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. This is the worked dilution example, actual numbers, not a hand-wave: a $100k SAFE with an $8M cap and a 15% discount... FundersClub Article · 6 min read Numerical Example: SAFE, Cap and Discount FundersClub In 4 answers
  2. This is the concrete map of where the small cheques actually live in India: Indian Angel Network, Mumbai Angels, LetsVenture,... Inc42 Article · 15 min read From Seed To Success: 15 Active Angel Networks For Indian Startups Inc42 Staff In 4 answers
  3. This is the runway math done in rupees, for the Indian founder, so you plan for 18 to 24 months instead of discovering a hole.... Treelife Article · 20 min read Burn Rate and Runway Calculation for Startups in India: The Complete Guide Treelife In 4 answers
  4. This is the canonical slide-by-slide template from the person who has read more pre-traction decks than almost anyone. Seibel's... Y Combinator Article · 12 min read How to Build Your Seed Round Pitch Deck Michael Seibel In 4 answers
  5. This is the tool for the exact fight you are having: it scores each founder across Idea, Business Plan, Domain Expertise, and... Carnegie Mellon University Tool · 15 min read The Founders' Pie Calculator Frank Demmler In 4 answers
  6. Written by one of India's top corporate law firms, this is the authoritative read on what your co-founder's current employer... India Corporate Law (Cyril Amarchand Mangaldas) Article · 12 min read Moonlighting: Legal Considerations and Contractual Regulation Cyril Amarchand Mangaldas In 4 answers
  7. This is the India-specific playbook for exactly your situation: it names full-time versus part-time commitment as a reason to... EquityList Article · 15 min read Co-Founder Equity Split in India: How to Decide, Document, and Protect It EquityList In 4 answers
  8. This is the government's own sample SHA, published on the official Startup India (DPIIT) templates page alongside term sheets... Startup India Template · 13-page template Shareholder Agreement of Company (Sample SHA Template) Startup India (Invest India, DPIIT) In 4 answers
  9. Most GST explainers stop at the 40 lakh / 20 lakh threshold. This one is written for founders who need to decide whether to... Treelife Article · 15 min read GST Compliance for Startups: ITC, IMS, Registration, Deadlines Treelife In 4 answers
  10. This is the operating manual behind the answer's core rule: don't run a remote team on vibes. GitLab runs 1,600+ people across... The GitLab Handbook Article · 25 min read Asynchronous communication for remote work GitLab In 4 answers
  11. This is the India-specific breakdown you owe your team: what full-and-final actually includes (unpaid salary, leave encashment,... Wisemonk Article · 15 min read Full and Final Settlement in India: 2026 Compliance Guide Wisemonk In 4 answers
  12. Blank invented customer development, and this manifesto boils it into a short set of rules, starting with the idea that there... Steve Blank Essay · 12 min read Nail the Customer Development Manifesto to the Wall Steve Blank In 4 answers
  13. A two-minute animation showing why building before talking to customers wastes months. Useful to send a cofounder who wants to... Steve Blank Video · 2 min Customer Discovery: The Search for Product/Market Fit. 2 Minutes to See Why Steve Blank In 4 answers
  14. A step by step process for taking an idea to something people want without building the wrong product first. Maurya's mantra,... Ash Maurya (O'Reilly) Book · ~336 pages Running Lean (3rd Edition) Ash Maurya In 4 answers
  15. A clean, practical playbook for the mechanics: where to place the door, what to measure, and how to avoid annoying the people... Learning Loop Article · ~12 min read Fake Door Testing: What It Is and How to Run One Learning Loop In 4 answers
  16. A useful correction for founders chasing a market-wide 40 percent before a single cohort loves the product. The authors argue... Andreessen Horowitz (a16z) Article · ~2,000 words Product-User Fit Comes Before Product-Market Fit Peter Lauten and David Ulevitch In 4 answers
  17. Drawing on thousands of office hours, Caldwell separates when to just not die and keep going from when to actually pivot, which... Lenny's Podcast (Dalton Caldwell) Podcast · ~80 min Lessons from 1,000+ YC startups: pivoting, resilience, and avoiding tar pit ideas Dalton Caldwell In 4 answers
  18. Lenny interviewed dozens of people who built Airbnb, DoorDash, Thumbtack, Etsy, and Uber, then distilled how they actually got... Lenny's Newsletter Article · ~25 min read How to Kickstart and Scale a Marketplace Business (Part 1) Lenny Rachitsky In 4 answers
  19. Ramanujam argues that putting willingness to pay at the very centre of product design, before you build, is what separates... First Round Review Article It's Price Before Product. Period. Madhavan Ramanujam In 4 answers
  20. Tom Blomfield's practical framework for pricing when you sell to businesses, including why to charge from the start and how to... Y Combinator Startup Library Video How to Price for B2B (Tom Blomfield, Y Combinator) Tom Blomfield In 4 answers
  21. Cohen bootstrapped two companies past a hundred million in revenue, and he is blunt that a typical launch converts around one... A Smart Bear (Jason Cohen) Essay · 15 min read Excuse Me, Is There a Problem? Jason Cohen In 4 answers
  22. The other side of the question, honestly told, including when a coordinated launch is actually the wrong move. It shows how... Lenny's Newsletter Article · 15 min read How to Successfully Launch on Product Hunt (When It's Right for Your Startup) Leo Bosuener In 4 answers
  23. If your warm interest is coming from larger companies that never sign, this Indian podcast episode digs into why enterprise... The Neon Show Podcast How Startups Can Sell to Big Companies (The Neon Show) Siddhartha Ahluwalia In 4 answers
  24. A practical, structured playbook for the exact fear in this question: users quietly leaking away. Lenny breaks retention into... Lenny's Newsletter Article · ~15 min read How to Increase Your Product's Retention Lenny Rachitsky In 4 answers

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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