This book wasn’t even on my radar until I grabbed a coffee with my friend Charlie Tillinghast. He mentioned it covered some of the backstory behind how he started Factal, so naturally, I picked up a copy.

While I’m glad I bought it for the few pages featuring Charlie, that’s where the highlights end.

To be honest, the writing style is rough. The whole thing reads like a giant, bulleted “To-Do” list for entrepreneurs, but without any real “aha” moments. Even worse, it occasionally felt like an unabashed marketing brochure for the author’s other books and articles.

The book is packed with stories about real founders, but it consistently chooses surface-level skimming over deep, actionable insights. There were two notable exceptions—Titan Casket by Scott Ginsberg and, to a lesser extent, Seemore Meats and Veggies by Cara Nicoletti—where the storytelling actually had some meat on the bone.

On the bright side? It’s a quick 180 pages with a font so large I could probably read it from across the room in good lighting.

Unless you’re looking for a specific anecdote about a friend, I’d skip this one.