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. Gong analyzed tens of millions of real sales emails, so instead of taking someone's word for what good personalization looks... Gong Article · 9 min read Does Cold Email Even Work Any More? Here's What the Data Says Gong In 2 answers
  2. Directly useful if part of your targeting question is whether you should even be emailing the CEO. It looks at how seniority... Gong Article Do execs really reply to cold email? Here's what the data says Gong In 2 answers
  3. Carlos Espinal is a seed investor who reads cold pitches for a living, and this essay lays out exactly what he needs in the... Medium Essay · ~8 min read The Art of the Cold Outreach for Founders Carlos E. Espinal In 2 answers
  4. A comprehensive, practical walkthrough of the whole interview process, recruiting, scripting, running, and synthesizing, from a... User Interviews Article The Ultimate Guide to Doing Kickass Customer Interviews User Interviews In 2 answers
  5. This is a catalogue of the specific ways founders sabotage their own sessions, including talking too much, asking hypothetical... Nielsen Norman Group Article Why User Interviews Fail Nielsen Norman Group In 2 answers
  6. This explains why people behave differently the instant they know you're watching, which is the deeper reason your own presence... Nielsen Norman Group Article The Hawthorne Effect or Observer Bias in User Research Nielsen Norman Group In 2 answers
  7. Wilcox gives you a literal five question script built entirely around a recent problem, not your product, which is exactly the... Justin Wilcox, Customer Development Labs Essay How I Interview Customers Justin Wilcox In 2 answers
  8. A two minute companion to the longer HBR piece above, this is the one line version of our short answer you can forward to... Harvard Business Review Article Instead of Surveying Your Customers, Interview Them Harvard Business Review In 2 answers
  9. This is the clearest playbook for show, don't ask. The five day structure ends with a rough, facade-level prototype in front of... Jake Knapp, John Zeratsky, Braden Kowitz Book · ~280 pages Sprint: How to Solve Big Problems and Test New Ideas in Just Five Days Jake Knapp In 2 answers
  10. A broader companion to the leading questions piece, this covers the shape of a whole interview, from opening rapport to the... Nielsen Norman Group Article · 10 minute read Interviewing Users Jakob Nielsen In 2 answers
  11. Young pushes past surface level feedback into a customer's actual reasoning and guiding principles, which matters once you are... indiyoung.com Book · 250 pages Time to Listen Indi Young In 2 answers
  12. Julian Shapiro's handbook makes the growth marketer's case for a narrow ICP: going broad invites a competitor to pick off your... julian.com Essay · 30 min read Startup Handbook Julian Shapiro In 2 answers
  13. This piece is built entirely around the phrase super-specific who, consumer-side evidence for the same logic our short answer... Lenny's Newsletter Article · ~12 min read How to kickstart and scale a consumer business: Step 2, Identify your super-specific who Lenny Rachitsky In 2 answers
  14. This framework explains why the next ring of users you are chasing often behaves nothing like your current best users, and why... Bangaly Kaba, on Andrew Chen's blog Essay The Adjacent User Theory Bangaly Kaba In 2 answers
  15. Chen's core claim, that the next big network product always looks like it is for a small, tight niche at first, is directly... Andrew Chen (andrewchen.com) Essay · 20 min read The Cold Start Problem, Chapter One preview Andrew Chen In 2 answers
  16. A clear, no-nonsense primer on the three market-size numbers every founder gets asked about, with the bottom-up method that... carta.com Article · ~12 min read Market Size: What is TAM, SAM, & SOM? Carta
  17. A free, author-written summary of the positioning framework for founders who want the core idea before buying the book, perfect... aprildunford.com Article · ~8 min read My Positioning Book 'Obviously Awesome' Launches Today April Dunford
  18. A genuinely India-tailored guide with INR pricing, DPDPA 2023 compliance, Razorpay/Cashfree/Setu wiring, and a decision tree... productgrowth.in Article · ~20 min read Bubble for Indian Founders, 2026 Guide Product Growth (India)
  19. Directly answers the scoping question non-technical founders wrestle with, build in-house vs. outsource, backed by patterns... YC Startup Library Article · ~10 min read Does Your Tech Startup Really Need a Technical Co-Founder? (Yes) Y Combinator
  20. India-specific advice written by an Indian technical founder, addressing the real competition for engineering talent in the... Inc42 Article · ~10 min read How Can Indian Startups Hire The Right Technical Talent Parminder Singh (Hansel.io)
  21. The canonical PM-community reference on choosing what to build next, from the most-read product newsletter. A pragmatic... Lenny's Newsletter Article · ~15 min read Prioritizing Lenny Rachitsky
  22. A rare, concrete breakdown of the operating rhythm high-velocity product teams use to ship and iterate consistently. Useful... Reforge Article · ~18 min read Rethinking Your Operating Cadence Fareed Mosavat & Casey Winters
  23. The best-known framework for structuring a message as a story where the customer is the hero, practical templates you can apply... Amazon / HarperCollins Leadership Book · Book (~240 pages) Building a StoryBrand: Clarify Your Message So Customers Will Listen Donald Miller
  24. Watching a pro rewrite real, messy landing pages teaches copywriting faster than any theory, free, concrete, before-and-after... Marketing Examples Article · 10 min read Landing page rewrites with a pro copywriter Harry Dry & Annie Maguire

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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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