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 concise, practical primer on structuring an interview, from writing questions to avoiding leading language to taking useful... Nielsen Norman Group Article User Interviews 101 Maria Rosala and Kara Pernice
  2. Zhuo, former Facebook VP of Product Design, gives seven specific questions for interviewing a prospective user, moving from... The Looking Glass Essay The Looking Glass: You Cannot Teach Wisdom Julie Zhuo
  3. Video How to Interview Your Customers, Live Demo Justin Wilcox
  4. A ready-made template for drafting a comparable, reusable question set across every interview, which matters because you can... Notion Template Customer Interview Question Generator Notion
  5. This is a straightforward, tactical rundown of where to source interviewees when your customer base is zero: relevant... Grow and Convert Article · ~12 min read How to Conduct Customer Interviews (Even When You Don't Have Customers) Thomas Carney
  6. Once you've found someone willing to talk, this thread collects the actual questions other founders use, crowdsourced from... Indie Hackers Thread · ~5 min read Top Questions to Ask Customers During Their Interviews Indie Hackers
  7. A specific, first-person account of finding an audience on Reddit from nothing, including which subreddits worked and how the... Indie Hackers Thread · ~8 min read How I Got My First 100 Users via Reddit Indie Hackers
  8. When your personal network and community outreach genuinely run dry, this is the paid fallback: a recruiting panel of people... userinterviews.com Tool User Interviews userinterviews.com
  9. This is the most exhaustive single list we found of concrete channels for sourcing interviewees, from personal network to... mfishbein.com Article · ~15 min read Customer Development: 14 Best Ways to Find Customers to Interview Mike Fishbein
  10. Meesho's co-founder describes how the company's first idea (a hyperlocal shop-discovery app) failed and how the real business... Y Combinator Startup Library Video On Starting and Scaling Meesho Vidit Aatrey
  11. Savoia's pretotyping approach forces you to define, before you show anyone anything, exactly what a real reaction would look... pretotyping.org Book · ~80 pages Pretotype It Alberto Savoia
  12. If a cofounder or teammate is going to sit in on the session, this is the two-minute brief you send them beforehand. It spells... Nielsen Norman Group Article Observer Guidelines for Usability Research Nielsen Norman Group
  13. This names biases beyond the obvious one: task-selection bias (users assume whatever you ask them to find must exist), social... MeasuringU Article 9 Biases in Usability Testing Jeff Sauro
  14. This lays out the practical mechanics of a feedback session, including being neutral when you present the prototype and... Interaction Design Foundation Article Test Your Prototypes: How to Gather Feedback and Maximize Learning Interaction Design Foundation
  15. Useful once you've run a few in-person sessions and want to test with more people than you can personally sit with. It's honest... Maze Article Moderated vs. Unmoderated Usability Testing: Which One is Right for You? Maze
  16. A short video showing exactly what neutral prompting sounds like when a participant goes quiet mid-task. Watching the actual... Nielsen Norman Group Video · ~5 min Help Users Think Aloud Nielsen Norman Group
  17. Shows an actual demonstration of a facilitator's opening script, the part of the session most founders wing and accidentally... Nielsen Norman Group Video · ~6 min Introducing a Usability Test to the Participant Nielsen Norman Group
  18. A ready-to-use script and structure for the five-act interview, so you're not writing your test flow from scratch. Having the... Design Sprint Kit (Google) Template Conduct a 5-Act Interview Design Sprint Kit (Google)
  19. A simple tool for a narrow but useful version of unbiased reaction testing: show someone a screen for five seconds, then ask... Lyssna Tool Five Second Testing Lyssna
  20. Written for solo and early founders rather than VC backed teams, this is blunt about why family and friends are usually the... Indie Hackers Article How To Validate a Business Idea Indie Hackers
  21. Kahl argues that half of good customer discovery is ignoring the wrong people, and he is explicit that supportive friends and... Arvid Kahl, The Bootstrapped Founder Essay Problem Validation: Making Sure You're Talking to the Right People Arvid Kahl
  22. Video Customer Discovery: Who Do You Interview Justin Wilcox
  23. This Notion template turns the Mom Test's rules into a fill in the blank interview and synthesis workflow, which is useful once... Mari Luukkainen Template Master Customer Interviews with a Mom Test-Based Notion Template for Startups Mari Luukkainen
  24. This thread is a candid, unfiltered discussion of a question every founder eventually asks out loud: how do you actually get a... Hacker News Thread Ask HN: How to Actually "Talk to Your Customers"? Hacker News

Show the next 24

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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