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 what a calm founder looks like staring at his own existential risk. Kamath writes, plainly and in public, that over 80... Nithin Kamath (Substack) Essay · 6 min read Concentration risk in broking business Nithin Kamath
  2. This is the practical answer to 'define your own two or three metrics.' Tabb splits numbers into vanity metrics (downloads,... First Round Review Article · Medium read (about 15 min) I'm Sorry, But Those Are Vanity Metrics Lloyd Tabb (via First Round Review)
  3. Buechler was Y Combinator's in-house founder coach and therapist, so this is the rare piece written by someone who has sat... Scale Yourself (Amy Buechler) Article · 10 min read The Difference Between Coaching and Therapy (for Founders) Amy Buechler
  4. This is one of the earliest honest pieces from inside the Indian startup ecosystem to name founder depression out loud, with... YourStory Article · 8 min read Is Depression a Well-Guarded Secret in the Startup World? YourStory
  5. Most founders wave around 'strong opinions loosely held' as cover for never actually updating. Chin, writing from running his... Commoncog Essay · ~12 min read 'Strong Opinions, Weakly Held' Doesn't Work That Well Cedric Chin
  6. Feld, a founder and investor who has sat through decades of these conversations, names the trap: 'strong opinions loosely held'... Feld Thoughts Essay · ~5 min read Bad Entrepreneurial Cliches: Strong Opinions Loosely Held Brad Feld
  7. A concrete India case of a founder swallowing his own instinct. Kamath started Zerodha believing 'more people solve more... Business Today Article · ~4 min read Nithin Kamath reveals why Zerodha deliberately stayed a 1,000-person company Business Today
  8. It puts the double standard in real founders' own words: Ahana Gautam (Open Secret) told an investor who called her 'too... Forbes India Article · 12 min read This Is Me: Indian Women Founders Are Taking Up Space By Being Unapologetic Forbes India Staff
  9. Sairee Chahal built SHEROES because she saw the exact load you are carrying: a network where women talk about in-laws,... Inc42 Article · 15 min read Sairee Chahal: The SHEROES Story And Women Entrepreneurs In India Inc42 (interview with Sairee Chahal)
  10. Routledge built and wound down Sanctus, then wrote the piece almost nobody writes: the one that treats the end of a company as... James Routledge (founder of Sanctus) Essay · 6 min read Founder Startup Grief James Routledge
  11. This is a real founder's real weekly template, not a theory. Dorsey ran two companies by giving every day one job: Monday... Let's Reach Success Article · 7 min read Jack Dorsey's Daily Work Schedule That Helps Him Manage 2 Companies Lidiya Kesarovska
  12. This is the practical how-to behind our answer: it hands you the tools to actually find your peak window (Michael Breus's... Zapier Article · 12 min read Find your chronotype and schedule your productivity Deirdre Mundorf
  13. This is the cleanest statement of the exact move you need: stop treating a messaging channel as a live wire and start treating... calnewport.com Essay · 6 min read On the Surprising Benefits of an Un-Mobile Phone Cal Newport
  14. This is the researcher who coined attention residue explaining, in her own words, why answering one WhatsApp ping costs far... University of Washington Bothell School of Business Article · 8 min read Attention Residue (Sophie Leroy's research) Sophie Leroy
  15. This names your actual battlefield: the 9:30pm ping where the Indian workday pretends it is not over. It reports that 88% of... Open Magazine Essay · 10 min read After-Hours Work in Focus as India Debates Right to Disconnect Open Magazine editorial
  16. It hands you the one rule that keeps a solo stack from becoming a second job: automate what repeats, not what teaches you. That... Indie Hackers Article · 8 min read How solo founders are building profitable businesses from scratch Indie Hackers community
  17. Most 'learn to say no' advice stops at the sermon. This one hands you the actual sentences, 27 of them, so declining warmly and... The Async Newsletter (Twist / Doist) Article · 12 min read 27 tactful scripts for saying no to work meetings Becky Kane
  18. India's most respected bootstrapped founder built a profitable giant while guarding his attention hard: he shuts down work... antoinebuteau.com Article · 7 min read Lessons from Nithin Kamath, CEO of Zerodha Antoine Buteau
  19. This is the rare piece that gives you the actual number instead of vibes: plan a sprint to about 80% and hold 20% back as an... Boldstart Ventures Article · 10 min read How engineering teams handle unplanned work Anna Debenham
  20. Buffer time only works if the fires eventually get smaller, and this piece is about exactly that: how to stop reactive work... LeadDev Article · 9 min read How to break the cycle of firefighting LeadDev
  21. This is the E-Myth idea made measurable: Levels CEO Sam Corcos logged 7,922 hours across two years into ten categories and... First Round Review Article · 18 min read An Exact Breakdown of How One CEO Spent His First Two Years of Company-Building Sam Corcos (as told to First Round Review)
  22. The cleanest founder-written explainer of the E-Myth distinction, from a repeat founder (Pardot, exited to ExactTarget) rather... David Cummings on Startups Essay · 4 min read Working In the Business vs On the Business David Cummings
  23. Sparks cofounded Mattermark and Holloway, so this is a founder's actual playbook, not a coach's theory. He gives you the whole... Andy Sparks (Hoo Boy) Essay · 12 min read Conducting a Time Audit Andy Sparks
  24. This is the cleanest lightweight recipe to just start: track in 30-minute blocks against six named categories (revenue,... Founder's Best Friend Article · 10 min read The Founder's Time Audit: Where Your Hours Actually Go Founder's Best Friend

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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