daily articles for founders

By DANIEL TENNER

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founder's library

The Founder's Library

Welcome. This collection of articles is hand-picked to provide actionable advice, useful insight, or practical tools and techniques for startup founders. If you are a founder, or you want to become one, this collection is for you. It contains the kind of advice that I wish I'd had when I got started with startups, years ago. Hopefully, you will find it useful.

More about the Founder's Library.

The Articles

How to increase user engagement [blog.intercom.io]
How to price seed, angel and VC rounds [www.thisisgoingtobebig.com]
The bastards book of Ruby [ruby.bastardsbook.com]
How to generate startup ideas [wesleytansey.com]
Cold calling versus AdWords [blog.asmartbear.com]
How to scale a development team [adam.heroku.com]
The right kind of ambition [bhorowitz.com]
The salesman and the developer
Bootstrapping and knowing how to make things [thestartuptoolkit.com]
Eleven compelling startup pitch archetypes [www.jasonshen.com]
Advisors: stop screwing startups [learntoduck.net]
The Startup resume [justinkan.com]
Advice for dealing with journalists [randfishkin.com]
Building a viable business in 4 months [www.reddit.com]
Why I won't sign your NDA [blog.jpl-consulting.com]
Startup Skill Set #6: The Startup Manager
Never negotiate piecemeal [www.bothsidesofthetable.com]
Criticism and two-way streets [blog.intercom.io]
Successful people are successful
Frighteningly ambitious startup ideas [paulgraham.com]
Why VCs do what they do [www.danshapiro.com]
What being on the front page of HN will do for you [37signals.com]
Don't ask customers what they'll pay: tell them [blog.spark59.com]
How to hire a programmer [www.codinghorror.com]
Sad, tired and alone - or not [zakhomuth.com]
How to choose a cofounder [blog.eladgil.com]
You can't apply startup methods blindly [steveblank.com]
Bait and switch acquisition offers [venturebeat.com]
Modafinil and startups
Should you learn to code? [eu.techcrunch.com]
A simple point that shouldn't need to be made [cdixon.org]
People will do what they want to do [javlaskitsystem.se]
Time management for startups [hackfwd.tumblr.com]
Detailed case study of validating a project idea [thestartuptoolkit.com]
Paid iPhone apps vs in-app purchases [www.tonywright.com]
To raise or not to raise [stu.mp]
Look for opportunities rather than ideas
Is it the right idea? [paraschopra.com]
How designers and developers can work together [mattgemmell.com]
Using advisors to raise money [www.kernelmag.com]
Management is a support function [www.avc.com]
Process cults [al3x.net]
How to create your own video [blog.kissmetrics.com]
Acquiring startups for a living [www.softwarebyrob.com]
Tough choices
You don't need a million dollars
The startup skill set
Is your MVP really an MVP? [22ideastreet.com]
Public speaking for normal people [www.humbledmba.com]
How to develop your fund-raising strategy [www.bothsidesofthetable.com]
Terrifying uncertainty [blog.asmartbear.com]
How to get actionable data from Google Analytics [blog.kissmetrics.com]
Premature design optimisation [blog.intercom.io]
How to: track your expenses (UK)
Idea reach and the cofounder myth
The "Army of One" entrepreneur
How to: deal with your Corporation Tax (UK)
Stop looking for a cofounder [sachagreif.com]
The processes that drive your business
Unintentional plagiarism - your ideas belong to everyone
Startup skills vs startup ideas
How to: register a company in the UK
Horizontal vs vertical products [www.joelonsoftware.com]
The one-minute entrepreneur
Who is swombat.com for?
Impatience
Questorming: exploring the unknown unknowns
Accounting 101 for US startups [blog.capography.com]
Creating serendipity by hanging out in the right places [thestartuptoolkit.com]
Recruiting programmers to your startup [cdixon.org]
Mocked and misunderstood [www.avc.com]
How to become a must-have [smartfaststartup.com]
What is your definition of "success" as an entrepreneur?
Failing in a unique and interesting way is hard
Let your team speak! [www.bothsidesofthetable.com]
Time-saving web design generators [www.awcore.com]
Getting over the fear of being someone
What is a startup?
