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 · Approx. 40 min video Laws of UX: Using Psychology to Design Better Products and Services (talk) Jon Yablonski
  2. A two-minute explainer that frames what usability testing is and is not, so you go in with the right expectations. Useful to... Nielsen Norman Group Video · 2 min Usability Testing 101 (Video) Kate Moran
  3. Video Why Customer Onboarding is the Most Crucial Part of Your Growth Strategy Casey Winters
  4. A short, clear video on why showing options beats making people remember them, with interface examples. If you prefer watching... Nielsen Norman Group Video · ~4 min video Recognition vs. Recall in User Interfaces Raluca Budiu
  5. This names the exact tension in your question and gives a rule for when innovation is worth its learning cost. Watch it to... Nielsen Norman Group Video · 5 min Consistency vs. Innovation in UX Design Raluca Budiu
  6. Video · 40 min Building for Your Next Billion Users (Google I/O 2017) Google
  7. A talk (with writeup) on serving a genuinely different, lighter experience to low end devices and slow networks, drawing on how... web.dev (Chrome Dev Summit talk writeup) Video · 25 min talk Adaptive loading: improving web performance on slow devices Nate Schloss and Addy Osmani
  8. Video · ~50 min 7 Rules for Creating Gorgeous UI (talk) Erik Kennedy
  9. A short, credible video from the usability research group explaining whitespace in plain terms. It reinforces that empty space... Nielsen Norman Group Video · ~3 min What is Whitespace? Nielsen Norman Group
  10. The useful counterpoint: shipping a stripped MVP can leave a disjointed experience that erodes trust, especially outside... Nielsen Norman Group Video · 5 min Why MVP Is the Antithesis of Good UX Kara Pernice
  11. Video · ~30 min How Words Can Make Your Product Stand Out (Google I/O '17) Maggie Stanphill, Google
  12. A short, credible video on choosing visualization styles that work with how people actually scan a dashboard. It is a fast way... Nielsen Norman Group Video · 4 min Data Visualizations for Dashboards Page Laubheimer, Nielsen Norman Group
  13. Video · 58 min Storytelling with Data | Talks at Google Cole Nussbaumer Knaflic
  14. Video · 20 min video When to Launch Your Startup and When to Wait Harj Taggar, Michael Seibel, Brad Flora
  15. Video · ~90 min A better way to plan, build, and ship products (Ryan Singer) Ryan Singer, Lenny Rachitsky
  16. Video · ~40 min Applying Shape Up in the Real World (Rails World 2023) Ryan Singer
  17. Before you can run short cycles you have to decide what goes in them, and this is a founder grade framework for that from the... Y Combinator Startup Library Video · ~30 min How to Prioritize Features Emmett Shear
  18. Video · 2 min Focusing is about saying no (WWDC 1997) Steve Jobs
  19. Video How to Set KPIs and Goals Adora Cheung
  20. Video Ship a feature every week, embrace technical debt, ruthlessly cut scope Gaurav Misra
  21. Premature abstraction is a sneaky form of debt that fast moving teams create while trying to be clean. Abramov tells the story... Deconstruct 2019 Video The Wet Codebase Dan Abramov
  22. The talk version of the same idea, covering product scope, feature creep, and how products lose relevance when they try to do... Business of Software Video · 45 min Product Strategy (BoS talk) Des Traynor
  23. Video · 50 min watch Building for the Enterprise Aaron Levie
  24. Video · 35 min How GitHub Uses GitHub to Build GitHub Zach Holman

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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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