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 calm, stage aware walkthrough of when to ignore debt and when it starts to matter. It makes the point that before product... Cockroach Labs Article How to handle early startup technical debt Michelle Gienow
  2. A concise, credible reference on why cutting work into small pieces speeds up feedback and lowers risk. Use it to justify... DORA (Google Cloud) Article · ~10 min read Working in small batches DORA (Google Cloud)
  3. A tight, opinionated page on shrinking features to their smallest working version and shipping that first. It gives you a... Linear Method Article · ~5 min read Scope projects down Linear Method
  4. A short investor essay arguing for shipping internal betas to your team on a regular weekly basis to keep momentum. It... Medium Essay · ~7 min read Development Cadence Megan Quinn
  5. Traynor's cupcake metaphor says your first version should be small but whole and enjoyable, a real cupcake rather than a slice... Des Traynor, Intercom Blog Article · 5 min read Start with a cupcake Des Traynor
  6. The Kano model separates must-be features (whose absence causes real anger) from delighters (whose absence nobody notices yet).... Wikipedia Article · 10 min read Kano Model Wikipedia
  7. A hands on walkthrough of the unglamorous middle step, putting every piece of feedback in one place, tagging it, and rolling it... Intercom Article Customer feedback strategy: How to collect, analyze, and take action Intercom
  8. Traynor describes finding fit by looking for clusters of demand, groups of customers pulling for the same underlying thing,... Underscore VC Article How Intercom Uses Clusters of Demand to Find Product-Market Fit Des Traynor
  9. Gilad's work is about ranking ideas by the strength of the evidence behind them, not by who shouted loudest. His Confidence... itamargilad.com Book Evidence-Guided: Creating High Impact Products in the Face of Uncertainty Itamar Gilad
  10. Kano gives you a vocabulary for why exciting features can mislead you: delighters add satisfaction, but missing basics... Interaction Design Foundation Article The Kano Model Interaction Design Foundation
  11. Google's error budget is the most rigorous version of the one third rule: define how much unreliability you can tolerate, and... Google SRE Book Article Embracing Risk (Error Budgets) Google SRE Team
  12. Cagan draws the line between teams measured by output (features shipped) and teams measured by outcomes (problems solved). If... Silicon Valley Product Group (SVPG) Article Product vs Feature Teams Marty Cagan
  13. Cagan draws the line between discovery (figuring out what is worth building) and delivery (building it), and argues most waste... Silicon Valley Product Group Article · ~12 min read Product Discovery Marty Cagan
  14. A raw, honest founder account of using building as a way to avoid the scarier work of selling and talking to strangers. It puts... Indie Hackers Thread · ~8 min read I've been building for months and made $0. The honest psychological reason. Indie Hackers
  15. A practical checklist drawn from many product leaders on the exact question of when a feature has earned its removal. It gives... Lenny's Newsletter Article · 10 min read When to sunset a feature Lenny Rachitsky
  16. A product team's honest account of the ongoing cost every shipped feature adds to engineering, design, support, and the next... HubSpot Product Blog Article · 7 min read On Killing It by Killing Features Daria Marmer
  17. This treats unshipping as a craft with real upside, not just cleanup, and shows how to use usage data to decide what goes. It... Mixpanel Article · 9 min read The art of removing features and products Neil Rahilly
  18. Written for solo and small-team founders, this makes the case that saying no and removing features is a survival advantage when... The Bootstrapped Founder Essay · 10 min read The Power of Omission: Killing Features for Fun and Profit Arvid Kahl
  19. The step-by-step operational side of your question: once you have decided to kill a feature, how do you actually retire it... Product Teacher Article · 9 min read How to Deprecate a Feature Clement Kao
  20. This gives you the simple two-axis map (how many people use a feature, and how often) that turns a gut feeling into a picture... Intercom Article · 6 min read Prioritising Features: Who'll Use It and How Often (the Feature Audit) Des Traynor
  21. A short, practical answer on how to actually decline feature requests and keep the product lean, including their line that you... Signal v. Noise Article · 5 min read Ask 37signals: How do you say no? Jason Fried
  22. A practical playbook for the part founders fear most: removing a feature while keeping the few users who relied on it on your... airfocus Article · 9 min read How to kill product features without losing customers Andrei Tiburca
  23. A practical piece on the exact failure mode where each big customer gets their own custom feature and the product fragments... The Startup (Kit Merker) Essay · 8 min read How to Avoid the Per-Customer Feature Trap Kit Merker
  24. A grounded take on the real risk sitting under your question: when one customer is half your revenue, losing them can halve the... SaaStr (Jason Lemkin) Article · 7 min read Customer Concentration is Definitely a Risk. But It's Probably OK. Jason Lemkin

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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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