The zero-cost entrepreneur
A startup escape path
The messy art of UX sketching [uxdesign.smashingmagazine.com]
Building a great design and throwing it away [500.co]
Productised services: #3: The best of both worlds
Productised services: #2: Services companies
Should you pay to pitch your startup? [www.betabeat.com]
When do you throw in the towel on a struggling project? [viniciusvacanti.com]
Productised services: #1: Product companies
Creating a great case study [blog.kissmetrics.com]
Three types of acquisitions [cdixon.org]
Taking notes to supercharge your learning
Startup sales: #7: Lead generation depends on people
Startup sales: #6: Pre-qualification and triage
Investment as a cushion or a springboard
Picking technologies on the right side of history
Startup sales: #5: Follow-up meetings
Taking responsibility
Startup sales: #4: Make it easier to say yes than no
Hand to wannabe "product guys" [techcrunch.com]
Startup sales: #3: Cut out steps you don't need
How to reply to an angel investor intro [blog.eladgil.com]
Startup sales: #2: Sell at every step
How to find a business cofounder that doesn't suck [www.humbledmba.com]
Startup sales: #1: Map your sales process
The obvious, the easy and the possible [37signals.com]
Startup gung-ho
Startup career tradeoffs [feedproxy.google.com]
Starting up in a recession
Sleeping hard and working under your desk [www.jwz.org]
Experienced entrepreneurs preserve equity [dealbook.nytimes.com]
Term sheet negotiations [permanentrecord.firstround.com]
Driving, and the art of running a business
Kapil Kale's underground guide to PR for startups [www.giftrocket.com]
Think small, be specific [sahillavingia.com]
Retention and startup context [blog.thestartuptoolkit.com]
Choosing a Minimum Viable Cofounder [onstartups.com]
Networking in the middle [blog.favo.rs]
The CEO should personally email the first 1000 signups [blog.thestartuptoolkit.com]
Dropping out is probably not for you [jacquesmattheij.com]
Gabriel Weinberg on raising VC money [www.gabrielweinberg.com]
People, processes and tools
Product vs Business vs Company [www.avc.com]
Convertible Debt [www.feld.com]
Startups and icebergs [blog.intercom.io]
Dilution infographic [bothsides.wpengine.netdna-cdn.com]
Focus on one thing [blog.asmartbear.com]
Startups need a strong vision [blog.intercom.io]
Investor tricks to mess with valuations [www.theprivateequiteer.com]
Three years to build a business? [jacquesmattheij.com]
How to explore and develop a business idea [www.fourhourworkweek.com]
Habits of effective startup mentors [theleanstartupmachine.com]
Don't shut up [www.businessinsider.com]
Are you building the right product? [techcrunch.com]
The steep startup learning curve [viniciusvacanti.com]
Reckless risk-taking [pud.com]
Use the tools you're displacing [thestartuptoolkit.com]
Commit to being an entrepreneur [onstartups.com]
Entrepreneurial sales lessons [onstartups.com]
How to evaluate founder exits [blog.eladgil.com]
Business plans? I've heard of them [www.danshapiro.com]
Avoid over-design [www.smashingmagazine.com]
Why blog? [www.gabrielweinberg.com]
SEOmoz's funding story [randfishkin.com]
Don't build a swiss-army knife product [contrast.ie]
Selling dirt takes skill [shadyacres.tumblr.com]
How to fire an executive [bhorowitz.com]
How to survive a due diligence [www.jacquesmattheij.com]
5 reasons to sell your startup [blog.eladgil.com]
The terrible costs of patents [techcrunch.com]
The copywriting difference [bvckup.tumblr.com]
37Signals' alternative option [37signals.com]
