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. The specific worry in the question is people gaming the program, so here is a concrete, working example of what fraud detection... Rewardful Tool · product page Rewardful: Self-Referral Fraud Detection Rewardful
  2. Once your referral program needs commission tracking, coupon links, and payouts tied to real revenue, hand-rolling all of that... Rewardful Tool · Pricing page, plans from 49 dollars a month Rewardful: Affiliate and Referral Software Pricing Rewardful
  3. For a transactional or one time purchase product, retention lives in lifecycle nudges: onboarding, cart recovery, post purchase... Customer.io Tool · Product / platform Customer.io (lifecycle and behavioral messaging platform) Customer.io
  4. A raw wa.me link gets the message shared but tells you nothing about who referred whom, so once sharing works you need... AppsFlyer Tool · Long-form guide plus product WhatsApp deep links: How to create, use, and measure them AppsFlyer
  5. Reading about k-factor is one thing, measuring your own is another. This is a plug-in-your-numbers spreadsheet: enter your user... Rows Tool · Free web tool Virality (k-factor) Calculator and Spreadsheet Rows
  6. Reading about CAC and LTV only gets you so far, at some point you have to put your own guesses in a cell and watch what breaks.... The Startup Project Template · Excel and Google Sheets, multi tab Startup Financial Model (SaaS) Excel Template The Startup Project
  7. If you decide usage pricing is right, this is real billing infrastructure that meters events in real time and lets you set... Metronome Tool · Product site, plus docs Metronome: Usage-Based Billing Platform Metronome (now part of Stripe)
  8. This is the template to stop guessing a single LTV number and plot your actual cohorts instead. You type in only the basics... andrewchen.com Tool · Downloadable Excel template plus short guide The easiest spreadsheet for churn, MRR, and cohort analysis Christoph Janz (Point Nine Capital), guest post on Andrew Chen's blog
  9. A free, driver-based Google Sheets model where you plug in your own assumptions and actuals and watch the numbers flow through... Drivetrain Tool · Free Google Sheets template, roughly 30 to 60 minutes to populate SaaS Financial Model Template in Google Sheets Drivetrain
  10. If you are building from an Indian base and selling worldwide, this is a practical, India-registered way to take card and... Razorpay Tool · Product page plus docs Accept International Payments for Global Business (Razorpay) Razorpay
  11. The infrastructure margin leak usually shows up as a bill that crept up while you were shipping, so the fix is seeing it before... vantage.sh Tool · Self-serve setup, roughly 30 minutes Vantage Vantage
  12. This is a genuinely startup-first way to open a current account in India online, with the account held by a partner bank... RazorpayX Tool RazorpayX Current Account for Businesses RazorpayX
  13. When your spreadsheet starts breaking (you are chasing invoices, guessing at GST, or dreading month-end) Zoho Books is the most... Zoho Books Tool · Free plan, paid tiers from about Rs 899/month Zoho Books Free Accounting Software for Small Businesses in India Zoho
  14. This is a ready folder structure (sections A to M covering legal, IP, employment, financials, and cap table) that you can stand... alexanderjarvis.com Template · Downloadable checklist (folders A to M) Due Diligence Request List Template for Startup Fundraising Alexander Jarvis
  15. For Indian founders the cap table is where diligence most often gets messy (SAFEs, convertible notes, ESOP grants, and vesting... qapita.com Tool · SaaS platform Qapita: Cap Table & ESOP Management for Indian Startups Qapita
  16. When your company is in India and your customers are abroad, the practical problem is getting paid in foreign currency through... Wise Tool · Product page Wise Business: receive international payments in India Wise
  17. You do not want to build a three-year model from a blank sheet, and you also do not want a generic one-size template that does... Forecastr Template · 12 templates, make a copy and fill in Forecastr Free Startup Financial Model Templates (Excel and Google Sheets) Forecastr
  18. This is the spreadsheet to actually model your cap table forward three rounds before you sign the first term sheet. It adds... Foresight Template · spreadsheet template Cap Table and Exit Waterfall Modeling Tool (Foresight) Foresight (Taylor Davidson)
  19. This is the data-room number, not the slide: a free, download-and-fill spreadsheet from a Point Nine partner that builds MRR... SaaStr Template · 20 min setup SaaS Financial Plan 2.0 (Christoph Janz's downloadable model) Christoph Janz (Point Nine Capital)
  20. This is the exact 21-slide deck that got Front three term sheets in ten days, published by the founder herself with honest... Medium (Mathilde Collin, CEO of Front) Template · 12 min read + 21-slide deck Front Series A Deck (with the founder's own slide-by-slide feedback) Mathilde Collin
  21. This is the fastest zero-budget path to a clean deck: pick one template that already fixes your font pairing, color palette,... Canva Template · quick-start Free customizable pitch deck presentation templates Canva
  22. This is the modeling tool to actually stack your conversions before you sign, which is the whole opinionated answer. You enter... Carta Tool · free tool SAFE and Convertible Note Calculator Carta
  23. This is the actual term sheet most Indian angels and seed funds put in front of you, hosted on the official Startup India... Startup India (Government of India portal) Template · term sheet PDF LetsVenture Standard CCPS Term Sheet Template (India), Pre-emptive Rights clause LetsVenture
  24. This is the source of the rule your answer is built on: build the deck from the reports you already run the company with, send... Sequoia Capital Template · 15 min read Preparing a Board Deck Sequoia Capital

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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