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. The second half covers the moves that trip up founders most: overlaying text on images so it stays readable, making text pop... Learn UI Design Article · 20 min read 7 Rules for Creating Gorgeous UI (Part 2) Erik D. Kennedy
  2. Typography is where most non-designer products quietly fall apart, and this free online book fixes that with plain rules. Start... practicaltypography.com Book · Free online book, start with the 10-minute summary Butterick's Practical Typography Matthew Butterick
  3. A logic-driven handbook aimed at developers who no longer want to depend on a designer, from someone who has designed products... practical-ui.com Book · Book plus Figma design system kit Practical UI Adham Dannaway
  4. Color is where founders most often go wrong, and this walks you through a simple, safe system: one primary, a set of neutrals,... DEV Community Article · 12 min read A beginner's guide to applying color in UI design George Francis
  5. A free video series from a designer who spent years teaching developers, walking you from fundamentals to real screens over... DesignCourse (YouTube) Course · Multi-video playlist Learn UI/UX in 30 Days Gary Simon
  6. Instead of guessing hex codes, you pick text, background, primary, and accent colors and see them applied to a realistic... realtimecolors.com Tool · Free web tool Realtime Colors Juxtopposed
  7. Mismatched, blown-up, or clashing icons make a product look amateur fast. Heroicons gives you one consistent, professionally... heroicons.com Tool · Free icon set Heroicons Steve Schoger and the Tailwind Labs team
  8. Give it one accent color and it generates a full range of shades, from very light to very dark, that stay balanced across the... uicolors.app Tool · Free web tool UI Colors: Tailwind CSS Color Generator UI Colors
  9. Video · Approx. 40 min How to Think Like a Visual Designer Steve Schoger
  10. Video · 9 min Jakob Nielsen's 10 Usability Heuristics (video) Nielsen Norman Group
  11. Video · ~1 hr The Design of Everyday Things: 25 years later (BayCHI talk) Don Norman
  12. This is the how behind reduce the thinking to zero. It names the three levers you actually control: cut visual clutter, build... Nielsen Norman Group Article · 9 min read Minimize Cognitive Load to Maximize Usability Kathryn Whitenton
  13. Tognazzini built Apple's original interface guidelines, and this is his deep list of principles: anticipation, autonomy,... AskTog (Bruce Tognazzini) Article · 40 min read First Principles of Interaction Design (Revised and Expanded) Bruce Tognazzini
  14. Crisp, opinionated principles from the team that made government services genuinely usable at massive scale. Start with user... GOV.UK (Government Digital Service) Article · 10 min read Government Design Principles UK Government Digital Service
  15. Error prevention is one of Nielsen's ten heuristics, and this unpacks how to actually do it: match the user's mental model,... Nielsen Norman Group Article · 8 min read Preventing User Errors: Avoiding Conscious Mistakes Page Laubheimer
  16. An Indian product team writing about how they think, not just how they draw. Zomato argues that good UX starts from... Zomato Article · 10 min read Product Before Pixels: a product thinking workshop for designers Zomato Design
  17. A behind the scenes look at how an Indian company built consistency into a fast moving product with a shared design system. It... Zomato Article · 8 min read Zomato's Sushi Design System Zomato Design
  18. The quality of your test depends entirely on the tasks you give. This piece shows how to write realistic scenarios that do not... Nielsen Norman Group Article · ~9 min read Turn User Goals into Task Scenarios for Usability Testing Marieke McCloskey
  19. This is the free hub the short answer points you to. It walks you through frames, shapes, text, and prototyping by building one... Figma Learn Course · Approx. 2 to 3 hours, self-paced Figma Design for beginners (official course) Figma
  20. Wireframing is the skill the short answer says you actually need, and this explains it without design jargon. It covers low... Figma Article · 12 minute read What is Wireframing? The Complete Guide Figma
  21. The short answer says the real work is thinking through the user's path, and mapping the flow is how you do that before... Figma Article · 10 minute read What is a user flow, and why it matters Figma
  22. This chapter argues you can think through a whole flow with words and crude sketches before any real design tool. Breadboarding... Basecamp Essay · 20 minute read Shape Up: Find the Elements (breadboarding and fat marker sketches) Ryan Singer
  23. 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
  24. Video · Approx. 25 minutes Figma Tutorial For Beginners AJ&Smart

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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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