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. YC partners discuss how founders in their current batches are shipping products with mostly AI-generated codebases, and what... Y Combinator (Lightcone Podcast) Video Vibe Coding Is The Future Y Combinator
  2. Video Andrej Karpathy: From Vibe Coding to Agentic Engineering Andrej Karpathy
  3. Video · ~20 min A complete beginners guide to Zapier MinorCo
  4. Video · ~45 min Make.com Tutorial for Beginners | Build Automations and AI Workflows Fast Thalita Milan
  5. Video · 20 min I Ranked Every AI App Builder for 2026: Lovable vs Bolt vs Replit vs Cursor YouTube
  6. YC partner Harj Taggar walks through where co-founders actually come from, when to bring one on, and how to run the search... Y Combinator Startup Library (Harj Taggar) Video · 20 min How to Find the Right Co-Founder Harj Taggar
  7. Video · 50 min How to Start a Startup, Lecture 2: Team and Execution Sam Altman
  8. Video · 9 min How Much Equity to Give Your Cofounder Michael Seibel
  9. Video · ~15 min App Wireframe Design and User Flow UX (Whimsical Tutorial) YouTube
  10. Video · 58 min Startup Mechanics (Stanford CS183F) Kirsty Nathoo
  11. Video · ~35 min video Kevin Hale: How to Work Together (YC Startup School) Kevin Hale, Y Combinator
  12. Video · Approx. 40 min How to Think Like a Visual Designer Steve Schoger
  13. Video · 9 min Jakob Nielsen's 10 Usability Heuristics (video) Nielsen Norman Group
  14. Video · ~1 hr The Design of Everyday Things: 25 years later (BayCHI talk) Don Norman
  15. Before you even open Figma, this shows you can test a flow with paper cutouts and catch most usability problems. The research... Nielsen Norman Group Video · 40 minutes Paper Prototyping: How to Create and Usability-Test Simple UI Prototypes Nielsen Norman Group
  16. Video · Approx. 25 minutes Figma Tutorial For Beginners AJ&Smart
  17. Airbnb's cofounder shows how deliberate design decisions convinced millions of strangers to trust each other enough to share... TED Video · 16 min video How Airbnb Designs for Trust Joe Gebbia
  18. A short, practical take on when a long menu is actually fine. Hick's Law does not mean fewer items is always better, and this... Nielsen Norman Group Video · 3 min video Hick's Law: Designing Long Menu Lists Katie Sherwin
  19. Video · Approx. 40 min video Laws of UX: Using Psychology to Design Better Products and Services (talk) Jon Yablonski
  20. A two-minute explainer that frames what usability testing is and is not, so you go in with the right expectations. Useful to... Nielsen Norman Group Video · 2 min Usability Testing 101 (Video) Kate Moran
  21. Video Why Customer Onboarding is the Most Crucial Part of Your Growth Strategy Casey Winters
  22. A short, clear video on why showing options beats making people remember them, with interface examples. If you prefer watching... Nielsen Norman Group Video · ~4 min video Recognition vs. Recall in User Interfaces Raluca Budiu
  23. This names the exact tension in your question and gives a rule for when innovation is worth its learning cost. Watch it to... Nielsen Norman Group Video · 5 min Consistency vs. Innovation in UX Design Raluca Budiu
  24. Video · 40 min Building for Your Next Billion Users (Google I/O 2017) Google

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 →