Every resource founders actually use, in one library.

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

1. Maurya names the exact failure in this question: founders ask what problems their solution can solve instead of what problems... Love the Problem (Medium) Article · ~8 min read · Starting Up The Problem With Problems Ash Maurya In 2 answers
2. YC founders talk candidly about disagreements that felt existential and how they worked through them. It normalizes that a hard... Y Combinator Library Video · ~30 min · Starting Up How To Navigate Co-Founder Disputes Y Combinator In 2 answers
3. Four YC partners talk through what is actually working in AI companies they fund, including which ideas look like second... Y Combinator Podcast · ~50 min · Starting Up The Truth About Building AI Startups Today (Lightcone Podcast Ep. 1) Garry Tan, Jared Friedman, Diana Hu, Harj Taggar In 2 answers
4. The opportunity is often a capability that already works in a raw model but nobody has wrapped into a specific job yet. This... Andreessen Horowitz Article · 12 min read · Starting Up The AI Future Is Already Here, It's Just Not Productized Yet Angela Strange In 2 answers
5. A structured playbook for picking a vertical where AI now delivers real leverage and building something that feels less like... Bessemer Venture Partners Article · 20 min read · Starting Up Building Vertical AI: An Early-Stage Playbook for Founders Bessemer Venture Partners In 2 answers
6. A clear-eyed take on what actually changes when a model can do a task at good-enough quality and cheaply, and where humans... Every Essay · 15 min read · Starting Up After Automation Dan Shipper In 2 answers
7. This explains the exact cognitive trap behind insider bias: once you know a domain deeply you cannot un-see it, so you assume... CXL Article · ~12 min read · Starting Up The Curse of Knowledge: How Expertise Can Hurt Your Communication CXL In 2 answers
8. Isenberg builds a fresh batch of concrete idea candidates on each episode, often mining Reddit threads, comment sections, and... Greg Isenberg Podcast · Ongoing, ~45 min episodes · Starting Up The Startup Ideas Podcast Greg Isenberg In 2 answers
9. A tarpit idea is one that looks easy and gets praise from everyone, yet has quietly killed hundreds of founders who tried it.... Y Combinator Library Video · ~20 min · Starting Up Tarpit Ideas: The Sequel Dalton Caldwell and Michael Seibel In 2 answers
10. A finance-grade reference for the actual formulas, with a calculator so you can sanity-check your TAM, SAM, and SOM arithmetic.... Wall Street Prep Tool · Starting Up Market Sizing: Formula and Calculator Wall Street Prep In 2 answers
11. Sanjay Swamy built mobile payments in India in 2006, roughly two generations before Aadhaar, smartphones, and UPI made them... Prime Venture Partners Podcast · 45 min · Starting Up Why mChek Failed Before UPI Took Over India (Sanjay Swamy on Building Too Early) Prime Venture Partners In 2 answers
12. The same argument as the essay, but spoken, if you would rather watch than read. Dixon walks through real markets that looked... Andreessen Horowitz Video · 4 min · Starting Up Why the Next Big Thing Will Look Like a Toy Chris Dixon In 2 answers
13. This is the most direct answer to your question from an investor who reads these slides for a living. It walks through why a... Underscore VC (Richard Dulude) Article · 12 min read · Starting Up How to Create a Compelling Market Size Slide (With Examples) Richard Dulude In 2 answers
14. This is the single closest essay to your question. Evans argues that saying "that looks like a toy" or "people always said... Benedict Evans Essay · 12 min read · Starting Up Not even wrong: ways to predict technology Benedict Evans In 2 answers
15. Neumann applies Perez's framework to software to ask where we actually are in the cycle and what that means for which markets... Reaction Wheel Essay · 30 min read · Starting Up The Deployment Age Jerry Neumann In 2 answers
16. This is the cleanest walkthrough of building a market number from the ground up: count the real end users who fit your profile,... Disciplined Entrepreneurship (Bill Aulet, MIT) Article · Starting Up Calculate the TAM for Your Beachhead Market Bill Aulet In 2 answers
17. A clear summary of the Golder and Tellis research showing that pioneers failed far more often than fast followers who entered... ProductPlan Article · Starting Up The Myth of First-Mover Advantage ProductPlan In 2 answers
18. Blank shows that entering a new market, an existing one, or a resegmented niche demands completely different strategies, burn... steveblank.com Article · Starting Up Customer Development Manifesto: Market Type Steve Blank In 2 answers
19. This essay works through the why now for companies like Uber and Plaid, showing exactly which external shift (GPS economics, a... Tanay Jaipuria Essay · 12 min read · Starting Up Startups and Timing Tanay Jaipuria In 2 answers
20. A short, readable on-ramp to Perez's installation and deployment phases from an investor who uses the framework in practice. If... AVC (Fred Wilson) Article · 8 min read · Starting Up The Carlota Perez Framework Fred Wilson In 2 answers
21. A simple two-by-two for whether you are too early, too late, or on time, with examples for each box. It gives you plain... Gabor Cselle (Medium) Article · Starting Up The 4 Scenarios of Startup Timing Gabor Cselle In 2 answers
22. Manav Garg built Eka, one of India's first vertical SaaS companies serving a narrow, high value market, and here he reflects on... The Neon Show (Neon Fund), hosted by Siddhartha Ahluwalia Podcast · ~90 min · Starting Up B2B SaaS Founders Turned VCs Discuss Indian Software Startups (with Manav Garg) The Neon Show In 2 answers
23. This piece connects founder-market fit to the practical act of fundraising, where you have to say your why you out loud and... Forbes Article · 6 min read · Starting Up The Importance of Founder-Market Fit and How to Highlight It While Fundraising Jillian Canning In 2 answers
24. Graham argues the trait that best predicts founder success is being relentlessly resourceful, which is much of what 'why you'... paulgraham.com Essay · 5 min read · Starting Up Relentlessly Resourceful Paul Graham In 2 answers

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