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.

This zooms out from developers to the general pattern of key-person risk: any company where one person holds all the... Allied Venture Partners Article · 15 min read 10 Operational Risks That Sink Startups Matthew Wilson
Written for the Indian hiring market, this covers building a tech team from scratch, including the trap of leaning too long on... Savanna HR Article · 12 min read How to Build a High-Performing Tech Team: A Guide for Indian Startups Swati Sinha
Open source is the most public, most honest signal of what a developer can do, and this walks you through finding and... daily.dev Article How to Hire Developers from Open Source Communities daily.dev
A paid trial task only works if the task itself is well scoped, and this is a practical guide to writing one. It covers... DevSkills Template How to Create a Great Take-Home Coding Test Anton Fenske
This is a three-minute list of yes/no questions you can literally walk through with the developer you hire, or use to size up... Joel on Software Essay · 10 min read The Joel Test: 12 Steps to Better Code Joel Spolsky
This makes the core case behind our answer: the people who built a system are the worst people to judge it, so you need someone... Variant Systems Article · 8 min read Why You Need an Independent Code Audit (Before It's Too Late) Variant Systems
A plain walk-through of what a code audit actually looks at (architecture, security, tests, documentation) and how a firm runs... Uptech Article · 15 min read Software Code Audit: Why and How It Ensures a Smoother App Launch Arthur Myronenko
This reframes code quality into four things a non-technical founder can actually observe: how fast the team still ships, how... JetThoughts Article · 10 min read How to Know If Your Development Team's Code Quality Will Bite You Later JetThoughts
This is the structured checklist an investor's technical reviewer runs, covering architecture, code quality, key-person risk,... CTO on Demand Template · checklist Technical Due Diligence Checklist (2026): What Investors Actually Examine CTO on Demand
Nine plain-English dimensions for judging an existing codebase (readability, adaptability, maintainability, and so on), each... ICTworks Article · 8 min read 9 Criteria to Evaluate an Existing Software Code Base Siobhan Green
This explains the role that most cleanly fits your need: a senior technical person for a few hours who vets the build and tells... Crework Labs Article · 12 min read Fractional CTO for Non-Technical Founders: Do You Need One and What Does It Cost? Crework Labs
A grounded guide to what 'code quality' means and how experienced teams measure it, without pretending one number captures it.... LeadDev Article · 12 min read A Guide to Measuring and Improving Code Quality Mike San Román
A clear reference on what code quality really means (reliability, maintainability, security) and the concrete signals behind... Sonar Article · 15 min read What Is Code Quality? Definition Guide and How to Improve It Sonar
Written from the developer's side of exactly your situation: opening a codebase someone else built and figuring out how bad it... DaedTech Article · 10 min read So, You've Inherited a Legacy Codebase Erik Dietrich
A free summary of the classic legacy-code book, distilling the ideas your reviewer will use, above all that code without tests... Understand Legacy Code Article · 12 min read The Key Points of Working Effectively with Legacy Code Nicolas Carlo
A plainspoken independent CTO's take on when and why to bring in senior technical judgment part-time, without the sales gloss.... Amazing CTO Article · 10 min read Hire a Fractional CTO, Solve Your Tech Problems Stephan Schmidt
DHH built Basecamp and Hey with a tiny team by refusing to split the app into a fashionable web of microservices. If your... Signal v. Noise (DHH) Essay · 10 min read The Majestic Monolith David Heinemeier Hansson
This names the exact failure mode you are worried about: an engineer choosing a stack for how it will look on their next job... DEV Community Article · 10 min read The Resume-Driven Development Epidemic HotfixHero
A veteran founder and investor argues that pure 50/50 decision making causes gridlock, and that someone needs the final say in... Startup Hacks (Alex Iskold) Essay · 9 min read The Myth of Equal Startup Co-Founders Alex Iskold
Once you have decided whose call it is, you both still have to live with it, and this is the cleanest statement of how. Bezos... Startup Archive Article · 5 min read Jeff Bezos Explains What It Means to Disagree and Commit Startup Archive
This is a ready-to-run template for exactly the question you are asking: who is the single decider, and who merely contributes.... Atlassian Team Playbook Template · 10 min read DACI: A Decision-Making Framework Atlassian
Gokul Rajaram's SPADE framework is built on one rule that fits your situation perfectly: the person who has to execute and live... First Round Review Article · 20 min read Square Defangs Difficult Decisions with This System (SPADE) Gokul Rajaram
A practical roundup of the frameworks that startups actually use to break ties without drama, including role-centric decision... Lenny's Newsletter Article · 15 min read My Favorite Decision-Making Frameworks Lenny Rachitsky
The original essay that introduced Architecture Decision Records, a one page format capturing the context, the decision, and... Cognitect (Michael Nygard) Article · 8 min read Documenting Architecture Decisions Michael Nygard

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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

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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