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. Marc Lou has shipped and launched many small products, and this is his practical rundown of how Show HN posts actually move... Marc Lou Article How to Launch a Startup on Hacker News Marc Lou
  2. The companion piece to Marc Lou's Hacker News guide, written from the same practical, ship-it perspective but for Product Hunt... Marc Lou Article How to Launch a Startup on Product Hunt Marc Lou
  3. A practical, no-nonsense comparison of what actually differs across these three specific channels: what each one rewards, what... DEV Community Article Indie Dev Launch Strategy: Getting Traction on Product Hunt, Hacker News, and Reddit DEV Community
  4. The most thorough practical guide we found on organic Reddit specifically, going beyond just avoiding a ban into how to... Karmic Article Reddit Marketing Guide: The Reddit Organic Marketing Guide for Startups and Scale Ups Karmic
  5. Jackson uses how bands sell out tour dates, announcing months ahead, building anticipation in stages, as a working template for... justinjackson.ca Essay · 10 min read How to build demand before you launch Justin Jackson
  6. A plain, no-jargon explainer of building in public for founders who have heard the term but aren't sure what to actually post... Indie Hackers Article · 8 min read What Is Building in Public? (Explained Simply) Indie Hackers
  7. This is the practical rulebook for your actual question. It draws the line between shipping (code deployed) and launching... Lenny's Wiki Article Feature Launches Lenny's Wiki
  8. Two former Amazon VPs explain the PR/FAQ method: writing the press release before you build anything, for far more initiatives... St. Martin's Press Book · ~350 pages Working Backwards: Insights, Stories, and Secrets from Inside Amazon Colin Bryar, Bill Carr
  9. Holiday's core argument is that growth hackers don't bolt marketing onto a finished product, they build it into the product and... Portfolio Book · ~176 pages Growth Hacker Marketing: A Primer on the Future of PR, Marketing, and Advertising Ryan Holiday
  10. Michael Seibel lays out a concrete process for shipping as a small team, including deciding on an actual release schedule and... Y Combinator Blog Article How To Build Product As A Small Startup Michael Seibel
  11. This gives you a simple tier system, from a major launch down to a minor one, so you can decide how much noise each thing you... Medium Article The Launch Tier System That Transforms Product Teams Aakash Gupta
  12. Julian Shapiro argues that growth should be designed into the product itself rather than bolted on afterward, so every new... julian.com Article Startup Handbook: Product-Led Acquisition Julian Shapiro
  13. Ries makes the exact distinction our answer rests on: a product launch (making it available) and a marketing launch (making... Startup Lessons Learned (Eric Ries) Essay · 10 min read Don't launch Eric Ries
  14. Godin names the exact failure mode our answer warns about: work that could ship but does not, dressed up as caution. It is... Seth's Blog Essay · 3 min read Project Resistance Seth Godin
  15. A short, sharp distinction that names your exact problem: meeting a real spec is craft, chasing an ever-shifting ideal is... Seth's Blog Essay · 2 min read Perfect is not the same as perfectionism Seth Godin
  16. Clear separates what's optimal from what's actually needed to begin, which is useful when you keep waiting for the landing page... jamesclear.com Essay · 6 min read The Power of Imperfect Starts James Clear
  17. 37signals' own internal rules for when something is done enough to ship, written by a team that has shipped products for over... Basecamp Article Seven Shipping Principles Basecamp
  18. This explains, with the classic committee-and-bikeshed example, exactly why founders fuss over fonts and micro-copy instead of... Effectiviology Article Bikeshedding and the Law of Triviality: Why People Focus on Minor Issues Effectiviology
  19. The actual research behind the claim that a stranger judges your page in seconds, not minutes: visitors form a gut reaction in... Google Research Article Users love simple and familiar designs: why websites need to make a great first impression Javier Bargas-Avila
  20. This is the actual psychology behind your short answer: you overestimate how much other people notice and track you, because... Psychology Today Article · ~7 min All Eyes on Us: The Spotlight Effect Psychology Today
  21. Linear's cofounder makes the case for a running, dated log of what shipped, which turns constant announcing into infrastructure... Linear Essay · ~5 min Startups, Write Changelogs Karri Saarinen
  22. Intercom's own playbook for feature announcements is useful precisely because it treats every release as its own small... Intercom Article · ~10 min A guide to announcing your new features Intercom
  23. A price change is one of the clean, new reasons your short answer points to, and this is a practical, plainly written... Chris Lema Article · ~10 min How to announce pricing changes (without ruining everything) Chris Lema
  24. Clubhouse's invite-only waitlist is the clearest cautionary tale of using scarcity as a growth trick rather than a real... Medium Article · 7 min read Creating the Illusion of Exclusivity: The Story of Clubhouse Dan DeSimone

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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