Thinking of launching a book "How to be a toxic founder 101" need your input and suggestions...

I'm a PM with 2.5+ years of experience. I have a habit of reading product management newsletters. But now I'm planning to start with good product management books. Suggest a book that you've read and was practically useful in your work. This can help folks like me facing this issue of choosing between an ocean of books out there.

Need some book recommendations to understand the startup culture

Who are the most toxic or unprofessional founders that you guys have heard of?

Can anyone share for the benefit of those who are keen to avoid making mistakes..

Something as a founder I have decided over the years. Everywhere around you, you hear stories of founders who worked 16-18 hours a day, made their team work as hard, were assholes, shouted at people, made people cry. You start to think, that's an absolute must to succeed. I don't think it is. For every 2-3 founders that are toxic, there's the one good natured founder who succeeds. They're rare, but they do exist. 1) I've been in many toxic jobs. I've hated them, and had some form of anxiety. To become successful, if I subject people through the same, what was all of this for? 2) I'm not saying I'll keep it too chill at my startup. I actually expect people to work harder than typical corporates, but only if they have good ESOPs in the early days, a chance to actually learn and do well (and that should be pre-aligned) 3) But what about the mission? Don't you want to make sure your mission becomes true, whatever you're chasing actually reaches 1000s/millions of people? Sure. But it solves for many vacations for me, and maybe better lives for my kids, and perhaps some problem gets solved. But what if it doesn't. It cannot come at the cost of miserable lives for my team. I'll never be proud of my work if that happens. We all have a decision. Why just be a successful founder? Why not have a higher aim... be a successful non toxic founder? You'd be truly 1 in a million then. That's how I'll always see it, I hope.

Compiling a couple of ways people can understand a toxic founder from a distance, before they start working with them actively I've now met with a lot of them over the last couple of years, here are the ones that stand out the most to me: 1) Narcissism: They'll love to have fame through random things. Stuff like Forbes 30u30 or some random award. Even if it means nothing. They'll show how great business is doing on social media, even when it may be nosediving. You'll never know things are messed up on the inside. 2) Masochism: They're super likely to enjoy pain: be it messed up working hours, or bad health, or just really hard times. This almost allows them to thrive during adversity. This is usually coupled with sadism, they'll typically love that they can take pain well, but you cannot. 3) Overemphasize on the carrot: In your first couple of meetings with them, once they like you, they will over emphasize on the benefits you will have if you work with them. They'll keep repeating how your career could skyrocket, or how you could be a star in other ways. This is also a typical red flag. These are just 3 of the ones that I feel summarize what I have seen in known toxic founders. Happy to debate/know more if somebody else has had the lovely experience too :D

Hello everyone... I'm working in an early stage startup, things with my product team are really good but with the rest of the team like tech, marketing & sales it's really toxic...and I witness that toxicity regularly not directly but indirectly & from time to time I have to witness the same toxicity during stakeholder meeting plus the office vibe is also not that good kind of drains my energy Now when I tried to put down my papers my manager tried to give me a good raise currently I'm at 8 LPA with 1 year of experience & he is giving me a raise of 50% (12 LPA) Now I'm really confused about what to do...need suggestions