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 serial founder makes the exact call you should make for your first seats: hire generalists until product-market fit, because... Mean CEO (STARTUP POV) Essay · 14 min read Generalists vs. Specialists: Which Should You Hire First in Your Startup? Violetta Bonenkamp
  2. A ready-to-use question bank grouped by the traits that separate a generalist first hire from a specialist: adaptability,... DigitalOcean Article · 15 min read 40 Startup Interview Questions to Ask Potential Hires DigitalOcean
  3. Lemkin gives you the exact sequencing this question needs: close 10 to 20 customers yourself first, then hire two reps (not... SaaStr Article · 6 min read Dear SaaStr: When Should a Startup Hire its First Sales Person, and What Should Their Profile Look Like? Jason Lemkin
  4. Your early rep has to hunt cold, not coast on warm inbound, and this piece hands you the concrete tells: the true hunter chases... Peak Sales Recruiting Article · 9 min read Hunter vs. Farmer in Sales: Empowering Your Team for Long-Term Success Peak Sales Recruiting
  5. This is the India-specific explainer you hand a candidate who has never held equity. It defines pool, vesting (typically 3 to 4... Razorpay Article · 15 min read ESOP for Startups in India: Benefits, Legal Framework, Costs, & Taxation Razorpay Learn
  6. The canonical answer to the sequencing question: do not hire a go-to-market specialist before you know what drives growth.... First Round Review Article · 15 min read When to Make Your First Sales Hire: Expert Guide for Startup Founders First Round Review
  7. The most concrete guide on the specific role our answer names: the founder's associate, the high-agency generalist you hire to... Jumpstart Article · 12 min read Startup Guide to Hiring a Founder's Associate Jumpstart
  8. This is the India proof of the answer's edge: great people in smaller cities are underpriced and overlooked, and hiring them is... Zoho Article · 15 min read Rural Revival: building world-class products from small towns Sridhar Vembu / Zoho
  9. This is the India-specific pre-day-one checklist you actually run down: it names the offer letter and employment contract (with... ClearTax Article · 10 min read Recruiting Your First Few Employees ClearTax
  10. Where the ClearTax piece is the hiring checklist, this Razorpay Rize guide gives you the whole compliance surface your first... Razorpay Rize Article · 15 min read Startup Compliance Guide: What Every Founder Should Know Razorpay Rize
  11. This is the direct answer to the 'can't I just run them as a consultant on invoices?' temptation. It lays out the control,... Deel Article · 12 min read India Employee Misclassification: Risks and Best Practices Deel
  12. Lopp ran People Ops at Palantir and Pinterest, and his one non-negotiable rule is the one that saves a five-person team: a... First Round Review Article · 18 min read The Best Approach to the Worst Conversation: How to Fire Someone Michael Lopp (Rands)
  13. Dalgaard, who founded SuccessFactors and sold it to SAP for 3.7 billion dollars, makes the case you need to actually pull the... Andreessen Horowitz (a16z) Essay · 12 min read It's Never Too Early to Fire Lars Dalgaard
  14. The canonical piece for avoiding exactly the vanity-title trap you warn against. It caps the role at about 20% admin work (so... a16z Article · 15 min read How to Hire a Chief of Staff Andreessen Horowitz (a16z)
  15. This is the reference implementation of your thesis: the handbook IS the process, not a description of it. GitLab's rule that... GitLab Handbook Article · browse 30 min The GitLab Handbook (and the Handbook-First Approach) GitLab
  16. This is the 'why does nobody read our handbook' guide, and it names the real failure mode: fewer than 1 in 20 docs get updated... Slite Article · 15 min read Internal Documentation: How to Build Docs Your Team Actually Reads Slite
  17. This is the anti-overspend stack argued out loud: Google Workspace, Notion free, Google Chat, Canva free, one accounting tool,... Medium Article · 9 min read The SaaS Tools I'd Give Every New Startup on Day One Jackki Ashgrove
  18. This is the India-specific answer to which HR and payroll tools founders actually run: it names Keka, Zoho People, and... Razorpay Rize Article · 14 min read HR Policies: Best Practices For Start-Ups In India Razorpay Rize
  19. This is the exact 'replace gut-feel culture fit with a scored values interview' playbook your answer describes. It hands you a... First Round Review Article · 20 min read Develop Your Hiring System Like a Product to Eliminate Bias and Boost Retention First Round Review (interview with Ashley Williams, ex-SendGrid engineering leader)
  20. This is your ready-made behavioral question bank, built around seven traits (grit, rigor, impact, teamwork, ownership,... First Round Review Article · 18 min read Hire a Top Performer Every Time with These Interview Questions First Round Review (featuring Kristen Hamilton, Koru)
  21. This names the exact trap in the Indian hiring context: 'culture fit' becomes a socially acceptable filter on surname, region,... Business Today Article · 5 min read Companies hire for comfort: startup founder slams flawed recruitment culture in India that stifles innovation Business Today (reporting founder Amit Gupta)
  22. Rachitsky ran 50-plus reviews at Airbnb and turned it into a Prepare, Deliver, Follow-up system he explicitly says is for... First Round Review Article · 20 min read The Power of Performance Reviews: Use This System to Become a Better Manager Lenny Rachitsky
  23. This is the founder-sized version of Radical Candor: a four-step order of operations (Get, Give, Gauge, Encourage) that starts... Radical Candor Article · 15 min read How to Get and Give Feedback Using the Radical Candor Order of Operations Kim Scott (Radical Candor team)
  24. Written by a manager who has actually done it, so it reads like a playbook, not theory: prep your talking points in bullets,... Medium (The Innovation) Article · 9 min read How to Fire Someone With Dignity Shannon Z

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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