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. Sign-up and checkout forms are where founders lose users, and this piece is a focused rulebook for the error text on exactly... Nielsen Norman Group Article · ~14 min read How to Report Errors in Forms: 10 Design Guidelines Rachel Krause (Nielsen Norman Group)
  2. A button or link label makes a promise, and this article gives you a simple test for whether it will be kept: specific,... Nielsen Norman Group Article · ~8 min read Better Link Labels: 4 Ss for Encouraging Clicks Kate Moran (Nielsen Norman Group)
  3. The UK government writes for millions of people in hard moments, and their public guidance is one of the best free sources on... GOV.UK Service Manual Article · ~10 min read Writing for user interfaces GOV.UK / Government Digital Service
  4. Apple's writing foundation is short, opinionated, and free, and it states the button rule plainly: almost always use a verb,... Apple Human Interface Guidelines Article · ~10 min read Writing Apple
  5. Shopify's design system spells out how to phrase actions for merchants running a business, which is close to what many founders... Shopify Polaris Article · ~6 min read Content design: Actionable language Shopify
  6. Google's content design guidance is a free, thorough reference for clear UI writing, including the classic rule of naming the... Material Design 3 (Google) Article · ~12 min read Content design overview Google
  7. Saito was the first UX writer at YouTube and a writer at Dropbox, and this widely read essay shows how a few well-chosen words... UX Collective (John Saito) Essay · ~8 min read The magic of microcopy John Saito
  8. Written by an India-based UX writer, this piece is a useful reality check on why product copy still gets ignored at many Indian... UX Content Collective Article · ~8 min read UX writing is on the rise in India Sidika Sehgal
  9. Practical guidance from someone who has placed many founding designers, on when the hire actually pays off and how to run the... Andy Budd Article How to Hire Your First Founding Designer (and Not Regret It Later) Andy Budd
  10. The counterargument worth hearing: that a strong designer earns their keep before polish, by shaping the product around real... Andy Budd Essay Everyone Talks About Product-Market Fit. A Good Designer Can Help You Find It. Andy Budd
  11. A calm, structured walkthrough of hiring your first designer: what to look for, how to scope the role, and how to evaluate... Designer Fund Article A Founder's Guide to Hiring your First Designer Heather Phillips
  12. From a former Facebook VP of Design, this clarifies what senior design judgment actually buys you, which is the "taste" you... The Looking Glass Essay How to Spot a World-Class Designer Julie Zhuo
  13. This backs the core of your answer: trust the emotion, not the diagnosis. Nielsen argues you should watch what users do rather... Nielsen Norman Group Essay First Rule of Usability? Don't Listen to Users Jakob Nielsen
  14. This is the bridge from a diagnosed problem to a concrete design change. The When / I want to / So I can format forces you to... Intercom Blog Article Designing Features Using Job Stories Alan Klement / Intercom
  15. A thorough, free guide to the full range of usability tests, from moderated sessions to unmoderated remote tasks and... Maze Article Usability Testing Guide Maze
  16. Very often clunky means slow, and slow is as much about perception as raw milliseconds. This explains how loading states,... MDN Web Docs Article Perceived Performance MDN Web Docs
  17. If any of your users read Urdu, Arabic, or another right to left script, your whole layout may need to mirror, and this is the... Material Design 3 Article · 10 min read Bidirectionality and RTL Google Material Design
  18. A practical designer facing walkthrough of building interfaces that survive translation, including how languages fall into... Material Design 3 Article · 12 min read Principles and Techniques for Effective Localization Google Material Design
  19. Your short answer says never bury the language switch, and this is the definitive piece on getting that one control right. It... Smashing Magazine Article · 20 min read Designing A Perfect Language Selector UX Vitaly Friedman
  20. A tighter, pattern focused companion to the language selector deep dive, good when you just want the checklist. It covers... Smart Interface Design Patterns Article · 10 min read Language Selector UX (Smart Interface Design Patterns) Vitaly Friedman
  21. Written from inside an Indian VC firm that has watched many vernacular products grow, this argues that building for Bharat... Lightspeed Venture Partners Essay · 12 min read Building Multi-lingual Products for India Harsha Kumar
  22. When you are ready to think about the engineering, this shows how a product serving 62 languages keeps text out of the code and... The Airbnb Tech Blog Article · 15 min read Building Airbnb's Internationalization Platform Hua Zheng
  23. Your short answer warns that translated text is often longer, and this piece shows exactly how that breaks buttons, menus, and... SimpleLocalize Article · 8 min read Why Text Expansion Breaks Your UI and How to Fix It SimpleLocalize
  24. The authoritative, vendor neutral starter checklist from the group that maintains web standards. It is short and covers the non... W3C Article · 5 min read Internationalization Quick Tips for the Web W3C Internationalization

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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