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.

A founder-voice conversation, not a metrics lecture, on why a pretty LTV:CAC ratio can still sink you if the cash takes years... The SaaS Podcast (SaaS Club) Podcast How to Calculate CAC, LTV, Retention and Churn (Startups Unplugged with Paul Orlando) Omer Khan (host), Paul Orlando (guest)
Most influencer content is agency sales copy, so we picked an Indian D2C conversation where the guests run an influencer... Stellaris Venture Partners Podcast · podcast episode D2C Dialogues #2: Influencer marketing as a performance channel Stellaris Venture Partners (with Apaksh Gupta, One Impression, and Sarvesh Shashi, Sarva)
Thormeier interviews founders and operators who chose to put their own face at the top of the funnel, so you hear the lived... Apple Podcasts Podcast · Ongoing series, episodes ~30 to 60 min The Founder-Led Marketing Show Finn Thormeier
Instead of one more listicle of voice tips, this is working writers walking through how their own voice actually formed, mess... Apple Podcasts Podcast · Ongoing series, roughly hour-long episodes How I Write (podcast) David Perell
The pile-ons women founders face online often turn personal in a way male founders rarely deal with, and that sharper edge is... Female Founder World Podcast · About a 30 minute listen What No One's Saying About This Viral Founder Takedown Jasmine Garnsworthy
Patrick O'Keefe has managed online communities for over 20 years and interviews people doing the unglamorous work, so this is... Community Signal Podcast Community Signal Patrick O'Keefe
Each episode sits a working community professional down to talk about the worst advice they followed and what it actually cost... Community Marketing Revolution Podcast · Episodes run roughly 30 to 45 minutes Bad Community Advice Seth Resler
Justin Jackson builds from Vernon, a small town in British Columbia, not a metro tech hub, and he started the MegaMaker... justinjackson.ca Podcast · Ongoing show, episodes ~30 to 60 min Justin Jackson's podcasts (MegaMaker, Build your SaaS, Product People) Justin Jackson
The Ken's Two by Two takes the pioneers (Capital Float, ZestMoney, Lendingkart) and asks why so many of India's first lending... Two by Two, The Ken Podcast · ~60 min listen What killed India's first fintech lenders? Rohin Dharmakumar and Arundhati Ramanathan
For the practitioner gut-check on how much services revenue is actually healthy, SaaStr is the reference voice, and Jason... SaaStr Podcast · episodes roughly 25 to 40 min The Official SaaStr Podcast: SaaS, Founders, Investors Jason Lemkin
Dan Balcauski is a full-time pricing operator, and this episode gets concrete about the machinery behind serving different... Better Done Than Perfect podcast Podcast · Podcast episode, around 30 to 40 minutes Pricing and Packaging for SaaS with Dan Balcauski Better Done Than Perfect (Userlist), with Dan Balcauski
An Indian founder recounts running lifetime deals twice, selling $500k to 4,000 buyers on AppSumo, and then living with what... B2B SaaS Podcast Podcast · about 35 min listen How I sold lifetime deals worth $500k on AppSumo & why you should be careful with LTDs Ananay Batra (Listnr), on the B2B SaaS Podcast
Griffith bootstrapped ClickMinded to over 40,000 dollars a month while making the slow move from side project to full time, and... Indie Hackers Podcast Podcast · ~60 min Indie Hackers #112: From Side Project to Full-Time Founder with Tommy Griffith of ClickMinded Courtland Allen (Indie Hackers)
A first-person founder account of building Zoho from rural India, outside the traditional urban centers, while staying private,... CXOTalk Podcast · ~45 min listen Zoho CEO Sridhar Vembu on Social Impact and Business Purpose (CXOTalk #842) Michael Krigsman (CXOTalk), with Sridhar Vembu
Shalin Jain built HappyFox from India with a small team, went after global customers, and grew it to roughly 20M dollars in ARR... Practical Founders Podcast Podcast Bootstrapped Founder Shalin Jain of HappyFox on Building from India and Serving Global Customers Greg Head (host), Shalin Jain (guest)
Two founders who built and scaled FundThrough talk through the same build-versus-outsource finance call you are weighing, and... Cash Flow & Tell Podcast · 39 min When is it Time to Hire a CFO? Steven Uster and Deepak Ramachandran (Cash Flow & Tell)
Bartel built Gem (a recruiting tool) after running recruiting at Dropbox, so this is a founder-to-founder playbook for sourcing... First Round Review Podcast · 45 min The founder's guide to making your first few hires: Steven Bartel on recruiting at Gem and Dropbox First Round Review
Colonna is the VC-turned-coach founders actually trust on this, and here he tells it from the inside: after losing his... On Being Podcast · 51 min listen (full transcript available) Can You Really Bring Your Whole Self to Work? (Jerry Colonna) Jerry Colonna, interviewed by Krista Tippett
The rare founder account of hitting the wall and recovering without stepping away from the company. El-Hage burned out in years... First Round Review Podcast · 30 min read The First-Time Founder's Guide to Learning Everything the Hard Way Steve El-Hage, founder and CEO of Drop
Colonna, the coach founders go to when they are cracking, gives the question that actually moves boundaries: how am I complicit... Lenny's Newsletter Podcast · ~90 min listen How have I been complicit in creating the conditions I say I don't want? Jerry Colonna (interviewed by Lenny Rachitsky)
This is the canonical first-hand account of exactly what you are describing. Rand Fishkin walks through his 'long, ugly year'... Reboot.io Podcast · ~50 min listen (full transcript linked) Depression and Entrepreneurship (Jerry Colonna in conversation with Rand Fishkin) Jerry Colonna (Reboot) with Rand Fishkin (Moz)
For the question of when rest is not enough and you need a professional, this is the clinician who works only with founders.... Indie Hackers Podcast (Episode 060) Podcast · ~1 hr listen (full transcript on page) The Psychological Challenges of Being a Founder, with Dr. Sherry Walling of ZenFounder Dr. Sherry Walling (clinical psychologist) with Courtland Allen
Chargebee's Chennai founders made the exact mistake this question warns against: they told themselves the product needed more... Mixergy Podcast · 60 min listen Chargebee with Krish Subramanian (Mixergy interview) Andrew Warner with Krish Subramanian
Colonna is the founder coach (Reboot, ex-Flatiron VC) who works with the exact person this question describes, and he closes... The Tim Ferriss Show Podcast · ~2 hr listen Jerry Colonna, How to Reboot Yourself and Feel Unrushed in the New Year (#554) Tim Ferriss and Jerry Colonna

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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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