Reading List: ZippyCart Co-Founders Nick Grant and Amy Balliett

In “Reading List,” we ask ecommerce professionals to name some of their favorite recent books and blogs and tell us why they read them. For this installment, we corresponded with Nick Grant and Amy Balliett, co-founders of ZippyCart, an ecommerce solution provider offering shopping carts, ecommerce tools and topical articles.

Business partners Grant and Balliett’s reading habits are split — Grant tends to read more blogs and Balliett tends to read more books. So, their reading list is split as well. Balliett lists her favorite books while Grant lists his favorite blogs.

Amy Balliett’s Top Five Recent Books

Amy Balliett

The Lean Startup by Eric Ries

The Lean Startup by Eric Ries.

“We’ve been doing some infographic design work for a client who turned me on to this book. It’s a great read for anyone running a startup in the Internet world.”

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The Art of the Start by Guy Kawasaki

The Art of the Start by Guy Kawasaki.

“Any entrepreneur that hasn’t read this before or during their startup career needs to read it now.”

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Selling the Invisible by Harry Beckwith

Selling the Invisible by Harry Beckwith.

“This is the best marketing book I’ve ever read. You can open it up to any page and get great tips. In a sense, this is the Tao of marketing.”

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Tribes by Seth Godin

Tribes by Seth Godin.

“I picked up this book the day after the 2008 election, which exemplified the themes of this book. Two days later, I utilized the themes of this book and SEO to launch a blog that quickly gained one million readers within its first three days of inception.”

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Breakfast of Champions by Kurt Vonnegut

Breakfast of Champions by Kurt Vonnegut.

“I can’t spend all my time reading for work. When I need a break while still enjoying some mental stimulation, I turn to Vonnegut.”

Nick Grant’s Top Five Recent Blogs

Nick Grant

VentureBeat

VentureBeat.

“A great mix of technology and innovation news that keeps me up to date on what is going on in a variety of industries.”

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GeekWire

GeekWire.

“Writers John Cook and Todd Bishop recently left TechFlash to create GeekWire, which provides excellent local and national tech news.”

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KISSmetrics Marketing Blog

KISSmetrics Marketing Blog.

“You can’t go wrong reading marketing news from Neil Patel and his team.”

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SEOmoz

SEOmoz.

“I might be biased living in Seattle, but if you could only pick one SEO blog to read, this would be it.”

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Smashing Magazine

Smashing Magazine.

“We also have an infographic design business, Killer Infographics, so I like to stay on top of the latest design trends and improve my knowledge of the design world.”