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. A founder facing walk through of the whole engagement: brief, vet, contract, and launch, with a section on fixed price... icondevs Article How to Hire a Dev Agency: The Complete Founder Guide icondevs
  2. A checklist of the clauses that matter beyond price: scope, acceptance, IP, warranty, and termination. It helps you see a... Genie AI Article Essential Contract Clauses When Hiring a Custom Software Development Agency Genie AI
  3. A practitioner thread arguing over estimates, phases, and why 'almost done' is unreliable. It is worth skimming to hear working... Hacker News Thread Painless Software Schedules (2000): Practitioner Discussion Hacker News community
  4. Cooley is the law firm behind a huge share of venture-backed startups, and this short piece tells you exactly why your company... Cooley GO Article What You Need in Your Contractor Agreements Cooley LLP
  5. A plain founder-level explainer from a top startup law firm on why the person who writes the code owns it by default, and what... WilmerHale Launch Article Who Owns Your IP WilmerHale
  6. If your developer sits in France, Germany, the UK, or the US, this guide explains how code ownership actually works in each,... Orrick Article Intellectual Property Assignments from Software Developers (France, Germany, UK, US) Orrick, Herrington & Sutcliffe
  7. A clear walk-through of what an IP assignment agreement is and how ownership moves from a person to the company, covering... Stripe Article How to Assign Intellectual Property to a Business Stripe
  8. Atlas built this guide with Orrick, and its blunt advice is to get signed IP assignments from everyone who touches the company,... Stripe Atlas Article Employment (Stripe Atlas Guide) Stripe Atlas with Orrick
  9. The most practical piece on this list: it tells you to own the repository from day one, set up GitHub in your business name,... Captain Pragmatic Article Do You Need Source Code Escrow? (Probably Not, But Here's When You Do) Captain Pragmatic
  10. If a developer already built your code in their own account, this is the official step-by-step for moving the repository to... GitHub Docs Tool Transferring a Repository GitHub
  11. A working handbook with ready-to-use contractor agreements and sample IP assignment language, including a version written for... Nolo Book Consultant & Independent Contractor Agreements Stephen Fishman
  12. A free companion to Nolo's book that lays out the two tools you need: a work-for-hire clause where it applies, and an... Nolo Article How to Protect Your Intellectual Property Rights in Works Created By Contractors Nolo
  13. A concise lawyer's post on the single most common and most avoidable legal mistake early startups make: never securing clear IP... The IP Law Blog Article Who Really Owns Your Startup's IP? Jeffrey Pietsch, Weintraub Tobin
  14. Y Combinator's own primer on the legal machinery of a startup, including why everyone must assign IP to the company or there is... Y Combinator Startup Library Article Startup Legal Mechanics Y Combinator
  15. Video · 58 min Startup Mechanics (Stanford CS183F) Kirsty Nathoo
  16. A corporate-counsel reference on why the work-for-hire doctrine frequently does not cover software, and how to structure... Association of Corporate Counsel Article Quick Counsel: Software Work for Hire (United States) Christopher T. Varas, Association of Corporate Counsel
  17. The Supreme Court case that turned on two words, and this article explains why "hereby assigns" beat "agrees to assign" and... The National Law Review Article Agree to Assign vs. Hereby Assign: In Stanford v. Roche, the Wording Decided Kevin W. McCabe, The National Law Review
  18. A free, editable IP assignment template you can adapt as a starting point rather than facing a blank page. Use it to see the... Contractbook Template Intellectual Property (IP) Assignment Template Contractbook
  19. This gives concrete cost ranges by MVP type, from a landing page build up to a full app with backend and integrations, which is... Riolabz Article MVP Development Cost in India Riolabz
  20. The number that blows a build budget is rarely the first quote, it is the additions that pile on afterward. This piece explains... DECODE Article What Is Scope Creep and How Do You Avoid It DECODE
  21. The timing principle you actually need: do not hire ahead of real, sustained pain, hire when the pain is constant and you have... REWORK by 37signals Podcast · 30 min Hire When It Hurts Jason Fried and David Heinemeier Hansson
  22. Orosz builds a hiring process from role definition through to the final debrief, written by someone who has hired and been... The Pragmatic Engineer Article · 20 min read Hiring Software Engineers Gergely Orosz
  23. Video · 35 min The Startup Playbook for Hiring Your First Engineers and AEs Y Combinator
  24. The single most valuable thing an outgoing agency has is context, the why behind the code, which is exactly what a codebase... Thoughtworks Article · 10 min read Lessons from Inheriting Another Team's Codebase Birgitta Bockeler

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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