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. Bush's straight line onboarding and bowling alley frameworks are built to strip steps and shrink time to value. He gives you a... Wes Bush (ProductLed) Book Product-Led Growth: How to Build a Product That Sells Itself Wes Bush
  2. A structured guide to diagnosing and fixing onboarding from one of the most respected growth education teams. It helps you map... Reforge Article Optimize new user onboarding Reforge
  3. A pointed case study in obvious labels over clever ones. A vague "Get Started" button reads as friendly but leaves people... Nielsen Norman Group Article · ~6 min read "Get Started" Stops Users Aurora Harley and Kim Flaherty
  4. Eye tracking evidence for how people actually scan a screen, which tells you where to put the things that matter. If your... Nielsen Norman Group Article · ~12 min read F-Shaped Pattern of Reading on the Web: Misunderstood, But Still Relevant Kara Pernice
  5. A former Facebook design VP walks through how to look at a screen and judge whether it works, from first impression to first... Julie Zhuo (The Year of the Looking Glass) Essay · ~12 min read How to Do a Product Critique Julie Zhuo
  6. Norman's own short essay on the idea that decides whether a control looks usable: affordances and signifiers. It is the crisp,... Don Norman (jnd.org) Essay · ~10 min read Affordances and Design Don Norman
  7. Concrete evidence for what originality in the wrong place actually costs. It shows how novel patterns confuse users and slow... Nielsen Norman Group Article · 8 min read Breaking Web Design Conventions = Breaking the User Experience Katie Sherwin
  8. This separates internal consistency (within your product) from external consistency (matching the wider world of apps your... Nielsen Norman Group Article · 7 min read Maintain Consistency and Adhere to Standards (Usability Heuristic #4) Nielsen Norman Group
  9. Argues for stripping the interface down to essentials, which pairs neatly with copying conventions: keep the common parts quiet... Nielsen Norman Group Article · 7 min read Aesthetic and Minimalist Design (Usability Heuristic #8) Therese Fessenden
  10. Alex Russell, a Chrome engineer, puts hard numbers on what most of the world's phones can actually do, and the gap between them... Infrequently Noted (Alex Russell) Essay · Long read The Performance Inequality Gap, 2024 Alex Russell
  11. Every kilobyte of JavaScript costs far more on a cheap phone than on your machine, because the phone has to download it and... Addy Osmani (Dev Channel, Medium) Article · 20 min read The Cost Of JavaScript Addy Osmani
  12. A small download is the first thing a data conscious user notices, and the official guide is the practical how to: app bundles,... Android Developers Article · Reference Reduce your app size Android Developers
  13. This is the developer side of the entry level phone: an OS tuned for 4GB RAM and under, with guidance on optimizing your app to... Android Developers Article · Guide hub Android (Go edition) and Build for Billions Android Developers
  14. Facebook made its engineers spend an hour every Tuesday on a simulated 2G connection so they would feel what most of their... Engineering at Meta Article · Short read Building for emerging markets: the story behind 2G Tuesdays Meta Engineering
  15. Instead of shipping the same heavy page to everyone, you can detect the connection and serve lighter images or defer non... web.dev (Google) Article · 15 min read Adaptive serving based on network quality Google Chrome team
  16. A focused, code first companion on reading the user's connection (and even their data saver preference) and adjusting what you... AddyOsmani.com Article · 12 min read Adaptive Serving using JavaScript and the Network Information API Addy Osmani
  17. Mismatched and default fonts are one of the loudest amateur tells, and this fixes them in ten minutes. Butterick gives you... Butterick's Practical Typography Article · ~10 min read Typography in ten minutes Matthew Butterick
  18. The most common amateur tell is inconsistent, random spacing, and a spacing scale is the cure. This explains how sizing every... Built to Adapt (Medium) Article · ~8 min read Intro to the 8-Point Grid System Elliot Dahl
  19. Generous whitespace is half of the short answer, and this explains both macro and micro space clearly. You learn why breathing... Interaction Design Foundation Article The Power of White Space in Design Interaction Design Foundation
  20. Obvious is one of India's most respected product design studios, and their blog distills over a decade of building simple, well... Obvious (India product design studio) Article Obvious blog Obvious (India product design studio)
  21. Polish is mostly restraint, and this lays out practical ways to strip a design down. It helps you resist the urge to add more... Interaction Design Foundation Article Simplicity in Design: 4 Ways to Achieve Simplicity Interaction Design Foundation
  22. This is the single most practical book written entirely about the tiny words in your product (buttons, error messages, empty... microcopybook.com (Nemala) Book · ~350 pages Microcopy: The Complete Guide Kinneret Yifrah
  23. Kate Kiefer Lee shaped Mailchimp's famous voice, and this book teaches you to write clear, human interface and product copy and... nicelysaid.co Book · ~272 pages Nicely Said: Writing for the Web with Style and Purpose Nicole Fenton and Kate Kiefer Lee
  24. Most error copy is written for the calm, ideal user, and this short book forces you to design for the stressed, distracted,... A Book Apart Book · ~132 pages Design for Real Life Eric Meyer and Sara Wachter-Boettcher

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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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