Explore · The library

Every resource founders actually use, in one library.

The essays, videos, podcasts, books and tools behind every answer across eChai's hubs, from starting up to go-to-market, D2C, founder money and AI, each with a note on why it is here.

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

  1. iLovePDF's converter for pulling tables out of a PDF into a spreadsheet, alongside its JPG to PDF and PDF to JPG tools. ilovepdf.com Tool · How Founders Use AI PDF to Excel iLovePDF
  2. The open-source style and grammar checker for 25+ languages behind languagetool.org, which you can run yourself. github.com Tool · How Founders Use AI LanguageTool LanguageTool (open source)
  3. Adobe's free browser tool that isolates the subject and gives a transparent cutout to place on a new background. adobe.com Tool · How Founders Use AI Free image background remover Adobe Firefly
  4. Canva's remover, on web, desktop and mobile: download the cutout as a transparent PNG or keep editing it into a design. canva.com Tool · How Founders Use AI Background Remover Canva
  5. The project's own privacy note: Squoosh does not send your image to a server, and all compression happens locally. github.com Tool · How Founders Use AI Squoosh on GitHub Google Chrome Labs (open source)
  6. Microsoft's free extension that lets Windows apps such as Photos open and save HEIC images. apps.microsoft.com Tool · How Founders Use AI HEIF Image Extension Microsoft Store
  7. Clipchamp's free tools for improving video by adjusting brightness and contrast and applying filters. clipchamp.com Tool · How Founders Use AI Online video enhancer Microsoft Clipchamp
  8. A free machine-learning video super-resolution and frame interpolation framework you run on your own computer. github.com Tool · How Founders Use AI Video2X Video2X (open source)
  9. Adobe's free AI filter for cleaning up spoken audio with a free account; Premium allows up to 4 hours a day and files up to 1 GB. podcast.adobe.com Tool · How Founders Use AI Enhance Speech from Adobe Adobe Podcast
  10. Clipchamp's tools for removing background noise and cutting silences inside a video project, part of the free editor. clipchamp.com Tool · How Founders Use AI AI audio enhancer Microsoft Clipchamp
  11. Google's visual search, including copying or translating text from a photo or screenshot. search.google Tool · How Founders Use AI Google Lens Google
  12. Microsoft's free utility for copying text from anywhere on a Windows screen, including inside images and videos, with a... learn.microsoft.com Tool · How Founders Use AI PowerToys Text Extractor Microsoft Learn
  13. Adobe's free online OCR that turns a scanned PDF into a searchable one; you sign in to download. Your file is handled on... adobe.com Tool · How Founders Use AI Free OCR for PDF Adobe
  14. A free, open-source command-line tool that adds a searchable text layer to scanned PDFs on your own computer. ocrmypdf.readthedocs.io Tool · How Founders Use AI OCRmyPDF OCRmyPDF (open source)
  15. Adobe's free online tool that adds a password to a PDF. Your file is handled on Adobe's servers and deleted unless you sign in... adobe.com Tool · How Founders Use AI Password protect a PDF Adobe
  16. iLovePDF's free tool for encrypting a PDF with a password in the browser. ilovepdf.com Tool · How Founders Use AI Protect PDF iLovePDF
  17. Removes PDF password security from a file you are entitled to use. ilovepdf.com Tool · How Founders Use AI Unlock PDF iLovePDF
  18. Grammarly's free paraphraser, usable without signing up, for rewording a sentence or short passage. grammarly.com Tool · How Founders Use AI Free paraphrasing tool Grammarly
  19. The free reader for Windows, Mac, iOS and Android: view, comment, highlight, fill forms and sign without a subscription; text... adobe.com Tool · How Founders Use AI Adobe Acrobat Reader Adobe
  20. A free, fast, small reader for Windows that also opens EPUB, MOBI and comic files. sumatrapdfreader.org Tool · How Founders Use AI Sumatra PDF Sumatra PDF (open source)
  21. Adobe's free online compressor. Your file is handled on Adobe's servers and deleted unless you sign in to save it. adobe.com Tool · How Founders Use AI Compress PDFs for free Adobe
  22. Grammarly's checker, which compares text against billions of web pages. grammarly.com Tool · How Founders Use AI Plagiarism Checker Grammarly
  23. A checker built to find copies of a web page's text elsewhere on the internet, with a paid Premium tier. copyscape.com Tool · How Founders Use AI Copyscape Copyscape
  24. Search academic papers and theses for an exact phrase in quotation marks to find where it was published. scholar.google.com Tool · How Founders Use AI Google Scholar Google

Show the next 24

The hubs

Starting Up Find an idea, validate it, build, and land your first customers. 1327 questions GTM Go-to-market, from breaking in to how the best teams do it. 379 questions D2C Building a direct-to-consumer brand, India-first. 512 questions Wealth Paying yourself, ESOPs, secondaries, and de-risking founder wealth. 165 questions How Founders Use AI How founders actually put AI to work, mapped topic by topic. 360 questions Glossary Plain-language definitions of the startup and VC terms you'll hit. 425 terms
eChai Partner Brands The partnership →