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.

Before you obsess over the exact split, it helps to see why prospecting and retargeting exist at all and where each one sits in... Demand Curve Essay · ~8 min read Why social ads break the traditional funnel (Growth Newsletter #303) Demand Curve
This is Meta's own documentation on the tracking setup most founders skip and then regret: defining standard events like... Meta for Developers documentation Article · About 10 to 15 minutes to read Conversion Tracking (Meta Pixel Implementation) Meta for Developers
This is the rare piece that actually answers the question you asked, is the creator deal really cheaper, instead of quoting a... Sagum Article · about 12 minute read Influencer Marketing vs Digital Ads: The Real Cost Analysis Sagum
This is a plain, practical breakdown of the three reasons Meta accounts actually get banned (policy violations, security flags,... Dancing Chicken Media Article · About a 10 minute read How to Prevent Meta Ad Account Bans Dancing Chicken Media
Before you force yourself in front of a camera you dread, it is worth asking whether you truly need to be there, and this piece... ZoomSphere Article Faceless Content: How to Build a Personal Brand (Without Showing Your Face) Amanda Ryan
This is the rare piece that treats the exact judgment call in the question instead of just cheerleading for personal branding.... Cultmethod Essay · ~12 min read Personal Brand vs. Business Brand (and the Secret Third Option): When to Choose Each Jon Persson
This one names the failure mode the question is really worried about: an audience that follows you, not your product, and never... SUCCESS Article · ~8 min read The Personal Brand Trap Most Founders Never See Coming SUCCESS staff
Most advice tells you to build in public without showing you what a non salesy post actually looks like, and this piece fixes... ravah.app Article · ~15 min read 27 Build in Public Post Ideas for Founders (With Examples) Usama
This is a plain, numbered checklist of the exact errors most founders repeat in their first weeks of posting: pitching the... DotSimple Article The 9 Most Common Content Mistakes on LinkedIn That Founders Should Avoid DotSimple
Before you worry about sounding different online, this teaches you to sound clear, and clarity is where a real voice starts.... Harper Collins / Google Books Book · 336 pages On Writing Well: The Classic Guide to Writing Nonfiction William Zinsser
This is the clearest explanation of why AI drafts sound generic: the same tidy structure, the same three-word punchlines, the... Forbes Article How To Write LinkedIn Posts With AI (That Sound Human) Jodie Cook
When you have zero time, the honest move is to stop creating from scratch and mine work you already produced. This guide gives... Buffer Article · Long read, roughly 15 minutes The Ultimate Guide to Repurposing Content (With Examples) Rochi Zalani
This is the cleanest answer to your actual question: no, you do not need to be everywhere at once, and trying to be usually... itsmodernmillie.com Essay Should You Focus On Just One Social Media Platform? Millie (It's Modern Millie)
Once you have decided to start with one platform, the next question is which one, and this piece answers it by starting from... godaddy.com Article How to choose the right social media platforms for your business GoDaddy Resources
Most advice tells you to just ignore the haters, which is useless in the moment a wave of comments is hitting. This piece is... Rachel Pedersen Article · About a 10 minute read How to Handle Haters, Trolls, and Internet Critics Like a Pro Rachel Pedersen
When your post gets piled on, the instinct is to treat every angry reply as a real dispute you have to win. Paul Graham... paulgraham.com Essay · About a 7 minute read Haters Paul Graham
This is the essay that names the shift you're betting on: online, your reputation and reach are no longer tied to where you... Not Boring (notboring.co) Essay · Medium read (about 20 to 30 minutes) The Great Online Game Packy McCormick
This is the cleanest split we found between the numbers that mean something and the ones that just feel good. Buffer walks... Buffer Article · About a 12 minute read 12 Social Media Metrics You Should Be Tracking (And Why) Shivani Shah
The essay tells you why to own your audience and the tool gives you somewhere to put it, but this is the piece that covers the... Newsletter Operator Article The MAGIC formula that converts social followers into email subscribers J. Matthew McGarry
This is written by a founder who actually ran three different communities on three different platforms and picked each one for... Medium Article · About a 10 minute read Learnings from running communities on Slack, Discord and WhatsApp Adithya Narayanan
Richard Millington has spent years advising organizations on community strategy, and his core argument here is the exact... FeverBee Essay · About an 8 minute read The 'Community Everywhere' Era Has Arrived: Don't Waste This Opportunity Richard Millington
Spinks ran CMX and spent a decade watching what actually keeps a community alive, and his core argument is that a small slice... Wiley Book The Business of Belonging: How to Make Community Your Competitive Advantage David Spinks
This is the tactical companion to the theory: how to actually spot your super-members in the data, ask them in a way they will... Higher Logic Article Building an Online Community Super Users (Ambassador) Program Higher Logic
A direct, practical treatment of the exact decision: what a free community gets you (reach, discovery, top of funnel) versus... HubSpot Blog Article Free vs. Paid Online Communities: Which Is Right for You? Flori Needle

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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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