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. A nine-step, screenshot-led tutorial for the exact directory use case in your answer. It covers connecting Airtable, picking a... andrewmurrayhq.com Article · 20 min read How to build a no-code directory with Softr and Airtable Andrew Murray In 2 answers
  2. This lays out when accumulated shortcuts actually start slowing a growing company down, versus when they are just cosmetic. It... martinfowler.com Article · 20 min read Bottlenecks of Scaleups: Tech Debt Tim Cochran and Carl Nygard In 2 answers
  3. If you want to understand why a font pairing works rather than just copying one, this is the clearest primer, straight from the... Google Fonts Knowledge Article · 12 min read Pairing Typefaces Google Fonts In 2 answers
  4. Zerodha built its products in-house rather than leaning on outside vendors, and Kamath explains how staying close to the build... Inc42 Article · 12 min read Zerodha's Nithin Kamath On The Art Of Building World Class Products Nithin Kamath In 2 answers
  5. Once your bottleneck really is your hands and not your clarity, this piece covers how a non-technical founder finds, vets, and... The Founder's Corner Article · 10 min read How Non-Technical Founders Can Hire Great Developers Chris Tottman and Ruben Dominguez In 2 answers
  6. The foundational essay behind YC's whole worldview. Graham argues a startup needs good people, something users want, and low... paulgraham.com Essay How to Start a Startup Paul Graham In 2 answers
  7. Naval calls picking a co-founder your most important decision, more than product or market, and this is the canonical short... Venture Hacks Article How to Pick a Co-Founder Naval Ravikant In 2 answers
  8. A counterpoint worth hearing: sometimes learning enough to build a rough prototype yourself is faster and more reliable than... freeCodeCamp Article How to become your own technical co-founder Zubin Pratap In 2 answers
  9. This piece pushes on the part founders skip: figuring out exactly which gaps a co-founder should fill before you go looking,... First Round Review Article · 15 min read Looking for Love in All the Wrong Places: How to Find a Co-Founder Steve Blank In 2 answers
  10. Cohen, who bootstrapped two unicorns, argues that every line of code is a liability you will have to maintain and change, which... A Smart Bear Essay · medium read The Code is Your Enemy Jason Cohen In 2 answers
  11. This is the founding text on interviewing programmers, written by someone who actually ran a software company. It argues you... Joel on Software Essay · Long read The Guerrilla Guide to Interviewing (version 3.0) Joel Spolsky In 2 answers
  12. This backs up the sketch the flows part of our answer. Design the screens before anyone writes code, because a paper sketch is... Getting Real (37signals) Essay · 5 min read Interface First 37signals In 2 answers
  13. Amazon's trick is to write the customer facing press release and FAQ before building anything, which forces you to describe the... Working Backwards (Colin Bryar and Bill Carr) Article · 12 min read The Amazon Working Backwards PR/FAQ Process Colin Bryar and Bill Carr In 2 answers
  14. Once you have described a feature, acceptance criteria is how you say what done means so you and the developer agree before... Atlassian Article · 9 min read What is Acceptance Criteria? Definition, Examples, and Tips Atlassian In 2 answers
  15. This one is written for engineers, and reading it tells you what your developer will want that a pure product spec does not... Stack Overflow Blog Article · 12 min read A practical guide to writing technical specs Zara Cooper In 2 answers
  16. Blank is the origin of get out of the building and customer development, the discipline that a no-code MVP is meant to serve.... Steve Blank (steveblank.com) Article · 12 min read No Business Plan Survives First Contact With A Customer Steve Blank In 2 answers
  17. A short, plain chapter that makes the case for keeping money and dates fixed while trimming features. It is the cleanest... 37signals Essay Getting Real: Fix Time and Budget, Flex Scope 37signals In 2 answers
  18. Explains that without a written assignment, the agency, not you, may own the code you paid for. It covers present tense... Horizon Labs Article Code Ownership and IP Assignment for Contractors: 2026 Guide Horizon Labs In 2 answers
  19. A lawyer's note on the exact wording that actually transfers code ownership in a development agreement. It is short and... Willcox Savage Article Use the Magic Words: Ownership of Code Developed under a Software Development Agreement Joseph B. Allen In 2 answers
  20. The classic on what professional, maintainable code and habits look like, the standard your reviewer is measuring against. Even... The Pragmatic Bookshelf Book · 352 pages The Pragmatic Programmer: Your Journey to Mastery Andrew Hunt and David Thomas In 2 answers
  21. A short, illustrated checklist of rules that are safe to follow when you have no design intuition yet. Never use pure black or... anthonyhobday.com Article · 15 min read Visual design rules you can safely follow every time Anthony Hobday In 2 answers
  22. Forms are where most products lose users, whether it is signup, checkout, or onboarding. This is the definitive guide to label... Luke Wroblewski (Rosenfeld Media) Book · ~226 pages Web Form Design: Filling in the Blanks Luke Wroblewski In 2 answers
  23. Human short term memory is tiny, so making people remember things across screens is a hidden tax on your product. This explains... Nielsen Norman Group Article · 7 min read Memory Recognition and Recall in User Interfaces Raluca Budiu In 2 answers
  24. The most memorable proof that watching users pays. A single confusing choice on a checkout form was quietly costing a retailer... LukeW / User Interface Engineering Essay · ~6 min read The $300 Million Button Luke Wroblewski In 2 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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