Build the product

Ship an MVP, work with builders, and iterate toward something people use.

What founders use for build the product, ranked by how many answers lean on it.

  1. This is the clearest single argument for why you should judge people on a work sample instead of a conversation. It cites the... Aakash Gupta Essay Why Traditional Job Interviews Are Useless (and What to Do Instead) Aakash Gupta
  2. Being outside the big startup hubs is only a disadvantage if you compete for the same over-priced candidates everyone else... Erik Bernhardsson Essay How to Hire Smarter Than the Market: A Toy Model Erik Bernhardsson
  3. Open source is the most public, most honest signal of what a developer can do, and this walks you through finding and... daily.dev Article How to Hire Developers from Open Source Communities daily.dev
  4. A clear overview of the real options for a non technical founder: freelance, full time, or a dedicated team, and where to... Gun.io Article The Ultimate Guide to Hiring Software Developers Gun.io
  5. A short, readable book on finding and recognizing genuinely good developers, from someone who did it without leaning on... Apress (O'Reilly) Book Smart and Gets Things Done Joel Spolsky
  6. A short India focused profile of a leader who explicitly hires on evidence of building, not institute names. It is a quick,... YourStory Article Techie Tuesday: Meet Kailash Nadh, the Self-Taught Coder Behind Zerodha YourStory
  7. A curated set of hiring tactics that deliberately go beyond the standard referral and resume path. It is useful when the... First Round Review Article Our 6 Must Reads for Hiring Tactics That Break the Mold First Round Review
  8. This is a three-minute list of yes/no questions you can literally walk through with the developer you hire, or use to size up... Joel on Software Essay · 10 min read The Joel Test: 12 Steps to Better Code Joel Spolsky
  9. This makes the core case behind our answer: the people who built a system are the worst people to judge it, so you need someone... Variant Systems Article · 8 min read Why You Need an Independent Code Audit (Before It's Too Late) Variant Systems
  10. A plain walk-through of what a code audit actually looks at (architecture, security, tests, documentation) and how a firm runs... Uptech Article · 15 min read Software Code Audit: Why and How It Ensures a Smoother App Launch Arthur Myronenko
  11. This reframes code quality into four things a non-technical founder can actually observe: how fast the team still ships, how... JetThoughts Article · 10 min read How to Know If Your Development Team's Code Quality Will Bite You Later JetThoughts
  12. Nine plain-English dimensions for judging an existing codebase (readability, adaptability, maintainability, and so on), each... ICTworks Article · 8 min read 9 Criteria to Evaluate an Existing Software Code Base Siobhan Green
  13. This explains the role that most cleanly fits your need: a senior technical person for a few hours who vets the build and tells... Crework Labs Article · 12 min read Fractional CTO for Non-Technical Founders: Do You Need One and What Does It Cost? Crework Labs
  14. A grounded guide to what 'code quality' means and how experienced teams measure it, without pretending one number captures it.... LeadDev Article · 12 min read A Guide to Measuring and Improving Code Quality Mike San Román
  15. A clear reference on what code quality really means (reliability, maintainability, security) and the concrete signals behind... Sonar Article · 15 min read What Is Code Quality? Definition Guide and How to Improve It Sonar
  16. Written from the developer's side of exactly your situation: opening a codebase someone else built and figuring out how bad it... DaedTech Article · 10 min read So, You've Inherited a Legacy Codebase Erik Dietrich
  17. A free summary of the classic legacy-code book, distilling the ideas your reviewer will use, above all that code without tests... Understand Legacy Code Article · 12 min read The Key Points of Working Effectively with Legacy Code Nicolas Carlo
  18. A plainspoken independent CTO's take on when and why to bring in senior technical judgment part-time, without the sales gloss.... Amazing CTO Article · 10 min read Hire a Fractional CTO, Solve Your Tech Problems Stephan Schmidt
  19. DHH built Basecamp and Hey with a tiny team by refusing to split the app into a fashionable web of microservices. If your... Signal v. Noise (DHH) Essay · 10 min read The Majestic Monolith David Heinemeier Hansson
  20. This names the exact failure mode you are worried about: an engineer choosing a stack for how it will look on their next job... DEV Community Article · 10 min read The Resume-Driven Development Epidemic HotfixHero
  21. A veteran founder and investor argues that pure 50/50 decision making causes gridlock, and that someone needs the final say in... Startup Hacks (Alex Iskold) Essay · 9 min read The Myth of Equal Startup Co-Founders Alex Iskold
  22. Once you have decided whose call it is, you both still have to live with it, and this is the cleanest statement of how. Bezos... Startup Archive Article · 5 min read Jeff Bezos Explains What It Means to Disagree and Commit Startup Archive
  23. Gokul Rajaram's SPADE framework is built on one rule that fits your situation perfectly: the person who has to execute and live... First Round Review Article · 20 min read Square Defangs Difficult Decisions with This System (SPADE) Gokul Rajaram
  24. A practical roundup of the frameworks that startups actually use to break ties without drama, including role-centric decision... Lenny's Newsletter Article · 15 min read My Favorite Decision-Making Frameworks Lenny Rachitsky

Show the next 24

The questions

Building your MVP 18

Build the smallest thing that tests the biggest risk.

What actually counts as an MVP, and what's the smallest one I can get away with? 20 → How do I decide which features to cut from v1? 18 → How long should building an MVP take? 19 → Should I build an MVP at all, or can I validate without one? 20 → How do I get my first users for the MVP? 17 → All 18 questions in Building your MVP →
No-code & low-code building 18

Ship a product without writing code.

Which no-code tool should I use to build my first product? 20 → Can I really build a serious business on no-code, or will I hit a wall? 18 → Should I use an AI app builder like Lovable or Replit instead of traditional no-code? 20 → How do I connect payments and handle data if I'm building no-code in India? 20 → What can I build with just a spreadsheet as the backend? 20 → All 18 questions in No-code & low-code building →
Finding & working with developers 18

Get it built when you can't build it yourself.

I'm non-technical, do I actually need a technical co-founder? 18 → How do I actually find a technical co-founder? 19 → Should I hire an agency or a freelancer to build my MVP? 17 → How do I hire good engineers in India when everyone's competing for the same talent? 18 → How do I evaluate a developer's skill if I can't code? 19 → All 18 questions in Finding & working with developers →
Product design & UX basics 18

Make it obvious, not clever.

I'm not a designer, how do I make my product not look terrible? 18 → What are the core UX principles every founder should know? 20 → How do I know if my product is confusing to users? 17 → Should I learn Figma, and how much design do I really need? 19 → Why does good design actually matter for an early-stage startup? 19 → All 18 questions in Product design & UX basics →
Shipping, iterating & roadmap 18

Ship weekly, learn constantly, prioritise ruthlessly.

How do I decide what to build next? 19 → How often should an early-stage startup ship? 19 → How do I build a roadmap without over-planning? 19 → How do I keep talking to users while I'm heads-down building? 18 → How do product teams keep a consistent shipping rhythm as they grow? 18 → All 18 questions in Shipping, iterating & roadmap →
eChai Partner Brands The partnership →