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 Pagination for Repeating Groups (Bubble tutorial) YouTube
  2. Video · ~20 min Recursive workflows in Bubble (how to loop through a list) YouTube
  3. A short, plain explanation of when to reach for a backend workflow instead of doing work on the page. If the term still feels... Planet No Code Video · ~10 min Why use backend workflows for your Bubble app Planet No Code
  4. Video What is a Webhook? Webhooks for Beginners YouTube
  5. Video · ~5 min API Explained in 5 Minutes (for beginners) YouTube
  6. Video Self-host n8n with Docker (no code) on your computer and a VPS ByteGrad
  7. Video · video How to Design Your Bubble App (When You're Not a Designer) YouTube
  8. Video How to Build an App with Google Sheets (No Code, Glide) Glide (YouTube)
  9. YC partners discuss how founders in their current batches are shipping products with mostly AI-generated codebases, and what... Y Combinator (Lightcone Podcast) Video Vibe Coding Is The Future Y Combinator
  10. Video Andrej Karpathy: From Vibe Coding to Agentic Engineering Andrej Karpathy
  11. Video · ~20 min A complete beginners guide to Zapier MinorCo
  12. Video · ~45 min Make.com Tutorial for Beginners | Build Automations and AI Workflows Fast Thalita Milan
  13. Video · 20 min I Ranked Every AI App Builder for 2026: Lovable vs Bolt vs Replit vs Cursor YouTube
  14. Video · 9 min How Much Equity to Give Your Cofounder Michael Seibel
  15. Video · ~15 min App Wireframe Design and User Flow UX (Whimsical Tutorial) YouTube
  16. Video · 58 min Startup Mechanics (Stanford CS183F) Kirsty Nathoo
  17. Video · ~35 min video Kevin Hale: How to Work Together (YC Startup School) Kevin Hale, Y Combinator
  18. Video · Approx. 40 min How to Think Like a Visual Designer Steve Schoger
  19. Video · 9 min Jakob Nielsen's 10 Usability Heuristics (video) Nielsen Norman Group
  20. Video · ~1 hr The Design of Everyday Things: 25 years later (BayCHI talk) Don Norman
  21. Before you even open Figma, this shows you can test a flow with paper cutouts and catch most usability problems. The research... Nielsen Norman Group Video · 40 minutes Paper Prototyping: How to Create and Usability-Test Simple UI Prototypes Nielsen Norman Group
  22. Video · Approx. 25 minutes Figma Tutorial For Beginners AJ&Smart
  23. Airbnb's cofounder shows how deliberate design decisions convinced millions of strangers to trust each other enough to share... TED Video · 16 min video How Airbnb Designs for Trust Joe Gebbia
  24. A short, practical take on when a long menu is actually fine. Hick's Law does not mean fewer items is always better, and this... Nielsen Norman Group Video · 3 min video Hick's Law: Designing Long Menu Lists Katie Sherwin

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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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