Every resource founders actually use, in one library.

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

1. A broader companion to the leading questions piece, this covers the shape of a whole interview, from opening rapport to the... Nielsen Norman Group Article · 10 minute read · Starting Up Interviewing Users Jakob Nielsen In 2 answers
2. A short, plain spoken walkthrough of the same mistakes in action, useful if watching an example lands faster for you than... Nielsen Norman Group Video · 6 minutes · Starting Up Five User Interview Mistakes to Avoid (in 5 Minutes) Therese Fessenden In 2 answers
3. Young pushes past surface level feedback into a customer's actual reasoning and guiding principles, which matters once you are... indiyoung.com Book · 250 pages · Starting Up Time to Listen Indi Young In 2 answers
4. Julian Shapiro's handbook makes the growth marketer's case for a narrow ICP: going broad invites a competitor to pick off your... julian.com Essay · 30 min read · Starting Up Startup Handbook Julian Shapiro In 2 answers
5. Steli Efti explains how Close.io picked startups and small businesses doing inside sales as their ICP because it was a market... Inside Intercom Podcast · 40 min · Starting Up Understanding your ideal customers and how to sell to them Steli Efti In 2 answers
6. Ashu Garg, a general partner at Foundation Capital who has backed companies like Databricks, talks specifically about why... The Neon Show Podcast · 55 min · Starting Up Ashu Garg, Foundation Capital on The Neon Show Ashu Garg In 2 answers
7. Aditya Tulsian built Numberz for Indian small businesses before it was acquired by Chargebee, and this episode is a blunt,... SaaSBoomi Podcast Podcast · 45 min · Starting Up 'Ideal Customer Profile' Truth Bombs, with Aditya Tulsian Aditya Tulsian In 2 answers
8. This episode is the audio companion to a16z's written ICP framework, useful specifically for the moment your company has grown... a16z Podcast Podcast · 35 min · Starting Up Do You Really Know Your ICP? Why It Matters and How to Find Out a16z Podcast In 2 answers
9. This piece is built entirely around the phrase super-specific who, consumer-side evidence for the same logic our short answer... Lenny's Newsletter Article · ~12 min read · Starting Up How to kickstart and scale a consumer business: Step 2, Identify your super-specific who Lenny Rachitsky In 2 answers
10. This framework explains why the next ring of users you are chasing often behaves nothing like your current best users, and why... Bangaly Kaba, on Andrew Chen's blog Essay · Starting Up The Adjacent User Theory Bangaly Kaba In 2 answers
11. Chen's core claim, that the next big network product always looks like it is for a small, tight niche at first, is directly... Andrew Chen (andrewchen.com) Essay · 20 min read · Starting Up The Cold Start Problem, Chapter One preview Andrew Chen In 2 answers
12. If your answer is going to be 'follow the money,' this gives you the vocabulary sales teams use to actually find that person.... MEDDICC Article · Starting Up The Economic Buyer MEDDICC In 2 answers
13. Video · Starting Up How to nail your product positioning April Dunford In 2 answers
14. This is a genuinely usable, free spreadsheet template plus a five step process for writing down your ICP with real specificity... Notion Capital Template · Starting Up Get uncomfortably narrow with an Ideal Customer Profile template Notion Capital In 2 answers
15. This compilation centers on ServiceChannel's real story of narrowing 'retail' down to a small set of exact target companies... Not Another CEO (ICP Compilation) Podcast · Starting Up The customer segments hiding in your own data Not Another CEO (ICP Compilation) In 2 answers
16. This forces you to decide how you will define and select your supply side, not just that you should. It compares three... Andreessen Horowitz Article · Starting Up Marketplace Supply Strategy: Comprehensive, Exclusive, or Curated Casey Winters, Anne Lewandowski In 2 answers
17. Dunford's own show applies her positioning framework to live founder situations, including cases where a product is priced or... positioning.show Podcast · ~30 min per episode · Starting Up Positioning with April Dunford April Dunford In 2 answers
18. A clean, jargon-free breakdown of what each P&L line actually means, a good first read before you look at your own statement... Bank of America Business Article · D2C How to Read and Understand a Profit and Loss Statement Bank of America Business In 2 answers
19. Ties unit economics directly to Indian D2C cost structures, COD/RTO rates, marketplace commissions, gateway fees, rather than a... RizeVault (Razorpay) Article · D2C Mastering Unit Economics and Pricing for D2C Success Razorpay Rize In 2 answers
20. Lays out proven, reusable ad structures (Problem-Solution, Before-and-After, Social Proof Compilations) with the underlying... GlobalPPC Article · D2C UGC Ads That Actually Convert: Frameworks For Ecommerce Growth GlobalPPC In 2 answers
21. Hormozi's own first winning Facebook ad was, by his description, the 'ugliest ad' he'd ever made, and it worked because the... Acquisition.com Book · D2C $100M Leads: How to Get Strangers to Want to Buy Your Stuff Alex Hormozi In 2 answers
22. A deep dive specifically on isolating hooks, creators and angles as separate test variables, the exact discipline that turns... Elite Brands Article · D2C Structuring UGC Testing for Meta Ads Creative Strategy Elite Brands In 2 answers
23. Focuses specifically on what separates a testing framework that finds real winners from one that just produces noise, useful... Gigawatt Group Article · D2C Creative Testing Frameworks for Ecommerce Ads: What Actually Scales Gigawatt Group In 2 answers
24. A current, structured framework for building an ecommerce creative pipeline end to end, from briefing through testing through... EcomStacked Article · D2C Ecommerce Ad Creative Framework (2026) EcomStacked In 2 answers

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