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. This is the one map of the full non-dilutive stack in India, with real names next to every option: RBF providers (GetVantage,... IncorpX Article · 8 min read How to Raise Funds Without Giving Away Equity: Non-Dilutive Funding for Startups in India (2026) IncorpX
  2. The best plain-English guide to when venture debt is a smart accelerant versus a trap. It gives the rules our answer leans on:... Airtree Ventures (Open Source VC) Article · 12 min read Thinking Through Venture Debt: What It Is and How It Works Airtree Ventures
  3. This is the India reality check that stops you anchoring to US numbers. It puts the median Indian seed ticket at roughly $1M... Inc42 Article · 8 min read Indian Startup Funding Jumps 8% YoY To $5.7 Bn In H1 2025 Inc42 Staff
  4. Written by a VC for early-stage founders, it explains what light-touch seed diligence actually is: at seed the room skews... Airtree Ventures (Open Source VC) Article · 12 min read What to include in your startup's data room Airtree Ventures
  5. This is the India-specific piece the global guides cannot give you: it names the exact ROC and MCA filings investors reconcile... Treelife Article · 18 min read Legal Due Diligence Checklist for Indian Startups: What Investors Actually Check Treelife
  6. A clean, mechanics-first explainer on why every founder, including you, goes on a 4-year vest with a 1-year cliff. It spells... Rho Article · 9 min read Vesting 101: Structuring Equity for Founders and Employees Pia Mikhael
  7. This is the ranked view of which terms actually bite, grounded in the NVCA model documents that most institutional term sheets... Glencoyne Article · 25 min read NVCA Term Sheet Standards: What Founders Must Know About Economics and Control Glencoyne Legal team
  8. This is the canonical argument for why you line up a lead first: a lead takes at least half the round, negotiates the term... Venture Hacks Article · 9 min read How do I find a lead investor? (Part 1) Nivi
  9. This is the concrete map of where the small cheques actually live in India: Indian Angel Network, Mumbai Angels, LetsVenture,... Inc42 Article · 15 min read From Seed To Success: 15 Active Angel Networks For Indian Startups Inc42 Staff
  10. This is the clearest India-specific explainer of the AIF trick that keeps your cap table clean: a SEBI Category 1 Angel AIF... Inc42 Article · 5 min read LetsVenture Launches Angel AIF, May Enable Funding Worth $135.93 Mn In Next 2 Years Inc42 Staff
  11. When you are deciding between a global program and staying close to your Indian market, this lays the actual terms side by side... Ellenox Article · 15 min read India Startup Accelerators 2026: 26 Programs Compared Ellenox
  12. This is the honest counterweight to YC's own pitch: the hard outcome data on what YC's India bet actually produced and why... Asia Tech Review Article · 8 min read Y Combinator reaps big rewards in India but its future in Asia is long over Jon Russell
  13. Once you decide you have a real reason to incorporate outside India, this is the head-to-head that tells you where. It puts... Treelife Article · 20 min read Foreign Subsidiary Jurisdiction for Indian Startups: Singapore, UAE, UK or US? Treelife
  14. This is the receipt for 'flip later is expensive.' Groww took the standard YC Delaware C-corp in 2016, kept 100% of its revenue... Treelife Article · 12 min read How Groww's $160 Million Delaware Tax Bill Became India's Most Expensive Startup Lesson Treelife
  15. The honest piece on who can raise on team versus who needs revenue. It states plainly that seed now looks like what Series A... CRV Article · 18 min read What Seed Investors Look For in 2026 CRV
  16. This is the playbook for exactly your situation: it tells you to lock down runway before you are desperate, cut burn with a... First Round Review Article · 25 min read The Founder's Field Guide for Navigating a Crisis First Round Review (recession-era founders, investors, and operating CEOs)
  17. This is the honest founder account you need before you convince yourself a cash crunch just happened to you: Benson walks... First Round Review Article · 15 min read The 5 Early Mistakes That Almost Killed This Founder's Startup, and How He Survived Clark Benson (Founder and CEO, Ranker)
  18. This is the runway math done in rupees, for the Indian founder, so you plan for 18 to 24 months instead of discovering a hole.... Treelife Article · 20 min read Burn Rate and Runway Calculation for Startups in India: The Complete Guide Treelife
  19. This is the fill-in-the-blank machine for the tagline itself. It teaches Steve Blank's 'we help X do Y by doing Z' formula and... Help Scout Article · 10 min read How to Write a Value Proposition (+ 6 Modern Examples) Help Scout team
  20. You asked for annotated real title slides from funded startups, and this is the deepest running archive of exactly that:... TechCrunch Article · 15 min read per teardown Pitch Deck Teardown (TechCrunch series) Haje Jan Kamps
  21. CRV is a top-tier US fund, and this piece draws the exact line your question asks about: it states plainly that detailed... CRV Article · 15 min read What Investors Look For in a Pitch Deck (Seed & Series A) CRV
  22. It walks one worked example (a specialty foods company) all the way down the funnel and, crucially, builds SOM bottom-up from... TechCrunch Article · 9 min read How to calculate your startup's TAM, SAM and SOM Marjorie Radlo-Zandi
  23. When your market slide claims a sector is heating up, this is the citeable proof point: India's VC market hit ~$16 billion in... Bain & Company Article · 30 min read India Venture Capital Report 2026 Bain & Company and Indian Venture and Alternate Capital Association
  24. This is the clearest breakdown of the two-decks-from-one-file idea, and it teaches with real artifacts, not theory: it puts... VIP Graphics Article · 9 min read Reader Decks vs. Presenter Decks: Which One Do You Actually Need? VIP Graphics

Show the next 24

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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