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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.
- The free, original essay that defined the MVP before the book existed, written plainly by the person who coined the term. It... Startup Lessons Learned (Eric Ries) Essay · ~15 min read · Starting Up Minimum Viable Product: a guide Eric Ries In 5 answers
- This is the piece written for exactly your situation: no audience, no network, no obvious way to reach the people you need.... A Smart Bear (Jason Cohen) Article · Starting Up When You Have Nothing: How to Find Customers to Interview Jason Cohen In 5 answers
- Blank, who built customer development, uses a real founder story to show how a team defaulted to 'build a smaller product' when... steveblank.com Article · 7 min read · Starting Up An MVP is not a Cheaper Product, It's about Smart Learning Steve Blank In 5 answers
- Steve Blank's argument for searching for a business model before building one, the get out of the building philosophy in short... Harvard Business Review Article · 15 min read · Starting Up Why the Lean Start-Up Changes Everything Steve Blank In 5 answers
- Jason Levin grew a product to $100K ARR on Bubble with no engineers, then raised $3M and re-platformed to an API. It is a clean... Lenny's Newsletter Article · ~20 min read · Starting Up From a $6.90 newsletter to $3M API: How a non-coder built Memelord Jason Levin In 5 answers
- This is the other half of your answer: what to do once the thing works. It walks a non-technical founder through when and how... TechCrunch Article · Starting Up How to hire your first engineer: A guide for nontechnical founders TechCrunch In 5 answers
- Once no-code has carried you to traction, this is a grounded guide to building the early team you eventually need, including... Lenny's Newsletter Article · Starting Up Hiring your early team Lenny Rachitsky In 5 answers
- The CTO of India's largest broker explains how a tiny team scales huge load by optimizing the application before touching... Zerodha Tech Blog Article · 15 min read · Starting Up Scaling with common sense Kailash Nadh In 5 answers
- Linear is a small, largely distributed team that ships a famously polished product, and this breaks down how they organize... Lenny's Newsletter Article · ~20 min read · Starting Up How Linear builds product Lenny Rachitsky In 5 answers
- Users judge attractive products as more usable, which is why polish matters and also why it can hide real problems. As a... Nielsen Norman Group Article · 8 min read · Starting Up The Aesthetic-Usability Effect Kate Moran In 5 answers
- Before you optimize a byte, you need to know who you are building for, and Pai's India1, India2, India3 framing is the clearest... SajithPai.com Essay · Long read · Starting Up India2, English Tax and Building for the Next Billion Users Sajith Pai In 5 answers
- This is the practical how-to for actually running the weekly cadence, covering the part most founders get stuck on: recruiting... Product Talk Article · Starting Up Customer Interviews: How to Recruit, What to Ask, and How to Synthesize What You Learn Teresa Torres In 5 answers
- The full book behind the essay, for when you want the system and not just the idea. It gives you the language of outcomes over... Melissa Perri (O'Reilly) Book · 200 pages · Starting Up Escaping the Build Trap Melissa Perri In 5 answers
- A well organized menu of twelve concrete approaches drawn from real founders, useful when you want structured prompts without... First Round Review (review.firstround.com) Article · ~20 min read · Starting Up 12 Frameworks for Finding Startup Ideas First Round Review In 5 answers
- Essential reading for anyone sizing an Indian market. Pai shows that India's billion people are not one payable market: roughly... Sajith Pai Essay · Starting Up India1, Avocado Startups, and Finding Product Market Fit Sajith Pai In 5 answers
- A side-by-side of both methods that makes clear why you use bottom-up as your primary number and top-down only as a rough... Waveup Article · 14 min read · Starting Up Top-Down vs Bottom-Up Market Size Calculation Waveup In 5 answers
- Andreessen's 2011 essay is a masterclass in spotting a durable secular shift early and betting on it before it is obvious to... Andreessen Horowitz Essay · Starting Up Why Software Is Eating the World Marc Andreessen In 5 answers
- A short, sharp counterpoint to the instinct to try to reach everyone before you launch: Godin argues you should aim for the... Seth's Blog Essay · 3 min read · Starting Up The smallest viable audience Seth Godin In 5 answers
- A tight five-part framework (short, personalized, credible, valuable, clear ask) with real examples of emails that led to... The Curiosity Chronicle Essay · 10 min read · Starting Up The Cold Email Guide Sahil Bloom In 5 answers
- Steli Efti built his sales career on the belief that unanswered outreach is a maybe, and a maybe is what kills deals. This... Close Article · Starting Up The Winning Cold Email Follow-up Plan for Sales Teams Steli Efti In 5 answers
- A straightforward side-by-side of the Indian WhatsApp Business API providers (AiSensy, Interakt, WATI, Gupshup, and more) so... Zaptick Article · D2C 11 Best WhatsApp Marketing Tools & Software in India Zaptick In 5 answers
- The rare guide written specifically for D2C founders rather than generic startups, it walks through incorporation, GST,... IncorpX Article · D2C D2C Brand Registration & Compliance India 2026 IncorpX In 5 answers
- The deepest independent usability research base on why carts get abandoned - the '70% abandonment' figure and specific checkout... baymard.com Article · D2C E-Commerce Cart & Checkout Usability Research Baymard Institute In 5 answers
- A rare India-specific look at non-dilutive funding for D2C brands - working capital and revenue-based debt matched to inventory... recurclub.com Article · D2C How D2C SMEs in India Are Using Debt Financing to Scale Sustainably Recur Club In 5 answers
The hubs
Starting Up
Find an idea, validate it, build, and land your first customers.
GTM
Go-to-market, from breaking in to how the best teams do it.
D2C
Building a direct-to-consumer brand, India-first.
Wealth
Paying yourself, ESOPs, secondaries, and de-risking founder wealth.
How Founders Use AI
How founders actually put AI to work, mapped topic by topic.
Glossary
Plain-language definitions of the startup and VC terms you'll hit.
eChai Partner Brands
The partnership →