Paths and deterministic design [bhargreaves.com]
Silence [wisdom.tenner.org]
Even Steve Jobs does it [blog.snapengage.com]
Setting up your accounting system [www.feld.com]
Making all the decisions yourself [www.stephenwolfram.com]
Grow first and make money later? [andrewchenblog.com]
Phantom user profiles for non-registered users [www.avc.com]
Government grants [www.avc.com]
Know your industry's history [www.thisisgoingtobebig.com]
The (un)importance of design [blog.asmartbear.com]
Launching too soon? [housefed.tumblr.com]
Working for a no-shot startup [thestartupfoundry.com]
Notes on raising seed money [cdixon.org]
How to give software demos [www.betabeat.com]
Successful entrepreneurs find a way [lederhosenlabs.com]
If you build it, they won't come [tbbuck.com]
Sell the emotional benefits first [thestartupfoundry.com]
How to build a strong network [www.thisisgoingtobebig.com]
Signup page conversions 101 [blog.lessmeeting.com]
Giving advice [www.humbledmba.com]
How to deal with massive technological disruption [ownlocal.com]
How to find a designer [www.attackofdesign.com]
Three traffic triage questions [insight.io]
Friends and Family financing [www.avc.com]
Elad Gil's engineer hiring process [blog.eladgil.com]
The 90/10 rule [vincentjordan.com]
Cheapium instead of Freemium [jaredbrown.me]
Show it doesn't work [thenextweb.com]
Be specific in your requests [www.humbledmba.com]
Your product is not the product [www.ashmaurya.com]
Is there a peak age for entrepreneurship? [techcrunch.com]
Questions to ask a VC [rajibedi.tumblr.com]
Join a startup after graduating? [estromberg.com]
The born-again entrepreneur
Classic startup mistakes [www.foundora.com]
Dealing with micro-burn-out [blog.asmartbear.com]
Giving discounts impacts your brand [www.readwriteweb.com]
A golden opportunity, or not [www.bubblefoundry.com]
Play/life balance [gbayer.com]
Work hard and get lucky [www.bothsidesofthetable.com]
Product scope: where to draw the line [contrast.ie]
Bootstrap marketing [spencerfry.com]
Random acts of violence
Paths to $5m [www.gabrielweinberg.com]
What does the business guy do pre-launch? [techcrunch.com]
Motivating your (technical) cofounder [findthetechguy.com]
Software contracting legal clauses [sealedabstract.com]
The head of X [www.feld.com]
Positioning and differentiation [hackfwd.tumblr.com]
VC funding approach breakdown [informationarbitrage.com]
Ideas and equity split [k9ventures.com]
Patrick McKenzie's work on the Fog Creek website [blog.fogcreek.com]
Startup or big company after university? [www.jeanhsu.com]
Startup vs Lifestyle Business [www.corbettbarr.com]
Read up on SEO and Link Building [blog.kissmetrics.com]
Don't solve problems that you don't have [www.humbledmba.com]
Whatever works, works [paulbuchheit.blogspot.com]
How to find and recruit a killer advisory board [blog.earbits.com]
A system for following up after conferences [baydin.com]
Business storytelling [www.bothsidesofthetable.com]
The right funding strategy [informationarbitrage.com]
Old and new ideas [john.a16z.com]
4 steps to starting a startup [joel.is]
Beware the Maximum Viable Product [informationarbitrage.com]
How to email busy people [www.humbledmba.com]
The startup founder dropout lie [www.bandwidthblog.com]
More on splitting equity 50/50 or not [www.bothsidesofthetable.com]
Start-up vs consulting vs corporate vs all three [vladlokshin.com]
How realistic should your icons/symbols be? [www.uxmag.com]
Getting users for your new startup [blog.pud.com]
What sort of entrepreneur are you anyway?
