Every resource founders actually use, in one library.

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

1. Cagan draws the exact line at the heart of your question: output is what you shipped, outcome is the result it produced, and... Silicon Valley Product Group Essay · Starting Up Outcomes Are Hard Marty Cagan
2. Tavel gives you a ladder for what working actually means: users completing the core action, coming back, and eventually pulling... Medium Essay · Starting Up The Hierarchy of Engagement, Expanded Sarah Tavel
3. This answers the exact fear behind your question: does keeping code clean slow you down? Fowler separates internal quality... martinfowler.com Article · Starting Up Is High Quality Software Worth the Cost? Martin Fowler
4. Video · Starting Up Ship a feature every week, embrace technical debt, ruthlessly cut scope Gaurav Misra
5. Premature abstraction is a sneaky form of debt that fast moving teams create while trying to be clean. Abramov tells the story... Deconstruct 2019 Video · Starting Up The Wet Codebase Dan Abramov
6. Written by a fractional CTO for exactly your stage, this frames debt as a trade you make on purpose, not a moral failing. It... damiangalarza.com Article · Starting Up What Is Technical Debt? A Pragmatic Guide for Startup Teams Damian Galarza
7. A calm, stage aware walkthrough of when to ignore debt and when it starts to matter. It makes the point that before product... Cockroach Labs Article · Starting Up How to handle early startup technical debt Michelle Gienow
8. A concise, credible reference on why cutting work into small pieces speeds up feedback and lowers risk. Use it to justify... DORA (Google Cloud) Article · ~10 min read · Starting Up Working in small batches DORA (Google Cloud)
9. A tight, opinionated page on shrinking features to their smallest working version and shipping that first. It gives you a... Linear Method Article · ~5 min read · Starting Up Scope projects down Linear Method
10. Amazon's method of writing the outcome in plain language before any code exists, which forces you to make a request someone... Working Backwards (Bryar & Carr) Template · template + guide · Starting Up Working Backwards PR/FAQ template and instructions Working Backwards (Bryar & Carr)
11. A short investor essay arguing for shipping internal betas to your team on a regular weekly basis to keep momentum. It... Medium Essay · ~7 min read · Starting Up Development Cadence Megan Quinn
12. Traynor's cupcake metaphor says your first version should be small but whole and enjoyable, a real cupcake rather than a slice... Des Traynor, Intercom Blog Article · 5 min read · Starting Up Start with a cupcake Des Traynor
13. The Kano model separates must-be features (whose absence causes real anger) from delighters (whose absence nobody notices yet).... Wikipedia Article · 10 min read · Starting Up Kano Model Wikipedia
14. Traynor explains how Intercom stopped sorting feedback by what was said and started sorting it by the job the customer was... Jobs-to-be-Done Radio Podcast · Starting Up Des Traynor on Jobs-to-be-Done & Intercom Des Traynor
15. A hands on walkthrough of the unglamorous middle step, putting every piece of feedback in one place, tagging it, and rolling it... Intercom Article · Starting Up Customer feedback strategy: How to collect, analyze, and take action Intercom
16. Traynor describes finding fit by looking for clusters of demand, groups of customers pulling for the same underlying thing,... Underscore VC Article · Starting Up How Intercom Uses Clusters of Demand to Find Product-Market Fit Des Traynor
17. Fried makes the case for saying no to most requests and letting them pile up, so only the ones that keep recurring earn... Intercom Podcast · Starting Up Basecamp's Jason Fried on product strategy Jason Fried
18. Gilad's work is about ranking ideas by the strength of the evidence behind them, not by who shouted loudest. His Confidence... itamargilad.com Book · Starting Up Evidence-Guided: Creating High Impact Products in the Face of Uncertainty Itamar Gilad
19. Kano gives you a vocabulary for why exciting features can mislead you: delighters add satisfaction, but missing basics... Interaction Design Foundation Article · Starting Up The Kano Model Interaction Design Foundation
20. Google's error budget is the most rigorous version of the one third rule: define how much unreliability you can tolerate, and... Google SRE Book Article · Starting Up Embracing Risk (Error Budgets) Google SRE Team
21. Cagan draws the line between teams measured by output (features shipped) and teams measured by outcomes (problems solved). If... Silicon Valley Product Group (SVPG) Article · Starting Up Product vs Feature Teams Marty Cagan
22. The 37signals team makes the case for doing fewer things extremely well rather than many things adequately. It is the audio... REWORK by 37signals Podcast · ~25 min · Starting Up Build Half a Product, Not a Half-Assed Product Jason Fried and David Heinemeier Hansson
23. Cagan draws the line between discovery (figuring out what is worth building) and delivery (building it), and argues most waste... Silicon Valley Product Group Article · ~12 min read · Starting Up Product Discovery Marty Cagan
24. A raw, honest founder account of using building as a way to avoid the scarier work of selling and talking to strangers. It puts... Indie Hackers Thread · ~8 min read · Starting Up I've been building for months and made $0. The honest psychological reason. Indie Hackers

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