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 structured guide to diagnosing and fixing onboarding from one of the most respected growth education teams. It helps you map... Reforge Article Optimize new user onboarding Reforge
  2. A pointed case study in obvious labels over clever ones. A vague "Get Started" button reads as friendly but leaves people... Nielsen Norman Group Article · ~6 min read "Get Started" Stops Users Aurora Harley and Kim Flaherty
  3. Eye tracking evidence for how people actually scan a screen, which tells you where to put the things that matter. If your... Nielsen Norman Group Article · ~12 min read F-Shaped Pattern of Reading on the Web: Misunderstood, But Still Relevant Kara Pernice
  4. A former Facebook design VP walks through how to look at a screen and judge whether it works, from first impression to first... Julie Zhuo (The Year of the Looking Glass) Essay · ~12 min read How to Do a Product Critique Julie Zhuo
  5. Norman's own short essay on the idea that decides whether a control looks usable: affordances and signifiers. It is the crisp,... Don Norman (jnd.org) Essay · ~10 min read Affordances and Design Don Norman
  6. A short, clear video on why showing options beats making people remember them, with interface examples. If you prefer watching... Nielsen Norman Group Video · ~4 min video Recognition vs. Recall in User Interfaces Raluca Budiu
  7. Baxley led design at Apple and Pinterest, and here he talks about craft and the obligation to reduce the friction people feel... Lenny's Podcast (Bob Baxley) Podcast · ~90 min episode 35 Years of Product Design Wisdom from Apple, Disney, Pinterest, and Beyond Lenny Rachitsky and Bob Baxley
  8. A ready to use script for running your own usability test, from Krug's book. You do not have to invent how to phrase tasks or... Steve Krug (sensible.com) Template · PDF, a few pages Usability Test Script (from Rocket Surgery Made Easy) Steve Krug
  9. Concrete evidence for what originality in the wrong place actually costs. It shows how novel patterns confuse users and slow... Nielsen Norman Group Article · 8 min read Breaking Web Design Conventions = Breaking the User Experience Katie Sherwin
  10. This separates internal consistency (within your product) from external consistency (matching the wider world of apps your... Nielsen Norman Group Article · 7 min read Maintain Consistency and Adhere to Standards (Usability Heuristic #4) Nielsen Norman Group
  11. This names the exact tension in your question and gives a rule for when innovation is worth its learning cost. Watch it to... Nielsen Norman Group Video · 5 min Consistency vs. Innovation in UX Design Raluca Budiu
  12. A catalogue of common interface patterns (registration, pricing tables, search, empty states, and more) with several real... UI-Patterns.com Tool · reference library UI-Patterns.com UI-Patterns.com
  13. Argues for stripping the interface down to essentials, which pairs neatly with copying conventions: keep the common parts quiet... Nielsen Norman Group Article · 7 min read Aesthetic and Minimalist Design (Usability Heuristic #8) Therese Fessenden
  14. Alex Russell, a Chrome engineer, puts hard numbers on what most of the world's phones can actually do, and the gap between them... Infrequently Noted (Alex Russell) Essay · Long read The Performance Inequality Gap, 2024 Alex Russell
  15. Every kilobyte of JavaScript costs far more on a cheap phone than on your machine, because the phone has to download it and... Addy Osmani (Dev Channel, Medium) Article · 20 min read The Cost Of JavaScript Addy Osmani
  16. A small download is the first thing a data conscious user notices, and the official guide is the practical how to: app bundles,... Android Developers Article · Reference Reduce your app size Android Developers
  17. This is the developer side of the entry level phone: an OS tuned for 4GB RAM and under, with guidance on optimizing your app to... Android Developers Article · Guide hub Android (Go edition) and Build for Billions Android Developers
  18. Video · 40 min Building for Your Next Billion Users (Google I/O 2017) Google
  19. Facebook made its engineers spend an hour every Tuesday on a simulated 2G connection so they would feel what most of their... Engineering at Meta Article · Short read Building for emerging markets: the story behind 2G Tuesdays Meta Engineering
  20. Instead of shipping the same heavy page to everyone, you can detect the connection and serve lighter images or defer non... web.dev (Google) Article · 15 min read Adaptive serving based on network quality Google Chrome team
  21. A focused, code first companion on reading the user's connection (and even their data saver preference) and adjusting what you... AddyOsmani.com Article · 12 min read Adaptive Serving using JavaScript and the Network Information API Addy Osmani
  22. A conversational episode with a Google advocate on low bandwidth design and data cost, good for absorbing the mindset while... Designer vs Developer (Google) Podcast · 30 min Sam Dutton on designing for the next billion users Google
  23. A free, structured course that takes you from the basics of why pages are slow through images, fonts, JavaScript, and lazy... web.dev (Google) Course · Multi module course Learn Performance Google Chrome team
  24. A talk (with writeup) on serving a genuinely different, lighter experience to low end devices and slow networks, drawing on how... web.dev (Chrome Dev Summit talk writeup) Video · 25 min talk Adaptive loading: improving web performance on slow devices Nate Schloss and Addy Osmani

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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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