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. This is a founder who ran Gumroad down to literally one person (himself) after raising 8 million dollars, and talks candidly... Indie Hackers Podcast · 1 hr listen From Aspiring Billionaire to Indie Hacker with Sahil Lavingia of Gumroad Sahil Lavingia (with Courtland Allen)
  2. This is the founder-perspective answer to your exact question, delivered as an interview rather than a listicle. The clearest... Feel the Boot Podcast · 35 min Non-Dilutive Startup Fundraising: When SBIR Grants Help and When They Distract Feel the Boot (with Caroline Arzoo)
  3. Vymo is one of the few Indian startups that scaled selling almost entirely into large Indian banks and insurers (HDFC Bank... India GameChanger Podcast · 40 min Yamini Bhat, co-Founder and CEO of Vymo: Transformation Is Endless in This Space Yamini Bhat, interviewed on India GameChanger
  4. A useful counterweight to the raw MVP idea, drawing on stories from Airbnb and WeWork about building the smallest thing people... Lenny's Newsletter Podcast · ~15 min read Building Minimum Lovable Products Jiaona Zhang
  5. Butterfield pivoted a failing game into Slack by keeping the one thing the team could not stop using, the clearest example of a... Masters of Scale (Reid Hoffman) Podcast · ~37 min The Big Pivot, with Slack's Stewart Butterfield Reid Hoffman
  6. A long-form interview with the author of The Mom Test for when you want to hear the ideas in conversation. He goes deeper on... The Learning Leader Show Podcast · ~60 min How To Talk To Your Customers (The Mom Test) Rob Fitzpatrick (with Ryan Hawk)
  7. Lemkin makes the case, with hard numbers, for why founders must win the first 10 to 30 customers themselves before anything... Lenny's Newsletter Podcast · 45 min listen or read Building a world-class sales org (with Jason Lemkin) Jason Lemkin (SaaStr)
  8. An Indian investor and operator describes validating product/market fit for under 100 dollars, using a scrappy live test rather... The Neon Show Podcast Sanjay Swamy: Validating Market Fit for Under $100 at ZipDial Siddhartha Ahluwalia
  9. A practical conversation on validating demand through structured customer research rather than gut feel or friendly signups.... First Round Review Podcast Podcast · 50 min How to find product-market fit before you start building (with UserLeap's Ryan Glasgow) Ryan Glasgow
  10. 37signals built durable products on treating customers with genuine respect, and this episode captures their philosophy of... REWORK by 37signals Podcast · ~30 min Let Your Customers Outgrow You Jason Fried, David Heinemeier Hansson
  11. Sean Ellis coined growth hacking and built the 40 percent product market fit test, and here he explains why retention, not... Lenny's Podcast Podcast · ~70 min The Original Growth Hacker Reveals His Secrets (Sean Ellis) Sean Ellis, Lenny Rachitsky
  12. Winters scaled Grubhub, Pinterest, and Eventbrite, and here he talks plainly about liquidity, local versus global network... First Round Review Podcast · ~1 hr How to build and scale winning marketplaces (Casey Winters) Casey Winters
  13. An Indian founder walks through building a two-sided marketplace in a fragmented local market, including how pairing software... The Neon Show Podcast · ~1 hr Building a SaaS-enabled marketplace for Indian manufacturers (Sourcewiz) Siddhartha Ahluwalia
  14. An Indian VC podcast where Tribe Capital's partners break down how they measure product market fit through cohorts, growth... Prime Venture Partners Podcast Podcast · 50 min Quantifying Product Market Fit Arjun Sethi and Jake Ellowitz
  15. Tara Reed grew her company toward millions in revenue without writing code, and here she tells a non-technical founder exactly... Indie Hackers Podcast · ~60 min From $0 to $5M Without Writing Any Code with Tara Reed Tara Reed
  16. Hearing the CEO of the leading AI builder explain who the tool is really for, and where he thinks it stops, helps you set... Spotlight On, by Accel Podcast · 45 min Anton Osika on how Lovable is creating a world of builders Anton Osika
  17. Microsoft's chief product officer makes the case that building a rough working prototype now beats writing a spec, which is the... Lenny's Podcast Podcast · 60 min If you aren't prototyping with AI, you're doing it wrong Aparna Chennapragada
  18. A direct debate between a no-code evangelist (Makerpad's Ben Tossell) and a founder who built and rebuilt in code (Gumroad's... Indie Hackers Podcast (#134) Podcast · ~90 min Code vs No-Code with Ben Tossell and Sahil Lavingia Courtland Allen
  19. Interviews with founders actually running businesses on no-code, which grounds the lock-in debate in how real operators handle... No Code MBA Podcast The No Code MBA Show Seth Kramer
  20. A gripping true story of what an exposed backend actually costs: a hacker walked into VTech's data through a weak, unprotected... Darknet Diaries Podcast The Peculiar Case of the VTech Hacker Jack Rhysider
  21. A conversation with the founder of the tool most people use to stitch their apps together, on how to think about automation... Apple Podcasts Podcast · ~45 min Code-free: Zapier CEO Wade Foster on automation in the age of AI Wade Foster
  22. A founder who had never written code walks through the exact tools and workflow used to ship an app to the App Store. It is... Lenny's Newsletter (How I AI) Podcast · 45 min How I AI: Building an iPhone app with zero technical skills Claire Vo
  23. The audio companion to Harj Taggar's co-founder guidance, good for a walk or commute, covering why you want a co-founder, when... Y Combinator Startup School Podcast · 20 min How To Find A Co-Founder with Harj Taggar Y Combinator
  24. A useful counterweight that pokes holes in every method, including take-home projects, which can quietly exclude people who... REWORK (37signals) Podcast · ~30 min episode Hiring Is Not Hazing REWORK (37signals)

Show the next 24

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
eChai Partner Brands The partnership →