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 · ~15 min This Is What Young Founders Should Focus On Dalton Caldwell and Michael Seibel
  2. Video · ~15 min How to Pitch to Investors Michael Seibel
  3. Video · ~15 min Avoid These Tempting Startup Ideas (Tarpit Ideas) Dalton Caldwell and Michael Seibel
  4. Video · About 50 minutes Simple Next.js & React Authentication With Clerk Traversy Media
  5. Video · ~35 min All the Little Things Sandi Metz
  6. Video Figma Prototype Tutorial for Beginners Figma
  7. Video How to Enable and Use Backend Workflows in Bubble Coaching No Code Apps
  8. Video · Video Zapier vs Make.com vs n8n: The Ultimate Beginners Guide Automatable
  9. Video Website Layout Mistakes That Scream 'Amateur' Paige Brunton
  10. Video · Short tutorial video User Roles | Bubble.io Tutorial Bubble
  11. Video · about 4 hours Complete Guide to Cursor For Non-Coders (Vibe Coding 101) Riley Brown
  12. Video · About 42 minutes 6 Powerful Airtable Automation Tips Using Make.com Jono Catliff
  13. Video How To Build Your First MVP With No-Code Tools Christian Peverelli - WeAreNoCode
  14. Video The Biggest Mistakes First-Time Founders Make Michael Seibel
  15. Video · about 4 minutes Understanding the Material Design type system Google Design
  16. Video · ~38 min Designing for the Next Billion Users (Google I/O '17) Astrid Weber and Nithya Sambasivan, Google
  17. Video · ~18 min The beauty of data visualization David McCandless
  18. Video · About 40 minutes Prioritizing Technical Debt as if Time and Money Matters Adam Tornhill
  19. Video Why Startups Fail (with Tom Eisenmann, Harvard Business School) Tom Eisenmann, Harvard Business School
  20. Video · Approx 20 minutes The Best Way To Launch Your Startup Kat Mañalac
  21. When you are the youngest or least experienced person in the room, the fear is that everyone can see it. Cuddy's talk is about... TED Video · about 21 minutes Your body language may shape who you are Amy Cuddy
  22. Video · ~20 min video Teardown: Diamond HubSpot Partner Cold Email (Rewrite) Jeremy Chatelaine and Jack Reamer

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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