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. The founder who built Zerodha treats sleep and movement as the infrastructure that lets him recover from setbacks faster, not... LinkedIn (Zerodha CEO) Article · ~4 min read My superpowers: health, fitness, and sleep Nithin Kamath
  2. When the startup has wrecked your body, a five day gym plan will fail by Thursday. Clear's fix is to shrink the habit until it... jamesclear.com Article · ~8 min read How to Stop Procrastinating by Using the 2-Minute Rule James Clear
  3. This is the rare India-specific piece that treats the spouse conversation as a joint plan, not a pitch. It gives you the exact... BeMoneyAware Article · 20 min read When Your Partner Wants to Quit a Stable Job to Start a Business: A Couple's Money Guide BeMoneyAware
  4. Almost every resource here speaks to the founder. This one speaks from the other chair: twenty years as the wife of an Indian... Medium Essay · 8 min read Startup-Wife Rambling Lakshmi Thampi
  5. The cleanest argument for why you should not let "founder" (or the name of your company) become the thing you are. Graham's... paulgraham.com Essay · 5 min read Keep Your Identity Small Paul Graham
  6. Colonna coached a generation of VC-backed founders through breakdowns, and his whole thesis is that burnout is not caused by... Inc. Article · 6 min read How to Detach Self-Worth From Leadership Decisions Jerry Colonna
  7. This is the piece that named the flat middle. Chen maps the exact stretch you are in: the launch hype is gone, product/market... andrewchen.com Essay · 12 min read After the TechCrunch Bump: Life in the Trough of Sorrow Andrew Chen
  8. This is the cleanest articulation of the exact move we are recommending: stop staring at the lagging revenue line and instead... Working Backwards (workingbackwards.com) Article · 15 min read Input Metrics: A Guide to Defining and Measuring the Drivers of Growth Colin Bryar and Bill Carr
  9. This is the investor reading the room from the other side of the table. Radlo-Zandi is explicit that 'flying solo' and... TechCrunch Article · 7 min read The art of the pivot: Work closely with investors to improve your odds Marjorie Radlo-Zandi (angel investor and entrepreneur)
  10. An Indian fintech case where the pivot is dramatic (consumer neo-bank to AI-led B2B) and the founder's public communication is... Value For Startups (valueforstartups.in) Article · 20 min read Fi Money Investor Report: $522M Peak to Shutdown Story Value For Startups (analysis of founder Sujith Narayanan's communication)
  11. This is the cleanest walkthrough of the seven concrete steps to strike off a Pvt Ltd via Form STK-2 (board resolution, special... IncorpX Article · ~15 min read How to Close or Strike Off a Company in India: Complete Guide (2026) IncorpX
  12. Where the first guide walks the STK-2 steps, this one is the pre-closure checklist that keeps the strike-off from bouncing:... IncorpX Article · ~12 min read How to Close a Company in India in 2026 (Complete Process Explained) Dhanush Prabha
  13. Winding down means paying people out correctly, and this is the guide that spells out the dual reconciliation founders get... Mynd Solutions Article · ~10 min read A Complete Guide to the Full and Final Settlement Process in India Mynd Solutions
  14. This is the term sheet clause that decides who gets the leftover cash first when you shut down, and this guide walks the exact... AngelList Article · 10 min read Liquidation Preference AngelList Education Center
  15. A real, recent Indian example of exactly the move we are recommending. After 3.5 years and $17.5M raised from Tiger Global,... Indian Startup News Article · 4 min read SaaS startup Toplyne shuts down, returns capital to investors Indian Startup News
  16. A plain-language map of exactly where your limited liability shield holds and where it cracks, which is the anxiety underneath... California Startup Law Firm Article · 8 min read Founder Liability: When Are You Personally on the Hook? California Startup Law Firm
  17. Horowitz did three layoffs at Loudcloud/Opsware and wrote the definitive playbook: managers lay off their own people (never HR,... Andreessen Horowitz (a16z) Essay · 12 min read The Right Way to Lay People Off Ben Horowitz
  18. This is the India-specific breakdown you owe your team: what full-and-final actually includes (unpaid salary, leave encashment,... Wisemonk Article · 15 min read Full and Final Settlement in India: 2026 Compliance Guide Wisemonk
  19. A real Indian founder announcing the shutdown of his own venture, in his own words, having stayed conservative enough with... LinkedIn Essay · 8 min read How we shut down Bluelearn and returned 70% of capital Harish Uthayakumar
  20. This is the sharpest answer to your exact question because it refuses to let 'pivot' mean 'any change.' It sorts pivots along... Kromatic Blog Article · 12 min read The Taxonomy of the Lean Startup Pivot Kromatic (Tristan Kromer)
  21. The Groww story is the India-specific proof of your thesis. The founders' 2016 robo-advisor never found fit, but before they... Contrary Research Article · 20 min read Groww: Business Breakdown and Founding Story Contrary Research
  22. This is the operator's manual for running an acqui-hire or asset sale when you are almost out of cash, which is exactly the... Kruze Consulting Article · 12 min read What is an Acqui-Hire? A Startup Guide Healy Jones, Kruze Consulting
  23. This is the rare honest, first-hand Indian founder account of engineering a soft landing instead of a hard shutdown, with the... Inverted Passion Essay · 15 min read 2024 Wrapped: Shutting Down Nintee and Returning Investor Money Paras Chopra
  24. This is the clearest breakdown of where the money and the IP actually go in an asset sale versus a wind-down, so you can see... Heavybit Article · 14 min read The Acqui-Hire Is No Longer a Distress Sale Heavybit

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
eChai Partner Brands The partnership →