Startup Guide

Startup Guide

Context

I have had a very difficult time figuring out the nitty-gritty details of startups and I want to save your time by relaying my knowledge to you. Here is a step-by-step list of creating a startup that I would follow if I had to create one.

Prepare For The Startup World In Steps

Step 1: Read / Listen To The Following Books

  1. Atomic Habits. Learn how to build habits. It is extremely important because startups are not easy and consistency is everything.
  2. Essentialism. Learn the importance of focusing on what's important and blocking the noise. Extremely important since startups require the art of solving the correct problem.
  3. Deep Work. Learn the importance of going deep. It's the only way to succeed and distinguish yourself, so don't miss it.
  4. The Mom Test. Extremely important to understand how to validate your idea or find a problem. Don't miss it.

Optional Books

  1. The Top 5 Regrets Of The Dying.
  2. $100 Startup.

Step 2: Understand The Building Blocks Of Startup Founders

You don't have to be the master of all these qualities but if you can master 2 or 3, they will catapult you forward in the competition, source.

  1. Engineering
  2. Product -> Udacity Nanodegree (paid).
  3. Design
  4. Sales & Marketing
  5. Finance
  6. Management & Leadership

Step 3: Build The Mindset

Go through Startup School, free resource by YCombinator to build a startup driven mindset.

Startup In Steps

Please go through the resources in Prepare For The Startup World In Steps before continuing forward.

Step 1: Build Your Audience

This an important step so don't ignore it. The best product in the world is of no use if there is no one to use it. The mom test will definitely get you your first customers, and you will be able to scale outwards from there but having an active audience always give you an edge. Read this article to get more insight on how you can build engaging audience on Twitter. The most important thing is you provide value to the world. What you'll provide will never go to waste and will always be reciprocated.

Step 2: Problem Identification / Validation

You need to figure out a problem. If you have gone through the resource above, you will know that first you have to figure out a problem in the real world. Once you have figured out the problem, you can apply the mom test to figure out if the problem is actually something you should be solving. You can also use the mom test to find the problem. I will suggest reading up on this article and this Twitter thread on how to validate and prioritize the features in the product.

Step 3: Build The MVP

Alright, so now you know what to build. Let's talk about the MVP, an MVP has to follow 2 rules. It should ideally be under a $100, and it should not take over a month to build. My advice would be to go for simplicity. Use no code tools, existing services, and Google sheets to build an MVP ASAP. Don't worry about automations and if you have to do manual work, don't be afraid of it. If you have to get the money from the user, use your PayPal/Venmo address. Remember, if your product is good enough and people really want it, they will do whatever they can to get it so don't worry about not looking like a billion-dollar company on day 1.

Step 4: Get your first 10 customers

If you applied the mom test successfully then you should have your first eager customers. They can be your friends, you, or the people you talked to. Give them access to the MVP, stay in close contact with them and iterate over your product as quickly as possible to move towards the product your customers want.

Step 5: Scale Up As Much As You Can

Keep on iterating over your product and scale up as much as you can. This will not only help you grow your customer base but will also help you in raising investments and getting in the incubator/accelerator.

Step 6: Join The Incubator

The investors in the incubators are not only investing in you but are also mentoring you to be the best. If you feel like you are sufficient and don't need this then by all means ignore this step.

Step 7: Raise The Investments

After you graduate from the incubator or if you skipped the incubation step, you should be able to raise the investments for your business.

List of important resources

Youtube

  1. Garry Tan's YouTube Channel.
  2. YCombinator.
  3. GaryVee.
  4. Justin Kan.
  5. Startup Foundation.
  6. Startup Related Videos List.

Blogs / Essays / Online Content

  1. Paul Graham's Essays.
  2. YC Startup Library.
  3. Startup Toolchain.

Twitter

  1. Startup Digest.

Front-End Development

  1. Tailwind UI (paid).
  2. Tailwind CSS, it's free, but you will have to create your own components.
  3. Color Palette.
  4. Tailwind Ink.
  5. Color Hunt.
  6. Div Joy (paid).

Design

  1. Red Bubble, for design inspirations.
  2. Shopify Burst, for free stock photos.
  3. Pexels, for free stock photos.
  4. Open Doodles, for open source doodles.
  5. Undraw, for free illustrations.
  6. Draw Kit, for free illustrations.
  7. Luckasz Adam Illustrations, for free illustrations.
  8. Human Illustrations, for human illustrations.
  9. Illustration Kit, for free illustrations.

Market Research

  1. Google Trends.
  2. Twitter Tweet Deck.
  3. $100 Startup Resource.

Promote Your Product

  1. Kick Starter.
  2. Product Hunt.
  3. Tech Crunch.
  4. Twitter.
  5. Side Project Subreddit.
  6. Something I Made.

Hardware Product

  1. Makers Lab, helps in creating the hardware product.

Investment / Incubation

  1. South Park Commons.
  2. YCombinator.

Startup Idea Brainstorm

  1. Need Gap.
  2. Google Graveyard.
  3. Sweaty Startup.
  4. Brainstorms IO.
  5. Startup Ideas Subreddit.

Talk To People / Brainstorm Idea / Validate Idea

  1. Quora.
  2. No Stupid Questions Subreddit.
  3. Too Afraid To Ask Subreddit.
  4. Ask Reddit.
  5. Lunch Club.

No Code Tools For MVP

  1. Unbounce.
  2. Stacker.

Important Sub-Reddits

  1. Entrepreneur.
  2. Startups.