Always drill down to fundamental metrics [visualwebsiteoptimizer.com]
What is your brand? [savagethoughts.com]
How to stop startups from failing in 4 common ways [blog.eladgil.com]
Best practices for raising a VC round [cdixon.org]
How to build and maintain momentum [the99percent.com]
How to start a startup [paulgraham.com]
How to approach and make introductions to a VC [www.thisisgoingtobebig.com]
VisualMess guide to design [www.visualmess.com]
Use good copywriting to reduce customer support load [blog.idonethis.com]
Finding a great startup advisor [www.humbledmba.com]
Never say "no", but rarely say "yes" [blog.asmartbear.com]
How to buy parked domains [foundersblock.com]
Don't wait to work on exciting ideas [www.gabrielweinberg.com]
Getting into a startup right after university [www.jeanhsu.com]
Services vs Product business [techcrunch.com]
Using LinkedIn for Cold Calling [mygengo.com]
Questions asked at YC interviews [www.hyperinkpress.com]
Advice for a young entrepreneur [www.stubbleblog.com]
What should you bring a "business guy" on for? [www.softwarebyrob.com]
How to get a job at a startup if you aren't a developer [estromberg.com]
How to rely on other businesses
Startup failure and startup mediocrity [onstartups.com]
Principles of pitching
How to choose a domain name [www.thenameinspector.com]
Joel Spolsky's method for splitting shares in a startup [answers.onstartups.com]
Anything worth copying will be copied [blog.kissmetrics.com]
How to keep your sanity during launches [sprouter.com]
How to find startup ideas that make money [paraschopra.com]
Corporations and companies are a responsibility [heyhamza.com]
More about finding cofounders [www.quora.com]
Where to find a business partner [sharedstatus.com]
Gabriel Weinberg's startup advice flowchart [www.gabrielweinberg.com]
How to interview developers [devinterviews.pen.io]
Your job as a CEO [blog.eladgil.com]
Online advertising for bootstrapped startups [onstartups.com]
How to cold-pitch news sites [viniciusvacanti.com]
How to evaluate a non-technical cofounder [blog.hirelite.com]
A great cold email to an angel [www.davidgcohen.com]
How to optimise facebook campaigns [insight.io]
How to raise a Series A round [blog.eladgil.com]
Hustling your first $25k of seed money [www.avc.com]
The MicroPreneur Manifesto [changethis.com]
Fit your product to the right market
Put together effective designs quickly [codefastdieyoung.com]
Go for the win-win situations [blog.favo.rs]
Designing your sign-up pages [www.contrast.ie]
On being an early startup employee [www.jamesyu.org]
Failing faster [andrewbadr.com]
Principles for designing and deploying internet-scale services [www.usenix.org]
Let the acquirer name a price [www.theglobeandmail.com]
The large company sales cycle [blog.favo.rs]
Should you turn into a hacker to do a startup? [pragmaticstartup.wordpress.com]
Tools to find available startup domain names [blog.kashflow.com]
Pick a fight with the incumbent [www.wepay.com]
Anatomy of the long sales letter [visualwebsiteoptimizer.com]
Are startups 10x cheaper than ten years ago?
How to find a technical cofounder [www.jeffreytalajic.com]
What are the best metrics? [andrewchenblog.com]
How to deliver an elevator pitch [dondodge.typepad.com]
Kevin McDonagh on: How to attend a conference
Solving the chicken and egg problem [viniciusvacanti.com]
Sell the dream, not the job [informationarbitrage.com]
Paulina Sygulska on: How to network effectively
How to sell your company [jacquesmattheij.com]
Send your (wrong-fit) customers to your competitors [understanding.uservoice.com]
How many VCs should you have? [techcrunch.com]
Iqbal Gandham on: Generating B2B and B2C leads systematically
Getting feedback on your prototype [blog.paperbuff.com]
Cash vs Equity compensations [blog.asmartbear.com]
Jacques Mattheij on: Networking without going places
How to use Business Development in a startup [www.slideshare.net]
How to get Facebook marketing to work [www.readwriteweb.com]
How to develop disruptive ideas [mashable.com]
How to choose your startup idea [blog.amirkhella.com]
What's the most important question? [swombat.com]
How to become an online influencer [mashable.com]
Launch within 6 weeks, as a non-developer [www.limedaring.com]
Venture capital basics [www.vcic.unc.edu]
Working smarter in a startup [startingup.is]
Are business plans worthwhile? [www.thisisgoingtobebig.com]
Stealth mode startups [www.humbledmba.com]
