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 How Indian Startup Founders Save Crores in Taxes! YouTube
  2. Video · webinar-length walkthrough Mastering Financial Models for Your Startup with Logan Burchett Logan Burchett (Co-founder, Forecastr)
  3. The cleanest India pivot story told by the founder himself: Meesho began as Fashnear, a hyperlocal fashion app, and became a... Y Combinator Video · 35 min On Starting and Scaling Indian Shopping Site Meesho Vidit Aatrey (Meesho co-founder and CEO)
  4. Scott Kupor, who has run a16z's investing operations and written the book founders quietly read before a raise (Secrets of Sand... a16z Video · 20 min The Economics of Term Sheets Scott Kupor
  5. A Sequoia partner says the quiet part out loud: the reaction to the miss matters more than the miss itself. Hilaly's move is to... SaaStr Video · 25 min (video + transcript) How to Manage Up and Have a Happy Board, Even When You Miss a Quarter Aaref Hilaly (Sequoia Capital)
  6. Segment's founder walks through failures and near-misses so you can feel the contrast between not having fit and having it.... Y Combinator (Startup Library) Video · ~45 min How to Start a Startup: Finding Product-Market Fit Peter Reinhardt (Segment)
  7. Caldwell has watched thousands of YC companies pivot, and he lays out what a good pivot looks like versus flailing. His key... Y Combinator Startup Library (Dalton Caldwell) Video · ~15 min All about pivoting Dalton Caldwell
  8. Video · ~35 min watch How to Kickstart and Scale a Marketplace Business (talk) Lenny Rachitsky
  9. Video · ~50 min watch The Ultimate Guide to Two-Sided Marketplaces with Jeff Jordan Jeff Jordan and Harry Stebbings
  10. A tight 17 minute talk that distills The Mom Test into the one habit that matters most: stop presenting your idea, because... The Conference by Media Evolution Video · 17 min Rob Fitzpatrick: (not) presenting your idea Rob Fitzpatrick
  11. Video · ~45 min The Mom Test (author talk) Rob Fitzpatrick
  12. YC partners who have watched thousands of founders unpack what the essay looks like in practice, with real examples from... Y Combinator Video · 26 min YC's Group Partners Discuss Doing Things That Don't Scale Y Combinator Group Partners
  13. Video · ~90 min Product Thinking Workshop ft. Kunal Shah and Shreyas Doshi Kunal Shah and Shreyas Doshi
  14. Savoia, a former Google innovation lead, makes the case that most ideas fail because they are the wrong 'it', not because they... Stanford eCorner ETL (Alberto Savoia) Video · 50 min Build the Right It (Pretotyping) Alberto Savoia
  15. Video · ~50 min Kunal Shah and Shailendra Singh on Business Models and Moats Kunal Shah
  16. Video · ~3.5 hr Pieter Levels: Programming, Viral AI Startups, and Digital Nomad Life (Lex Fridman #440) Pieter Levels, Lex Fridman
  17. When building is easier than ever and code is the least defensible thing you own, this breaks down what actually protects a... Y Combinator (Lightcone) Video · ~40 min The 7 Most Powerful Moats for AI Startups Y Combinator
  18. Video · ~30 min How to Go From MVP to Scaling Startup with Bubble (Bubblecon 2024) Bubble
  19. Video · 20 min How To Get The Most Out Of Vibe Coding Tom Blomfield
  20. Video · 30 min Complete Vibe Coding Tutorial: Build a Full Stack App in 30 Minutes Matt Palmer
  21. Video · 40 min Building a Docusign clone with Lovable (live vibe coding) YouTube
  22. Video · 15 min video Build a Simple App from a Google Sheet with Glide Glide
  23. Video · 10 min video Build an App from a Google Sheet with Glide! Glide
  24. Video · ~45 min Fast Database: cheat code for your Bubble app performance (interview with Petter Amlie) Zeroqode and Petter Amlie

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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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