The Messy Middle cover art

The Messy Middle

Finding Your Way Through the Hardest and Most Crucial Part of Any Bold Venture

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The Messy Middle

By: Scott Belsky
Narrated by: Scott Belsky
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About this listen

Penguin presents the audiobook edition of The Messy Middle written and read by Scott Belsky.

Silicon Valley is full of start-up success stories; every day stories emerge of a new company with the potential for a billion-dollar valuation and plans for global domination.

But what can we really learn from these stories? How many of these start-ups are genuinely successful in the long term? When nine out of ten start-ups end in spectacular burnout, how can we ensure our own success story?

While most books and press focus on the more sensational moments of creation and conclusion, The Messy Middle argues that the real key to success is how you navigate the ups-and-downs after initial investment is secured. It will give you all the insights you need to build and optimize your team, improve your product and develop your own capacity to lead. Building on seven years' of meticulous research with entrepreneurs, small agencies, start-ups and billion-dollar companies, Scott Belsky offers indispensable lessons on how to endure and thrive in the long term.

©2018 Scott Belsky (P)2018 Penguin Audio Business Development & Entrepreneurship Career Success E-Commerce Employment Entrepreneurship Professionals & Academics Programming & Software Development Science & Technology Small Business Software Development & Engineering Commerce Technology Career Software Software Development Business Programming Success

Critic Reviews

This is required reading for founders. Experienced entrepreneurs all know this period Scott refers to as 'the messy middle' and a few of us have worked our way out of it, but this is the first time I've seen an expert-both as a founder and as an investor-break down in such detail just how to endure, optimize, and make it through. (Alexis Ohanian)
Scott Belsky is a master of generous work worth doing. The Messy Middle will help you see that you have more control than you dare to admit, and the ability to make a difference if you care enough. (Seth Godin)
Building a lasting business is 1 percent idea and 99 percent resilience. The Messy Middle details the unglamorous but essential lessons every founder needs to learn. (Jennifer Hyman)
Starting a new venture is like jumping off a cliff and sewing a parachute on the way down. This book is the parachute. (Joe Gebbia)
Having been through the ups and downs of the messy middle many times, it's critical to understand the challenges ahead. This insightful book empowers you to approach them head-on. Belsky's powerful tool kit, based on hard-earned experiences, is an essential guide to building a compelling product, revolutionizing an organization, or growing your leader-ship abilities. (Tony Fadell)
All stars
Most relevant  
By far, the Best Book and Mentoring I had (and will probably ever have).
Dear Scott Belsky, thank you so much for sharing all your experience in this book. I truly have no words to thank you for all your advice and knowledge shared. There is a chapter for everyone at their own stage of the journey in this book. I can't recommend this book enough! A hundred stars out of ten.

A Bible for Entrepreneurs

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I got a lot out of this book. Aimed primarily at motivation and putting elements into perspective.

Not so much actionable content, but definitely helpful to get in the right mindset.

Lots of good ideas & content

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Good on this guy for writing a book. A bit of happy clappy repetition in parts and he doesn’t exactly have a voice for radio but mostly great content that reinforces how hard the messy middle is and gives solid advice on how to deal with it.

Basic premise worthwhile, execution could use some polish

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great advice for every part of a product process, including how to work with different teams, people and yourself.

must read for anyone in product

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Scott gives an honest account of his journey from being a founder of an early-stage company (Behance) to his experience as an executive at Adobe. I found large sections of the book to be highly relevant with the journey we are currently on at Vervoe. I didn't agree with absolutely everything (and there was a clear design bias, which is obviously understandable), but all of Scott's insights were, at a minimum, thoughtful and founder-centric. Section 8, which focused on hiring, was especially good. Great book overall.

Great book for founders of product companies

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The book feels like it’s written by chatGPT answering the request ‘write a book using only business soundbites’. It feels like the author just wants to be quoted, there is no real story or narrative. The sound bites are mildly interesting but not ground breaking. Not worth buying IMO.

Not good - soundbite city.

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