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. Founders guess at what worked because LinkedIn's own numbers are thin and vanish quickly. AuthoredUp keeps a history of your... AuthoredUp Tool AuthoredUp: LinkedIn post analytics and formatting for creators AuthoredUp
  2. Before you worry about sounding different online, this teaches you to sound clear, and clarity is where a real voice starts.... Harper Collins / Google Books Book · 336 pages On Writing Well: The Classic Guide to Writing Nonfiction William Zinsser
  3. Instead of one more listicle of voice tips, this is working writers walking through how their own voice actually formed, mess... Apple Podcasts Podcast · Ongoing series, roughly hour-long episodes How I Write (podcast) David Perell
  4. This is the clearest explanation of why AI drafts sound generic: the same tidy structure, the same three-word punchlines, the... Forbes Article How To Write LinkedIn Posts With AI (That Sound Human) Jodie Cook
  5. Video How I use AI to save 10+ hours per week Ali Abdaal
  6. Claude is a solid fit for the assist-not-replace workflow this answer endorses: hand it your rough notes or a voice memo and... Anthropic Tool Claude (Anthropic) Anthropic
  7. The consistency problem for a solo founder is rarely about ideas, it is about not sitting down to post every single day.... Typefully Tool · Free tier plus paid plans Typefully: Social Media Scheduling and Batching Typefully
  8. Video · Around 15 minutes How to Batch Content for YouTube (3 Months of Content in 2 Weeks!) Vanessa Lau
  9. This is the cleanest answer to your actual question: no, you do not need to be everywhere at once, and trying to be usually... itsmodernmillie.com Essay Should You Focus On Just One Social Media Platform? Millie (It's Modern Millie)
  10. Once you have decided to start with one platform, the next question is which one, and this piece answers it by starting from... godaddy.com Article How to choose the right social media platforms for your business GoDaddy Resources
  11. Video 30 Days of 64 Pieces of Content by Gary Vaynerchuk Gary Vaynerchuk
  12. Most advice tells you to just ignore the haters, which is useless in the moment a wave of comments is hitting. This piece is... Rachel Pedersen Article · About a 10 minute read How to Handle Haters, Trolls, and Internet Critics Like a Pro Rachel Pedersen
  13. When your post gets piled on, the instinct is to treat every angry reply as a real dispute you have to win. Paul Graham... paulgraham.com Essay · About a 7 minute read Haters Paul Graham
  14. The pile-ons women founders face online often turn personal in a way male founders rarely deal with, and that sharper edge is... Female Founder World Podcast · About a 30 minute listen What No One's Saying About This Viral Founder Takedown Jasmine Garnsworthy
  15. This is the essay that names the shift you're betting on: online, your reputation and reach are no longer tied to where you... Not Boring (notboring.co) Essay · Medium read (about 20 to 30 minutes) The Great Online Game Packy McCormick
  16. This is the cleanest split we found between the numbers that mean something and the ones that just feel good. Buffer walks... Buffer Article · About a 12 minute read 12 Social Media Metrics You Should Be Tracking (And Why) Shivani Shah
  17. Video · About 15 minutes Alex Hormozi's Content Strategy (REVEALED) Alex Hormozi
  18. Spinks ran CMX and spent a decade watching what actually keeps a community alive, and his core argument is that a small slice... Wiley Book The Business of Belonging: How to Make Community Your Competitive Advantage David Spinks
  19. This is the tactical companion to the theory: how to actually spot your super-members in the data, ask them in a way they will... Higher Logic Article Building an Online Community Super Users (Ambassador) Program Higher Logic
  20. Patrick O'Keefe has managed online communities for over 20 years and interviews people doing the unglamorous work, so this is... Community Signal Podcast Community Signal Patrick O'Keefe
  21. A direct, practical treatment of the exact decision: what a free community gets you (reach, discovery, top of funnel) versus... HubSpot Blog Article Free vs. Paid Online Communities: Which Is Right for You? Flori Needle
  22. Video · ~40 min talk Giants: David Spinks on Building Your Online Community David Spinks
  23. This is the cleanest checklist of the ways a community dies quietly, and it names the exact traps founders miss: chasing... Heartbeat Article · About a 10 minute read Why Most Online Communities Fail Murtaza Bambot
  24. Written by two consumer investors who have watched dozens of communities scale and stall, this essay makes the case that more... a16z (via Medium) Essay · About a 12 minute read Why Most Online Communities Fail (and How to Build a Better One) Justine and Olivia Moore

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
eChai Partner Brands The partnership →