Every resource founders actually use, in one library.

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

1. Coolors is the fastest way to lock a brand palette and walk away with the exact hex codes your site, deck, and designer all... Coolors Tool · Web tool, minutes to build a palette · Starting Up Coolors: The Super Fast Color Palette Generator Fabrizio Bianchi In 3 answers
2. If you cannot yet hear which of your sentences read as translated, this free tool shows you. Paste your draft and it highlights... Hemingway App Tool · Free web version, paid desktop app · Starting Up Hemingway Editor Hemingway App In 3 answers
3. If you are a founder or designer writing your own product copy without a UX writer on the team, this is the most practical... Smashing Magazine Article · About a 20 minute read · Starting Up How To Improve Your Microcopy: UX Writing Tips For Non-UX Writers Irina Silyanova In 3 answers
4. Steve Blank is the person who most clearly made the case against planning everything and then unveiling it in one big moment.... steveblank.com Essay · 5 min read · Starting Up No Business Plan Survives First Contact With Customers. 2 Minutes to See Why Steve Blank In 3 answers
5. This is the piece that named the problem you are asking about: the difference between numbers that make you feel good and... The Blog of Tim Ferriss Article · 10 minute read · Starting Up Vanity Metrics vs. Actionable Metrics Eric Ries In 3 answers
6. Jeff Wald went bankrupt when his first startup collapsed, then built and sold WorkMarket to ADP, so this is not theory. His... First Round Review Article · About a 15 minute read · Starting Up Founder Exposed: Opening Up About Startup Failures and Vulnerability Jeff Wald In 3 answers
7. If you decide Product Hunt fits your audience, this is the playbook that treats a launch as weeks of prep, not a single day.... Demand Curve Article · Long-form guide, roughly a 20 minute read · Starting Up How to Launch on Product Hunt Nick Costelloe In 3 answers
8. This is the essay that names the exact problem: most online writing blurs together because it is neither personal,... perell.com Essay · Long read · Starting Up The Ultimate Guide to Writing Online David Perell In 3 answers
9. Ben Thompson's framework explains why the sharpest modern businesses give the product away and win by owning the demand side,... Stratechery Essay · Starting Up Aggregation Theory Ben Thompson In 3 answers
10. Madhavan Ramanujam has helped architect pricing for dozens of well-known companies, and here he walks through how real teams... Lenny's Podcast Podcast · About 1 hour 20 minutes · Starting Up The art and science of pricing (Madhavan Ramanujam) Lenny Rachitsky with Madhavan Ramanujam In 3 answers
11. This is the classic counterweight to the first-timer instinct to price low out of nervousness. McKenzie's core argument is that... Kalzumeus Software Essay · About a 10 minute read · Starting Up You Can Probably Stand To Charge More Patrick McKenzie (patio11) In 3 answers
12. Before you touch live traffic, the cheapest way to read price sensitivity is to just ask people, and the Van Westendorp method... OpinionX Tool · Starting Up Van Westendorp for Pricing Research: A Survey Guide Daniel Kyne In 3 answers
13. Before you say yes to the custom features nobody else wants, this essay makes you sit with the real risk: one account that pays... Startup Patterns (Medium) Essay · Starting Up The One Big Customer Trap Sam McAfee In 3 answers
14. Once you accept that the spreadsheet lied about your cash, this template makes the timing gap concrete: you enter your real... The Startup Project Tool · Downloadable spreadsheet, 15 to 30 minutes to fill in · Starting Up Startup Runway Calculator Template (Excel and Google Sheets) The Startup Project In 3 answers
15. Most startup books assume you want to raise, hire, and scale, which quietly pressures you to quit early and go big. Jarvis... Penguin Books Book · ~272 pages · Starting Up Company of One: Why Staying Small Is the Next Big Thing for Business Paul Jarvis In 3 answers
16. This is the clearest side-by-side we found of the actual menu a bootstrapped founder faces: revenue-based financing, venture... Founderpath Article · 20 min read · Starting Up Non-Dilutive Funding for SaaS Founders: 8 Types Compared Founderpath In 3 answers
17. Written by a pre-seed investor who reads these emails for a living, so it is the six-part anatomy of a cold email that actually... Sterling Road (Medium) Article · 10 min read · Starting Up How to Cold Email an Investor Ash Rust In 3 answers
18. OpenVC runs the platform millions of these emails pass through, so their rules are drawn from data, not opinion: put a... OpenVC Article · 12 min read · Starting Up How to Cold Email Investors (And Actually Get Replies) OpenVC Team In 3 answers
19. This is the source document for the entire SAFE debate, written by YC's CFO who papered thousands of these. It walks the actual... Y Combinator Article · 15 min read · Starting Up Understanding SAFEs and Priced Equity Rounds Kirsty Nathoo In 3 answers
20. This is the actual math you are trading against, straight from the source: $125K for a fixed 7%, plus a $375K uncapped MFN SAFE... Y Combinator Article · 6 min read · Starting Up The Y Combinator Standard Deal Y Combinator In 3 answers
21. This nails the discipline behind the highlight reel: with prospects you share momentum factually without handing over what they... Lenny's Newsletter Article · 20 min read · Starting Up Raising a seed round 101 Lenny Rachitsky with First Round In 3 answers
22. The frame that defuses the fight: on the big decisive calls, tell your investor their job is to be a sparring partner, not the... First Round Review Article · 15 min read · Starting Up You Aren't Getting the Most Out of Your Investors, This is How to Start Paul Arnold In 3 answers
23. Carta administers cap tables for tens of thousands of startups, so this is the canonical reference on how vesting actually... Carta Article · 12 min read · Starting Up Vesting explained: schedules, cliffs, acceleration, and types Carta In 3 answers
24. Once you have decided a key hire gets an ESOP grant and not co-founder shares, this is the India-specific playbook for actually... Razorpay Rize Article · 15 min read · Starting Up ESOPs / Employee Stock Option Plans: Structuring for Early Startups Razorpay Rize In 3 answers

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