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. Naval defines specific knowledge as the thing you cannot be trained for, built from your curiosity, obsessions, and the way you... Naval Essay · 6 min read Arm Yourself With Specific Knowledge Naval Ravikant In 3 answers
  2. An investor's view of why founder-market fit is a top filter at the earliest stage, when there is little else to judge. It... F2 Venture Capital Article · 8 min read Founder Market Fit Matters F2 VC In 3 answers
  3. This is about the unique insight half of 'why you': seeing a market others dismiss and having the conviction to build there. It... First Round Review Article · 20 min read Future Founders, Here's How to Spot and Build in Nonobvious Markets Elad Gil In 3 answers
  4. Kevin Hale distills a pitch into seven questions investors need answered, and 'why this team' is one of them. Use it to place... Y Combinator Startup Library Article · ~15 min read How to Pitch Your Company Kevin Hale, Y Combinator In 3 answers
  5. Podcast · ~90 min video Kunal Shah on winning in India and second-order thinking Kunal Shah with Lenny Rachitsky In 3 answers
  6. Intel's former CEO defines the "strategic inflection point," the moment a real shift changes the fundamentals of a business,... Andrew S. Grove (Penguin Random House) Book · Book (~210 pages) Only the Paranoid Survive Andrew S. Grove In 3 answers
  7. Ryan Hoover has watched more product launches than almost anyone through Product Hunt, and this conversation covers exactly... Lenny's Podcast Podcast How to launch and grow your product | Ryan Hoover of Product Hunt and Weekend Fund Lenny Rachitsky, Ryan Hoover In 3 answers
  8. A short, practical guide you can lift straight into your own process: how many times to follow up, what to say at each touch,... Close Template The Follow Up Formula Steli Efti In 3 answers
  9. Pete Kazanjy, who has built and scaled multiple B2B sales orgs, gives a founder-focused breakdown of how to get specific enough... Lenny's Podcast Article · 10 min read Defining your ideal customer profile: Pete Kazanjy's perspective Pete Kazanjy In 3 answers
  10. A real teardown of real cold emails sent to a real, busy recipient, with his honest reaction to each subject line. Reading... Nick Gray Essay Feedback on 4 Cold Emails To Me From Ramit's Brain Trust Nick Gray In 3 answers
  11. Sethi has spent years publicly refining cold outreach scripts and testing subject lines with real recipients, and this collects... Ramit Sethi Template 50 Proven Email Scripts Ramit Sethi In 3 answers
  12. If you decide to send from a separate domain for deliverability reasons, this is the official, no nonsense setup guide for the... Google Workspace Help Article · 10 min setup Set up SPF Google Workspace In 3 answers
  13. Video · ~20 min Customer Discovery: What Do You Ask Justin Wilcox In 3 answers
  14. A short form that produces a starter interview script tailored to your product, built on the same rules as Wilcox's videos... Customer Development Labs Tool Customer Interview Script Generator Justin Wilcox In 3 answers
  15. Ellis lays out the 40 percent test, the survey question and threshold he found across hundreds of startups for knowing you have... GrowthHackers Essay Using Product/Market Fit to Drive Sustainable Growth Sean Ellis In 3 answers
  16. Gupta names the Mom Test problem directly, that people in interviews behave like your mom and unconsciously lie to keep you... Aakash Gupta Essay Customer Interviews: Advanced Techniques Aakash Gupta In 3 answers
  17. Amy Hoy and Alex Hillman built the Sales Safari methodology, and a business, around finding what an audience already complains... Stacking the Bricks Essay · 12 min read Updating the Sales Safari System for 2023 Alex Hillman In 3 answers
  18. Michael King runs a16z's go to market network, and this piece is aimed squarely at the moment your first guess at an ICP needs... Andreessen Horowitz Article · 12 min read A Framework for Defining and Refining Your ICP Michael King In 3 answers
  19. A plain explainer of SEBI's revised angel fund rules from September 2025: who counts as an accredited investor, how many a fund... Treelife Article · 15 min read Angel Fund Registration in India: The Revised SEBI Framework Treelife In 3 answers
  20. Google's own guidance for site owners on how pages appear in AI Overviews and AI Mode, and how to measure and control that. Google Article · 8 min read AI features and your website Google Search Central In 3 answers
  21. Slack's own pricing page in rupees: the free plan keeps 90 days of message history; paid plans are priced per member, which... slack.com Tool Slack pricing Slack In 3 answers
  22. Hostinger's drag-and-drop builder with AI tools, priced in rupees for India. The page lists the starter plan at ₹139 a month on... hostinger.com Tool Hostinger Website Builder (India pricing) Hostinger In 3 answers
  23. Replit's agent builds, hosts and fixes apps in the browser, with a database built in. The page lists Core at $20 a month ($18... replit.com Tool Replit pricing Replit In 3 answers
  24. Google's own steps to open a Play Console account to publish Android apps, including identity verification and the US$25... support.google.com Article · 5 min Google Play: register for a developer account Google In 3 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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