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. Steve Blank is the person who most clearly made the case against planning everything and then unveiling it in one big moment.... steveblank.com Essay · 5 min read No Business Plan Survives First Contact With Customers. 2 Minutes to See Why Steve Blank In 3 answers
  2. This is the piece that named the problem you are asking about: the difference between numbers that make you feel good and... The Blog of Tim Ferriss Article · 10 minute read Vanity Metrics vs. Actionable Metrics Eric Ries In 3 answers
  3. Jeff Wald went bankrupt when his first startup collapsed, then built and sold WorkMarket to ADP, so this is not theory. His... First Round Review Article · About a 15 minute read Founder Exposed: Opening Up About Startup Failures and Vulnerability Jeff Wald In 3 answers
  4. If you decide Product Hunt fits your audience, this is the playbook that treats a launch as weeks of prep, not a single day.... Demand Curve Article · Long-form guide, roughly a 20 minute read How to Launch on Product Hunt Nick Costelloe In 3 answers
  5. This is the essay that names the exact problem: most online writing blurs together because it is neither personal,... perell.com Essay · Long read The Ultimate Guide to Writing Online David Perell In 3 answers
  6. Ben Thompson's framework explains why the sharpest modern businesses give the product away and win by owning the demand side,... Stratechery Essay Aggregation Theory Ben Thompson In 3 answers
  7. This is the classic counterweight to the first-timer instinct to price low out of nervousness. McKenzie's core argument is that... Kalzumeus Software Essay · About a 10 minute read You Can Probably Stand To Charge More Patrick McKenzie (patio11) In 3 answers
  8. Before you say yes to the custom features nobody else wants, this essay makes you sit with the real risk: one account that pays... Startup Patterns (Medium) Essay The One Big Customer Trap Sam McAfee In 3 answers
  9. Walling built and sold bootstrapped companies (including Drip) and has backed hundreds more through TinySeed, so this is... SaaS Playbook (Rob Walling) Book · About 200 pages The SaaS Playbook: Build a Multimillion-Dollar Startup Without Venture Capital Rob Walling In 3 answers
  10. Most startup books assume you want to raise, hire, and scale, which quietly pressures you to quit early and go big. Jarvis... Penguin Books Book · ~272 pages Company of One: Why Staying Small Is the Next Big Thing for Business Paul Jarvis In 3 answers
  11. This is the clearest side-by-side we found of the actual menu a bootstrapped founder faces: revenue-based financing, venture... Founderpath Article · 20 min read Non-Dilutive Funding for SaaS Founders: 8 Types Compared Founderpath In 3 answers
  12. Written by a pre-seed investor who reads these emails for a living, so it is the six-part anatomy of a cold email that actually... Sterling Road (Medium) Article · 10 min read How to Cold Email an Investor Ash Rust In 3 answers
  13. This is the actual math you are trading against, straight from the source: $125K for a fixed 7%, plus a $375K uncapped MFN SAFE... Y Combinator Article · 6 min read The Y Combinator Standard Deal Y Combinator In 3 answers
  14. This nails the discipline behind the highlight reel: with prospects you share momentum factually without handing over what they... Lenny's Newsletter Article · 20 min read Raising a seed round 101 Lenny Rachitsky with First Round In 3 answers
  15. The frame that defuses the fight: on the big decisive calls, tell your investor their job is to be a sparring partner, not the... First Round Review Article · 15 min read You Aren't Getting the Most Out of Your Investors, This is How to Start Paul Arnold In 3 answers
  16. Carta administers cap tables for tens of thousands of startups, so this is the canonical reference on how vesting actually... Carta Article · 12 min read Vesting explained: schedules, cliffs, acceleration, and types Carta In 3 answers
  17. Once you have decided a key hire gets an ESOP grant and not co-founder shares, this is the India-specific playbook for actually... Razorpay Rize Article · 15 min read ESOPs / Employee Stock Option Plans: Structuring for Early Startups Razorpay Rize In 3 answers
  18. This is the India-specific playbook for exactly your situation: it names full-time versus part-time commitment as a reason to... EquityList Article · 15 min read Co-Founder Equity Split in India: How to Decide, Document, and Protect It EquityList In 3 answers
  19. This is the money-and-clock reality check. It itemizes the cost (roughly USD 15,000 to 50,000, i.e. 12.5 to 42 lakh, plus USD... IncorpX Article · 18 min read Indian SaaS Flip Structure: Why Founders Move HQ to US and Tax Implications IncorpX (India cross-border compliance firm) In 3 answers
  20. This is the primary source, not a blog summary of it, and it does both jobs your answer needs in about two pages: the one-way... Amazon (aboutamazon.com) Essay · 12 min read 2016 Letter to Shareholders (High-Velocity Decision Making) Jeff Bezos In 3 answers
  21. The founder who built a profitable, bootstrapped Indian giant to over a crore customers with zero venture funding and zero... Forbes India Article · Short read (about 8 min) I'm Proud That At Zerodha We Don't Have Growth Targets Nithin Kamath (interviewed by Forbes India) In 3 answers
  22. This is the framework for acting decisively without certainty. Duke, a former pro poker player, teaches founders to judge the... First Round Review Article · ~20 min read The Tactical Guide to Making Better Decisions When Starting and Scaling Companies Annie Duke (via First Round Review) In 3 answers
  23. The India-specific voice this question needs. Serial founder Rachit Gupta says it plainly about shutting his second startup:... Inc42 Article · 10 min read Founders, VCs Open Up About Depression And Stress As Mental Health Enters Public Debate Inc42 Staff In 3 answers
  24. Trenchard has watched a lot of founders run their calendars, and his core move is the one that makes buffer-based planning... First Round Review Article · 15 min read 70% of Time Could Be Used Better: How the Best CEOs Get the Most Out of Every Day Bill Trenchard In 3 answers

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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