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 · about 5 min Topic Clusters: The Next Evolution of Content Strategy HubSpot
  2. Julian Goldie is a long-time SEO who walks through his actual human-plus-AI process on video: start with something real you... Julian Goldie SEO Video Claude AI SEO Workflow: How I Rank Across Google and AI Search Julian Goldie
  3. Video · about 7 min Sitemaps in Search Console (Google Search Console Training) Daniel Waisberg
  4. Video · about 12 minutes Rethinking the GaryVee Content Model With Team Gary Vee (DailyVee 664) Gary Vaynerchuk
  5. Video · ~90 min The ultimate guide to founder-led sales (Jen Abel, co-founder of JJELLYFISH) Lenny's Podcast (guest Jen Abel)
  6. Video · ~50 min How to Get Users and Grow Alex Schultz (VP of Growth, Facebook), Stanford CS183F Startup School
  7. Video Y Combinator's Brutally Simple Playbook to Get Your First 100 Customers Y Combinator
  8. Video · Talk, roughly 30 to 45 minutes Partner Ecosystems: Trends, Predictions and Forecast, with Jay McBain Jay McBain
  9. Video How to Test Facebook Ads Creatives at Every Budget Dara Denney
  10. Video · About 95 minutes (North Star segment near 1:19:21) The original growth hacker reveals his secrets | Sean Ellis (author of "Hacking Growth") Sean Ellis, interviewed by Lenny Rachitsky
  11. Video How to Use PostHog: Step-by-Step Guide for Product Analytics & Session Replay PostHog
  12. Video · About 35 minutes Building a Growth Machine (Relay Ventures CEO Summit 2018) Brian Balfour
  13. Video Nine Business Models and the Metrics Investors Want Anu Hariharan
  14. Video Facebook Ads Learning Phase Explained Hernan Vazquez
  15. Video · Roughly 15 minutes Facebook vs Google Ads: Which is Best? Ben Heath
  16. Video · About 10 minutes The REAL Reason Your Facebook Ads Are Not Converting (And How To Fix It) Adam Erhart
  17. Video · ~15 min 5 Ad Angles To Test With Facebook Ads Nick Theriot
  18. Video · Podcast style conversation, roughly 30 to 45 minutes Measuring Top of Funnel and Incrementality Testing with Zach Epstein from Haus Haus (Zach Epstein)
  19. Video · ~10 min Instant Form Ads Vs Landing Pages... Which Is Better? Konstantin
  20. Video · ~15 min How to CRUSH Facebook Ads with a Small Budget in 2026 Ben Heath
  21. Video · About 40 to 50 minutes Facebook Ads FULL Tutorial & Course for Beginners Ben Heath
  22. Video · short YouTube tutorial How to Track Influencer Marketing Sales and Conversions Using Google Analytics YouTube creator (channel shown on the video page)
  23. Video · Short walkthrough video How To NEVER Get A Disabled Facebook Ad Account In 2025 YouTube
  24. Most advice treats camera fear as a mindset problem, but the discomfort is often physical, and this piece meets you there. It... Descript Video How to overcome your fear of being on camera Brenton Zola

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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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