Can you build a great tech firm outside of Silicon Valley? [techcrunch.com]
Attention infrastructure vs fundamental businesses [garry.posterous.com]
Seeing opportunities, and missing them [news.ycombinator.com]
Appsumo's failed A/B tests [visualwebsiteoptimizer.com]
Visual dashboards for startups [mygengo.com]
Who owns the rights to the stuff you do in your spare time? [answers.onstartups.com]
Merchant accounts, or Paypal [www.softwarebyrob.com]
How to choose a business partner [sharedstatus.com]
You are your first investor [startingup.is]
Internalising and externalising success and failure [www.whattofix.com]
How to use metrics in a startup
Don't let your rock stars do the customer support [understanding.uservoice.com]
Setting expectations at funding [www.thisisgoingtobebig.com]
User activity streams and cohort metrics [blog.500startups.com]
Being your own boss means taking responsibility [thesash.me]
Four kinds of entrepreneurial contexts [steveblank.com]
How to get your first 1,000 users [viniciusvacanti.com]
Lean Startup Machine learnings [www.startuplessonslearned.com]
Consulting company accounting [blog.asmartbear.com]
Lean Startup 101 [www.veri.com]
Your idea is worthless in finding a cofounder [go-to-hellman.blogspot.com]
How to use sales people in startups [www.bothsidesofthetable.com]
Why it's hard to find technical cofounders [andrewchenblog.com]
Hangups about making money [www.sebastianmarshall.com]
Attention seeking for startups [blog.500startups.com]
Don't underestimate simple ideas [williamwilkinson.com]
Dangerous data for startups [blog.chart.io]
Traffic sources have a half-life [www.softwarebyrob.com]
Don't seek product feedback from friends [blog.500startups.com]
Analysis of 32 startup post-mortems [foundersblock.com]
Supporting free products [www.woothemes.com]
Starting out? clone threewords.me [www.gabrielweinberg.com]
Power blogging hour: an approach to startup blogs [mygengo.com]
Increasing email capture conversion rate [visualwebsiteoptimizer.com]
Formula for elevator pitches [blog.500startups.com]
Freemium: make the cheapskates pay [onstartups.com]
Should you really be a startup entrepreneur? [techcrunch.com]
Product/market fit vs profitability [wensing.tumblr.com]
Dangers of data visualisation [www.contrast.ie]
Winding down a startup [informationarbitrage.com]
Soapboxes not optional in the startup business [news.ycombinator.com]
When to sell your company [bhorowitz.com]
Beginner's guide to landing pages [blog.kissmetrics.com]
A/B testing product price [visualwebsiteoptimizer.com]
Build, polish, polish, polish [blog.oscardelben.com]
Meetup's "bet-the-company" moment [37signals.com]
How to set up meetings with customers, investors, mentors, ... [viniciusvacanti.com]
How to do "forgotten password" pages [blog.objectivedigital.com]
Startup recruiting techniques [www.thisisgoingtobebig.com]
A starting point for better networking [blog.assetmap.com]
How to use PR firms at startups [www.bothsidesofthetable.com]
Self-employed vs business owners [sivers.org]
Bootstrapping on the side [joel.is]
Use your competitors' marketing budget for your campaigns [insight.io]
Hiring front-end engineers [www.computedstyle.com]
How to write good startup advice articles
Core peer groups [brianbalfour.com]
Hacking customer technology adoption [www.kalzumeus.com]
How not to recruit cofounders [grasshopperherder.com]
Details of a company sale [www.avc.com]
Developer-Driven Development [schacon.github.com]
Behavioural change [www.behaviorwizard.org]
Dealing with a bad techcrunch review [www.joshliu.co]
Seed stage valuation guide [jordancooper.wordpress.com]
Evolution of a dashboard: beware vanity metrics [www.contrast.ie]
How to approach an angel investor [urbanhorizon.wordpress.com]
Tips for customer development interviews [blog.localmind.com]
How to get your startup on Hacker News
Running a startup without hiring [www.gabrielweinberg.com]
First time sales versus returning sales [www.softwarebyrob.com]
Customer development vs distribution channel development [www.ashmaurya.com]
Quick and dirty application of Hypothesis Driven Development [www.johnwedgwood.com]
Get more out of your startup reading
Recall vs recognition for search [www.contrast.ie]
Not all products need to be pain killers [techcrunch.com]
Focus on the power users [blog.asmartbear.com]
Startups can't afford a cover-up culture [steveblank.com]
Make money from your web apps by starting with the market [paraschopra.com]
