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 essay that forces the honest question underneath your idea: are you building a growth company or a good small... Paul Graham Essay · ~20 min read Startup = Growth Paul Graham In 16 answers
  2. Savoia, who led early Google AdWords, argues most ideas fail because nobody wanted them, and teaches pretotyping: cheap... Alberto Savoia Book · ~250 pages The Right It: Why So Many Ideas Fail and How to Make Sure Yours Succeed Alberto Savoia In 16 answers
  3. Market size is meaningless until you know exactly who you're for, and Lenny turns that into a concrete, repeatable ICP exercise... Lenny's Newsletter Article · ~15 min read How to identify your ideal customer profile (ICP) Lenny Rachitsky In 15 answers
  4. The best free on-ramp for founders who feel 'too early' for a funded accelerator, it distils YC's thinking into a structured... Y Combinator Course · ~7-week self-paced course Startup School, Free Startup Course Y Combinator In 15 answers
  5. Video · ~15 min How to Get and Test Startup Ideas Michael Seibel In 15 answers
  6. Moore's beachhead idea is the definitive case for winning one narrow segment before you touch the broader market, which is... Geoffrey A. Moore Book · ~240 pages Crossing the Chasm: Marketing and Selling Disruptive Products to Mainstream Customers Geoffrey A. Moore In 15 answers
  7. This is the plain-language answer to "do I have to register yet." It lays out the 40 lakh goods / 20 lakh services limits, the... ClearTax Article · 12 min read GST Registration Threshold Limits: Goods, Services and Special Category States ClearTax Editorial Team In 15 answers
  8. This is the best method for the exact job of learning an industry's language when you cannot yet get face time with people in... Stacking the Bricks (Amy Hoy) Article · video walkthrough Sales Safari in Action Amy Hoy In 15 answers
  9. Before you sweat which side to seed, Gurley helps you judge whether your marketplace is even structurally worth building. He... Above the Crowd Essay · 20 min read All Markets Are Not Created Equal: 10 Factors to Consider When Evaluating Digital Marketplaces Bill Gurley In 15 answers
  10. The FSSAI's current table of which food business needs which licence and what it costs a year, revised from 1 April 2026: most... foscos.fssai.gov.in Article · 9-page PDF FSSAI kind of business: eligibility criteria and fee structure (updated 1 April 2026) Food Safety and Standards Authority of India In 15 answers
  11. The most accessible, practical intro to usability ever written, you can read it in a weekend and immediately fix your product.... sensible.com Book · ~200 pages Don't Make Me Think, Revisited Steve Krug In 14 answers
  12. A step-by-step, modern YC walkthrough of identifying buyers, starting conversations, and converting them into your first... YC Startup Library Video · ~20 min How to Get Your First 10 Customers Max Kolysh (Y Combinator) In 14 answers
  13. From the founder of CMX and author of The Business of Belonging, a practical framework for deciding whether to build community... Lenny's Newsletter Article · ~25 min read A Founder's Guide to Community David Spinks In 14 answers
  14. Patrick Campbell built ProfitWell on pricing data from thousands of companies, and this is the single best free deep-dive on... lennysnewsletter.com Article · long-form guide Pricing Your SaaS Product Patrick Campbell (ProfitWell), via Lenny's Newsletter In 14 answers
  15. The most concrete guide to actually measuring what customers will pay, including survey methods and tier design. It turns... lennysnewsletter.com Article · long-form guide The Ultimate Guide to Willingness to Pay Lenny Rachitsky & Patrick Campbell In 14 answers
  16. The official source for DPIIT recognition, the free registration that unlocks tax benefits, self-certification, and scheme... startupindia.gov.in Article · Official portal page DPIIT Startup Recognition & Tax Exemption (Startup India) Startup India / DPIIT In 14 answers
  17. Pete Koomen took Optimizely from zero to $100M+ ARR, and here he breaks the enterprise funnel down for exactly the person who... Y Combinator Startup School Video · ~35 min Enterprise Sales for Founders Pete Koomen In 14 answers
  18. Most market sizing advice online is generic TAM SAM SOM filler. This one is written by an investor, backed by a survey of 30... Pear VC Essay · ~15 min read Market Sizing Guide Ian Taylor In 14 answers
  19. Thiel makes the counterintuitive case that dominating a tiny market first is a feature, not a bug: every lasting monopoly... Penguin Random House India Book · ~224 pages Zero to One: Notes on Startups, or How to Build the Future Peter Thiel with Blake Masters In 14 answers
  20. Video · About 25 minutes How to Get Your First Customers (Startup School) Gustaf Alstromer In 14 answers
  21. The consumer counterpart to finding B2B customers, focused on manually recruiting your first users for a consumer product. It... Lenny's Newsletter Article How to Find Your Early Adopters by Doing Things That Don't Scale Lenny Rachitsky In 14 answers
  22. The definitive short read on why disruptive ideas get dismissed as toys, and why that dismissal is your opening. It reframes... cdixon.org Article · ~5 min read The Next Big Thing Will Start Out Looking Like a Toy Chris Dixon In 13 answers
  23. The reference primer on the metrics and market-sizing logic investors use, including bottom-up market sizing that keeps... a16z Article · ~15 min read 16 Startup Metrics Andreessen Horowitz (a16z) In 13 answers
  24. A data-backed teardown of how companies like Figma, Gusto, and Vanta actually sourced their earliest customers. Replaces... Lenny's Newsletter Article · ~15 min read How today's fastest-growing B2B startups found their first ten customers Lenny Rachitsky In 13 answers

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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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