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.

Godin's short post makes the strongest case for going smaller on purpose: pick the smallest group you can delight completely... Seth's Blog Essay · 5 min read The Minimum Viable Audience Seth Godin
This thread is founders arguing out this exact question in public, with real numbers from real small businesses about when a... Indie Hackers Thread · 10 min read Is it possible to be "too niche"? Indie Hackers community
Zerodha started as a boutique brokerage aimed narrowly at active day traders, a niche the rest of the Indian broking industry... Z-Connect by Zerodha Article · 10 min read Nithin: Zero to Zerodha Nithin Kamath
This is the sharpest possible answer to the second half of your question: what to do about the people who show up wanting to... Y Combinator Essay Users You Don't Want Michael Seibel
Kao's bullseye model gives you a visual way to think about exactly the ongoing read your short answer describes: your core... weskao.com Essay Concentric circles of customers: focus on people who already share your worldviews Wes Kao
Chargebee's early ICP was startlingly narrow: founder-developers at zero-to-one companies making a build versus buy call, not... SeedToScale (Sequoia Surge) Article How Chargebee made its first million Shekhar Kirani
This article is squarely about treating the ICP as an ongoing read rather than a document you write once and file away, which... Clarify Article Why your ideal customer profile should evolve with your startup Clarify
This is a practical, checklist style piece on diagnosing whether your ICP is actually too broad in the first place, before you... DevriX Article How Narrow Ideal Customer Profiles Can Expand Revenue DevriX
Zerodha's founders built specifically for the self-directed retail trader who was fed up with high commissions and clunky... Forbes India Article Bootstrapping to a Billion (Zerodha founder story) Forbes India
This is the origin of the '100 people who love you beats a million who sort of like you' idea that underlies your whole short... Inc. Article Airbnb's Brian Chesky: If 100 People Love Your Product, That's Enough Salvador Rodriguez
This piece attacks the exact mistake domain experts make: describing a market by job title or industry instead of by the... A Smart Bear Essay Your target market isn't demographic Jason Cohen
Coelen explains why founders can't segment their market from a desk using industry reports, they have to talk to real customers... Doctor Market Fit Essay How most founders get their beachhead wrong Jeroen Coelen
This piece gives you a checklist for evaluating whether a slice of your industry is a genuine beachhead: urgent problem,... Doctor Market Fit Essay What makes a great beachhead market? Jeroen Coelen
This is a practical, tactical follow up to the ICP essays above: once you have named your narrow slice, here is how you... A Smart Bear Essay How do I get my first few customers? Jason Cohen
This deck lays out how consumer investors actually think about a target user, closer to a specific behavior and context than a... andrewchen.com Essay · 30 min read (slide deck) Consumer startups are awesome, and here's what I'm looking for at a16z Andrew Chen
This is Bier's own written version of his consumer playbook, useful as a quick reference you can screenshot and revisit. It is... X (Twitter) Thread · 5 min read Nikita Bier's thread on building consumer social apps Nikita Bier
This framework treats persona as one of four levers, alongside problem, promise, and product, that you pull when growth or... First Round Article · 20 min read Levels of PMF First Round Capital
This is the direct counterargument to our short answer, and reading it will sharpen your thinking either way. It walks through... Harvard Business Review Article · 8 min read When "Scratch Your Own Itch" Is Dangerous Advice for Entrepreneurs N. Taylor Thompson
This article names the exact cognitive bias behind the red flag you're asking about: assuming other people think, want, and... Nielsen Norman Group Article · 8 min read You Are Not the User: The False-Consensus Effect Raluca Budiu
A founder's first-person account of the exact failure mode in your question: mistaking an audience of people who look and think... Indie Hackers Thread · 8 min read Your build-in-public audience is not your market. I learned the difference the slow way. Indie Hackers
This is the counter case, marketplaces where demand was actually the constrained side and defining the ideal buyer first is... Lenny's Newsletter Article Demand driving supply Brian Rothenberg
Evans and Schmalensee studied why most attempts at multisided platforms fail, and a recurring reason is founders never nailed a... Harvard Business Review Press Book Matchmakers: The New Economics of Multisided Platforms David S. Evans, Richard Schmalensee
This forces you to decide how you will define and select your supply side, not just that you should. It compares three... Andreessen Horowitz Article Marketplace Supply Strategy: Comprehensive, Exclusive, or Curated Casey Winters, Anne Lewandowski
This warns you against a specific mistake that happens after you correctly anchor on supply: building every feature suppliers... Reforge Blog Article The Supply Features Trap Of Marketplaces Gilad Horev

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

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