Starting Up

The resources founders actually use.

Every essay, video, podcast, book and tool behind 1,046 answered founder questions, in one place, each with a note on why it is here.

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

  1. If you would rather hear the thinking than read it, this is Rahul Vohra on Lenny's Podcast talking through the same... Lenny's Podcast Podcast Superhuman's secret to success: ignoring most customer feedback, manually onboarding every user, and positioning around one attribute | Rahul Vohra Lenny Rachitsky In 5 answers
  2. Instead of theory, this is hundreds of interviews with real solo founders who started a profitable business on the side of a... Apple Podcasts Podcast · episodes run 45 to 75 minutes Indie Hackers Podcast Courtland Allen In 5 answers
  3. Podcast · 50 min How Khadim Batti Built Whatfix Into a Global SaaS Leader (500 cold emails to first customers) Khadim Batti with Prime Venture Partners In 5 answers
  4. If your warm interest is coming from larger companies that never sign, this Indian podcast episode digs into why enterprise... The Neon Show Podcast How Startups Can Sell to Big Companies (The Neon Show) Siddhartha Ahluwalia In 5 answers
  5. Zerodha, India's largest broker, built almost everything in house with a famously small team, and its CTO explains why owning... Software at Scale Podcast · 1 hr Building Zerodha with Kailash Nadh Utsav Shah In 5 answers
  6. India's best long-form podcast with B2B SaaS founders who cracked global GTM from India, hosted by a 2x founder and Neon Fund... The Neon Show (formerly 100x Entrepreneur) Podcast · podcast series (200+ episodes) The Neon Show (Indian SaaS founders on GTM & sales) Siddhartha Ahluwalia In 4 answers
  7. Drawing on thousands of office hours, Caldwell separates when to just not die and keep going from when to actually pivot, which... Lenny's Podcast (Dalton Caldwell) Podcast · ~80 min Lessons from 1,000+ YC startups: pivoting, resilience, and avoiding tar pit ideas Dalton Caldwell In 4 answers
  8. The strongest articulate case for NOT raising, from the 37signals co-founder who built a massively profitable business with... Lenny's Podcast / Lenny's Newsletter Podcast · 90 min Jason Fried challenges your thinking on fundraising, goals, and growth Lenny Rachitsky (host), Jason Fried (guest) In 3 answers
  9. Data and tool pages tell you what WhatsApp can do; founder stories tell you what it actually took. This show interviews Indian... Spotify Podcast · Episodes about 25 minutes The Indian D2C Playbook Isaac John Wesley In 3 answers
  10. A short, direct conversation between two founders on when cold email works, who to send to, and how to write the subject line... The Startup Chat with Steli and Hiten Podcast · 18 min The Startup Chat, Episode 014: Cold Email Steli Efti and Hiten Shah In 3 answers
  11. Podcast · 55 min The Mom Test with Rob Fitzpatrick (The Learning Leader Show) Rob Fitzpatrick In 3 answers
  12. Ben Tossell built Makerpad past $200K as a side project entirely on no-code (Webflow, Airtable, Zapier, Memberstack) before... Indie Hackers Podcast · ~60 min Creating a $200k Side Project Without Writing a Line of Code with Ben Tossell Ben Tossell In 3 answers
  13. The companion conversation, focused on how Zerodha actually built its engineering team in the Indian market, from first hires... Software Misadventures Podcast · 1 hr 15 min Kailash Nadh on Building the Tech Team at Zerodha Software Misadventures In 3 answers
  14. The Basecamp founders make the case that yes is cheap in the moment and expensive for years, so no should be your default... REWORK (37signals) Podcast · 24 min Say No by Default Jason Fried and David Heinemeier Hansson In 3 answers
  15. Chopra bootstrapped Wingify to a large exit from India after first failing by building an everything tool nobody asked for. He... The Neon Show Podcast · 60 min How To Build A Successful Startup In India ft Paras Chopra Siddhartha Ahluwalia and Paras Chopra In 3 answers
  16. The Zerodha co-founder picks an industry, then asks the most basic first-principles questions until you understand how it... Nikhil Kamath Podcast · 60 to 120 min episodes WTF is with Nikhil Kamath Nikhil Kamath In 3 answers
  17. This goes underneath Delta 4 into why Indians pay for some things and not others: value versus price, trust, and the real value... Farnam Street, The Knowledge Project Podcast · ~2 hr Kunal Shah: Core Human Motivations (The Knowledge Project) Shane Parrish and Kunal Shah In 3 answers
  18. Podcast · ~90 min video Kunal Shah on winning in India and second-order thinking Kunal Shah with Lenny Rachitsky In 3 answers
  19. Ryan Hoover has watched more product launches than almost anyone through Product Hunt, and this conversation covers exactly... Lenny's Podcast Podcast How to launch and grow your product | Ryan Hoover of Product Hunt and Weekend Fund Lenny Rachitsky, Ryan Hoover In 3 answers
  20. A clinical psychologist and a solo founder talk candidly about the mechanics of burnout and recovery, practical, specific, and... thebootstrappedfounder.com Podcast · medium The Reality of Burnout for Entrepreneurs (Bootstrapped Founder ep.) Arvid Kahl & Dr. Sherry Walling In 2 answers
  21. The most grounded, non-lawyerly take on the fear that keeps first-time founders up at night. Two founders who've tracked... Startups.com Podcast · ~35 min Will Somebody Try To Steal My Startup Idea? (Startup Therapy, Ep. 50) Wil Schroter & Ryan Rutan In 2 answers
  22. Rob Fitzpatrick is a self-described techie who taught himself to talk to customers, and his whole point is that good research... Indie Hackers Podcast · About 1 hour The Right Way to Talk to People About Your Business with Rob Fitzpatrick (Indie Hackers Podcast #154) Rob Fitzpatrick (host Courtland Allen) In 2 answers
  23. This is India's first and best-known SaaS-focused podcast, hosted by Sunil Neurgaonkar with over 100 Indian and global SaaS... Apple Podcasts Podcast · 125 episodes, roughly 30 to 45 minutes each SaaS Sessions Sunil Neurgaonkar In 2 answers
  24. Bob Moesta helped build the JTBD method alongside Christensen, and here he is specific about how to catch the non-functional... Inside Intercom Podcast · about 30 min Bob Moesta on Jobs-to-be-Done (Inside Intercom podcast) Bob Moesta with Intercom In 2 answers

