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.

The most complete single book on cold email as a repeatable system, from a writer who built his own business almost entirely on... Amazon Book · ~200 pages Cold Email Manifesto: How to Contact Anyone, Make More Sales, and Take Your Company to the Next Level Alex Berman, Robert Indries
This is a tactical playbook for turning a handful of happy customers into a channel of their own: reference calls, case... First Round Review Article The Startup's Guide to Customer Advocacy: How to Get Closer to Your Champions Kalina Bryant
This is the real time data point behind the ceiling described in the short answer, straight from a community of SaaS founders... SaaStr Article Does Outbound Still Work? 49% Of You Say No Jason Lemkin
Written in 1999, this book named the exact tension you are living through: interruption based outreach gets harder every year... Amazon Book Permission Marketing: Turning Strangers into Friends and Friends into Customers Seth Godin
Barry built ConvertKit's growth almost entirely on flywheels, content, community, and audience, rather than outbound, and this... nathanbarry.com Essay Creator Flywheels: The Operating System for Your Business Nathan Barry
Sheridan's pool company went from near bankruptcy to a category leader by answering every question a buyer might have in public... marcussheridan.com Book They Ask, You Answer: A Revolutionary Approach to Inbound Sales, Content Marketing, and Today's Digital Consumer Marcus Sheridan
This is a VC's field guide to the small community half of the short answer: what makes a founder built community actually drive... Bessemer Venture Partners Essay Five laws for community-led growth Bessemer Venture Partners
This gives you the actual words to use once you decide to ask happy customers for referrals, timed to the moment right after a... HubSpot Template How to ask for a referral from a client (+ best email templates) HubSpot
Warm channels run on proof, and this is the simplest tool for collecting video and text testimonials from customers without... Testimonial.to Tool Testimonial.to Testimonial.to
Zerodha reached crores of customers in India without ever running an ad or an outbound campaign, growing almost entirely on... Indian Startup News Article 'Customer love is a real superpower for us': Nithin Kamath on how Zerodha grew without advertising Indian Startup News
Dozens of founders answer in the comments with what actually worked for them, and cold email is a minority answer among stories... Hacker News Thread Ask HN: How do you get first 10 customers? Hacker News
Written for founders who would rather be building product than selling, this is a grounded guide to identifying and... Y Combinator Article Sales Advice for Technical Founders Y Combinator
Video · ~75 min Founder-Led Sales, with Pete Kazanjy Pete Kazanjy, hosted by Lenny Rachitsky
Lemkin has watched thousands of B2B SaaS companies try outbound and this piece is his blunt verdict: it works, but only when it... SaaStr Article · 8 min read Outbound Always Works. If You Do It Right. And You Put In The Time. Jason Lemkin
Gong analyzed over 100,000 real cold calls to find what actually correlates with booking a meeting, so this is data, not... Gong Article · 12 min read Essential Cold Calling Tips: 17 Proven Techniques for Success Chris Orlob
Podcast · ~87 min 2X SaaS Founder: How To Sell Global Tech Products From India Siddhartha Ahluwalia, with Sharath Narayana
Use these as a starting structure, not a script to copy and paste to a thousand people, since that second use is exactly the... HubSpot Template · 15 min read 22 Best B2B Cold Email Templates to Get Your Leads' Attention HubSpot
A concise reference sheet that names the exact failure modes this question is about: leading questions like wouldn't you agree... Harvard Business School, Rock Center for Entrepreneurship Article · 5 min read Customer Discovery Basics Harvard Business School, Rock Center for Entrepreneurship
Alvarez names the specific mistakes founders make even after reading the theory: multi part questions that let people dodge the... cindyalvarez.com Essay · 8 min read 5 Common Customer Development Mistakes Cindy Alvarez
Hansen runs interviews for her own bootstrapped products and talks candidly about the emotional side founders underrate:... Inside Intercom Podcast · ~40 min How to deploy empathy to get the most out of customer interviews Michele Hansen
Wunker's Jobs to Be Done framework gets an Indian audience through this YourStory piece, useful if you want the underlying... YourStory Article · ~8 min read Unlocking customer-centric innovation with author Stephen Wunker Stephen Wunker
Wilcox tackles this exact question head on, and rejects the tempting stop when you stop learning something new answer since you... Customer Dev Labs Article How Many Customers Should You Interview? Justin Wilcox
A companion piece to the article above, this one focuses on the practical am I done yet moment inside a single discovery... Customer Dev Labs Article When Are You Done Interviewing Customers? Justin Wilcox
This is the academic study behind the qualitative research idea of saturation, the point past which new interviews stop adding... Field Methods (Sage) Article How Many Interviews Are Enough? An Experiment with Data Saturation and Variability Greg Guest, Arwen Bunce, Laura Johnson

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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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