Lost and Founder by Rand Fishkin

I discovered Lost and Founder by Rand Fishkin – The Mostly Awful, Sometimes Awesome Truth about Building a Tech Startup and I was very excited to read it. Fishkin the founder of Moz. If you don’t work in SEO or you are not a blogger, it’s likely you have no idea what I’m talking about. With my three blogs and keeping an eye on various other website for work, Moz is part of my life as much as replying to emails or doing the taxes.

In a few words, Moz gives one the opportunity to see how good one’s website scores in google searches by giving it a Domain Authority or DA. Checking regularly (once a month, each month for the last four years or so for me) means you can keep track and update the websites to do better in searches. The thing is that traffic from google is great, with very little work it gets found and the posts you’ve spent maybe hours writing will still be seen after months or years.

Lost and Founder by Rand Fishkin

Now, let’s talk about the book. I didn’t know anything about Fishkin before reading this book. For a tech startup business, their story can’t be more different than the well known ones like Google or Facebook. His startup didn’t begin in a Harvard dorm room, but as a family business with his mother that fell deeply into debt.

It was refreshing to see how open he was about the money aspect of starting up, of raising funds and talking about Angel Investors and Venture Capital and if looking for funds like that is what an entrepreneur should be doing in all situations. When to exit was another aspect he talks about, with real numbers, really fascinating stuff. He talks about his finances too and I was surprised about that part in the book.

If you are thinking of starting up a company, you should read it. It sheds light on a lot of aspects you haven’t considered before and you might just not know because is not talked about. He obviously talks a lot about Moz and those parts that might be less interesting, depending on your interests.

Lost and Founder by Rand Fishkin

Details about the picture: Moz website is opened on the phone
My rating: 4/5 Stars.
Would I recommend it: Yes
Published by: Portfolio Penguin
Year it was published: 2018
Format: Paperback
Genre(s): Non-Fiction. IT
Pages: 312

About the author: Rand Fishkin is the co-founder and former CEO of Moz. He is one of the world’s leading experts on SEO. He left Moz last year.
Website & Social Media Links: @randfish on twitter



3 thoughts on “Lost and Founder by Rand Fishkin”

  • I never even knew the name of the MOZ founder, so that’s something I’ve learned today! From a bloggers pov it could be interesting to learn more behind the number that seemingly defines our ranking in the blogging world! Fab find!

    Sarah 🙂

  • As a new blogger, SEO and Moz is all new to me and so even though I don’t have a tech start up, this book looks like it could have some fascinating tips for self-employment in general. Love the idea of his rise to success to after hardship. Thanks for the recommendation.

  • Interesting stuff! I use MOZ regularly too, but knew nothing about its founder until I read your review of his book. Real life stories always interest me.

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