Every resource founders actually use, in one library.

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

1. Traynor's rule that you should never ask for feedback you are not prepared to act on is exactly the discipline the short answer... Intercom Blog Essay · 8 min read · Starting Up 3 rules for customer feedback Des Traynor
2. This is the companion piece that explains why the context around a piece of feedback (who said it, when, and in what mood)... Intercom Blog Article · 7 min read · Starting Up The when and where of product feedback Des Traynor
3. The Clozd founders explain exactly how to run a churn interview well: who should conduct it, why a neutral third party gets... CHURN.FM Podcast · 35 min · Starting Up Qualitative churn analysis Andrew Peterson and Spencer Dent
4. Fried and Hansson argue for asking customers a small number of open ended questions rather than running formal surveys, and... REWORK, 37signals Podcast · 25 min · Starting Up Question Your Customers Jason Fried and David Heinemeier Hansson
5. Doshi tells a visual, concrete story about a team that built for a problem customers said they had, but that was never actually... X (Twitter) Thread · 5 min read · Starting Up Destined to Fail: A B2B Product Management Story Shreyas Doshi
6. Kyle Poyar writes for people running go to market at growth stage B2B companies, so this piece is useful once your ICP needs to... Growth Unhinged Essay · 12 min read · Starting Up ICP marketing done right Kyle Poyar
7. This is a clean, no nonsense definition written for enterprise founders, distinguishing ICP (the company), buyer (who decides),... Unusual Ventures Field Guide Article · 8 min read · Starting Up What is an ideal customer profile? Unusual Ventures Field Guide
8. Lincoln Murphy is one of the people credited with popularizing the term ideal customer profile in SaaS, and this framework goes... Sixteen Ventures Article · 25 min read · Starting Up Ideal Customer Profile Framework Lincoln Murphy
9. The full book behind the Bullseye essay above, with nineteen traction channels laid out and worked examples of testing them... Gabriel Weinberg and Justin Mares Book · ~200 pages · Starting Up Traction: A Startup Guide to Getting Customers Gabriel Weinberg, Justin Mares
10. Video · ~2 min · Starting Up Airbnb CEO Brian Chesky shares the Paul Graham advice that helped him find product/market fit Brian Chesky
11. Krish Subramanian describes trying to serve all customers early on, losing the specific insight Chargebee was actually built... YourStory Article · ~10 min read · Starting Up How Chargebee stayed focused before expanding customer segments YourStory
12. The foundational marketing text on owning a specific position in a specific customer's mind rather than trying to be relevant... Al Ries and Jack Trout Book · ~200 pages · Starting Up Positioning: The Battle for Your Mind Al Ries, Jack Trout
13. Revella more or less codified the term "buyer persona" for B2B, and this free manifesto is her own definition, not someone... Adele Revella, Buyer Persona Institute Essay · Starting Up The Buyer Persona Manifesto Adele Revella, Buyer Persona Institute
14. A clean, direct side by side of the two terms our question is about, written for people who actually have to use both in a... Total Product Marketing Article · Starting Up ICP vs. Buyer Persona: What's the Difference? Total Product Marketing
15. Close built its whole early sales motion around a narrow ICP, and this guide gives you the actual firmographic fields (company... Close Article · Starting Up How to Create an Ideal Customer Profile for B2B Leads (ICP Guide) Close
16. Three YC Group Partners argue through the tradeoffs of who counts as an ideal customer, using the specific case of startups... Y Combinator Startup Library Video · Starting Up Inside the Group Partner Lounge: The ideal customer Y Combinator Startup Library
17. This episode treats ICP as company strategy, not a marketing artifact, and it's specific about how the exercise changes as you... SaaStr Podcast · Starting Up SaaStr Podcast 457: Building Your Ideal Customer Profile: Target Your Product, Sales and Marketing Effectively SaaStr
18. Revella explains her five-question framework for what actually needs to be in a persona, priority, success factors, barriers,... Pragmatic Institute (Adele Revella) Podcast · Starting Up The Five Rings of Buying Insight Pragmatic Institute (Adele Revella)
19. Graham lays out why the users who need you most, not the ones who are easiest to please, are the ones worth building for. It... Paul Graham Essay · Starting Up What I've Learned from Users Paul Graham
20. Blank argues that market definition, not just customer interviews, is the step founders skip, and that getting it wrong is what... Steve Blank Essay · Starting Up How to Find a Market? Use Jobs to be Done as the Front End of Customer Discovery Steve Blank
21. A direct argument for why the customer is not always right for you, with a framework for deciding which accounts are quietly... Harvard Business Review Article · Starting Up It's Time to Fire Some of Your Customers Anthony K. Tjan
22. Lays out concrete criteria for recognizing a customer relationship that will not get better, so you are not relying on gut feel... Harvard Business Review Article · Starting Up When and Why to Part Ways with a Customer Lior Arussy
23. Traynor breaks down knowing your customer into two concrete questions, who they are and how they decide, instead of a vague... Intercom Article · Starting Up Know Your Customers and How They Decide Des Traynor
24. This lays out the bullseye idea explicitly: most durable products start at the center of a tight, specific market and expand... Reforge Article · 15 min read · Starting Up The 4 Growth Frameworks You Need to Build a $100M Product Reforge

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