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 deep read on why new consumer products catch on before anyone can explain them, driven by status and attention rather than... eugenewei.com Essay · 45 min read Status as a Service (StaaS) Eugene Wei In 2 answers
  2. A customer acquisition playbook that helps you commit to a growth lane and get world class at it, backed by case studies. It is... First Round Review Article Drive Growth by Picking the Right Lane: A Customer Acquisition Playbook for Consumer Startups Dan Hockenmaier, Lenny Rachitsky In 2 answers
  3. A YC founder explains how his team cut their MVP build time from three months to hours once they committed to shipping the... Y Combinator Blog Article The Art of Shipping Early and Often David Mack In 2 answers
  4. This is the internal memo Butterfield sent his team two weeks before Slack's launch, written from inside the wreckage of... Medium Essay We Don't Sell Saddles Here Stewart Butterfield In 2 answers
  5. This one short official answer kills the single most common Product Hunt myth: that you should mobilize everyone you know to... Product Hunt Help Center Article Can I ask my community/friends/family to upvote a product? Product Hunt Help Center In 2 answers
  6. Written by the founder of ConvertKit, this book is squarely about the sequence your short answer describes: build an audience... nathanbarry.com Book · Book Authority: Become an Expert, Build a Following, and Gain Financial Independence Nathan Barry In 2 answers
  7. Press is one of the easiest excuses to relaunch that founders under-use, and this guide teaches you to treat it as ongoing... Y Combinator (YC Startup Library) Article Getting press for your startup Y Combinator In 2 answers
  8. Godin's core claim is that marketing is the generous act of telling a true story to people who want to hear it, not... Seth Godin Book · ~256 pages This Is Marketing: You Can't Be Seen Until You Learn to See Seth Godin In 2 answers
  9. Slack iterated privately with a small team for months, using what they learned to earn a preview release that then turned into... First Round Review Article · 20 min read From 0 to $1B: Slack's Founder Shares Their Epic Launch Strategy First Round Review In 2 answers
  10. Written specifically for solo and small-team founders without a marketing budget or audience, this book argues for validating a... Amazon Book Start Small, Stay Small: A Developer's Guide to Launching a Startup Rob Walling In 2 answers
  11. This breaks founder sales into seven distinct conversation types, from qualifying to first contact to asking for a referral, so... SaaStock Article · ~7 min read The 7 Essential Customer Conversations According to Steli Efti Steli Efti In 2 answers
  12. Kracov, a first-time founder at Dock, wrote this after six months of running his own sales calls, and it's refreshingly honest... kracov.co Essay · ~10 min read How I've approached founder-led sales Alex Kracov In 2 answers
  13. MEDDIC gives you a checklist for the 'qualify hard' part of our answer: metrics, economic buyer, decision criteria, decision... MEDDICC Article · ~15 min read MEDDIC Sales Methodology and Process MEDDICC In 2 answers
  14. This is narrower than the cadence advice elsewhere on this list: it is specifically about what makes the follow-up email itself... Gong Article · 8 min read Scientific Tips for Writing the Perfect Follow-Up Sales Email Gong In 2 answers
  15. A direct answer to the exact question in the title: yes, charge for pilots, and here's roughly how much. Jason Lemkin argues... SaaStr Article Dear SaaStr: Should We Charge for Pilots and How Much? Jason Lemkin In 2 answers
  16. A Hustle Fund investor who reads hundreds of cold emails walks through, line by line, what makes her actually reply versus... Elizabeth Yin Essay · 5 min read How to write a cold-email Elizabeth Yin In 2 answers
  17. Dunford, who wrote the book on product positioning, breaks down how to build a pitch around the buyer's specific situation... Lenny's Newsletter Article How to build a killer sales pitch April Dunford In 2 answers
  18. Josh Braun teardowns real cold emails line by line and explains exactly why each sentence works or doesn't, which is more... Josh Braun (LinkedIn) Thread This cold email hits all the right notes Josh Braun (LinkedIn) In 2 answers
  19. This collection was built for asking strangers for small favors like introductions and advice, which is a gentler version of... 80,000 Hours Article The Best Email Scripts for Cold-Emailing Benjamin Todd In 2 answers
  20. This is a mainstream, practical rundown of the fundamentals: research, subject lines, and why you're writing to this specific... HubSpot Blog Article The Ins and Outs of Cold Emailing That Delivers Results Jay Fuchs In 2 answers
  21. Josh Braun walks through building one specific cold email for one specific, well-chosen prospect, showing exactly why a message... Josh Braun Article · 8 min read Let's Write a Good Cold Email Josh Braun In 2 answers
  22. Steli Efti built Close after running outsourced sales for over 200 venture backed startups, so this guide is written by someone... startupsalesguide.com Article · 20 min read Steli Efti's Ultimate Startup Guide To Outbound Sales Steli Efti In 2 answers
  23. Jason Lemkin is the investor on the other end of the email, walking through two real cold emails he actually funded and... SaaStr (Jason Lemkin) Article 2 Cold Emails I Funded For Millions SaaStr (Jason Lemkin) In 2 answers
  24. Josh Braun makes a living teaching sales teams to write first lines that could not be pasted into anyone else's inbox, which is... Josh Braun Essay · 5 min read Killer Cold Email Opening Lines Josh Braun 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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