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. An India-focused program on going from an idea to a working prototype using AI and modern tools. It is aimed at founders here... Google for Startups Course · Short program, self-paced Startup School: Prompt to Prototype (India) Google for Startups
  2. This is the book behind the whole idea that good design is affordances and feedback, the exact language in our short answer.... Don Norman Book · Book, approx 350 pages The Design of Everyday Things (Revised and Expanded Edition) Don Norman
  3. This backs up the first three seconds claim with research: people judge a page in milliseconds, and that snap verdict is hard... Nielsen Norman Group Article · 10 min read First Impressions Matter: How Designers Can Support Humans' Automatic Cognitive Processing Therese Fessenden
  4. A running library of design patterns that have actually been A/B tested to lift conversion, with the evidence attached. Instead... Jakub Linowski Tool · Pattern library GoodUI: Design Patterns for Higher Conversion Jakub Linowski
  5. A crisp reference on the research finding that people perceive attractive products as more usable and forgive their small... Laws of UX Tool · 5 min read plus reference library Aesthetic-Usability Effect Jon Yablonski
  6. Airbnb's cofounder shows how deliberate design decisions convinced millions of strangers to trust each other enough to share... TED Video · 16 min video How Airbnb Designs for Trust Joe Gebbia
  7. The rule behind trimming your onboarding, your pricing tiers, and your menus. More choices mean slower decisions, so this card... Laws of UX Article · 5 min read Hick's Law Jon Yablonski
  8. Why your primary button should be big and easy to reach, especially on mobile. The time to hit a target depends on its size and... Laws of UX Article · 5 min read Fitts's Law Jon Yablonski
  9. The chunking principle that keeps forms and dashboards from overwhelming people. Working memory is limited, so you group... Laws of UX Article · 5 min read Miller's Law Jon Yablonski
  10. The deeper, research backed treatment from the field's most trusted usability lab. It explains the actual mechanics of target... Nielsen Norman Group Article · 12 min read Fitts's Law and Its Applications in UX Raluca Budiu
  11. A short, practical take on when a long menu is actually fine. Hick's Law does not mean fewer items is always better, and this... Nielsen Norman Group Video · 3 min video Hick's Law: Designing Long Menu Lists Katie Sherwin
  12. A curated map of the psychology that underpins these laws, with links to go deeper on each. Rather than one principle, it... Nielsen Norman Group Article · 10 min read Psychology for UX: Study Guide Tanner Kohler
  13. A clear, example rich walkthrough of Hick's Law with the history and the practical moves side by side. It shows how to figure... Interaction Design Foundation Article · 8 min read Hick's Law: Making the Choice Easier for Users Mads Soegaard
  14. A hands on explainer of how size and distance shape whether a control feels easy or fiddly. It uses concrete UI examples,... Interaction Design Foundation Article · 8 min read Fitts's Law: The Importance of Size and Distance in UI Design Interaction Design Foundation
  15. A searchable library of the biases and principles behind user behavior, each with a short example. It goes wider than the core... Growth.Design Tool · Browse as needed 106 Cognitive Biases and Principles That Affect Your UX Growth.Design
  16. Video · Approx. 40 min video Laws of UX: Using Psychology to Design Better Products and Services (talk) Jon Yablonski
  17. A clear Hick's Law primer from one of India's established design studios, so the framing sits close to home. It lays out four... Think Design (India) Article · 7 min read Understanding Hick's Law and Its Application in UX Design Stuti Mazumdar
  18. Free, ready-to-use scripts (including a mobile-app version), observer instructions, and a form for noting the top three... Sensible (Steve Krug) Template Usability Testing Scripts, Observer Forms, and Checklists (Downloads) Steve Krug
  19. Video Why Customer Onboarding is the Most Crucial Part of Your Growth Strategy Casey Winters
  20. Hulick pulls apart the first run experience of well known apps screen by screen, showing what each step costs and what it... UserOnboard Article User Onboarding Teardowns Samuel Hulick
  21. A comic style teardown of Blinkist onboarding grounded in behavioral psychology, showing why each step helps or hurts. It gives... Growth.Design Article One Simple Psychology Framework To Improve Your Onboarding (Blinkist) Growth.Design
  22. Duolingo lets people finish a full lesson before it ever asks them to create an account, and this study breaks down why that... Growth.Design Article Duolingo's User Retention: 8 Tactics Tested On 300 Million Users Growth.Design
  23. Research backed rules for making forms feel effortless, which is where much of onboarding drop happens. It directly supports... Nielsen Norman Group Article Few Guesses, More Success: 4 Principles to Reduce Cognitive Load in Forms Huei-Hsin Wang
  24. Bush's straight line onboarding and bowling alley frameworks are built to strip steps and shrink time to value. He gives you a... Wes Bush (ProductLed) Book Product-Led Growth: How to Build a Product That Sells Itself Wes Bush

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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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