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. Most naming advice skips the actual numbers, so we picked the piece that puts them on the table: a standard domain runs roughly... Kinsta Article How Much Does a Domain Name Cost? Key Factors That Decide What You Pay Kinsta
  2. This is the bootstrapped answer to naming: no agency, no branding budget, just a working process founders actually used. The... Indie Hackers Essay How do you come up with a product name / domain? Indie Hackers community
  3. This is the cleanest, research-backed answer to the exact question, and it refuses to give you a blanket yes or no. Yohn walks... Harvard Business Review Article · 6 min read Should You Name Your Company After Yourself? Denise Lee Yohn
  4. Where the HBR piece frames the trade-off, this essay digs into the specific ways a personal name helps early and holds you back... Fabrik Brands Essay · 12 min read Should You Name a Business After Yourself? Steve Harvey
  5. A short, honest conversation between two founders who lived this choice, with Jodie Cook admitting she named her agency after... The Futur Podcast · 19 min listen Should You Name Your Business After Yourself? w/ Jodie Cook (Ep 423) Chris Do
  6. This is a structured, fillable brief you can hand straight to a designer or paste into an AI tool, built around the six things... Holabrief Template Naming Brief Template (Holabrief) Holabrief
  7. Once you have a clear brief, Namelix is the fastest way to turn keywords and a style preference into dozens of short, brandable... Namelix Tool Namelix: AI Business Name Generator Brandmark
  8. Rob Meyerson is a naming consultant, and this is the clearest short read on why a brief produces distinct results: it makes... How Brands Are Built Article What to include in a naming brief Rob Meyerson
  9. This is the plainest, most tactical copywriting reference for someone who has never written a line of sales copy. Edwards skips... Goodreads Book · 265 pages Copywriting Secrets Jim Edwards
  10. Video · 76 minutes Learn Copywriting in 76 Minutes Harry Dry
  11. This is Google's own practical playbook for speeding up pages, organized by exactly the things that hurt on a slow connection:... web.dev Article · A hub of short articles, pick the ones you need Fast load times Google (web.dev)
  12. This lays out plainly what a custom domain actually buys you (credibility, a name you own, and business email at your own name)... HubSpot Article · About 8 to 10 minute read Custom Domains: Why You Need One and How To Get Started Lauren Farrell
  13. This is the free, built-in way to see exactly where your landing page breaks: open DevTools, toggle the device toolbar, and... Chrome for Developers Tool Simulate mobile devices with Device Mode (Chrome DevTools) Google Chrome Developers
  14. Video · about 43 minutes Responsive design made easy Kevin Powell
  15. Collecting the numbers is easy. Knowing what they mean is the hard part, and this piece is built around exactly that. It shows... withdaydream.com Article What's a Good Bounce Rate? Benchmarks and How to Read Them daydream team
  16. This is a straight judgment call from Jason Lemkin, who has seen thousands of SaaS pricing pages, on when hiding your price is... SaaStr Essay · 5 min read Dear SaaStr: Why Do So Many B2B Vendors Not Show Prices for Enterprise Plans? Jason Lemkin
  17. Once you decide to put a price on the page, this is the practical playbook for structuring it so it actually converts. Kyle... OpenView Article · 8 min read Seven Tips to Optimize Your SaaS Pricing Page Kyle Poyar
  18. This walks through eleven kinds of social proof and, crucially, spells out what you can still show when you have no reviews... MailerLite Article · ~15 min read How to use social proof in landing pages to boost conversion (11 examples) Duncan Elder
  19. Before traction exists there is a vacuum where evidence should be, and this essay makes the case that a genuine founder... The VC Corner Essay · ~12 min read The Founder's Guide to Startup Storytelling Ruben Dominguez
  20. Paste your landing page URL and it shows you exactly how the link renders when someone drops it into WhatsApp, Slack, LinkedIn,... OpenGraph.to Tool OpenGraph.to: Free Open Graph Checker and Preview Tool OpenGraph.to
  21. Most SEO advice assumes you have a live product and months of runway, so it is useless the week before launch. This piece is... Waitlister Article Landing Page SEO: The Complete Guide for Pre-Launch and Waitlist Pages Waitlister
  22. Video · Short YouTube comparison Which Platform Wins? Framer vs Webflow Full Comparison YouTube
  23. This one is honest about the hard part: reaching customers in a regional language is not the same as running your English copy... Localazy Article · ~12 min read Localization for the Indian market: reach users from the most populated country on Earth Agnee Ghosh
  24. If your landing page is on WordPress, Weglot is the most common way to add a language toggle without touching engineering. This... Weglot Tool · ~10 min read How to add a WordPress language switcher (no code) Weglot

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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