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. If you read one chapter, this is the core argument: doing less is a feature, not a compromise. It helps you strip your MVP down... Basecamp (37signals) Article Getting Real: Build Less Jason Fried, David Heinemeier Hansson
  2. Twitter Lite is roughly 600KB over the wire versus a 23.5MB native install, and it grew engagement in emerging markets on flaky... web.dev (Google) Article Twitter Lite increases engagement and reduces data usage web.dev (Google)
  3. A concise checklist for making a web app feel native: cross browser, offline capable, responsive, and fast. Use it to judge... web.dev (Google) Article What makes a good Progressive Web App? web.dev (Google)
  4. The neutral, vendor free reference on what a PWA is and can do, from the people who document the web. It helps you separate... MDN Web Docs (Mozilla) Article Progressive Web Apps (overview) MDN Web Docs (Mozilla)
  5. The concrete how to for giving your web app a home screen icon without the app store, which removes most of the install... MDN Web Docs (Mozilla) Article Making PWAs installable MDN Web Docs (Mozilla)
  6. Hard numbers on how much users resent being forced to install an app for something a web page could do. It quantifies the... Forbes Article 91% Of Us Hate Being Forced To Install Apps To Do Business John Koetsier
  7. A short, opinionated guide to tracking the events that actually matter, your growth events like signup, activation, and... PostHog Docs Article · Short read Product analytics best practices PostHog Docs
  8. A hands on walkthrough of capturing events, from autocapture to naming custom events for the moments you care about. It is... PostHog Tutorials Article · Medium read Complete guide to event tracking PostHog Tutorials
  9. A tracking plan is the single document that keeps your analytics from rotting into noise. This guide shows how to define events... Amplitude Blog Article · Long read How to create a tracking plan Amplitude Blog
  10. If you only read one piece on this question, make it this one. Caudill studies six real cases (Netscape, Basecamp, VS Code,... herbcaudill.com Essay · 25 min read Rewrite, refactor, or reinvent? Lessons from 6 software rewrite stories Herb Caudill
  11. A short, blunt warning from the creator of Rails. DHH argues that rewriting a working application from scratch in one big bang... dhh.dk Article · 5 min read Thinking about The Big Rewrite? David Heinemeier Hansson
  12. This is the source of the second-system effect, the exact failure mode in your question. Brooks describes how the second system... Addison-Wesley (Fred Brooks) Book · 336 pages The Mythical Man-Month: Essays on Software Engineering Frederick P. Brooks Jr.
  13. 37signals argues for building less software and starting from the core of the product rather than the frame. That philosophy... 37signals (Getting Real) Article · 6 min read Getting Real: Epicenter Design 37signals
  14. A two minute read that reframes the whole copying question. Sivers puts numbers on it: a brilliant idea with no execution is... Derek Sivers (sive.rs) Essay · ~3 min read Ideas are just a multiplier of execution Derek Sivers
  15. This is the open-source-as-growth playbook told by a founder who lived it, aimed at products where developers are the users.... PostHog Article · ~15 min read How we got our first 1,000 users James Hawkins
  16. If you're seriously weighing open-sourcing your MVP, this lays out what that path actually demands. It walks through... Andreessen Horowitz (a16z) Article · ~20 min read Open Source: From Community to Commercialization Peter Levine, Jennifer Li
  17. Nadh is the CTO of Zerodha and maintainer of widely used open-source projects like listmonk, so he speaks from years of running... Kailash Nadh (nadh.in) Essay · ~10 min read "Open source" is not broken Kailash Nadh
  18. A clear primer on the types of moats so you can honestly assess how defensible your edge is, which is the final weigh-in your... CRV Article · ~12 min read What Is a Moat? The Startup Guide to Building Competitive Advantage CRV
  19. A useful counterweight that takes the copycat risk seriously in the AI era, when cloning a visible product is faster than ever.... The VC Corner Article · ~10 min read Building in Public Is Not What It Used To Be The VC Corner
  20. A detailed teardown of how one company turned open source into a growth and trust engine rather than a giveaway to rivals. It... How They Grow Article · ~20 min read How PostHog Grows: The Power of Being Open-Core Jaryd Hermann
  21. A two time unicorn founder gives you a diagnostic tree for stalled growth, including why 'too expensive' or 'confusing' is... Lenny's Newsletter (Jason Cohen) Article · 18 min read 5 questions to ask when your product stops growing Jason Cohen
  22. Watching sessions tells you the story; a cohort retention curve tells you the numbers, and this guide walks through building... Amplitude Article · 15 min read Cohort Retention Analysis: Essential Metrics Guide Amplitude
  23. Drawn from studying thousands of products, Chen argues you cannot bolt retention on later with notifications or tweaks; it... Andrew Chen Essay · 12 min read Why retention is so hard for new tech products Andrew Chen
  24. Karthik Sridharan bootstrapped Flexiple to over $1M ARR in India with almost all of its tech running on no-code tools like... Failory Article · ~15 min read How Flexiple Reached $1M ARR in 4 Years and $2M in 4 Months Karthik Sridharan

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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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