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Playbooks

A goal, and the route through it a step at a time.

Find an idea worth pursuing Spot problems worth solving and find the one that actually fits you. 4 steps Validate before you build Get real evidence people want it before you write a line of code. 4 steps Understand your customers Talk to real users, define who you're for, and read the market clearly. 4 steps From idea to first customers The idea-stage spine: find a problem, prove it, talk to customers, and land the first ten. 4 steps Build an MVP without code Ship a first version with no-code tools before you hire anyone. 4 steps Build and launch your first product Turn a validated idea into something real people can use. 6 steps Find and work with developers Hire, brief, and work with builders without getting burned. 4 steps Name and brand your startup Name it, design an identity, and say what it does in a line. 3 steps Build a landing page that converts A page that loads fast, earns trust, and turns visitors into signups. 4 steps Get your first customers The scrappy, unscalable work of going from zero to your first paying users. 5 steps Sell it yourself, founder-led Reach out, run the conversation, and close before you have a sales team. 4 steps Grow with content and SEO Compound reach with content, search, and a founder audience. 3 steps Grow with paid ads Spend that returns: the channels, metrics, and loops behind it. 4 steps Price and package your product Charge for value, package it right, and check the numbers work. 3 steps Bootstrap instead of raising Fund growth from revenue, and keep control of your company. 4 steps Raise your first round Understand the game before you pitch: whether to raise, from whom, and on what terms. 5 steps Find a co-founder, split equity Find the right partner and split equity without regret. 3 steps Set up the company right Incorporate, split equity, protect your IP, and make your first hires. 4 steps Survive founder life Mindset, burnout, the leap, and the parts nobody warns you about. 5 steps Build in India The India-specific playbook: schemes, government, enterprise, and the local market. 5 steps

The questions founders start with

I want to start a startup but I don't have an idea. Where do I even begin? Stop hunting for a billion-dollar idea and start collecting problems. The best ideas come from noticing things that annoy you or people around you ... Beginner 19 resources → What does 'validating an idea' actually mean? Validation is gathering real-world evidence that a specific group of people has a painful problem AND will change their behaviour (pay, sign up, sw... Beginner 20 resources → Do I actually need a co-founder, or can I go solo? You don't strictly need one, but the data says teams outlast solos: complementary skills, shared load, and someone to argue you out of bad calls al... Beginner 3 resources → What actually counts as an MVP, and what's the smallest one I can get away with? An MVP is the least you can build (or fake) to test your single riskiest assumption, not a shrunken version of your dream product. Ask 'what's the ... Beginner 20 resources → How do I talk to customers without them just telling me what I want to hear? Stop pitching and start interrogating their past. Ask about what they actually did last time the problem hit, what it cost them, and what they trie... Beginner 23 resources → How do I actually get my first 10 customers when nobody has heard of me? You go get them by hand, one at a time, email people you already know, people your investors/friends know, and strangers in the exact niche you're ... Beginner 19 resources → How do I decide how much to charge for my product? Stop guessing and stop pricing off your costs, price off the value the customer gets and their willingness to pay. Talk to customers about pricing,... Beginner 3 resources → Should I raise venture capital or bootstrap my startup? Raise VC only if your business needs a big pile of cash to reach escape velocity before someone else does, and if a 10x-in-a-few-years outcome is g... Beginner 3 resources →

Questions for your situation

The Aspiring Founder The Idea-Stage Founder The Builder The Launcher The Grower The Student Founder The Indie Hacker The Technical Solo Founder The Non-Technical Founder The Domain Expert The Women Founder The Anywhere Founder The Corporate Switcher The Repeat Founder
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