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.

This is the data behind if you talk less than the customer, you're doing it right. Gong analyzed hundreds of thousands of real... Gong Labs Article · ~10 min read Mastering the talk-to-listen ratio in sales calls Gong Labs
A tight, practical checklist for the specific call type this question is about: the first real conversation with a prospect. It... Gong Article · ~8 min read 8 Things to Consider Before Your Next Discovery Call Gong Labs
Jason Lemkin makes the case that the person who ghosted you almost never made a conscious decision to ignore you, they just got... SaaStr Article VCs Don't Really Ghost You. They are Just Prospects. Treat Them as Such. Jason Lemkin
A short, concrete story from Steli Efti about following up with a single unresponsive investor 48 times before finally getting... LinkedIn Article How I followed up with an investor 48 times Steli Efti
Gong analyzed tens of thousands of real sales calls and found that deals which felt like sure things often died quietly because... Gong Article Why Deals Fail to Close and How to Succeed Next Time Gong
A practical reference you can keep open during calls: real objections, like it's too expensive or I need to think about it,... HubSpot Article Objection Handling: 44 Common Sales Objections & How to Respond Mark Burdon
A concrete framework, from a long-running sales training school, for making sure every call ends with a mutually agreed,... Sandler Training Article How to Ensure Every Call Ends with Next Steps Frank Gustafson
Jason Lemkin's argument is that a single first rep gives you almost no signal: you can't tell if a slow start is the person,... SaaStr Article · 10 min read When You Hire Your First Sales Rep, Just Make Sure You Hire Two Jason Lemkin
Roberge built HubSpot's sales org from zero using data instead of instinct, and this is his framework for hiring, training, and... Mark Roberge Book · 250 pages The Sales Acceleration Formula: Using Data, Technology, and Inbound Selling to go from $0 to $100 Million Mark Roberge
This is the practical, step by step version of the discovery call our answer says to run before you ever demo: what to ask, in... Close Article · ~15 min read 18 Steps to a Successful Discovery Call Close
A short, specific essay on why leading with the customer's need, not your product, is what makes a pitch land, with a simple... Dave Bailey Essay How to Sell the Problem Before Selling the Solution Dave Bailey
Gong built this from analyzing hundreds of thousands of real sales emails, so the advice on what to put in a post-call recap,... Gong Article · 12 min read 6 Cold Email Follow-Ups that Speed Up Deals Gong
Written for the founder who built the product and is now terrified of the word sales, this argues the skill set is closer to... Y Combinator Startup Library Essay Enterprise sales for hackers Y Combinator Startup Library
This book's research finding is counterintuitive and directly useful here: the sales reps who win complex deals are not the... Amazon Book The Challenger Sale: Taking Control of the Customer Conversation Matthew Dixon, Brent Adamson
Benn Stancil cofounded a company that sold into large enterprises, and this essay is an unusually honest account of how slow,... Benn Stancil (Substack) Essay So you want to sell to the enterprise? Benn Stancil
Chargebee's first real customer was Freshworks, and they got in the door because a cofounder happened to live in the same... SeedToScale (Accel) Essay The Early Story of Chargebee: Why it's Better to Start with People, not Ideas SeedToScale (Accel)
This is the foundational text on separating people from the problem and negotiating on interests rather than positions, which... Program on Negotiation, Harvard Law School Book · 240 pages Getting to Yes: Negotiating Agreement Without Giving In Roger Fisher, William Ury, Bruce Patton
Sabeer Bhatia, who sold Hotmail to Microsoft, traces his negotiating instincts back to haggling in vegetable markets in... tim.blog Essay · 8 min read How to Negotiate like an Indian - 7 Rules Tim Ferriss
This is a short, practical guide to making invoice follow up a routine instead of an awkward one off, with an actual cadence:... Chaser Article · 7 min read 7 tips to collect unpaid invoices from customers Chaser
Lemkin's blunt answer is that the founder has to get the first 10 customers personally, through their own network and direct... Jason Lemkin (SaaStr) Article Dear SaaStr: How Do I Get My First 10 Customers? Jason Lemkin (SaaStr)
Picks up right where the previous piece leaves off: once you've decided to charge for the pilot, how do you actually structure... SaaStr Article Dear SaaStr: We're Starting a Big Paid Pilot. How Do We Maximize the Chances of Success? Jason Lemkin
A pricing consultant's argument that most companies discount reflexively instead of strategically, with a framework for... Harvard Business Review Article The Art of Discounting Rafi Mohammed
A short, sharp reminder that your price tells a story, and that cutting it to close a deal usually just tells the buyer the... Seth's Blog Essay On pricing Seth Godin
The other side of the discount question: sometimes a genuinely low price is the right strategy, not a concession. Jason Lemkin... SaaStr Article Dear SaaStr: When Does It Make Sense to Price Low in the Market? 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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