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. Ali and Kubba give you a framework (money, intelligence, location, education, expertise, status, and luck) to audit the edges... Macmillan Book · 288 pages The Unfair Advantage: How You Already Have What It Takes to Succeed Ash Ali and Hasan Kubba
  2. Gil, who backed dozens of unicorns, names the founder traits he weights most and why. It is a concise investor-side view of... Elad Blog Article · 6 min read What Are The 2 Most Important Traits in An Entrepreneur? Elad Gil
  3. A clear explainer of why the earlier the stage, the more the decision rests on the founder rather than the numbers. It names... NTU TEC Article · 8 min read Why Early-Stage Investing Is So Often a Bet on the Founders NTU TEC
  4. This book makes the research-backed case that a different vantage point is not a handicap but a source of ideas that... Matthew Syed Book Rebel Ideas: The Power of Diverse Thinking Matthew Syed
  5. Nayar saw demand that the whole industry had written off, because she understood Indian women as customers in a way the... Forbes India Article Falguni Nayar: The Woman Who Redefined Beauty Retail in India Forbes India
  6. Alagh started from a problem she hit as a new mother in India, unable to find safe products for her son, and that specific... The Better India Article How Ghazal Alagh Built Mamaearth From a Mother's Concern The Better India
  7. Drawing on many founders who built outside the traditional hubs, this argues that being underestimated and under-resourced... Outsider Inc. Article The Outsider Playbook: Underestimated, Under-Resourced, and Built to Win Ian Hathaway
  8. A collection of blunt, practical advice from women who built real companies, much of it centered on treating your difference as... NewBeauty Article The Advice 20+ Female Founders Would Give the Next Generation NewBeauty
  9. A current investor argument that deep industry knowledge, not raw technical ability, is the durable advantage in vertical... CRV Article · 15 min read Vertical AI Companies: Why Domain Expertise Beats General AI CRV
  10. Haber argues that tools are now widely available, so the scarce ingredient is knowing what is actually useful inside a real... Andreessen Horowitz (a16z) Article · 10 min read Context is King David Haber
  11. A free, tactical operating manual for the founder skills you never practiced as an employee: making decisions fast, running... Matt Mochary (public Google Doc) Book · ~200 pages The Great CEO Within Matt Mochary
  12. Kevin Hale distills a pitch into seven questions investors need answered, and 'why this team' is one of them. Use it to place... Y Combinator Startup Library Article · ~15 min read How to Pitch Your Company Kevin Hale, Y Combinator
  13. A compact roundup of Dixon's startup thinking, including founder/market fit and why passion for a problem beats chasing a hot... Andreessen Horowitz Article · ~10 min read 12 Things I Learned from Chris Dixon about Startups Tren Griffin
  14. This frames founder-market fit as a team question and lists what a strong founding team should be able to answer together about... Techstars Article · ~8 min read High Performing Founding Teams: The Five Questions Every Rockstar Founding Team Can Answer Martin Schilling and Brian Daly
  15. A seed investor explains what he actually looks for as founder-market fit and how he weighs it across a whole team rather than... Tom Wilson (Medium) Article · ~9 min read Investing at Founder-Market Fit Tom Wilson
  16. Gil argues against overlapping expertise and for clear role division, warning that two people setting the same direction leads... Elad Gil (Elad Blog) Essay · ~8 min read How to Choose a Co-Founder Elad Gil
  17. Gil makes the case for co-founders splitting the company into clear areas of ownership so each person drives their domain... Elad Gil (Elad Blog) Article · ~6 min read Founders Should Divide and Conquer Elad Gil
  18. A useful counterweight that questions how much founder-market fit really predicts, arguing that great founders often pursue... Bessemer Venture Partners (Atlas) Article · ~12 min read A Brainstorming Framework for Aspiring Founders Adam Fisher
  19. This directly separates insight from years of experience, which matters when you are told you lack the standard background.... Medium (Paul Asel) Essay · 8 min read Experience vs. Insight: What Really Makes a Successful Founder? Paul Asel
  20. The written, citable version of the Kanze research, useful when you want the study details and the exact reframing tactic on... Harvard Business Review Article · 9 min read Male and Female Entrepreneurs Get Asked Different Questions by VCs (and It Affects How Much Funding They Get) Dana Kanze, Laura Huang, Mark Conley, E. Tory Higgins
  21. A YC partner's direct notes to women founders on self doubt, asking for what you need, and not shrinking the ambition. It... Y Combinator Essay · 7 min read From Self-Doubt to Starting Up: Words of Wisdom for Women Founders Anu Hariharan
  22. Yin built a fund specifically for founders without the usual pedigree, and her blog is the most tactical writing on raising... elizabethyin.com Article · Blog archive Tactical Fundraising by Elizabeth Yin Elizabeth Yin
  23. A practical book on the inner game of being underestimated: self doubt, harsh feedback, and playing smaller than your ambition.... taramohr.com Book · 304 pages Playing Big: Practical Wisdom for Women Who Want to Speak Up, Create, and Lead Tara Mohr
  24. The reported history of women who built and funded Silicon Valley while being written out of its story, told through four... Penguin Random House Book · 304 pages Alpha Girls: The Women Upstarts Who Took On Silicon Valley's Male Culture Julian Guthrie

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 →