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 · ~10 min How to Sell Without Being Salesy Marie Forleo
  2. Video How to grow on LinkedIn with this 3 step system Justin Welsh
  3. Video How I use AI to save 10+ hours per week Ali Abdaal
  4. Video · Around 15 minutes How to Batch Content for YouTube (3 Months of Content in 2 Weeks!) Vanessa Lau
  5. Video 30 Days of 64 Pieces of Content by Gary Vaynerchuk Gary Vaynerchuk
  6. Video · About 15 minutes Alex Hormozi's Content Strategy (REVEALED) Alex Hormozi
  7. Video · ~40 min talk Giants: David Spinks on Building Your Online Community David Spinks
  8. Video · ~45 min Jatin Chaudhary on Building Global Startup Communities with eChai Ventures KU Podsquad (guest: Jatin Chaudhary)
  9. Godin's argument in this short talk is the answer to half the question: in a crowded market, the product itself has to be... TED (TED2003) Video · 17 min How to get your ideas to spread Seth Godin
  10. Video · about 22 minutes Consumer Startup Metrics | Startup School Tom Blomfield
  11. Video · Short (under 10 min) Contribution Margin Edspira (Michael McLaughlin, PhD, CPA)
  12. Video · About 5 minutes This Video Is Worth $13,568.99 (How Ads Work on YouTube) CGP Grey
  13. Video · ~15 min The 5 things that kill startups after their seed rounds Michael Seibel
  14. Video · Short explainer Take Rate Explained Mostly Growth (CJ Gustafson)
  15. Video · short How to Use the Ledge Technique for Sales Objection Handling | Ask Jeb Jeb Blount
  16. Video Subscription Models vs One Time Purchase: Bridge the Debate Soren Kaplan
  17. Video · About 12 minutes I looked at 105 SaaS pricing pages. Here's what I learned. Slidebean
  18. Video · Short explainer (under 15 minutes) Customer Retention & Cohort Analysis: How VCs Calculate Customer Retention YouTube
  19. Video · About 5 minutes Contribution Margin explained Philip de Vroe (The Finance Storyteller)
  20. Video · Short explainer, under 10 minutes What Shopify Customer Lifetime Value (CLV) Is & How to Calculate It Shopify
  21. Video · About 6 minutes How to calculate burn rate, runway, and growth rate Tim Brady
  22. Video · Short explainer video, a few minutes Cash Flow vs. Profit: What's the Difference? HBS Online
  23. Video · long-form interview, roughly an hour Jason Fried Interview: Bootstrapping vs VC, Profit vs Revenue, Basecamp, HEY & Once Jason Fried
  24. Video Cash Basis vs. Accrual Basis Accounting Explained: Which Is Right for Your Business? YouTube

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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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