Every resource founders actually use, in one library.

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

1. A free calculator that turns the benchmarks into concrete grant sizes for a specific role, level, and stage. Plug in your early... Index Ventures Tool · interactive tool · Starting Up OptionPlan by Index Ventures Index Ventures In 2 answers
2. This backs up the sketch the flows part of our answer. Design the screens before anyone writes code, because a paper sketch is... Getting Real (37signals) Essay · 5 min read · Starting Up Interface First 37signals In 2 answers
3. Amazon's trick is to write the customer facing press release and FAQ before building anything, which forces you to describe the... Working Backwards (Colin Bryar and Bill Carr) Article · 12 min read · Starting Up The Amazon Working Backwards PR/FAQ Process Colin Bryar and Bill Carr In 2 answers
4. Once you have described a feature, acceptance criteria is how you say what done means so you and the developer agree before... Atlassian Article · 9 min read · Starting Up What is Acceptance Criteria? Definition, Examples, and Tips Atlassian In 2 answers
5. A free, no signup whiteboard with a deliberately hand drawn look, ideal for sketching screens and flows without falling into... Excalidraw Tool · Starting Up Excalidraw Excalidraw In 2 answers
6. This one is written for engineers, and reading it tells you what your developer will want that a pure product spec does not... Stack Overflow Blog Article · 12 min read · Starting Up A practical guide to writing technical specs Zara Cooper In 2 answers
7. Blank is the origin of get out of the building and customer development, the discipline that a no-code MVP is meant to serve.... Steve Blank (steveblank.com) Article · 12 min read · Starting Up No Business Plan Survives First Contact With A Customer Steve Blank In 2 answers
8. A short, plain chapter that makes the case for keeping money and dates fixed while trimming features. It is the cleanest... 37signals Essay · Starting Up Getting Real: Fix Time and Budget, Flex Scope 37signals In 2 answers
9. Explains that without a written assignment, the agency, not you, may own the code you paid for. It covers present tense... Horizon Labs Article · Starting Up Code Ownership and IP Assignment for Contractors: 2026 Guide Horizon Labs In 2 answers
10. A lawyer's note on the exact wording that actually transfers code ownership in a development agreement. It is short and... Willcox Savage Article · Starting Up Use the Magic Words: Ownership of Code Developed under a Software Development Agreement Joseph B. Allen In 2 answers
11. A plain founder-level explainer from a top startup law firm on why the person who writes the code owns it by default, and what... WilmerHale Launch Article · Starting Up Who Owns Your IP WilmerHale In 2 answers
12. Video · 35 min · Starting Up The Startup Playbook for Hiring Your First Engineers and AEs Y Combinator In 2 answers
13. When a developer needs to walk you through a feature but you are twelve hours apart, a short recorded screen video does what a... Loom (Atlassian) Tool · Starting Up Loom (asynchronous video updates) Loom (Atlassian) In 2 answers
14. This is a ready-to-use set of lightweight templates for recording why technical decisions were made, so the reasoning survives... GitHub (joelparkerhenderson) Template · Repo with templates · Starting Up Architecture Decision Records: Templates and Examples Joel Parker Henderson In 2 answers
15. The classic on what professional, maintainable code and habits look like, the standard your reviewer is measuring against. Even... The Pragmatic Bookshelf Book · 352 pages · Starting Up The Pragmatic Programmer: Your Journey to Mastery Andrew Hunt and David Thomas In 2 answers
16. Forms are where most products lose users, whether it is signup, checkout, or onboarding. This is the definitive guide to label... Luke Wroblewski (Rosenfeld Media) Book · ~226 pages · Starting Up Web Form Design: Filling in the Blanks Luke Wroblewski In 2 answers
17. Human short term memory is tiny, so making people remember things across screens is a hidden tax on your product. This explains... Nielsen Norman Group Article · 7 min read · Starting Up Memory Recognition and Recall in User Interfaces Raluca Budiu In 2 answers
18. Video · ~24 min · Starting Up Usability Test Demo by Steve Krug Steve Krug In 2 answers
19. The most memorable proof that watching users pays. A single confusing choice on a checkout form was quietly costing a retailer... LukeW / User Interface Engineering Essay · ~6 min read · Starting Up The $300 Million Button Luke Wroblewski In 2 answers
20. The lowest cost way to watch real people use your product, no recruiting agency required. This guide walks through the coffee... Maze Article · ~9 min read · Starting Up What is Guerrilla Usability Testing? (And How To Do It) Maze In 2 answers
21. From the Google Ventures team, this shows how to go from a fuzzy idea to a tested prototype in a single week. The core move is... Jake Knapp (jakeknapp.com) Book · Approx. 275 pages · Starting Up Sprint: Solve Big Problems and Test New Ideas in Five Days Jake Knapp, John Zeratsky, Braden Kowitz In 2 answers
22. Facebook's first design VP explains what design actually is beneath the surface of pretty screens. She frames it as solving a... The Year of the Looking Glass Essay · 8 minute read · Starting Up Why Design Julie Zhuo In 2 answers
23. This answers the flip side of the question, how much design to do yourself versus when to bring in a real designer. It lays out... First Round Review Article · 30 minute read · Starting Up The Ultimate Guide to the Founding Designer Role First Round Review In 2 answers
24. This is the single best starting point if you think design just means making things look nice. Riley wrote it as an open letter... Wells Riley Essay · 15 min read · Starting Up Startups, This Is How Design Works Wells Riley In 2 answers

Show the next 24