Every resource founders actually use, in one library.

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

1. This is a mainstream, practical rundown of the fundamentals: research, subject lines, and why you're writing to this specific... HubSpot Blog Article · Starting Up The Ins and Outs of Cold Emailing That Delivers Results Jay Fuchs In 2 answers
2. Josh Braun walks through building one specific cold email for one specific, well-chosen prospect, showing exactly why a message... Josh Braun Article · 8 min read · Starting Up Let's Write a Good Cold Email Josh Braun In 2 answers
3. Steli Efti built Close after running outsourced sales for over 200 venture backed startups, so this guide is written by someone... startupsalesguide.com Article · 20 min read · Starting Up Steli Efti's Ultimate Startup Guide To Outbound Sales Steli Efti In 2 answers
4. Jason Lemkin is the investor on the other end of the email, walking through two real cold emails he actually funded and... SaaStr (Jason Lemkin) Article · Starting Up 2 Cold Emails I Funded For Millions SaaStr (Jason Lemkin) In 2 answers
5. Josh Braun makes a living teaching sales teams to write first lines that could not be pasted into anyone else's inbox, which is... Josh Braun Essay · 5 min read · Starting Up Killer Cold Email Opening Lines Josh Braun In 2 answers
6. This gives you an actual repeatable process (research, write, move on) instead of vague advice to do your homework, which is... Lavender Article · 8 min read · Starting Up How to Build a Cold Email Personalization Process Will Allred In 2 answers
7. This is Google's own rulebook for what gets an email into Gmail instead of spam: SPF or DKIM for every sender, SPF, DKIM, and... Google (Gmail/Workspace support) Article · Starting Up Email sender guidelines Google (Gmail/Workspace support) In 2 answers
8. A current, segment-by-segment benchmark report broken out by industry, list size, and company size, so you can compare your... Instantly.ai Article · Starting Up Cold Email Benchmark Report 2026 Instantly.ai In 2 answers
9. Carlos Espinal is a seed investor who reads cold pitches for a living, and this essay lays out exactly what he needs in the... Medium Essay · ~8 min read · Starting Up The Art of the Cold Outreach for Founders Carlos E. Espinal In 2 answers
10. Gong analyzed over 100,000 real cold calls to find what actually correlates with booking a meeting, so this is data, not... Gong Article · 12 min read · Starting Up Essential Cold Calling Tips: 17 Proven Techniques for Success Chris Orlob In 2 answers
11. A comprehensive, practical walkthrough of the whole interview process, recruiting, scripting, running, and synthesizing, from a... User Interviews Article · Starting Up The Ultimate Guide to Doing Kickass Customer Interviews User Interviews In 2 answers
12. This is a catalogue of the specific ways founders sabotage their own sessions, including talking too much, asking hypothetical... Nielsen Norman Group Article · Starting Up Why User Interviews Fail Nielsen Norman Group In 2 answers
13. This explains why people behave differently the instant they know you're watching, which is the deeper reason your own presence... Nielsen Norman Group Article · Starting Up The Hawthorne Effect or Observer Bias in User Research Nielsen Norman Group In 2 answers
14. This lays out the practical mechanics of a feedback session, including being neutral when you present the prototype and... Interaction Design Foundation Article · Starting Up Test Your Prototypes: How to Gather Feedback and Maximize Learning Interaction Design Foundation In 2 answers
15. Wilcox gives you a literal five question script built entirely around a recent problem, not your product, which is exactly the... Justin Wilcox, Customer Development Labs Essay · Starting Up How I Interview Customers Justin Wilcox In 2 answers
16. A two minute companion to the longer HBR piece above, this is the one line version of our short answer you can forward to... Harvard Business Review Article · Starting Up Instead of Surveying Your Customers, Interview Them Harvard Business Review In 2 answers
17. This is the clearest playbook for show, don't ask. The five day structure ends with a rough, facade-level prototype in front of... Jake Knapp, John Zeratsky, Braden Kowitz Book · ~280 pages · Starting Up Sprint: How to Solve Big Problems and Test New Ideas in Just Five Days Jake Knapp In 2 answers
18. A broader companion to the leading questions piece, this covers the shape of a whole interview, from opening rapport to the... Nielsen Norman Group Article · 10 minute read · Starting Up Interviewing Users Jakob Nielsen In 2 answers
19. Young pushes past surface level feedback into a customer's actual reasoning and guiding principles, which matters once you are... indiyoung.com Book · 250 pages · Starting Up Time to Listen Indi Young In 2 answers
20. Julian Shapiro's handbook makes the growth marketer's case for a narrow ICP: going broad invites a competitor to pick off your... julian.com Essay · 30 min read · Starting Up Startup Handbook Julian Shapiro In 2 answers
21. This piece is built entirely around the phrase super-specific who, consumer-side evidence for the same logic our short answer... Lenny's Newsletter Article · ~12 min read · Starting Up How to kickstart and scale a consumer business: Step 2, Identify your super-specific who Lenny Rachitsky In 2 answers
22. This framework explains why the next ring of users you are chasing often behaves nothing like your current best users, and why... Bangaly Kaba, on Andrew Chen's blog Essay · Starting Up The Adjacent User Theory Bangaly Kaba In 2 answers
23. Chen's core claim, that the next big network product always looks like it is for a small, tight niche at first, is directly... Andrew Chen (andrewchen.com) Essay · 20 min read · Starting Up The Cold Start Problem, Chapter One preview Andrew Chen In 2 answers
24. If your answer is going to be 'follow the money,' this gives you the vocabulary sales teams use to actually find that person.... MEDDICC Article · Starting Up The Economic Buyer MEDDICC In 2 answers

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