Create an illusion of space in checkout processes [baymard.com]
Startups and premature scaling optimisations [onstartups.com]
5 lessons about building apps [feint.me]
Asking for a credit card upfront [www.braintreepaymentsolutions.com]
How Andrew Plotkin raised $24k on Kickstarter [money.cnn.com]
How to evaluate and implement startup ideas using Hypothesis Driven Development
Don't drink your own kool-aid [blog.500startups.com]
How to get and measure traction [eu.techcrunch.com]
Startup cooking: don't eat pizza and ramen [blog.500startups.com]
The dark side of entrepreneurship [petewarden.typepad.com]
How to write a tech job ad [blog.hirelite.com]
Building a strong company trunk [spencerfry.com]
Aim for a lifestyle, not a jackpot [mixergy.com]
Engagement: Getting your users on-board [www.contrast.ie]
Progressive signup [www.quietwrite.com]
Business Basics eBook for entrepreneurs [www.thedailymba.com]
Metrics for social startups
Startup lessons from Constant Contact [davidcancel.com]
Register a business today
Faking initial user interest [sahillavingia.com]
Don't choose freemium by default [kanebennett.wordpress.com]
Concept to launch in 24 hours [kylewritescode.com]
Start with a prototype [www.businessinsider.com]
Get a VC to mentor you [gigaom.com]
Build apps not businesses [sahillavingia.com]
Learn from your competitors [www.bothsidesofthetable.com]
Basics of selling your company [www.avc.com]
Don't dwell on startup mistakes [www.gabrielweinberg.com]
Startup or travelling lifestyle? [paraschopra.com]
The "thin edge of the wedge" strategy [cdixon.org]
How to talk about the competition [www.bothsidesofthetable.com]
Luck, talent, positioning [michaelrwolfe.posterous.com]
Test your startup ideas for $20 [blog.snootymonkey.com]
Dealing with new ideas: sales-driven side projects [seeinginteractive.com]
Take a pay cut to work at a startup
Every entrepreneur should write [onstartups.com]
Shorten your viral cycle time [www.gabrielweinberg.com]
How to set up an advisory board for your startup [www.favvas.com]
How to validate a startup idea [blog.asmartbear.com]
How do you intend to make money? [24waystostart.com]
Dark patterns: good for business? [www.90percentofeverything.com]
Frog Driven Development [24waystostart.com]
Why your startup shouldn't hire a Marketer from Microsoft [www.rocketwatcher.com]
How to invalidate your startup idea [blog.wepay.com]
How to work with designers [weblog.muledesign.com]
Hiring from Craigslist [www.gettingmoreawesome.com]
Dangerous data: three kinds of lies [www.zurb.com]
Why you need to work for a big company [onstartups.com]
Startup Therapy: Ten questions [blog.asmartbear.com]
Ask for forgiveness, not permission [24waystostart.com]
Impatience kills startups, but patience kills human beings [chrisyeh.blogspot.com]
How to handle lawyers threatening you [hustlebear.com]
What font should I use? [www.smashingmagazine.com]
How to safely store a password [codahale.com]
Hot markets and flying turkeys [www.bothsidesofthetable.com]
Hypothesis testing for startups [rashmisinha.com]
Build businesses, not apps [emphaticsolutions.com]
Anatomy of a landing page [www.formstack.com]
The Noun Project: Large collection of free symbols [www.thenounproject.com]
Properly following up [24waystostart.com]
Deploying like a pro [www.kalzumeus.com]
Case studies of successful cash cow business [www.fourhourworkweek.com]
Myths of building a great mobile team [techcrunch.com]
Designer, Architect, Developer [24waystostart.com]
Strategic investments in early startups [informationarbitrage.com]
How to reject a job candidate [nathanmarz.com]
What have you done wrong? [24waystostart.com]
How to detect a toxic customer [www.softwarebyrob.com]
How Jason screwed up his Google acquisition [www.codusoperandi.com]
SaaS Economics [www.forentrepreneurs.com]
3 Lessons from launching a product [thinkvitamin.com]
Is it OK to Want to Make Money? [www.bothsidesofthetable.com]
Founder Control [paulgraham.com]
How to get better at writing
So you want to join a startup [blog.thirdyearmba.com]
Freely available programming books [stackoverflow.com]
7 startup post-mortems [37signals.com]
Why Ty Danco is investing in CardMunch [tydanco.com]
Get better at UI design [ui-patterns.com]
Gamification Wiki [gamification.org]
Product Launch Checklist [www.bootstrappingindependence.com]
Building iPhone Apps with HTML, CSS, and JavaScript [ofps.oreilly.com]