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 walks through real pre-launch pages and settles the exact question: it shows Cal.com running an email waitlist as the... getlaunchlist.com Article · 15 min read Waitlist Landing Page Examples That Convert LaunchList In 2 answers
  2. Images are the single biggest reason landing pages crawl on a slow 4G connection, and Squoosh fixes that in your browser with... Google Chrome Labs Tool · A few minutes per image Squoosh Google Chrome Labs In 2 answers
  3. If you just want to know how many people showed up and how long they stayed, without slowing your page or bolting on a cookie... plausible.io Tool Plausible Analytics Plausible Insights In 2 answers
  4. This is the comparison that actually names the thing you are worried about: with Webflow you can export your site's code and... Zapier Article · About a 15 minute read Framer vs. Webflow: Which is best? Zapier In 2 answers
  5. If you take emails or money from people in India, the DPDP Act is the law your privacy page now has to answer to, and this EY... EY India Article · ~15 min read Decoding the Digital Personal Data Protection Act, 2023 EY India In 2 answers
  6. This is a genuinely one-page template you can fill in the same afternoon, in Word, PowerPoint, Google Slides, or PDF, so no... Smartsheet Template · One page, fill in the same day One-Page Brand Guidelines Template (Free) Smartsheet In 2 answers
  7. This is the piece that put the phrase minimum viable brand into circulation, and it argues the opposite of both extremes: you... Harvard Business Review Article · Short read, roughly 5 minutes Start-Ups Need a Minimum Viable Brand Denise Lee Yohn In 2 answers
  8. The email signature is the brand touchpoint a B2B founder hits dozens of times a day and almost always neglects, which is odd... HubSpot Template · ~5 min to set up Free Email Signature Generator HubSpot In 2 answers
  9. The safest place to pick fonts you can actually ship: everything is free, open source, and licensed for commercial use (logos,... Google Fonts Tool Google Fonts Google In 2 answers
  10. Amelia Sordell runs a personal-branding agency and frames the founder brand and the company brand as sisters, not twins, which... JUST Branding Podcast Podcast · approx 50 min Founder Branding: Why People Trust People Before Companies (with Amelia Sordell) Jacob Cass and Matt Davies (with Amelia Sordell) In 2 answers
  11. Video · Short tutorial (under 20 minutes) Figma Logo Design Tutorial for Beginners (Step-by-Step) TEDKSTUDIO In 2 answers
  12. Figma's free plan is genuinely enough to design, tweak, and export a full logo set (SVG for print, PNG for the web) without... Figma Tool · Ongoing tool Figma (free plan) Figma In 2 answers
  13. You asked how to say what you actually do instead of a vague inspirational line, and this piece is built around exactly that... HubSpot Marketing Blog Article · About a 12 minute read How to Write a Value Proposition (7 Top Examples and a Template) HubSpot In 2 answers
  14. The reason technical founders write copy that experts respect but nobody acts on has a name, and this book coined it: the curse... Random House Book Made to Stick: Why Some Ideas Survive and Others Die Chip Heath and Dan Heath In 2 answers
  15. This is the rare cold email guide that gives you a concrete structure instead of vague advice about being personal. It walks... Clay Article · ~20 min read B2B Cold Email Copywriting: The Complete Guide Mishti Sharma In 2 answers
  16. If you are a founder or designer writing your own product copy without a UX writer on the team, this is the most practical... Smashing Magazine Article · About a 20 minute read How To Improve Your Microcopy: UX Writing Tips For Non-UX Writers Irina Silyanova In 2 answers
  17. Welsh built a large audience by going deep on one platform first, and this essay makes the case plainly: learn the nuances of a... justinwelsh.me Essay · ~10 min read How to Create a Social Media Content Strategy Justin Welsh In 2 answers
  18. Most founders frame this as blog for SEO versus video for reach, and this Ahrefs piece dismantles that split: video shows up... Ahrefs Article · ~15 min read Video SEO: How to Rank YouTube Videos on Google Joshua Hardwick In 2 answers
  19. Google tells you what to aim for, but Handley teaches you the actual craft of getting there: how to write something a human... Ann Handley Book Everybody Writes: Your Go-To Guide to Creating Ridiculously Good Content Ann Handley In 2 answers
  20. You cannot fix indexing mistakes you cannot see, and this free tool from Google shows you exactly which of your pages are... Google Search Console Help Tool Page Indexing report (Google Search Console) Google In 2 answers
  21. This is the honest starting point when you have zero links and nobody knows you yet. Tim Soulo walks through a phased approach:... Ahrefs Essay · Long read, about 30 to 40 minutes Link Building for SEO: The Beginner's Guide Tim Soulo In 2 answers
  22. On day one you do not need a growth strategy, you need to not miss anything basic, and this checklist is built exactly for... Ahrefs Article · about 25 min read The Only SEO Checklist You Need (Incl. Template) Joshua Hardwick In 2 answers
  23. This is the honest, founder-written version of what selling to Indian SMBs actually looks like: high-touch, relationship-first,... Blume Ventures Article Selling Smart: The Insider's Guide to SaaS Success in India Blume Ventures In 2 answers
  24. Once you have even one happy customer, this is how you turn that into the proof that wins the next one. Amy Saper (who did... Uncork Capital on Medium Article · About a 12 minute read Let Your Customers Do Your Marketing: A Practical Guide to Creating Customer Case Studies and Testimonials Amy Saper (Uncork Capital) In 2 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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