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 ready made four question survey for finding the price range your customers see as fair, including the point where "too cheap"... Contentsquare Template Van Westendorp Price Sensitivity Survey Template Contentsquare
  2. Talking to prospects only pays off if you capture what you hear in a way you can act on. This free Google Doc gives you a... Kromatic Template · Google Doc template Customer Discovery Note-Taking Template Kromatic
  3. If your customers run their business on WhatsApp, being reachable there yourself is the point. The free Business app gives you... Meta / WhatsApp (Google Play) Tool · Free app WhatsApp Business app WhatsApp
  4. A ready question bank organized by interview stage, so you walk into a customer conversation with real questions instead of... Perspective AI Template 60 Customer Discovery Questions (Mom Test-Approved) Perspective AI
  5. Your short answer says give people a simple way to pay, and for Indian founders this is one of the fastest: create a payment... Razorpay Tool Razorpay Payment Links Razorpay
  6. The Kano model gives you a simple way to sort features into must-haves, performance features, and delighters, so you can see... Folding Burritos (Daniel Zacarias) Tool · ~30 min read The Complete Guide to the Kano Model Daniel Zacarias
  7. This is the concrete proof that payments are a solved problem you should borrow: a few steps and you are charging real cards... Stripe Documentation Tool · Docs plus setup Accept a payment Stripe
  8. If your MVP is really about testing willingness to pay, you may not need to write payment code at all: a Payment Link is a URL... Stripe Documentation Tool · Docs plus setup No-code options for using Stripe (Payment Links) Stripe
  9. For an Indian MVP, this is usually the right payments choice because it supports UPI, cards, net banking, and wallets out of... Razorpay Documentation Tool · Docs plus setup Razorpay Quickstart Guide Razorpay
  10. Clerk gives you prebuilt sign up, sign in, and profile screens, so the whole login surface arrives finished rather than... Clerk Documentation Tool · Docs plus setup Clerk Quickstart Clerk
  11. Firebase Auth is the battle tested default for mobile first and Google Cloud based apps, with a very generous free tier. It... Firebase Documentation Tool · Docs plus setup Firebase Authentication Google
  12. Supabase pairs auth with a Postgres database, so if your app is data heavy you get login and storage from one open source stack... Supabase Documentation Tool · Docs plus setup Supabase Auth Supabase
  13. Sending reliable email (verification, password resets, notifications) is its own deliverability problem, and Resend lets you... Resend Tool · Docs plus setup Resend Documentation Resend
  14. If you decide the mobile web is your path, this free course teaches how to make it installable, work offline, and feel app like... web.dev (Google) Course Learn PWA web.dev (Google)
  15. A roundup of free tracking plan templates from Segment, Mixpanel, Amplitude, and others, so you do not start from a blank page.... Avo Template · Short read plus templates 9 Free Tracking Plan Templates from Mixpanel, Amplitude, Segment, and More Avo
  16. The other product analytics tool named in our short answer, strong for event based funnels and retention once you know the... Mixpanel Tool Mixpanel Mixpanel
  17. A maker community built around shipping in public where every post is a completed to-do, so it turns building in public into an... WIP (wip.co) Tool · ongoing WIP Marc Kohlbrugge
  18. Free, well-produced lessons that take you from nothing to a real, responsive site and CMS-driven pages on Webflow, one of the... Webflow University Course · Self-paced Webflow University Webflow
  19. When you hit the complexity your short answer warns about (real permissions, data models, backend logic), this is the... No Code MBA Course · Multi lesson track The Complete Guide to Bubble No Code MBA
  20. The official, primary source walkthrough for going from an idea to a deployed app inside one AI builder. Because it is the tool... Replit Docs Course · Self paced Vibe Coding 101 Replit Docs
  21. Setu is NPCI-certified and built for UPI-first collection, including deep links and mandates, which suits India-only products... Setu Tool UPI APIs for Seamless Payments Setu
  22. The primary pricing page, so you can budget honestly before committing. Plans are billed in USD, so factor in forex on your... Bubble Tool Bubble Pricing Bubble
  23. This is the tool your short answer names, straight from the source. Glide reads the headers of your Google Sheet and generates... Glide Tool · Sign up and build in an afternoon Glide: Build custom no-code apps with Google Sheets Glide
  24. Softr is the other half of your answer, aimed at portals and websites rather than mobile apps. You connect an Airtable base,... Softr Tool · Sign up and build in an afternoon Softr: Build client portals and business apps with Airtable data Softr

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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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