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. Where FAST is the one-pager, this spells out the exit mechanics in plain clause language you can lift: either party terminates... Promise Legal Template · copy-paste template + notes Startup Advisor Agreement Template (FAST-Style, 2025) Promise Legal
  2. An Indian founder's actual sequenced roadmap, not theory: stay lean in India (2 to 3 founders, burn under 3,000 dollars a... Inc42 Article · 8 min read A Playbook For Indian Founders Building Global Businesses Pranay Srinivasan
  3. The clearest example of a globally networked program you can join from India without moving: a 6-month residency in Bengaluru... South Park Commons Tool · 6 min read South Park Commons India South Park Commons
  4. This is the anatomy of the ask that actually gets answered in an alumni channel. Iskold, a founder and now VC, hands you the... Startup Hacks Article · 7 min read How to ask me (and others) for an intro Alex Iskold
  5. The clearest breakdown of how the best-run alumni network on earth actually delivers hires, customers, investor intros, and... Horizon Labs Article · 12 min read How Bookface (YC) Helps Early-Stage Founders Thrive Horizon Labs
  6. This is the discipline that keeps an alumni network from going cold: show up for other people first. Ranadive distills Adam... Medium Article · 9 min read Be a Giver: Think of Others and Get Ahead Ameet Ranadive
  7. Traynor gives you a simple two axis test: how many people have the problem, and how often does it hurt. Ideas that are both... ycombinator.com Article · about 8 min read Be Wary of Solving a Small, Rare Problem Des Traynor (Intercom)
  8. A detailed, honest set of notes on The Mom Test from a founder's point of view, with the best example questions pulled out. A... mtlynch.io Article · 15 min read The Mom Test book report Michael Lynch
  9. A former Stripe and Twitter operator, now an investor, on why, when, and how to interview customers. Practical and concise on... Uncork Capital (Medium) Article · 12 min read Get out of the building: Why, when, and how to interview your customers Amy Saper
  10. This tackles the how many question head on with a level head. It makes the case that below five conversations you cannot trust... Kromatic Article · 10 min read How Many Customer Interviews Are Enough? The Pre-Testing Sweet Spot Kromatic
  11. Rachitsky pulls together practical guidance on how to run user interviews that actually move you toward fit, including who to... Lenny's Newsletter (Lenny Rachitsky) Article · 15 min read Interviewing users for product-market fit Lenny Rachitsky
  12. A ready-to-use set of interview scripts (discovery, validation, and jobs-to-be-done) with probing questions built in, so you... CleverX Template · 1 to 2 pages User Interview Script Template CleverX
  13. A quick, scannable checklist for running interviews well, covering open-ended questions, avoiding leading the witness, and... ProductPlan Article · 10 min read 9 Tips for Better Customer Validation Interviews ProductPlan
  14. A discovery-focused interview template that keeps questions on behaviours and experiences rather than reactions to your... Great Question Template · 1 to 2 pages Customer Discovery Interview Template Great Question
  15. A useful counterweight to the raw MVP idea, drawing on stories from Airbnb and WeWork about building the smallest thing people... Lenny's Newsletter Podcast · ~15 min read Building Minimum Lovable Products Jiaona Zhang
  16. Often your first product does not need code, and a shared Notion page or database can stand in as the whole thing while you... notion.com Tool Notion notion.com
  17. A validation walkthrough written for the Indian context, covering landing pages, coming soon fake doors, and pre orders with... Salaah School of Startups Article · ~12 min read How to Validate Your Startup Idea in India Salaah School of Startups
  18. The most common way founders fool themselves about PMF is believing the next feature will fix weak retention. Chen shows with... andrewchen.com Essay · ~1,800 words The Next Feature Fallacy Andrew Chen
  19. Olsen gives you a full framework (the Product-Market Fit Pyramid) for getting to fit deliberately rather than by luck: target... Dan Olsen (dan-olsen.com) Book · ~336 pages The Lean Product Playbook Dan Olsen
  20. Butterfield pivoted a failing game into Slack by keeping the one thing the team could not stop using, the clearest example of a... Masters of Scale (Reid Hoffman) Podcast · ~37 min The Big Pivot, with Slack's Stewart Butterfield Reid Hoffman
  21. A concrete, step-by-step account of collecting real pre-sale money before building, from a founder who actually did it. Unlike... Indie Hackers Article · ~12 min read $1,400 in pre-sales, step by step Indie Hackers community
  22. A long-form interview with the author of The Mom Test for when you want to hear the ideas in conversation. He goes deeper on... The Learning Leader Show Podcast · ~60 min How To Talk To Your Customers (The Mom Test) Rob Fitzpatrick (with Ryan Hawk)
  23. Lemkin makes the case, with hard numbers, for why founders must win the first 10 to 30 customers themselves before anything... Lenny's Newsletter Podcast · 45 min listen or read Building a world-class sales org (with Jason Lemkin) Jason Lemkin (SaaStr)
  24. A head-on comparison of the exact question you are asking, useful as an orientation before the deeper resources. It draws out... Bundl Article · 12 min read B2B vs B2C Venture Validation: Key Differences Bundl

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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