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.

Before you pay for any tool, this is the spreadsheet that gets you organized: contacts, pipeline stage, and follow up dates in... HubSpot Template Free CRM Spreadsheet Template HubSpot
GMass runs entirely inside Gmail, so you can send personalized batches and see opens, clicks, and replies without leaving your... GMass Tool · 10 min read GMass Startup Guide for Cold Emailers GMass
A free, instant way to sanity-check a draft subject line against length, clarity, and tone before you send it, useful as a... CoSchedule Tool Email Subject Line Analyzer CoSchedule
Hustle Fund invests at pre-seed and reviews over a thousand companies a month, so their founders team has read (and rejected)... Hustle Fund (Hustle Commons) Template Cold Email Tips + Templates Hustle Fund (Hustle Commons)
Streak is a Gmail-based CRM built for exactly this workflow: sending outreach and tracking whether it's actually being opened.... Streak Tool Streak: How to Write a Cold Email to an Investor Streak
A fill-in-the-blanks worksheet for documenting why your cold outreach counts as a legitimate interest, before a regulator or an... UK Information Commissioner's Office (ICO) Tool Legitimate Interests Assessment (LIA) Template UK Information Commissioner's Office (ICO)
A one-page cheat sheet you can keep open while you write, built to stop you from reaching for the generic first line under... Josh Braun Template · 1 page Cold Email First Sentence Cheat Sheet Josh Braun
Lavender scores your draft in real time and flags the lines that read as generic, which is a useful outside check on whether... Lavender Tool Lavender Lavender
Joanna Wiebe gives you five real cold email structures for different situations, pitching a service, quoting someone's own... Copyhackers Template · 12 min read How to Write a Cold Email: 5 Templates from a Pro Copywriter Joanna Wiebe
This is where you see, in Gmail's own words, how Gmail actually sees your domain: spam rate, IP and domain reputation,... Google Tool Google Postmaster Tools Google
A single search bar to look up your SPF, DKIM, DMARC, MX, and PTR records, plus a blacklist check across dozens of blocklists.... MxToolbox Tool MxToolbox SuperTool MxToolbox
A straightforward alternative to Hunter that independent tests rate as more accurate on harder to find addresses. Useful as a... VoilaNorbert Tool VoilaNorbert VoilaNorbert
This is the plain guess at the company's email pattern from our answer, made mechanical. Feed it a name and domain and it... Mailmeteor Tool Email Permutator Mailmeteor
This is the verification step our answer insists on. Paste in a guessed or found address and it tells you whether the inbox is... NeverBounce Tool Email Verifier NeverBounce
A large contact database that's worth trying when Hunter or VoilaNorbert come back empty, since it draws on a different index... RocketReach Tool RocketReach RocketReach
Once you have a verified address, these are ready to adapt templates from a CRM built specifically for small sales teams,... Close Template · 10 minute read 15 Best Cold Email Templates That Actually Get Replies Steli Efti
This gives you the actual words to use once you decide to ask happy customers for referrals, timed to the moment right after a... HubSpot Template How to ask for a referral from a client (+ best email templates) HubSpot
Warm channels run on proof, and this is the simplest tool for collecting video and text testimonials from customers without... Testimonial.to Tool Testimonial.to Testimonial.to
Use these as a starting structure, not a script to copy and paste to a thousand people, since that second use is exactly the... HubSpot Template · 15 min read 22 Best B2B Cold Email Templates to Get Your Leads' Attention HubSpot
A ready-made template for drafting a comparable, reusable question set across every interview, which matters because you can... Notion Template Customer Interview Question Generator Notion
When your personal network and community outreach genuinely run dry, this is the paid fallback: a recruiting panel of people... userinterviews.com Tool User Interviews userinterviews.com
The actual one-page canvas, free to print or copy into a doc, so you can fill it in within the hour instead of reading a whole... LEANSTACK Template Lean Canvas template Ash Maurya
A ready-to-use script and structure for the five-act interview, so you're not writing your test flow from scratch. Having the... Design Sprint Kit (Google) Template Conduct a 5-Act Interview Design Sprint Kit (Google)
A simple tool for a narrow but useful version of unbiased reaction testing: show someone a screen for five seconds, then ask... Lyssna Tool Five Second Testing Lyssna

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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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