Every resource founders actually use, in one library.

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

1. Clubhouse's invite-only waitlist is the clearest cautionary tale of using scarcity as a growth trick rather than a real... Medium Article · 7 min read · Starting Up Creating the Illusion of Exclusivity: The Story of Clubhouse Dan DeSimone
2. Cialdini's chapters on scarcity are the underlying psychology behind why a waitlist feels persuasive at all, and why that... Amazon Book · Book · Starting Up Influence: The Psychology of Persuasion, Revised Edition Robert Cialdini
3. If you have decided a waitlist genuinely fits your situation, this is a practical, current playbook for running one well,... a16z speedrun Article · 10 min read · Starting Up The Growth Meta: How to Build a Waitlist a16z speedrun
4. CRED launched invite-only, restricted to people with a credit score above 750, and turned that restriction into both a real... Forbes India Article · 8 min read · Starting Up Inside Cred's growth strategy Manu Balachandran
5. This short essay explains why fancy language in a launch post reads as a warning sign to your reader, since ornate writing... Paul Graham Essay · 5 min read · Starting Up Write Simply Paul Graham
6. HN's own posting guidelines tell you plainly what a technical, skeptical audience wants from a launch post: no editorializing,... Y Combinator Article · 5 min read · Starting Up Hacker News Guidelines Y Combinator
7. Nathan Barry walks through the real, unpolished early drafts of the ConvertKit landing page and how a copywriter's feedback... Nathan Barry Article · 20 min read · Starting Up Step-By-Step Landing Page Copywriting Nathan Barry
8. This is a working copywriter's breakdown of what actually goes into a launch message that lands, including the parts founders... Copyhackers Article · 15 min read · Starting Up How to write launch emails that sell out your next launch Copyhackers
9. This compact guide gives you rules for writing plain, persuasive prose that you can apply the same afternoon: sentence length,... Julian Shapiro Course · Starting Up Writing Well Julian Shapiro
10. This is a practical swipe file for the one line that decides whether anyone reads your launch post at all, built around... Copyhackers Template · Starting Up 65 Headline Formulas Copyhackers
11. Figma spent years building quietly before a genuinely coordinated launch, and this piece walks through how that transition was... First Round Review Article · 20 min read · Starting Up How to Launch Your Startup Out of Stealth, from Figma's First Marketer First Round Review
12. Video · 20 min watch · Starting Up Y Combinator's Michael Seibel: You Are Nothing Until You Launch Michael Seibel
13. Gary Vaynerchuk's core argument, document your actual work instead of manufacturing polished content from scratch, is the... garyvaynerchuk.com Essay · 6 min read · Starting Up Document, Don't Create: Creating Content That Builds Your Personal Brand Gary Vaynerchuk
14. Pieter Levels wrote up, in public, exactly how he built and launched a project while narrating each step on Twitter, and this... levels.io Essay · 10 min read · Starting Up Building a startup in public: from first line of code to frontpage of Reddit Pieter Levels
15. Buffer's live public hub, real revenue, real decisions, real posts, is a working example of what a company sounds like when it... Buffer Tool · Starting Up Buffer Open Buffer
16. This gives you the actual email skeletons, teaser, launch day, update, follow-up, that map directly onto the five-beat sequence... HubSpot Blog Template · 10 min read · Starting Up How to Create a Product Launch Email [Outlines + Templates] HubSpot
17. Ship is a landing page and waitlist tool built specifically for the pre-launch teaser stage of a campaign like the one in the... Product Hunt Tool · Starting Up Ship by Product Hunt: A toolkit for makers to ship awesome products Product Hunt
18. This is a direct, practical answer to the flatline problem: specific things to do in the days after your launch day,... Product Hunt Article · 6 min read · Starting Up 4 strategies to keep momentum going post-launch Product Hunt
19. Justin Jackson built this course specifically for technical founders who are good at shipping but go quiet on marketing right... justinjackson.ca Course · self-paced course · Starting Up Marketing for Developers Justin Jackson
20. A short, concrete framework for the actual first message you send someone you don't know: lead with something useful, not with... justinwelsh.me Essay · Starting Up How to Write a (Successful) Cold DM Justin Welsh
21. Ferrazzi's whole thesis is that networking works when it's generosity-first and ongoing, not a favor you cash in only when you... Keith Ferrazzi Book · Starting Up Never Eat Alone, Expanded and Updated: And Other Secrets to Success, One Relationship at a Time Keith Ferrazzi
22. Bohns' research shows founders usually get the psychology backwards: people underestimate how much sway an ask has and how... Vanessa Bohns Book · Starting Up You Have More Influence Than You Think: How We Underestimate Our Power of Persuasion, and Why It Matters Vanessa Bohns
23. Flynn's research found people underestimate by as much as 50% how often others will say yes to a direct ask, which is useful... Stanford Graduate School of Business Article · ~7 min · Starting Up Francis Flynn: If You Want Something, Ask For It Marguerite Rigoglioso
24. A short, blunt essay that names the exact problem in your question: treating social capital like an infinite chit you can cash... Rachel Mazza Essay · ~5 min · Starting Up Burning Through Social Capital Rachel Mazza

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