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. Video · ~75 min Founder-Led Sales, with Pete Kazanjy Pete Kazanjy, hosted by Lenny Rachitsky
  2. Video How to Interview Your Customers, Live Demo Justin Wilcox
  3. Meesho's co-founder describes how the company's first idea (a hyperlocal shop-discovery app) failed and how the real business... Y Combinator Startup Library Video On Starting and Scaling Meesho Vidit Aatrey
  4. A short video showing exactly what neutral prompting sounds like when a participant goes quiet mid-task. Watching the actual... Nielsen Norman Group Video · ~5 min Help Users Think Aloud Nielsen Norman Group
  5. Shows an actual demonstration of a facilitator's opening script, the part of the session most founders wing and accidentally... Nielsen Norman Group Video · ~6 min Introducing a Usability Test to the Participant Nielsen Norman Group
  6. Video Customer Discovery: Who Do You Interview Justin Wilcox
  7. Nielsen Norman Group has run user research for decades, and this short video lays out plainly which questions each method... Nielsen Norman Group Video Comparing Qualitative and Quantitative UX Research Nielsen Norman Group
  8. This walks through exactly the analysis step your question is stuck on, how to go from a stack of interview notes to a small... Nielsen Norman Group Video Thematic Analysis of Qualitative User Research Data Maria Rosala
  9. Chesky describes flying across the country to personally sit in hosts' living rooms because nothing in a survey told them why... Y Combinator Startup Library Video · ~40 min Brian Chesky, Co-Founder and CEO of Airbnb Brian Chesky
  10. Video · ~2 min Airbnb CEO Brian Chesky shares the Paul Graham advice that helped him find product/market fit Brian Chesky
  11. Three YC Group Partners argue through the tradeoffs of who counts as an ideal customer, using the specific case of startups... Y Combinator Startup Library Video Inside the Group Partner Lounge: The ideal customer Y Combinator Startup Library
  12. A two minute primer you can watch before a team meeting to get everyone aligned on what a persona is for. Useful as the thing... Nielsen Norman Group Video · 2 min What Are Personas and Why Should I Care? Kim Flaherty
  13. Video · ~35 min Sales Safari Demo, La Conf Paris 2013 Amy Hoy
  14. Video · ~10 min ET Now Interview with Mr. Harsh Pokharna, Founder of OkCredit Harsh Pokharna
  15. Video How to nail your product positioning April Dunford
  16. Video Building a Global SaaS Empire: Freshworks Founder & CEO Girish Mathrubootham on His Biggest Bets Girish Mathrubootham
  17. Video Understanding the Jobs to Be Done (the milkshake story) Clayton Christensen
  18. Video Positioning in Crowded Markets: How to Make Any Offering Obviously Awesome April Dunford
  19. Video · ~10 min How to Find a Technical Cofounder Michael Seibel (YC)
  20. Video Complete Bubble.io Course for Beginners: Build an App in 2025 YouTube
  21. Video · ~15 min How to Validate Your Business Idea Fast (Million Dollar Weekend) Noah Kagan
  22. Video · ~50 min Doing Things That Don't Scale, PR, How to Get Started (How to Start a Startup, Lecture 8) Stanley Tang, Walker Williams, Justin Kan
  23. This is the investor's side of your exact question: Steve Barsh, a managing partner at Dreamit Ventures, walks through what he... Slidebean Video · ~10 min What is Total Addressable Market (TAM), with Steve Barsh Steve Barsh (Dreamit Ventures)
  24. Michael Seibel is blunt that many startups die not from competition but because the founders lose the will to keep going, and... YC Startup Library Video · ~10 min Why do startups fail? Michael Seibel

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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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