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Every resource founders actually use, in one library.

The essays, videos, podcasts, books and tools behind every answer across eChai's hubs, from starting up to go-to-market, D2C, founder money and AI, each with a note on why it is here.

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

  1. A concise video lecture that walks through the key concepts and mechanics of running a fundraising process, from a YC partner... Y Combinator Startup Library Video · 40 min · Starting Up Fundraising Fundamentals (Startup School) Geoff Ralston In 3 answers
  2. A behind-the-curtain playbook for the partner meeting, from a First Round partner and former founder. It explains the internal... First Round Review Article · 20 min read · Starting Up What You Can Really Expect When Pitching Your Seed-Stage Startup at a VC Partner Meeting Liz Wessel, First Round Review In 3 answers
  3. YC's fundraising library collects the canonical explainers on how SAFEs convert, how caps and discounts work, and how they... Y Combinator Startup Library Article · varies · Starting Up A Guide to SAFEs, Caps, and Discounts (Startup Library) Kirsty Nathoo / Y Combinator In 3 answers
  4. A concrete, tactical guide to presenting yourself well to potential co-founders, useful whether or not you use YC's platform.... YC Startup Library Article · Short read · Starting Up How to make your co-founder matching profile stand out Y Combinator In 3 answers
  5. The most popular guided path to a Delaware C-corp for global and first-time founders, with Cooley-drafted templates, EIN,... stripe.com/atlas Tool · Guided incorporation service · Starting Up Stripe Atlas: Incorporate your startup (Delaware C-corp) Stripe In 3 answers
  6. Graham argues determination, not brilliance, is the top predictor of founder success, and breaks it into components you can... paulgraham.com Article · medium · Starting Up The Anatomy of Determination Paul Graham In 3 answers
  7. Written by YC's first Batch Director who coached nearly a thousand early-stage founders, this is a practitioner's library of... thefoundercoach.com Article · medium · Starting Up The User Manual for Founder Psychology (Scale Yourself) Amy Buechler In 3 answers
  8. Graham surveyed 100+ founders on what surprised them most about starting up, an honest, de-romanticized picture of the... paulgraham.com Article · medium · Starting Up What Startups Are Really Like Paul Graham In 3 answers
  9. A candid founder post-mortem, republished by Inc42, that captures the emotional reality of shutting down, including the line... inc42.com Article · medium · Starting Up Postmortem of a Venture-Backed Startup: Lessons from Sonar Inc42 In 3 answers
  10. For anyone building in biotech, healthtech, agritech, or life sciences, BIRAC is the single most important non-dilutive funder... BIRAC (birac.nic.in) Tool · Scheme directory · Starting Up BIRAC, Non-Dilutive Grants for Biotech & Life-Sciences Startups (BIG, E-YUVA, SITARE) Biotechnology Industry Research Assistance Council (BIRAC), Dept. of Biotechnology In 3 answers
  11. NIDHI is the DST umbrella that funds ideas and prototypes through campus incubators, the most realistic path for student and... NIDHI, DST (nidhi.dst.gov.in) Tool · Programme directory · Starting Up NIDHI, DST's Umbrella for Student & Early-Stage Grants (PRAYAS, Seed Support, EIR) Department of Science & Technology (DST), Government of India In 3 answers
  12. AICs are India's flagship government-backed incubation network, deliberately spread across the country so founders outside the... AIM / Government of India Article · Program overview page · Starting Up Atal Incubation Centres, Atal Innovation Mission Atal Innovation Mission (NITI Aayog) In 3 answers
  13. The official government registry that lets you filter incubators by sector, stage and location, the fastest way to find a... Startup India / Government of India Tool · Searchable directory · Starting Up Startup India, Find an Incubator (DPIIT registry) Startup India (DPIIT) In 3 answers
  14. A globally-branded accelerator with an India-based program, giving founders a clear, concrete reference point for the classic... Techstars Article · Program page · Starting Up Techstars Bangalore Accelerator Techstars In 3 answers
  15. The single primary source for all Indian IP filing and search, patents, trademarks, designs, and links to copyright. Skip the... Government of India (ipindia.gov.in) Tool · portal · Starting Up IP India, Official Portal (Patents, Trademarks, Designs, Copyright) Office of the CGPDTM In 3 answers
  16. A crisp, practical counterweight to NDA paranoia that lays out when a confidentiality agreement is genuinely useful versus when... LinkedIn Article · ~6 min read · Starting Up Startups don't need NDAs: why nobody will steal your idea Startup community (LinkedIn) In 3 answers
  17. A clear, regularly-updated Indian explainer that maps the practical, sector-agnostic registrations most founders hit first,... ClearTax Article · ~12 min read · Starting Up Licenses & Registrations Required to Start a Business in India ClearTax In 3 answers
  18. A brutally honest primary account of taking the VC 'go big or go home' leap and the freedom of choosing a leaner path instead,... sahillavingia.com Essay · ~4,500 words · Starting Up Reflecting on My Failure to Build a Billion-Dollar Company Sahil Lavingia In 3 answers
  19. A concrete, honest breakdown of how founders actually pay their own bills while building, savings, a working partner,... FutureSight Ventures Article · ~1,800 words · Starting Up 7 Ways Founders Fund Their Personal Runway John Carbrey In 3 answers
  20. First Round Review is a primary, canonical startup-operations source, and this is a tactical playbook on landing high-caliber... First Round Review Article · long · Starting Up Snag the Best Advisors for Your Startup, from Best-selling Authors to Fortune 500 CEOs First Round Review In 3 answers
  21. Most mentorship advice is vibes; this is evidence, First Round analyzed 100 real matches and distilled what separated the... First Round Review Article · long · Starting Up We Studied 100 Mentor-Mentee Matches, Here's What Makes Mentorship Work First Round Review In 3 answers
  22. The definitive essay on why place shapes ambition and what a startup hub actually gives you, 'an audience, and a funnel for... paulgraham.com Essay · medium · Starting Up Cities and Ambition Paul Graham In 3 answers
  23. A16z's framing of how modern enterprise software is sold: bottom-up product adoption layered with top-down sales, using... Andreessen Horowitz (a16z) Essay · ~15 min read · Starting Up Growth+Sales: The New Era of Enterprise Go-to-Market Peter Lauten & Martin Casado In 3 answers
  24. Sometimes the two ideas are a proxy for a deeper problem: you have no agreed way to make a call when you disagree. This HBR... Harvard Business Review Article · ~8 min read · Starting Up Cofounders Need to Learn How to (Productively) Disagree Evelyn Nam In 3 answers

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The hubs

Starting Up Find an idea, validate it, build, and land your first customers. 1046 questions GTM Go-to-market, from breaking in to how the best teams do it. 352 questions D2C Building a direct-to-consumer brand, India-first. 482 questions Wealth Paying yourself, ESOPs, secondaries, and de-risking founder wealth. 154 questions How Founders Use AI How founders actually put AI to work, mapped topic by topic. 278 questions Glossary Plain-language definitions of the startup and VC terms you'll hit. 390 terms
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