Every resource founders actually use, in one library.

What founders use most, ranked by how many answers lean on it.

1. The condensed, skimmable version of Blond's YC talk, written up as a thread after he spoke to a live batch. Good for a quick... X (Twitter) Thread · short read · Starting Up How to succeed with founder led sales Sam Blond
2. A practicing operator's version of our own bar: Girdley says you need a proven, repeatable process and something like 15... Michael Girdley Essay · 12 min read · Starting Up Playbook: When & how to hire your first salesperson Michael Girdley
3. Jason Lemkin has watched thousands of SaaS founders make this hire, and this is his running list of what goes wrong. The number... SaaStr Article · 12 min read · Starting Up The Top 10 Mistakes Folks Make Hiring Their First Sales Team Jason Lemkin
4. Written for the stage right after your first hire works, this explains why hiring account executives before product-market fit... a16z Article · 15 min read · Starting Up Your product won't sell itself: How to build a world-class sales team Jason Rosenthal
5. Lemkin has watched thousands of SaaS companies go through this exact stage and is blunt about where founder led sales quietly... SaaStr Article · Starting Up Why Founder-Led Sales Breaks Earlier Than You Think Jason Lemkin
6. Spolsky's classic essay explains why willingness to pay for the identical product varies wildly by customer, using the image of... Joel on Software Essay · ~20 min read · Starting Up Camels and Rubber Duckies Joel Spolsky
7. Fried's answer is deliberately unromantic: pick a number, put it in front of real people, and let the market correct you... Signal v. Noise (37signals) Essay · ~5 min read · Starting Up How to price something Jason Fried
8. This lays out the mechanics of anchoring price to the value a customer gets rather than to what competitors charge, which is... Harvard Business Review Article · ~8 min read · Starting Up A Quick Guide to Value-Based Pricing Utpal M. Dholakia
9. A short, free book written by a bootstrapped software founder specifically for people who have never priced anything before and... Neil Davidson / Red Gate Software Book · ~80 pages · Starting Up Don't Just Roll the Dice: A Usefully Short Guide to Software Pricing Neil Davidson
10. A concise, practical guide written for founders setting SaaS pricing for the first time, with none of the consulting-firm... Stripe Atlas Guides Article · ~10 min read · Starting Up Pricing low-touch SaaS Patrick McKenzie
11. This explains the actual mechanism behind starting higher than feels comfortable: whoever names a number first shapes the... Program on Negotiation, Harvard Law School Article · ~7 min read · Starting Up Price Anchoring 101 Program on Negotiation, Harvard Law School
12. A real thread of solo founders arguing through exactly your problem in the comments, including pushback from Indie Hackers... Indie Hackers Thread · ~10 min read · Starting Up How do you "charge more" as an indie hacker? Courtland Allen
13. This piece names the exact trap founders fall into: sending the same generic "just checking in" message everyone else sends,... Predictable Revenue (Steli Efti) Article · Starting Up Why Your Competitors' Follow-Ups Aren't Working (and Yours Can) Collin Stewart
14. This is a tight, practical breakdown of why most recap emails fail: they bury the action item under a long summary. It argues... 30MPC (30 Minutes to President's Club) Article · Starting Up 3 Steps for Crafting the Perfect Sales Recap Email 30MPC (30 Minutes to President's Club)
15. Josh Braun teardowns real cold emails line by line and explains exactly why each sentence works or doesn't, which is more... Josh Braun (LinkedIn) Thread · Starting Up This cold email hits all the right notes Josh Braun (LinkedIn)
16. Your subject line decides whether the rest of your email gets read at all, and this piece is entirely dedicated to getting that... Demand Curve Article · Starting Up Cold Email Subject Line Do's and Don'ts Demand Curve
17. This collection was built for asking strangers for small favors like introductions and advice, which is a gentler version of... 80,000 Hours Article · Starting Up The Best Email Scripts for Cold-Emailing Benjamin Todd
18. This is a mainstream, practical rundown of the fundamentals: research, subject lines, and why you're writing to this specific... HubSpot Blog Article · Starting Up The Ins and Outs of Cold Emailing That Delivers Results Jay Fuchs
19. Graham draws a sharp line between persistence and mere obstinacy: the persistent stay flexible on method while locked onto the... paulgraham.com Essay · Starting Up The Right Kind of Stubborn Paul Graham
20. This is the actual data behind the "follow up more than you think" advice: only 8.5% of cold emails get a reply on their own,... Backlinko Article · Starting Up We Analyzed 12 Million Outreach Emails: Here's What We Learned Backlinko (with Pitchbox)
21. A practical, no-nonsense breakdown of the tradeoff between too few follow-ups (leaving replies on the table) and too many... lemlist Article · Starting Up How Many Cold Email Follow-Ups Should You Send to Increase Your Replies? lemlist
22. This lays out an actual day-by-day schedule for spacing your follow-ups, which is the part most advice skips in favor of just... GrowthList Article · Starting Up Cold Email Follow Up Timing: Best Schedule GrowthList
23. A compact stat sheet built from Woodpecker's own send data across many campaigns, showing that adding even one follow-up lifts... Woodpecker Article · Starting Up These Stats Prove The Importance of Follow-up Emails Margaret Sikora
24. A clear-headed synthesis of the various industry numbers (the classic 80/5 stat that 80% of sales need about five touches, plus... Nutshell Article · Starting Up How Many Follow-Up Emails Should You Send? Nutshell

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