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. The opportunity is often a capability that already works in a raw model but nobody has wrapped into a specific job yet. This... Andreessen Horowitz Article · 12 min read The AI Future Is Already Here, It's Just Not Productized Yet Angela Strange In 2 answers
  2. This explains the exact cognitive trap behind insider bias: once you know a domain deeply you cannot un-see it, so you assume... CXL Article · ~12 min read The Curse of Knowledge: How Expertise Can Hurt Your Communication CXL In 2 answers
  3. If you truly have no category, this is the book on deliberately designing one, which reframes sizing as creating demand rather... playbigger.com Book · Book Play Bigger Al Ramadan, Dave Peterson, Christopher Lochhead, Kevin Maney In 2 answers
  4. This is the most direct answer to your question from an investor who reads these slides for a living. It walks through why a... Underscore VC (Richard Dulude) Article · 12 min read How to Create a Compelling Market Size Slide (With Examples) Richard Dulude In 2 answers
  5. This is the single closest essay to your question. Evans argues that saying "that looks like a toy" or "people always said... Benedict Evans Essay · 12 min read Not even wrong: ways to predict technology Benedict Evans In 2 answers
  6. Neumann applies Perez's framework to software to ask where we actually are in the cycle and what that means for which markets... Reaction Wheel Essay · 30 min read The Deployment Age Jerry Neumann In 2 answers
  7. This is the cleanest walkthrough of building a market number from the ground up: count the real end users who fit your profile,... Disciplined Entrepreneurship (Bill Aulet, MIT) Article Calculate the TAM for Your Beachhead Market Bill Aulet In 2 answers
  8. A clear summary of the Golder and Tellis research showing that pioneers failed far more often than fast followers who entered... ProductPlan Article The Myth of First-Mover Advantage ProductPlan In 2 answers
  9. Blank shows that entering a new market, an existing one, or a resegmented niche demands completely different strategies, burn... steveblank.com Article Customer Development Manifesto: Market Type Steve Blank In 2 answers
  10. This essay works through the why now for companies like Uber and Plaid, showing exactly which external shift (GPS economics, a... Tanay Jaipuria Essay · 12 min read Startups and Timing Tanay Jaipuria In 2 answers
  11. A short, readable on-ramp to Perez's installation and deployment phases from an investor who uses the framework in practice. If... AVC (Fred Wilson) Article · 8 min read The Carlota Perez Framework Fred Wilson In 2 answers
  12. A simple two-by-two for whether you are too early, too late, or on time, with examples for each box. It gives you plain... Gabor Cselle (Medium) Article The 4 Scenarios of Startup Timing Gabor Cselle In 2 answers
  13. This piece connects founder-market fit to the practical act of fundraising, where you have to say your why you out loud and... Forbes Article · 6 min read The Importance of Founder-Market Fit and How to Highlight It While Fundraising Jillian Canning In 2 answers
  14. Graham argues the trait that best predicts founder success is being relentlessly resourceful, which is much of what 'why you'... paulgraham.com Essay · 5 min read Relentlessly Resourceful Paul Graham In 2 answers
  15. Naval's idea of specific knowledge, the thing you cannot be trained for, is the sharpest lens on why you and not someone... The Almanack of Naval Ravikant Article · 6 min read Find and Build Specific Knowledge Naval Ravikant In 2 answers
  16. Field-tested fundraising lessons drawn from founders who raised billions in follow-on capital. It situates 'why you' inside the... First Round Review Article · ~20 min read The Fundraising Wisdom That Helped Our Founders Raise $18B in Follow-On Capital First Round Review In 2 answers
  17. A plain explainer of the exact filter this question is about, with the signals investors read as founder/market fit. It is... The VC Corner Article · ~12 min read Founder-Market Fit: The #1 VC Filter You Didn't Know Was Judging You Ruben Dominguez, The VC Corner In 2 answers
  18. The clearest explainer of how VCs actually decide, from term sheets to how partnerships evaluate founders. Understanding the... Andreessen Horowitz Book · 336 pages Secrets of Sand Hill Road: Venture Capital and How to Get It Scott Kupor In 2 answers
  19. Adapted from a talk at MIT, this is the clearest case that being a student is not a disqualifier. Graham is honest about where... Paul Graham (paulgraham.com) Essay · 20 min read A Student's Guide to Startups Paul Graham In 2 answers
  20. Perez zooms out to centuries of technological surges and shows a repeating pattern: a new technology installs quietly, gets... Edward Elgar / Carlota Perez Book · 224 pages Technological Revolutions and Financial Capital: The Dynamics of Bubbles and Golden Ages Carlota Perez In 2 answers
  21. McCormick writes long, plain language deep dives on emerging companies and sectors while they are still forming, which is... notboring.co Article · twice weekly Not Boring Packy McCormick In 2 answers
  22. Each year a16z partners publish the problems they think startups will tackle next, which is less a prediction and more a map of... Andreessen Horowitz Article · 20 min read Big Ideas in Tech a16z partners In 2 answers
  23. The canonical account of how disruptive technologies start out worse and cheaper, get ignored by incumbents, then improve until... Clayton Christensen (Harvard Business School) Book · Book (~280 pages) The Innovator's Dilemma: When New Technologies Cause Great Firms to Fail Clayton M. Christensen In 2 answers
  24. Nat Turner (who sold two companies he built this way) shares a systematic, repeatable method for finding ideas without... First Round Review (review.firstround.com) Article · ~15 min read 90% of Feedback is Crap: How to Find the Next Big Startup Idea First Round Review 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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