Starting Up

The resources founders actually use.

Every essay, video, podcast, book and tool behind 1,327 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. This is the actual math you are trading against, straight from the source: $125K for a fixed 7%, plus a $375K uncapped MFN SAFE... Y Combinator Article · 6 min read The Y Combinator Standard Deal Y Combinator In 6 answers
  2. If your idea feels unglamorous or annoyingly hard, this essay explains why that can be a good sign rather than a reason to drop... paulgraham.com Essay · about 10 min read Schlep Blindness Paul Graham In 6 answers
  3. Steve Blank coined get out of the building, and this is a clean primer on why talking to customers is a search for facts your... Kauffman Entrepreneurs (Steve Blank) Article · 10 min read Getting Out of the Building: Customer Development Steve Blank In 6 answers
  4. Video · ~45 min How to Launch an MVP Michael Seibel and Eric Migicovsky In 6 answers
  5. Shah argues that to make people switch from what they already use, you need a large jump in perceived efficiency, not a... SeedToScale (Accel India) Article · ~10 min read Kunal Shah's Delta 4 Theory of Successful Startups Kunal Shah In 6 answers
  6. Getting the customer to say yes is only half the job, the other half is onboarding them yourself so they actually succeed. This... First Round Review Article · ~20 min read How to Build and Scale Onboarding (The Superhuman Playbook) Gaurav Vohra In 6 answers
  7. Des Traynor makes the case that "no" is the product strategy, and that adding a feature for one loud customer quietly costs... Intercom (Des Traynor) Article · ~8 min read Product Strategy Means Saying No Des Traynor In 6 answers
  8. Project based video courses that take you from idea to a shipped app by rebuilding real products like a marketplace or a... No Code MBA (Seth Kramer) Course No Code MBA Seth Kramer In 6 answers
  9. Video · 35 min Where Do Great Startup Ideas Come From? Dalton Caldwell and Michael Seibel In 6 answers
  10. Cohen answers the fear founders have about niching down, that naming one very specific, concrete customer actually attracts... A Smart Bear Essay · 15 min read Selling to Carol: Why targeting an ICP brings 10x more customers than you expected Jason Cohen In 6 answers
  11. A law firm's summary of the DPIIT notification of 4 February 2026 that replaced the 2019 startup definition, setting out the... Nishith Desai Associates Article · 8 min read DPIIT's New Startup Framework: Deep Tech Startup Recognition and Key Reforms Chandrashekar K (Nishith Desai Associates) In 6 answers
  12. A 2026 map of every MCA form a private company meets, from name reservation (RUN) and SPICe+ incorporation with e-MOA and e-AOA... razorpay.com Article · Guide List of MCA Forms for Company Filings (Complete Guide 2026) Razorpay Rize In 6 answers
  13. India-built HR and payroll used by small and mid-sized firms. The page lists Essential at ₹2,495 a month including 50 employees... greythr.com Tool · Pricing page greytHR pricing greytHR In 6 answers
  14. The most systematic step-by-step process for de-risking an idea, built around the Lean Canvas. Where The Lean Startup gives... LEANSTACK Book · ~240 pages Running Lean Ash Maurya In 5 answers
  15. The customer-development originator's clearest statement on scoping the minimum feature set to reach your earliest believers.... steveblank.com Article · ~8 min read Perfection by Subtraction, The Minimum Feature Set Steve Blank In 5 answers
  16. The single most-cited usability framework in the field, from the definitive UX research authority. A checklist you can hold... Nielsen Norman Group Article · ~15 min read 10 Usability Heuristics for User Interface Design Jakob Nielsen In 5 answers
  17. The original, primary source where the RICE framework was introduced, cite this, not the SEO reposts. The clearest way to... Intercom Blog Article · ~12 min read RICE: Simple Prioritization for Product Managers Sean McBride In 5 answers
  18. Paul Graham's short, opinionated take on naming from someone who has seen thousands of startups, canonical, no-fluff, and free. paulgraham.com Article · 8 min read Startup Names Paul Graham In 5 answers
  19. A structured, practical walkthrough from a reputable product team covering name types, domain checks, and trademark basics in... Webflow Blog Article · 12 min read How to come up with a brand name: the ultimate guide Webflow Team In 5 answers
  20. First Round has coached hundreds of founding teams through 0-to-$1M ARR; this is their tactical guide to selling in the... First Round Review Article · ~20 min read Founder-led sales First Round Review In 5 answers
  21. A tactical conversation on growth, retention and building a personal audience as distribution, from the founder of Demand Curve... Lenny's Podcast Podcast · ~90 min episode Building an Audience Before You Need One (Julian Shapiro on Lenny's Podcast) Julian Shapiro & Lenny Rachitsky In 5 answers
  22. Justin Welsh built a multi-million-dollar solo business purely on a systematized personal-brand engine; his free, no-fluff... justinwelsh.me Article · Weekly newsletter + archive The Saturday Solopreneur (Justin Welsh) & LinkedIn Content System Justin Welsh In 5 answers
  23. 37signals wrote the playbook for building profitable software without VC, and Getting Real is free to read online. Their... 37signals.com Book · book (free online) Getting Real (and the 37signals bootstrapping philosophy) 37signals (Jason Fried & David Heinemeier Hansson) In 5 answers
  24. A behavioral, dead-simple cash-management system used by over a million businesses to stay permanently profitable. Perfect for... mikemichalowicz.com Book · book (~224 pages) Profit First: Transform Your Business from a Cash-Eating Monster Mike Michalowicz In 5 answers

Show the next 24

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

What are good startup ideas in India right now? The ideas Indian investors are backing in 2026 sit in a few places: AI built into one industry's daily work (vertical AI for B2B, where software fu... Beginner 5 resources → How do I find product-market fit? Narrow until a small group cannot do without you, then widen. Pick the segment where usage is strongest, talk to those people every week, and chang... Intermediate 9 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 → How do I build an MVP for my startup, step by step? Write down the one assumption that kills the idea if it is wrong, then build the cheapest thing that tests it and get it to real users within weeks... Beginner 9 resources → Which tool should I use to analyse qualitative data like interview notes? For a founder with a dozen interviews, Gemini Notebook, which is free, or Claude, free or $20 a month on Pro: load the transcripts, ask for the rec... Beginner 6 resources → How do I get my first client as a freelancer? Your first client is most likely someone who already knows you or someone they know, so start there before marketplaces. 1) Pick one service for on... Beginner 6 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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