’t I like? Even I lost track of a few overly used acronyms, that I couldn’t Google whilst driving and listening. Rand also overuses quotes from leading Silicon Valley A-listers to add credibility to his opinions which isn’t needed so much. All considered it’s a great book, I’ve already recommended it to some Saas clients, colleagues, business partners and friends.

Well done and thanks for sharing Rand.

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.

You voted on this review!

You reported this review!