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.

The short HBR version of Wasserman's research if you do not want the whole book. It lays out the rich versus king tradeoff... Harvard Business Review Article · 10 min read The Founder's Dilemma Noam Wasserman
This is the benchmark data you need for the early engineer side of the question. Carta shows real grant sizes by hire number... Carta Article · 12 min read How much equity should I give early employees? Carta
A full handbook on option pools and employee grants built on data from thousands of startups. It answers the practical... Index Ventures Article · handbook Rewarding Talent Index Ventures
A practical system for balancing salary and equity so comp stops being a recurring negotiation. It helps you decide how much... First Round Review Article · 15 min read A Counterintuitive System for Startup Compensation Molly Graham
A focused guide on the early employee side: how to size grants for your first several hires and set up the option pool. It... Pear VC Article · 12 min read How to Structure Startup Equity for Early Hires Pear VC
From an India and Southeast Asia cap table platform, this walks through the common approaches to splitting between co-founders... Qapita Article · 10 min read How to Navigate a Cofounder Equity Split Successfully Qapita
A clean, practical checklist from an accelerator that has seen thousands of teams: how to run the split conversation, why equal... Techstars Article · 9 min read How to Split Co-Founder Equity (The Right Way) Techstars
This is the clearest statement of the exact idea in our answer: a spec describes how the product works entirely from the user's... Joel on Software Essay · 10 min read Painless Functional Specifications, Part 2: What's a Spec? Joel Spolsky
Part 2 tells you what a spec is, this one covers who writes it and how they build agreement without authority, walking through... Joel on Software Essay · 12 min read Painless Functional Specifications, Part 3: But... How? Joel Spolsky
The healthy counterweight to over documenting. 37signals argues that a thick spec creates false agreement (everyone reads the... Getting Real (37signals) Essay · 6 min read There's Nothing Functional about a Functional Spec 37signals
Cagan, the most cited voice in product management, makes the case that a clickable prototype communicates intent better than a... Silicon Valley Product Group Essay · 8 min read Revisiting the Product Spec Marty Cagan
A simple, powerful sentence template for describing what a user is trying to do: when [situation], I want to [motivation], so I... Intercom Blog Article · 8 min read How we accidentally invented Job Stories Paul Adams
Story mapping is the technique for laying out the user's journey left to right and slicing off the smallest first version,... Jeff Patton & Associates Essay · 20 min read User Story Mapping Jeff Patton
A plain, practical guide to the as a user, I want, so that format that lets you describe features without a shred of technical... Atlassian Agile Coach Article · 10 min read User Stories with Examples and a Template Atlassian
This is the whole thesis in one story. Reed, a non-technical founder, stitched together Typeform, Stripe, and a simple site to... Tara Reed, Lean Startup Co. Article · 12 min read How I Built My Startup Kollecto With No Code Tara Reed
A clear, credible how-to for a non-technical founder building a first MVP without hiring anyone. It maps common no-code tools... Harvard Innovation Labs Article · 10 min read No-Code, No Problem: Building Your First MVP Without an Engineer Harvard Innovation Labs
This grounds the whole idea in the Indian context, where founders in cities beyond the metros are launching products without a... Scroll.in Article · 12 min read India's no-code boom has empowered a new wave of entrepreneurs Scroll.in
Spolsky shows why big vague tasks hide the truth and why breaking work into small pieces surfaces real progress. That is the... Joel on Software Essay Painless Software Schedules Joel Spolsky
An investor lays out the real risks of handing your core build to an agency: lost knowledge, agency incentives for speed over... Chris Neumann Essay Why I Don't Invest in 'Outsourced' Startups Chris Neumann
A practical breakdown of how to tie payments to milestones with objective acceptance criteria and a holdback so the agency... Genie AI Article Milestone-Based Payment Structures: Protecting Your Investment When You Outsource Custom Software Development Will Bond
This one focuses on the money mechanics: deposits, per milestone releases, retention amounts, and review windows. It supports... Genie AI Article Negotiating Payment Terms in Software Design and Development Services Contracts Genie AI
An Indian payments company's practical playbook on structuring milestone payments, including proof of completion and review... Skydo Article Milestone Payments: Meaning, System, Templates and Playbook Skydo
Even if you never use Upwork, this shows a working milestone model: fund one milestone at a time, review the submitted work,... Upwork Article Understanding Milestones on Fixed-Price Contracts Upwork
Makes the case for a small paid trial before a big engagement, which is exactly your cheap first milestone. It explains how a... FreeUp Article How to Use a Test Project to Vet Freelancers FreeUp

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 →