★★★★★  ·  Reviewed by CEOs & Founders Worldwide

crash course

Startup Self-Discovery 317 Pages

The startup book that looks at
the founder, not just the company.

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Also at Simon & Schuster · Barnes & Noble

No success theater. No recipes. Just the story.

★★★★★

"90% of founders will relate more to this story than to one from Mark Zuckerberg."

Marc Rovira

Founder & Co-CEO, Polareo

★★★★★

"Reading Crash Course made me feel someone else experienced what I experienced. It was so authentic."

Leon Ford

Co-Founder, The Hear Foundation

As featured in

Forbes Success Magazine The Best Business Minds WTVM News
Founder Reviews

What founders said
when they finished it.

"90% of founders will relate more to this story than to one from Mark Zuckerberg."

MR
Marc Rovira Founder & Co-CEO, Polareo

"Reading Crash Course made me feel someone else experienced what I experienced."

LF
Leon Ford

"Crash Course felt like a warm embrace."

AP
Ana-Maria Pricop

"I got so much value in the latter chapters — the treasure of Ricardo's personal spiritual journey."

SJ
Sebastian Jaramillo

"So refreshing to cut the BS and be honest about failure."

SS
Sophie Spitzer

"Vulnerability is hard. Hiding behind a façade is easy."

MI
Michael Rodov
Ricardo Jiménez, author of Crash Course

Most startup books teach you to build better. This one asks what building is doing to you.

Crash Course is Ricardo Jiménez's unfiltered account of building a startup, losing it, and what he found on the other side. Not a framework. Not a blueprint. A 317-page companion for the founder who is still mid-run — carrying more than they show.

Written for the founder who is still functioning, still building, and privately wondering if anyone else feels what they feel.

  1. 1 How to recognize when the company is running you — not the other way around
  2. 2 How to name the emotional cost of building before it forces itself on you
  3. 3 What carrying it alone actually costs — told without a PR filter
  4. 4 How to read your own story before it becomes the lesson you only learn after
"There is nothing wrong with you. You are much bigger than your company." — Ricardo Jiménez
Before You Order

Three Things
This Book Is Not.

Most founders arrive with the wrong frame. Here's what Crash Course won't be — so you know exactly what it will.

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Not a burnout book.

The founders who get the most from this don't identify as burned out. They identify as carrying a lot. There's a difference. The book is written for that distinction.

Not a success story.

Ricardo did not build a unicorn. He has something rarer: the full account of what actually happened, told without a PR filter. Most founders with that story don't tell it. He did.

Not written for founders who have already failed.

It's written for founders mid-run — asking quietly whether they're doing this right, whether the cost is worth it, whether anyone else feels what they feel.

In his own words.

Ricardo Jiménez — Crash Course interview
In his own words.

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Order the Book

The lessons founders only learn after it's already cost them.

by Ricardo Jiménez · 317 pages

Most startup books hand you a playbook. Crash Course hands you a mirror. One founder's full, unfiltered account of what building actually costs — and what it quietly teaches you about yourself.

Order on Amazon →
Simon & Schuster · Barnes & Noble

Paperback and Kindle

Crash Course by Ricardo Jiménez — book cover
About the Author

Ricardo
Jiménez

Spanish-born entrepreneur, angel investor, and author. MBA from Duke University. 50+ technology investments across four continents — from the Ethereum token launch to companies redefining AI, fintech, and venture.

Ethereum Token Launch Goodwall Rebel Fund SOAR AI Studio AdNode Pinbus
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Ricardo Jiménez, author of Crash Course