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. A focused guide to the milestone payment clause itself: how to tie amounts to deliverables, set review periods, and handle... fynk Article Milestone Payment Schedule: Essential Contract Clause Guide fynk
  2. A founder facing walk through of the whole engagement: brief, vet, contract, and launch, with a section on fixed price... icondevs Article How to Hire a Dev Agency: The Complete Founder Guide icondevs
  3. A checklist of the clauses that matter beyond price: scope, acceptance, IP, warranty, and termination. It helps you see a... Genie AI Article Essential Contract Clauses When Hiring a Custom Software Development Agency Genie AI
  4. A practitioner thread arguing over estimates, phases, and why 'almost done' is unreliable. It is worth skimming to hear working... Hacker News Thread Painless Software Schedules (2000): Practitioner Discussion Hacker News community
  5. Cooley is the law firm behind a huge share of venture-backed startups, and this short piece tells you exactly why your company... Cooley GO Article What You Need in Your Contractor Agreements Cooley LLP
  6. A plain founder-level explainer from a top startup law firm on why the person who writes the code owns it by default, and what... WilmerHale Launch Article Who Owns Your IP WilmerHale
  7. If your developer sits in France, Germany, the UK, or the US, this guide explains how code ownership actually works in each,... Orrick Article Intellectual Property Assignments from Software Developers (France, Germany, UK, US) Orrick, Herrington & Sutcliffe
  8. A clear walk-through of what an IP assignment agreement is and how ownership moves from a person to the company, covering... Stripe Article How to Assign Intellectual Property to a Business Stripe
  9. Atlas built this guide with Orrick, and its blunt advice is to get signed IP assignments from everyone who touches the company,... Stripe Atlas Article Employment (Stripe Atlas Guide) Stripe Atlas with Orrick
  10. The most practical piece on this list: it tells you to own the repository from day one, set up GitHub in your business name,... Captain Pragmatic Article Do You Need Source Code Escrow? (Probably Not, But Here's When You Do) Captain Pragmatic
  11. A working handbook with ready-to-use contractor agreements and sample IP assignment language, including a version written for... Nolo Book Consultant & Independent Contractor Agreements Stephen Fishman
  12. A free companion to Nolo's book that lays out the two tools you need: a work-for-hire clause where it applies, and an... Nolo Article How to Protect Your Intellectual Property Rights in Works Created By Contractors Nolo
  13. A concise lawyer's post on the single most common and most avoidable legal mistake early startups make: never securing clear IP... The IP Law Blog Article Who Really Owns Your Startup's IP? Jeffrey Pietsch, Weintraub Tobin
  14. Y Combinator's own primer on the legal machinery of a startup, including why everyone must assign IP to the company or there is... Y Combinator Startup Library Article Startup Legal Mechanics Y Combinator
  15. A corporate-counsel reference on why the work-for-hire doctrine frequently does not cover software, and how to structure... Association of Corporate Counsel Article Quick Counsel: Software Work for Hire (United States) Christopher T. Varas, Association of Corporate Counsel
  16. The Supreme Court case that turned on two words, and this article explains why "hereby assigns" beat "agrees to assign" and... The National Law Review Article Agree to Assign vs. Hereby Assign: In Stanford v. Roche, the Wording Decided Kevin W. McCabe, The National Law Review
  17. This gives concrete cost ranges by MVP type, from a landing page build up to a full app with backend and integrations, which is... Riolabz Article MVP Development Cost in India Riolabz
  18. The number that blows a build budget is rarely the first quote, it is the additions that pile on afterward. This piece explains... DECODE Article What Is Scope Creep and How Do You Avoid It DECODE
  19. Orosz builds a hiring process from role definition through to the final debrief, written by someone who has hired and been... The Pragmatic Engineer Article · 20 min read Hiring Software Engineers Gergely Orosz
  20. The single most valuable thing an outgoing agency has is context, the why behind the code, which is exactly what a codebase... Thoughtworks Article · 10 min read Lessons from Inheriting Another Team's Codebase Birgitta Bockeler
  21. A short, concrete checklist your new engineer can actually follow in their first weeks with an unfamiliar, agency built... Atomic Spin Article · 8 min read Four Steps for Inheriting a Codebase Tyler Hoffman
  22. Written for non technical founders, this explains what you are really inheriting when an agency hands over the code and how to... madewithlove Article · 15 min read Understanding and Managing Technical Debt and Legacy Code: A Guide for Founders Emma Williams
  23. A Django co creator's practical framing of technical debt as something to budget and manage continuously, not a crisis to panic... jacobian.org Article · 12 min read Managing Technical Debt Jacob Kaplan-Moss
  24. Newport's point is that accountability breaks down when work has no defined process and everyone just messages each other all... Cal Newport (Portfolio/Penguin) Book · ~320 pages A World Without Email Cal Newport

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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