High Growth Handbook

A reference book about the phase after product-market fit, which is a different set of problems from the ones startup advice usually addresses: how the CEO’s own job changes, when to hire and when to fire executives, what a board is actually for, how to restructure an organisation that has outgrown its shape, late-stage financing, and acquisitions. Much of it is assembled as interviews with operators who ran each of those situations, so it reads as a set of transcripts organised by problem rather than as a single argument.

Why it’s on the list: On the “when you have time” half of Fil Arons’s list. The reference you open at the chapter that matches the problem in front of you.

Where I saw it: @FilArons’s November 16, 2025 recommended-reading list.

Connections

• Elad Gil — the author, and the operator-investor the interviews are conducted by.
• Company Building — the subject.
• Hiring — the executive-hiring chapters are the book’s densest material.
• Entrepreneurship — the stage before the one this book starts at.