YC Startup Library

Answers I'm non-technical, do I actually need a technical co-founder? How do I actually find a technical co-founder? Should I hire an agency or a freelancer to build my MVP? When my technical hire and I disagree on the tech stack, whose call is it?

Answers How do I evaluate the code quality of a build I inherited from an agency?

Answers I'm a solo non-technical founder with no audience. How do I launch when I have zero followers to post to? How do I get my first users for the MVP? My launch flopped and nobody cared, did I mess it up? What's the best channel to launch on, Product Hunt, Reddit, Hacker News, or LinkedIn? I'm a technical founder and I hate selling, do I really have to do sales myself? What tools should I use to send and track cold outreach without spamming? Investors passed and said 'we love the space but aren't sure you're the right team for it'. How do I fix that? I'm a solo technical founder. How do I MVP a two-sided marketplace when I need both buyers and sellers before it works at all? How many people should I actually reach out to before I expect to close my first 10 paying customers? I'm a solo technical founder and hate selling. How do I get my first customers without becoming a salesperson? Should I try to close my first 10 customers one by one, or run a small launch to get them all at once? How do I launch in India where there's no single 'Product Hunt moment' that reaches Indian founders and buyers? Should I gate my launch behind a waitlist, or does a waitlist just kill the momentum I worked to build?

Answers How do I get my first users for the MVP? How did real successful startups actually land their first customers? When does cold outreach stop scaling, and what do I move to next?

Answers I'm a solo non-technical founder with no audience. How do I launch when I have zero followers to post to? Every launch I ask friends to upvote and share. Is leaning on my network for each launch going to burn it out? How often should an early-stage startup ship? When is my product 'ready' to launch? My launch flopped and nobody cared, did I mess it up? What's the best channel to launch on, Product Hunt, Reddit, Hacker News, or LinkedIn? How do I build up an audience before I launch so it's not just crickets? How often should I be launching, is once a quarter too much? Should we ship an ugly, half-working version now or wait until it feels good enough to be proud of? What does a 'soft launch' actually look like, and is it just a cop-out for being scared to ship? I keep tweaking the landing page instead of launching. How do I tell polishing from procrastinating? My first launch went okay but the second felt embarrassing, like 'why are they back again already?' Is relaunch fatigue real? How do I launch in India where there's no single 'Product Hunt moment' that reaches Indian founders and buyers? Should I gate my launch behind a waitlist, or does a waitlist just kill the momentum I worked to build? How do I write the actual launch post so it doesn't read like a press release nobody asked for? My co-founder wants a big coordinated launch, I want to just ship quietly and iterate. Who's right? How do I turn a launch into an ongoing drip instead of one spike that flatlines two days later? How do I actually measure whether a launch worked, beyond the vanity upvotes and traffic spike?

Answers What is an ideal customer profile and how do I define mine? How specific should my target customer be when I'm just starting? How do I get my first users for the MVP? How do I build a targeted list of the right people to cold email? What tools should I use to send and track cold outreach without spamming? Investors passed and said 'we love the space but aren't sure you're the right team for it'. How do I fix that? What's the difference between a customer saying they'll pay and actually pulling out a card, and how do I test the real one early? How do I define my ideal customer when I'm a domain expert who thinks everyone in my industry needs this? How many people should I actually reach out to before I expect to close my first 10 paying customers? I'm building for Indian SMBs who use WhatsApp for everything. How do I get my first 10 without a fancy sales process? Should I try to close my first 10 customers one by one, or run a small launch to get them all at once? How do I find my first 10 customers to sell to when I have zero network and no inbound? Should I use my personal email and name or a company address for cold outreach? When does cold outreach stop scaling, and what do I move to next?

Answers Do I actually need a co-founder, or can I go solo? Where do I actually find a co-founder if I don't already know one? What should I look for in a co-founder, and what are red flags? How do I 'date' a potential co-founder before committing? As a non-technical founder, how do I find a technical co-founder?

Answers Do I actually need a co-founder, or can I go solo? What should I look for in a co-founder, and what are red flags? Should I co-found with a friend or family member?

Answers Should I hire an agency or a freelancer to build my MVP? How do I hire good engineers in India when everyone's competing for the same talent? How do I evaluate a developer's skill if I can't code? When should I make my first hire? How do I hire my first engineer when nobody's heard of my startup? What kind of people should my first ten hires be? Should I hire full-time employees, contractors, or an agency first? How do I interview and evaluate candidates when I've never hired before? When should I stop using an agency and hire my first in-house developer? Is it a mistake to hire one developer to build my whole product alone? How do I hire a developer without a warm network or startup connections?

Answers When should I make my first hire? How do I hire my first engineer when nobody's heard of my startup? What kind of people should my first ten hires be? Should I hire full-time employees, contractors, or an agency first? How do I compensate early employees with salary and equity in India? How do I interview and evaluate candidates when I've never hired before?

Answers How do I get into YC or a top accelerator, what do they actually look for? Are pitch competitions worth my time, and how do I win one? I'm still at the idea stage with no team, am I too early for any of this? I keep hearing 'why you' matters to investors. What are they actually looking for when they ask it?