Every resource founders actually use, in one library.

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

1. If you're going to spend a big ask on a launch that really matters, this research tells you how to spend it well: in-person or... Harvard Business Review Article · ~6 min · Starting Up Need a Favor? Research Suggests It's Best to Ask In Person Mahdi Roghanizad and Vanessa Bohns
2. This is the piece that pushes you to write down your success number before you launch, exactly the discipline our answer asks... Y Combinator Startup Library Article · 8 min read · Starting Up Setting KPIs and Goals Y Combinator Startup Library
3. Balfour argues that a big, splashy launch to everyone actually hurts you: it buries the signal you need under noise from people... Brian Balfour Essay · 15 min read · Starting Up How To Launch A Product or Feature To Maximize Growth Brian Balfour
4. The Naukri.com founder, using Zomato as the case study, makes the same case as our answer from an Indian boardroom: valuation... Forbes India Article · 8 min read · Starting Up Startups Must Move Away From Vanity Metrics Sanjeev Bikhchandani
5. Rand Fishkin writes with total candor about the mistakes, product failures, and eventual founder exit that shaped Moz, then... Penguin Random House Book · Starting Up Lost and Founder: A Painfully Honest Field Guide to the Startup World Rand Fishkin
6. A tight, practical checklist for the specific call type this question is about: the first real conversation with a prospect. It... Gong Article · ~8 min read · Starting Up 8 Things to Consider Before Your Next Discovery Call Gong Labs
7. Jason Lemkin makes the case that the person who ghosted you almost never made a conscious decision to ignore you, they just got... SaaStr Article · Starting Up VCs Don't Really Ghost You. They are Just Prospects. Treat Them as Such. Jason Lemkin
8. A short, concrete story from Steli Efti about following up with a single unresponsive investor 48 times before finally getting... LinkedIn Article · Starting Up How I followed up with an investor 48 times Steli Efti
9. Gong analyzed tens of thousands of real sales calls and found that deals which felt like sure things often died quietly because... Gong Article · Starting Up Why Deals Fail to Close and How to Succeed Next Time Gong
10. A practical reference you can keep open during calls: real objections, like it's too expensive or I need to think about it,... HubSpot Article · Starting Up Objection Handling: 44 Common Sales Objections & How to Respond Mark Burdon
11. A concrete framework, from a long-running sales training school, for making sure every call ends with a mutually agreed,... Sandler Training Article · Starting Up How to Ensure Every Call Ends with Next Steps Frank Gustafson
12. This is the practical, step by step version of the discovery call our answer says to run before you ever demo: what to ask, in... Close Article · ~15 min read · Starting Up 18 Steps to a Successful Discovery Call Close
13. A short, specific essay on why leading with the customer's need, not your product, is what makes a pitch land, with a simple... Dave Bailey Essay · Starting Up How to Sell the Problem Before Selling the Solution Dave Bailey
14. Gong built this from analyzing hundreds of thousands of real sales emails, so the advice on what to put in a post-call recap,... Gong Article · 12 min read · Starting Up 6 Cold Email Follow-Ups that Speed Up Deals Gong
15. Written for the founder who built the product and is now terrified of the word sales, this argues the skill set is closer to... Y Combinator Startup Library Essay · Starting Up Enterprise sales for hackers Y Combinator Startup Library
16. This book's research finding is counterintuitive and directly useful here: the sales reps who win complex deals are not the... Amazon Book · Starting Up The Challenger Sale: Taking Control of the Customer Conversation Matthew Dixon, Brent Adamson
17. Benn Stancil cofounded a company that sold into large enterprises, and this essay is an unusually honest account of how slow,... Benn Stancil (Substack) Essay · Starting Up So you want to sell to the enterprise? Benn Stancil
18. This is the foundational text on separating people from the problem and negotiating on interests rather than positions, which... Program on Negotiation, Harvard Law School Book · 240 pages · Starting Up Getting to Yes: Negotiating Agreement Without Giving In Roger Fisher, William Ury, Bruce Patton
19. Sabeer Bhatia, who sold Hotmail to Microsoft, traces his negotiating instincts back to haggling in vegetable markets in... tim.blog Essay · 8 min read · Starting Up How to Negotiate like an Indian - 7 Rules Tim Ferriss
20. This is a short, practical guide to making invoice follow up a routine instead of an awkward one off, with an actual cadence:... Chaser Article · 7 min read · Starting Up 7 tips to collect unpaid invoices from customers Chaser
21. Lemkin's blunt answer is that the founder has to get the first 10 customers personally, through their own network and direct... Jason Lemkin (SaaStr) Article · Starting Up Dear SaaStr: How Do I Get My First 10 Customers? Jason Lemkin (SaaStr)
22. Picks up right where the previous piece leaves off: once you've decided to charge for the pilot, how do you actually structure... SaaStr Article · Starting Up Dear SaaStr: We're Starting a Big Paid Pilot. How Do We Maximize the Chances of Success? Jason Lemkin
23. A pricing consultant's argument that most companies discount reflexively instead of strategically, with a framework for... Harvard Business Review Article · Starting Up The Art of Discounting Rafi Mohammed
24. A short, sharp reminder that your price tells a story, and that cutting it to close a deal usually just tells the buyer the... Seth's Blog Essay · Starting Up On pricing Seth Godin

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