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. The most memorable proof that watching users pays. A single confusing choice on a checkout form was quietly costing a retailer... LukeW / User Interface Engineering Essay · ~6 min read The $300 Million Button Luke Wroblewski In 2 answers
  2. The lowest cost way to watch real people use your product, no recruiting agency required. This guide walks through the coffee... Maze Article · ~9 min read What is Guerrilla Usability Testing? (And How To Do It) Maze In 2 answers
  3. From the Google Ventures team, this shows how to go from a fuzzy idea to a tested prototype in a single week. The core move is... Jake Knapp (jakeknapp.com) Book · Approx. 275 pages Sprint: Solve Big Problems and Test New Ideas in Five Days Jake Knapp, John Zeratsky, Braden Kowitz In 2 answers
  4. Facebook's first design VP explains what design actually is beneath the surface of pretty screens. She frames it as solving a... The Year of the Looking Glass Essay · 8 minute read Why Design Julie Zhuo In 2 answers
  5. This turns a written description of your flow into an interactive prototype you can click through and refine. For a founder who... Figma Tool · Tool Figma Make (prompt to prototype) Figma In 2 answers
  6. This answers the flip side of the question, how much design to do yourself versus when to bring in a real designer. It lays out... First Round Review Article · 30 minute read The Ultimate Guide to the Founding Designer Role First Round Review In 2 answers
  7. This is the single best starting point if you think design just means making things look nice. Riley wrote it as an open letter... Wells Riley Essay · 15 min read Startups, This Is How Design Works Wells Riley In 2 answers
  8. Graham argues that good design is not just personal opinion, it has real properties (simplicity, honesty, solving the hard... Paul Graham Essay · 25 min read Taste for Makers Paul Graham In 2 answers
  9. The book behind the site, and worth it if you want the reasoning, not just the rules. Yablonski walks through familiar apps and... Laws of UX Book · Approx. 150 pages Laws of UX: Using Psychology to Design Better Products and Services Jon Yablonski In 2 answers
  10. The law in the author's own words, with the reasoning and the stakes spelled out. Nielsen explains why users transfer... Jakob Nielsen (Substack) Essay · 7 min read Jakob's Law of the Internet User Experience Jakob Nielsen In 2 answers
  11. Testing with the wrong five people teaches you nothing, so this piece helps you decide who your five should actually be.... Lenny's Newsletter Article Identify your bullseye customer in one day Michael Margolis In 2 answers
  12. Concrete rules for writing the words on your buttons and menus so nobody has to decode them. It covers using a verb plus a noun... Nielsen Norman Group Article · ~9 min read UI Copy: UX Guidelines for Command Names and Keyboard Shortcuts Anna Kaley In 2 answers
  13. A short interview where Kunal Shah argues margins come from desire, which design creates, rather than from utility alone. It is... Outlook Business Article Margins Are Earned from Desire, Not Utility, says CRED founder Kunal Shah Kunal Shah In 2 answers
  14. A fast way to check whether a screen reads clearly in the first impression, which is often where clunky starts. Show people a... Five Second Test (Lyssna) Tool Five Second Test Five Second Test (Lyssna) In 2 answers
  15. Kapoor, a builder at Figma, breaks down the habits that let small teams keep a fast shipping rhythm without collapsing into... Lenny's Newsletter (Mihika Kapoor) Article · 20 min read How to ship like a startup Mihika Kapoor In 2 answers
  16. The inventor of Now-Next-Later goes deep with Lenny on how to run a roadmap that stays flexible without turning into chaos. She... Lenny's Newsletter Podcast · ~60 min Building better product roadmaps (Janna Bastow) Janna Bastow, Lenny Rachitsky In 2 answers
  17. A clear tour of roadmap styles that shows exactly why a feature by date roadmap sets you up to over promise. Torres contrasts... Product Talk Article · ~15 min read Product Roadmaps: How the Best Product Teams Plan for Uncertainty Teresa Torres In 2 answers
  18. Cagan makes the sharpest version of the argument: replace a list of features with a small set of outcomes you are trying to... Silicon Valley Product Group Essay · ~10 min read The Alternative to Roadmaps Marty Cagan In 2 answers
  19. A tighter conversation on the same method, good if you want the JTBD idea in under an hour. Moesta stresses that the biggest... Intercom (Inside Intercom) Podcast Bob Moesta on Unpacking Customer Motivations with Jobs to be Done Bob Moesta In 2 answers
  20. A short, quotable case that the cadence at which you ship defines your company, and that shipping small and often is safer than... Intercom Blog Essay · 8 min read Shipping is your company's heartbeat Darragh Curran, Intercom In 2 answers
  21. This gives you the actual checklist a request has to clear before it earns a yes, starting with whether it fits the vision and... Intercom (Des Traynor) Essay · 10 min read Rarely say yes to feature requests Des Traynor In 2 answers
  22. Cutler names the exact trap your short answer warns about: shipping feature after feature while nobody measures whether any of... Cutle.fish Essay 12 Signs You're Working in a Feature Factory John Cutler In 2 answers
  23. Explains how to keep every change ready to release at any time, which is the technical backbone of a weekly staging link. It... DORA (Google Cloud) Article · ~10 min read Continuous delivery DORA (Google Cloud) In 2 answers
  24. This is the warning label for treating every customer request as a build order. Chen shows how a team can keep shipping... andrewchen.com Essay This is the Product Death Cycle Andrew Chen In 2 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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