Every resource founders actually use, in one library.

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

1. A clear reference on what code quality really means (reliability, maintainability, security) and the concrete signals behind... Sonar Article · 15 min read · Starting Up What Is Code Quality? Definition Guide and How to Improve It Sonar
2. Written from the developer's side of exactly your situation: opening a codebase someone else built and figuring out how bad it... DaedTech Article · 10 min read · Starting Up So, You've Inherited a Legacy Codebase Erik Dietrich
3. A free summary of the classic legacy-code book, distilling the ideas your reviewer will use, above all that code without tests... Understand Legacy Code Article · 12 min read · Starting Up The Key Points of Working Effectively with Legacy Code Nicolas Carlo
4. A plainspoken independent CTO's take on when and why to bring in senior technical judgment part-time, without the sales gloss.... Amazing CTO Article · 10 min read · Starting Up Hire a Fractional CTO, Solve Your Tech Problems Stephan Schmidt
5. DHH built Basecamp and Hey with a tiny team by refusing to split the app into a fashionable web of microservices. If your... Signal v. Noise (DHH) Essay · 10 min read · Starting Up The Majestic Monolith David Heinemeier Hansson
6. This names the exact failure mode you are worried about: an engineer choosing a stack for how it will look on their next job... DEV Community Article · 10 min read · Starting Up The Resume-Driven Development Epidemic HotfixHero
7. A veteran founder and investor argues that pure 50/50 decision making causes gridlock, and that someone needs the final say in... Startup Hacks (Alex Iskold) Essay · 9 min read · Starting Up The Myth of Equal Startup Co-Founders Alex Iskold
8. Once you have decided whose call it is, you both still have to live with it, and this is the cleanest statement of how. Bezos... Startup Archive Article · 5 min read · Starting Up Jeff Bezos Explains What It Means to Disagree and Commit Startup Archive
9. Gokul Rajaram's SPADE framework is built on one rule that fits your situation perfectly: the person who has to execute and live... First Round Review Article · 20 min read · Starting Up Square Defangs Difficult Decisions with This System (SPADE) Gokul Rajaram
10. A practical roundup of the frameworks that startups actually use to break ties without drama, including role-centric decision... Lenny's Newsletter Article · 15 min read · Starting Up My Favorite Decision-Making Frameworks Lenny Rachitsky
11. The original essay that introduced Architecture Decision Records, a one page format capturing the context, the decision, and... Cognitect (Michael Nygard) Article · 8 min read · Starting Up Documenting Architecture Decisions Michael Nygard
12. The second half covers the moves that trip up founders most: overlaying text on images so it stays readable, making text pop... Learn UI Design Article · 20 min read · Starting Up 7 Rules for Creating Gorgeous UI (Part 2) Erik D. Kennedy
13. Typography is where most non-designer products quietly fall apart, and this free online book fixes that with plain rules. Start... practicaltypography.com Book · Free online book, start with the 10-minute summary · Starting Up Butterick's Practical Typography Matthew Butterick
14. A logic-driven handbook aimed at developers who no longer want to depend on a designer, from someone who has designed products... practical-ui.com Book · Book plus Figma design system kit · Starting Up Practical UI Adham Dannaway
15. Color is where founders most often go wrong, and this walks you through a simple, safe system: one primary, a set of neutrals,... DEV Community Article · 12 min read · Starting Up A beginner's guide to applying color in UI design George Francis
16. This is the how behind reduce the thinking to zero. It names the three levers you actually control: cut visual clutter, build... Nielsen Norman Group Article · 9 min read · Starting Up Minimize Cognitive Load to Maximize Usability Kathryn Whitenton
17. Tognazzini built Apple's original interface guidelines, and this is his deep list of principles: anticipation, autonomy,... AskTog (Bruce Tognazzini) Article · 40 min read · Starting Up First Principles of Interaction Design (Revised and Expanded) Bruce Tognazzini
18. Crisp, opinionated principles from the team that made government services genuinely usable at massive scale. Start with user... GOV.UK (Government Digital Service) Article · 10 min read · Starting Up Government Design Principles UK Government Digital Service
19. Error prevention is one of Nielsen's ten heuristics, and this unpacks how to actually do it: match the user's mental model,... Nielsen Norman Group Article · 8 min read · Starting Up Preventing User Errors: Avoiding Conscious Mistakes Page Laubheimer
20. An Indian product team writing about how they think, not just how they draw. Zomato argues that good UX starts from... Zomato Article · 10 min read · Starting Up Product Before Pixels: a product thinking workshop for designers Zomato Design
21. A behind the scenes look at how an Indian company built consistency into a fast moving product with a shared design system. It... Zomato Article · 8 min read · Starting Up Zomato's Sushi Design System Zomato Design
22. The quality of your test depends entirely on the tasks you give. This piece shows how to write realistic scenarios that do not... Nielsen Norman Group Article · ~9 min read · Starting Up Turn User Goals into Task Scenarios for Usability Testing Marieke McCloskey
23. Wireframing is the skill the short answer says you actually need, and this explains it without design jargon. It covers low... Figma Article · 12 minute read · Starting Up What is Wireframing? The Complete Guide Figma
24. The short answer says the real work is thinking through the user's path, and mapping the flow is how you do that before... Figma Article · 10 minute read · Starting Up What is a user flow, and why it matters Figma

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