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. Coinbase built an entire company while the rules were unsettled, and Armstrong describes engaging regulators directly instead... a16z crypto Podcast Leading through uncertainty (with Coinbase CEO Brian Armstrong) a16z crypto
  2. Sharad Sharma helped architect India Stack, ONDC, and account aggregators, so this conversation explains the intent behind the... The Neon Show Podcast Sharad Sharma on India's Digital Playbook, UPI's Rise and AI's Future The Neon Show (Siddhartha Ahluwalia)
  3. Shireesh Joshi ran business at ONDC, so this conversation gives you the operator's view of what the network is trying to do and... Prime Venture Partners (via YourStory) Podcast Decoding ONDC with Chief Business Officer Shireesh Joshi Prime Venture Partners
  4. A conversation with someone who built a business decoding young people's wants, aimed at founders who did not grow up inside... a16z Podcast (Tiffany Zhong, Connie Chan) Podcast · ~40 min listen Designing for, Marketing to, and Partnering with Gen Z Andreessen Horowitz
  5. Product Hunt's own weekly podcast, hosted by Ryan Hoover and Abadesi Osunsade, with founders and makers talking through... Product Hunt Podcast Product Hunt Radio Product Hunt
  6. The longer conversation version of Vohra's waitlist thinking, where he walks through why manual onboarding capacity, not FOMO,... Lenny's Podcast Podcast · 1h 25m Superhuman's secret to success: Ignoring most customer feedback, manually onboarding every new user, obsessing over every detail, and positioning around a single attribute: speed Lenny Rachitsky
  7. Ivan Zhao talks in detail about the years Notion nearly died, including a full technical rewrite after the first version... Lenny's Newsletter Podcast · 1 hour 12 minutes Notion's lost years, its near collapse during Covid, staying small to move fast, the joy and suffering of building horizontal, more | Ivan Zhao (CEO and co-founder) Ivan Zhao, hosted by Lenny Rachitsky
  8. This episode goes directly at the insecurity behind the question: founders worry that selling themselves makes their company... The Startup Chat with Steli & Hiten Podcast Should Founders Be Doing Sales? Will Prospects Take Their Startups Serious? The Startup Chat with Steli & Hiten
  9. Jason Lemkin runs through the specific, repeated mistakes he sees founders make when hiring too early or hiring the wrong... SaaStr Podcast · 35 min SaaStr Podcast #379: The Top 10 Mistakes Founders Make When Hiring Their First Sales Team Jason Lemkin
  10. This one flips the seat. Karthik Chakkarapani is the buyer, a CIO at Zuora who has sat through hundreds of startup pitches, and... The Neon Show Podcast · ~65 min What Startups Can Learn From a $1.7B Company's Chief Information Officer Siddhartha Ahluwalia (host), Karthik Chakkarapani (guest, CIO of Zuora)
  11. Podcast · ~70 min Girish Mathrubootham: Biggest Product and Pricing Lessons from Scaling to $597M in ARR Harry Stebbings (host), Girish Mathrubootham (guest)
  12. A grounded conversation about when cold email is even worth the effort of finding an address for. Steli's rule of thumb is deal... Startups For the Rest of Us Podcast · about 35 minutes Episode 202: Outbound Sales for Startups with Guest Steli Efti Steli Efti
  13. This one flips the script: a CIO who actually receives startup outreach explains what makes him respond versus delete. Hearing... The Neon Show Podcast What Startups Can Learn from a $1.7B Co. Chief Information Officer (ft. Karthik Chakkarapani, Zuora) Karthik Chakkarapani (guest)
  14. Jen Abel has coached hundreds of early-stage founders through their first enterprise deals, and this episode is unusually... Lenny's Podcast, with Jen Abel Podcast "Sell the alpha, not the feature": The enterprise sales playbook for $1M to $10M ARR Jen Abel
  15. An investor walks through, line by line, the actual cold email that got him to say yes to what became a unicorn investment.... The Twenty Minute VC (20VC) Podcast · ~45 min The Contentful Memo: Point Nine's Christoph Janz on the Cold Email That Led to a Unicorn Investment Harry Stebbings
  16. Podcast · ~87 min 2X SaaS Founder: How To Sell Global Tech Products From India Siddhartha Ahluwalia, with Sharath Narayana
  17. Hansen runs interviews for her own bootstrapped products and talks candidly about the emotional side founders underrate:... Inside Intercom Podcast · ~40 min How to deploy empathy to get the most out of customer interviews Michele Hansen
  18. A Stellaris Venture Partners investor who has backed Mamaearth and other Indian consumer brands walks through what actually... The Neon Show (Neon Fund) Podcast Rahul Chowdhri on the Rise of D2C Brands in India Siddhartha Ahluwalia, Rahul Chowdhri
  19. Podcast Principles of Building Great Products with Julie Zhuo Amit Somani and Julie Zhuo
  20. Paras Chopra describes losing seven to eight months building Wingify's first version without talking to users at all, then the... The Neon Show Podcast How To Build A Successful Startup In India, ft. Paras Chopra (sold Wingify for 200 million dollars) Paras Chopra
  21. Christensen tells the milkshake story himself: McDonald's asked customers directly how to improve the milkshake and got useless... HBR IdeaCast Podcast · about 35 minutes The Jobs to Be Done Theory of Innovation Clayton Christensen
  22. Moesta invented the 'switch interview' technique and explains here how to reconstruct the exact moment a customer decided to... The SaaS Podcast Podcast · ~50 min 10 Customer Interviews That Reveal Why People Really Buy Omer Khan, Bob Moesta
  23. Hearing The Mom Test's author talk through his own framework out loud fills in gaps the book leaves implicit, especially around... The SaaS Podcast Podcast · ~40 min Customer Acquisition Startup Mistakes That Kill Your Idea Omer Khan, Rob Fitzpatrick
  24. One of India's better-known early-stage VCs interviews the author of Jobs to Be Done on why people 'hire' a product, which... Prime Venture Partners Podcast Podcast · ~40 min Stephen Wunker, MD New Markets Advisors, on Building Solutions That Help Your Customers Get Things Done Shripati Acharya, Stephen Wunker

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 →