Every resource founders actually use, in one library.

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

1. The customer-development originator's clearest statement on scoping the minimum feature set to reach your earliest believers.... steveblank.com Article · ~8 min read · Starting Up Perfection by Subtraction, The Minimum Feature Set Steve Blank In 5 answers
2. The single most-cited usability framework in the field, from the definitive UX research authority. A checklist you can hold... Nielsen Norman Group Article · ~15 min read · Starting Up 10 Usability Heuristics for User Interface Design Jakob Nielsen In 5 answers
3. The original, primary source where the RICE framework was introduced, cite this, not the SEO reposts. The clearest way to... Intercom Blog Article · ~12 min read · Starting Up RICE: Simple Prioritization for Product Managers Sean McBride In 5 answers
4. Paul Graham's short, opinionated take on naming from someone who has seen thousands of startups, canonical, no-fluff, and free. paulgraham.com Article · 8 min read · Starting Up Startup Names Paul Graham In 5 answers
5. A structured, practical walkthrough from a reputable product team covering name types, domain checks, and trademark basics in... Webflow Blog Article · 12 min read · Starting Up How to come up with a brand name: the ultimate guide Webflow Team In 5 answers
6. A tactical conversation on growth, retention and building a personal audience as distribution, from the founder of Demand Curve... Lenny's Podcast Podcast · ~90 min episode · Starting Up Building an Audience Before You Need One (Julian Shapiro on Lenny's Podcast) Julian Shapiro & Lenny Rachitsky In 5 answers
7. Justin Welsh built a multi-million-dollar solo business purely on a systematized personal-brand engine; his free, no-fluff... justinwelsh.me Article · Weekly newsletter + archive · Starting Up The Saturday Solopreneur (Justin Welsh) & LinkedIn Content System Justin Welsh In 5 answers
8. 37signals wrote the playbook for building profitable software without VC, and Getting Real is free to read online. Their... 37signals.com Book · book (free online) · Starting Up Getting Real (and the 37signals bootstrapping philosophy) 37signals (Jason Fried & David Heinemeier Hansson) In 5 answers
9. A modern, tactical fundraising and pitch playbook aggregating advice from top operators and investors. Strong on how to build... Lenny's Newsletter Article · 25 min read · Starting Up A Playbook for Fundraising (and building your pitch) Lenny Rachitsky In 5 answers
10. First Round Review turns storytelling from a buzzword into concrete pitch structure, drawing on a former Pixar CTO's approach.... First Round Review Article · 20 min read · Starting Up Take Your Fundraising Pitch from Mediocre to Memorable with Storytelling First Round Review In 5 answers
11. A ready-to-use version of the update format YC recommends to its founders. Removes every excuse for not sending a clean,... Visible.vc Template · copy-paste template · Starting Up Y Combinator Investor Update Template Y Combinator / Visible.vc In 5 answers
12. A curated collection of YC's best primary guidance on how to find, evaluate, and test a co-founder, straight from the people... YC Startup Library Article · Curated essay + video collection · Starting Up Finding a Co-Founder (YC Startup Library) Y Combinator In 5 answers
13. The canonical dynamic-equity framework for fairly splitting ownership based on real contributions before funding, when nobody... slicingpie.com Tool · Framework + software + handbook · Starting Up Slicing Pie: Dynamic Equity Split Model & Calculator Mike Moyer In 5 answers
14. The official Indian government primer on structuring ESOPs for startups, a primary source on the rules that most blog posts... startupindia.gov.in Article · Official primer · Starting Up Employee Stock Options for Startups (Startup India) Startup India / DPIIT In 5 answers
15. The most popular guided path to a Delaware C-corp for global and first-time founders, with Cooley-drafted templates, EIN,... stripe.com/atlas Tool · Guided incorporation service · Starting Up Stripe Atlas: Incorporate your startup (Delaware C-corp) Stripe In 5 answers
16. YC's full curated body of hiring wisdom, from when to hire to how to close and evaluate early employees. The best free,... YC Startup Library Article · Curated essays + talks · Starting Up Hiring & Recruiting (YC Startup Library collection) Y Combinator In 5 answers
17. A concise checklist of the five founder qualities that matter most, useful for calibrating your own mindset and spotting where... paulgraham.com Article · short · Starting Up What We Look for in Founders Paul Graham In 5 answers
18. A clear-eyed post-mortem of real Indian startup shutdowns, pattern-matching the recurring killers so you can learn from the... yourstory.com Article · medium · Starting Up Year in Review: What Took Down India's Biggest Startups YourStory In 5 answers
19. A YC partner who has read thousands of applications tells you plainly what separates the founders who get in from the ones who... YC Startup Library Essay · Long-form essay / talk · Starting Up How to Apply and Succeed at Y Combinator Dalton Caldwell In 5 answers
20. Finding an advisor is only half the job; extracting value is the harder, less-discussed half. This piece is a concrete tactical... First Round Review Article · medium · Starting Up 7 Tactics to Get the Most Out of Your Startup's Advisors First Round Review In 5 answers
21. Freshworks sold its first customer (a school in Australia) four days after launch and grew to a NASDAQ IPO without a US sales... Freshworks, The Works Article · ~12 min read · Starting Up 7 Lessons from Building an India-Based Global SaaS Business Girish Mathrubootham (Freshworks) via The Works In 5 answers
22. This is a tight founder-and-investor conversation squarely on the question of reading whether a wave is real or you are just... a16z Podcast Podcast · ~18 min · Starting Up Marc Andreessen on Startup Timing Marc Andreessen and Jonathan Lai In 5 answers
23. This is the clearest argument we know for reframing the whole early-vs-late question: it says being first or being a fast... NFX Essay · ~15 min read · Starting Up Why Startup Timing Is Everything Pete Flint In 5 answers
24. Moore's classic maps the market you are timing your entry into: innovators and early adopters buy for very different reasons... Goodreads Book · ~250 pages · Starting Up Crossing the Chasm: Marketing and Selling High-Tech Products to Mainstream Customers Geoffrey A. Moore In 5 answers

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