Every resource founders actually use, in one library.

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

1. A clear, jargon-free explainer that corrects the most common misuse of the term, where teams ship a broken product and call it... Nielsen Norman Group Article · 8 min read · Starting Up Minimum Viable Product (MVP): Definition Sara Paul In 3 answers
2. Beck, a foundational voice in software, adds useful nuance about what minimal really means and why teams so often get it wrong.... Tidy First (Kent Beck) Essay · ~1,000 words · Starting Up Minimum Viable Product Revisited Kent Beck In 3 answers
3. This gives you the sharpest rule for the build versus buy call: if it is a core business function, build it yourself, and if it... Joel on Software Essay · 10 min read · Starting Up In Defense of Not-Invented-Here Syndrome Joel Spolsky In 3 answers
4. This is the canonical case for building less, and its chapters Build Less and Underdo Your Competition speak straight to your... 37signals Book · Short book, readable online · Starting Up Getting Real Jason Fried and David Heinemeier Hansson In 3 answers
5. This one line from LinkedIn's co founder is the mindset that makes buying infrastructure feel safe: the first version is meant... Reid Hoffman (X) Thread · 1 min · Starting Up If you're not embarrassed by the first version of your product, you've launched too late Reid Hoffman In 3 answers
6. Concrete, field-tested advice on deciding which debt to pay and how to justify it. Orosz and Franco share practical rules of... The Pragmatic Engineer Article · 20 min read · Starting Up Paying down tech debt Gergely Orosz and Lou Franco In 3 answers
7. Erik Kennedy writes for engineers and founders who were never taught design, and his rules are unusually memorable (light comes... Learn UI Design (Erik Kennedy) Essay · 25 min read · Starting Up 7 Rules for Creating Gorgeous UI Erik D. Kennedy In 3 answers
8. The classic that gives non, designers four principles they will use forever: contrast, repetition, alignment, and proximity.... Robin Williams (Peachpit) Book · 240 pages · Starting Up The Non-Designer's Design Book Robin Williams In 3 answers
9. Facebook's former head of product design on what separates good design from decoration, which reframes polish as clarity and... The Year of the Looking Glass (Julie Zhuo) Essay · 8 min read · Starting Up Good Design Julie Zhuo In 3 answers
10. Levels built profitable products almost entirely by himself, and this handbook is his blunt account of how a solo maker ships,... readmake.com Book · Digital handbook · Starting Up MAKE: The Indie Maker Blueprint Pieter Levels In 3 answers
11. Blank's core idea, get out of the building, is the discipline that lets a non-technical founder create real value before... steveblank.com Article · Starting Up Customer Development: Get Out of the Building Steve Blank In 3 answers
12. A simple, repeatable four-step method for making hiring decisions instead of going on gut feel, which is where costly mis-hires... Geoff Smart and Randy Street Book · Book, around 200 pages · Starting Up Who: The A Method for Hiring Geoff Smart and Randy Street In 3 answers
13. A short, illustrated checklist of rules that are safe to follow when you have no design intuition yet. Never use pure black or... anthonyhobday.com Article · 15 min read · Starting Up Visual design rules you can safely follow every time Anthony Hobday In 3 answers
14. The practical answer to a crowded screen: show the few things most people need first, and tuck the advanced options behind a... Nielsen Norman Group Article · 8 min read · Starting Up Progressive Disclosure Jakob Nielsen In 3 answers
15. This is the technique that turns watching into understanding. Ask users to narrate their thoughts while they work, and their... Nielsen Norman Group Article · ~6 min read · Starting Up Thinking Aloud: The #1 Usability Tool Jakob Nielsen In 3 answers
16. Zerodha built one of India's most used products with a tiny team and a stubborn focus on simplicity over polish. Kamath's view... Inc42 Article · 15 minute read · Starting Up Instincts, People and Vision: Nithin Kamath on Zerodha's Product Secrets Inc42 In 3 answers
17. Testing with the wrong five people teaches you nothing, so this piece helps you decide who your five should actually be.... Lenny's Newsletter Article · Starting Up Identify your bullseye customer in one day Michael Margolis In 3 answers
18. Intercom's Jobs-to-be-Done writing shows how to ask what customers are hiring your product to do, which forces you to describe... Intercom Article · ~short book, free · Starting Up Understanding Jobs-to-be-Done Des Traynor, Intercom In 3 answers
19. Shapiro gives you five specific things to monitor (technology, behavior, environment, regulation, distribution) so your... Julian Shapiro (Startup Handbook) Essay · 20 min read · Starting Up Finding Startup Ideas through Market Timing Julian Shapiro In 3 answers
20. Written from an early-stage investor's chair, this walks the calculation with examples and is blunt that a bottom-up build... Antler Article · Starting Up TAM, SAM and SOM: How to Calculate the Size of Your Market Akshat Agarwal In 3 answers
21. A follow up that applies the idea maze to a wave many of you are riding right now. It shows how founders repeatedly chased the... cdixon.org Essay · 5 min read · Starting Up The idea maze for AI startups Chris Dixon In 3 answers
22. If you truly have no category, this is the book on deliberately designing one, which reframes sizing as creating demand rather... playbigger.com Book · Book · Starting Up Play Bigger Al Ramadan, Dave Peterson, Christopher Lochhead, Kevin Maney In 3 answers
23. Perez shows that real technological revolutions run on 50 year cycles with a predictable frenzy, a crash, and then a long... Goodreads Book · 224 pages · Starting Up Technological Revolutions and Financial Capital Carlota Perez In 3 answers
24. Naval defines specific knowledge as the thing you cannot be trained for, built from your curiosity, obsessions, and the way you... Naval Essay · 6 min read · Starting Up Arm Yourself With Specific Knowledge Naval Ravikant In 3 answers

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