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.

This is the piece that names portfolio founders as the single strongest intro path and then ranks every other channel below it... OpenVC Article · 15 min read How to get warm intros to VCs OpenVC
Beyond the intro itself, this manual gives you the operating system around it: a shared tracker with an owner assigned to every... NFX Essay · 40 min read The NFX Fundraising Manual NFX
This is the operating manual for the group you want to start yourself. It gives you the exact numbers to decide on before your... Forbes Article · 9 min read 9 Things To Know Before You Start Your Own Mastermind Sarah Kathleen Peck
A founder describing his actual peer group, not a coach selling a framework. Klenk ran a group that met every one to two months... Medium (Passbase CEO) Essay · 7 min read The importance of a founder peer group Mathias Klenk
The Indian reality is that the strongest peer groups live on WhatsApp, not on Slack or a paid platform, and they form around a... TICE News Article · 6 min read How WhatsApp Groups Are Powering India's Next-Gen Founders TICE Editorial
This is the exact playbook the answer describes, spelled out step by step: research 10-15 attendees before you go, send 3-5... Growing Partners Article · 12 min read An Introvert's Guide to Killer Conference Networking Growing Partners
Written by a VC firm for founders, this is the method for the 15-minute coffee the answer tells you to book. Keep it to 30... Hustle Fund (Hustle Commons) Article · 8 min read How to Run a Great Coffee Meeting Hustle Fund
A tight, credible framing of the core bet the answer makes: stop trying to work the room and instead play to introvert... Fast Company Article · 7 min read The Introvert's Networking Playbook Fast Company
Written by a fund built entirely around go-to-market, so it treats sales/hiring/pricing as distinct functional problems, not... Stage 2 Capital Article · 10 min read Startup Founders: How to Find the Right Advisor for Your Business Liz Christo
An Indian founder's actual sequenced roadmap, not theory: stay lean in India (2 to 3 founders, burn under 3,000 dollars a... Inc42 Article · 8 min read A Playbook For Indian Founders Building Global Businesses Pranay Srinivasan
This is the anatomy of the ask that actually gets answered in an alumni channel. Iskold, a founder and now VC, hands you the... Startup Hacks Article · 7 min read How to ask me (and others) for an intro Alex Iskold
The clearest breakdown of how the best-run alumni network on earth actually delivers hires, customers, investor intros, and... Horizon Labs Article · 12 min read How Bookface (YC) Helps Early-Stage Founders Thrive Horizon Labs
This is the discipline that keeps an alumni network from going cold: show up for other people first. Ranadive distills Adam... Medium Article · 9 min read Be a Giver: Think of Others and Get Ahead Ameet Ranadive
This is the Indian founder's version of the same warning, with names attached. It states plainly that chasing celebrity mentors... Inc42 Article · 10 min read How The Right Mentoring Can Boost Startup Success Inc42 Staff
Traynor gives you a simple two axis test: how many people have the problem, and how often does it hurt. Ideas that are both... ycombinator.com Article · about 8 min read Be Wary of Solving a Small, Rare Problem Des Traynor (Intercom)
A detailed, honest set of notes on The Mom Test from a founder's point of view, with the best example questions pulled out. A... mtlynch.io Article · 15 min read The Mom Test book report Michael Lynch
A former Stripe and Twitter operator, now an investor, on why, when, and how to interview customers. Practical and concise on... Uncork Capital (Medium) Article · 12 min read Get out of the building: Why, when, and how to interview your customers Amy Saper
This tackles the how many question head on with a level head. It makes the case that below five conversations you cannot trust... Kromatic Article · 10 min read How Many Customer Interviews Are Enough? The Pre-Testing Sweet Spot Kromatic
Rachitsky pulls together practical guidance on how to run user interviews that actually move you toward fit, including who to... Lenny's Newsletter (Lenny Rachitsky) Article · 15 min read Interviewing users for product-market fit Lenny Rachitsky
A quick, scannable checklist for running interviews well, covering open-ended questions, avoiding leading the witness, and... ProductPlan Article · 10 min read 9 Tips for Better Customer Validation Interviews ProductPlan
A validation walkthrough written for the Indian context, covering landing pages, coming soon fake doors, and pre orders with... Salaah School of Startups Article · ~12 min read How to Validate Your Startup Idea in India Salaah School of Startups
The most common way founders fool themselves about PMF is believing the next feature will fix weak retention. Chen shows with... andrewchen.com Essay · ~1,800 words The Next Feature Fallacy Andrew Chen
Olsen gives you a full framework (the Product-Market Fit Pyramid) for getting to fit deliberately rather than by luck: target... Dan Olsen (dan-olsen.com) Book · ~336 pages The Lean Product Playbook Dan Olsen
Blank widens pivot beyond product to any of the nine parts of your business model, which helps you find the one big thing to... steveblank.com (Steve Blank) Essay · ~8 min read Do Pivots Matter? (What's a Pivot?) Steve Blank

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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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