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. Twice a year Evans publishes a free deck reading the macro and strategic shifts in tech, strong on second order effects, not... ben-evans.com Article · 90+ slides Benedict Evans: annual tech trend presentations Benedict Evans In 4 answers
  2. This is the book that made outbound prospecting a repeatable discipline instead of a guessing game, built on the Salesforce.com... predictablerevenue.com Book · ~250 pages Predictable Revenue Aaron Ross and Marylou Tyler In 4 answers
  3. This guide breaks an ICP into demographic, psychographic, and position attributes, then walks through a real worked example,... Reforge Guides Article · 15 min read Define the ideal customer profile Reforge Guides In 4 answers
  4. Dunford (author of Obviously Awesome) breaks positioning into concrete steps, and the segmentation step is the one this... aprildunford.com Essay · ~10 min read A Quickstart Guide to Positioning April Dunford In 4 answers
  5. This is a founder team telling on themselves: they grew for years without a defined ICP and it caused real damage to their... PostHog Article Defining our ICP is the most important thing we ever did PostHog In 4 answers
  6. A PM-turned-founder's playbook that treats defining the right customer and problem as a sequence of concrete hurdles, not... First Round Review Article · ~18 min read 8 Product Hurdles Every Founder Must Clear First Round Review In 3 answers
  7. A high-signal, battle-tested framework for evaluating engineering talent from a leader who's done it hundreds of times.... First Round Review Article · ~20 min read My Lessons from Interviewing 400+ Engineers Over Three Startups Marco Rogers In 3 answers
  8. A crisp, visual reference of the psychology principles behind good UX, perfect for a founder who wants the 'why' without a... lawsofux.com Article · reference site Laws of UX Jon Yablonski In 3 answers
  9. A tight, example-driven breakdown of naming approaches from one of the best practical marketing writers online, memorable and... Marketing Examples Article · 5 min read Four (not boring) ways to name a new product Harry Dry In 3 answers
  10. Fifty-plus recent YC founders answer the exact question every early founder asks. The pattern across their answers is the lesson. YC Startup Library Article · ~10 min read Founder FAQ: How did you get your first customer? Y Combinator (50+ founders) In 3 answers
  11. The canonical explanation of why linear funnels break and self-reinforcing growth loops compound, from the team that trains... Reforge Blog Article · ~15 min read Growth Loops Are the New Funnels Brian Balfour & Reforge team In 3 answers
  12. The canonical book on making community a competitive advantage, from someone who trained community teams at Facebook, Airbnb,... Wiley Book · Book (~256 pages) The Business of Belonging David Spinks In 3 answers
  13. YC's Startup Library is the canonical, no-fluff reference on how startups actually make money, curated from partners who've... ycombinator.com Article · browsable library Business Models & Metrics, Y Combinator Startup Library Y Combinator In 3 answers
  14. David Sacks (PayPal, Yammer, Craft Ventures) distills the metrics that actually predict a SaaS company's health, including the... sacks.substack.com Article · essay The SaaS Metrics That Matter David Sacks In 3 answers
  15. Paul Graham's essays introduced the idea of 'ramen profitability' and default-alive thinking that underpins modern... paulgraham.com Essay · essay How to Make Wealth / Startup = Growth (essays) Paul Graham In 3 answers
  16. A behind-the-curtain playbook for the partner meeting, from a First Round partner and former founder. It explains the internal... First Round Review Article · 20 min read What You Can Really Expect When Pitching Your Seed-Stage Startup at a VC Partner Meeting Liz Wessel, First Round Review In 3 answers
  17. YC's fundraising library collects the canonical explainers on how SAFEs convert, how caps and discounts work, and how they... Y Combinator Startup Library Article · varies A Guide to SAFEs, Caps, and Discounts (Startup Library) Kirsty Nathoo / Y Combinator In 3 answers
  18. A concrete, tactical guide to presenting yourself well to potential co-founders, useful whether or not you use YC's platform.... YC Startup Library Article · Short read How to make your co-founder matching profile stand out Y Combinator In 3 answers
  19. Graham argues determination, not brilliance, is the top predictor of founder success, and breaks it into components you can... paulgraham.com Article · medium The Anatomy of Determination Paul Graham In 3 answers
  20. A concise checklist of the five founder qualities that matter most, useful for calibrating your own mindset and spotting where... paulgraham.com Article · short What We Look for in Founders Paul Graham In 3 answers
  21. Written by YC's first Batch Director who coached nearly a thousand early-stage founders, this is a practitioner's library of... thefoundercoach.com Article · medium The User Manual for Founder Psychology (Scale Yourself) Amy Buechler In 3 answers
  22. Graham surveyed 100+ founders on what surprised them most about starting up, an honest, de-romanticized picture of the... paulgraham.com Article · medium What Startups Are Really Like Paul Graham In 3 answers
  23. A candid founder post-mortem, republished by Inc42, that captures the emotional reality of shutting down, including the line... inc42.com Article · medium Postmortem of a Venture-Backed Startup: Lessons from Sonar Inc42 In 3 answers
  24. AICs are India's flagship government-backed incubation network, deliberately spread across the country so founders outside the... AIM / Government of India Article · Program overview page Atal Incubation Centres, Atal Innovation Mission Atal Innovation Mission (NITI Aayog) In 3 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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