Ideation

Articles

• The next best thing will start out looking like a toy: http://cdixon.org/2010/01/03/the-next-big-thing-will-start-out-looking-like-a-toy/

• The Idea Maze: http://cdixon.org/2013/08/04/the-idea-maze/

• Chris Wanstrath Keynote at Ruby Howdown 2008: https://gist.github.com/defunkt/6443

• There’s always time to launch your dream: https://signalvnoise.com/posts/1619-theres-always-time-to-launch-your-dream

• Ideas are just a multiplier of execution: https://sivers.org/multiply

• Business Ideas: https://hitenism.com/business-ideas/

• Paul Graham’s Ideas: http://paulgraham.com/ideas.html

• How to Start a Startup: http://paulgraham.com/start.html

• Fear of bad ideas: http://sethgodin.typepad.com/seths_blog/2009/12/fear-of-bad-ideas.html

• The 7 All-Time Greatest Ideation Techniques: http://www.innovationmanagement.se/2013/05/30/the-7-all-time-greatest-ideation-techniques/

Videos

• Where good ideas come from: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0af00UcTO-c

Getting Started

Articles

• If you aren’t getting rejected on a daily basis, your goals aren’t ambitious enough: http://cdixon.org/2010/09/12/if-you-arent-getting-rejected-on-a-daily-basis-your-goals-arent-ambitious-enough/

• Small asks first: http://www.davidgcohen.com/2010/10/28/small-asks-first/

• Ten Rules for Web Startups: http://evhead.com/2005/11/ten-rules-for-web-startups.asp

• How Important is Failure Really?: https://medium.com/@garyvee/how-important-is-failure-really-29f5da05803e

• Faith in eventually: https://signalvnoise.com/posts/3776-faith-in-eventually

• Founders and Heat Seeking Missiles: http://redeye.firstround.com/2010/08/heat-seeking-missiles.html

• How to do anything: http://justinkan.com/how-to-do-anything

• Success and Motivation: http://blogmaverick.com/2006/12/11/success-and-motivation-drowing-in-opportunity-winning-the-battl/

• Are you a pirate?: http://techcrunch.com/2010/10/31/are-you-a-pirate/

• What Startups are really like: http://www.paulgraham.com/really.html

• Startup Advice, Briefly: http://blog.samaltman.com/startup-advice-briefly

• The days are long but the decades are short: http://blog.samaltman.com/the-days-are-long-but-the-decades-are-short

• The secret to your success? Make others successful: http://designthinking.ideo.com/?p=1121

• How not to climb a mountain: https://www.linkedin.com/pulse/how-climb-mountain-kill-your-start-up-sebastian-thrun

Courses

• The Pmarca Guide to Startups: http://pmarchive.com/guide_to_startups_part1.html

• An Entrepreneur’s Checklist Free Online Course: https://www.udemy.com/an-entrepreneurs-checklist/

Videos

• Developing the CEO within you: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6taNjZCzQ1I

Legal Matters

Blogs

• Startup Lawyer: http://startuplawyer.com/

Building a Team

Articles

• Ask forgiveness, not permission: http://venturehacks.com/articles/ask-forgiveness-not-permission

• The option pool shuffle: http://venturehacks.com/articles/option-pool-shuffle

• How to ruin your company with one bad process: http://www.bhorowitz.com/how_to_ruin_your_company_with_one_bad_process

• The one trait that guarantees a good hire: http://www.inc.com/magazine/201405/jason-fried/hiring-based-on-effort-not-resumes.html

• How to pick a cofounder: http://venturehacks.com/articles/pick-cofounder

• DIY versus Delegate: http://avc.com/2015/01/diy-vs-delegate/

Building the Product

Articles

• Act first, do research later: http://www.jnd.org/dn.mss/act_first_do_the_re.html

• Usability 101: http://www.nngroup.com/articles/usability-101-introduction-to-usability/

• Why we skip photoshop: https://signalvnoise.com/posts/1061-why-we-skip-photoshop

• Designer Blindness: https://medium.com/@zeldman/designer-blindness-a644a4b40c1a

• Junior designers versus senior designers: https://medium.com/the-year-of-the-looking-glass/junior-designers-vs-senior-designers-fbe483d3b51e

• Putting thought into things: https://ia.net/know-how/putting-thought-into-things

• An introduction to using patterns: http://37signals.com/papers/introtopatterns/

• Get out of the way: https://medium.com/design-philosophy/get-out-of-the-way-87ad3194cf02

• Minimum viable product guide: http://www.startuplessonslearned.com/2009/08/minimum-viable-product-guide.html

• If your product is great, it doesn’t need to be good: http://paulbuchheit.blogspot.de/2010/02/if-your-product-is-great-it-doesnt-need.html

• Product Hunt began as an email list: http://ryanhoover.me/post/69599262875/product-hunt-began-as-an-email-list

• We don’t sell saddles here: https://medium.com/@stewart/we-dont-sell-saddles-here-4c59524d650d

Lean Startup Framework

Articles

• Why the lean startup changes everything: https://hbr.org/2013/05/why-the-lean-start-up-changes-everything/ar/1

• How to build a web startup: http://steveblank.com/2011/09/22/how-to-build-a-web-startup-lean-launchpad-edition/

Courses

• The Lean Launchpad Free Online Course: https://www.udacity.com/course/how-to-build-a-startup--ep245

Videos

• Eric Ries on Lean Startups: http://ecorner.stanford.edu/authorMaterialInfo.html?mid=2329

Business Plans and Profitability

Articles

• How to create a profitable freemium startup: http://andrewchen.co/how-to-create-a-profitable-freemium-startup-spreadsheet-model-included/

• You have acquisition interest. Now what?: http://www.davidgcohen.com/2010/06/18/you-have-acquisition-interest-now-what/

• My favorite business model: http://avc.com/2006/03/my_favorite_bus/

• Product>Strategy>Business Model: http://avc.com/2013/06/product-strategy-business-model/

• To succeed in the long term, focus on the middle term: https://hbr.org/2007/07/to-succeed-in-the-long-term-focus-on-the-middle-term

• How to get good at making money: http://www.inc.com/magazine/20110301/making-money-small-business-advice-from-jason-fried.html

• Idea to paying customers in 7 weeks: https://blog.bufferapp.com/idea-to-paying-customers-in-7-weeks-how-we-did-it

• The founder’s guide to selling your company: http://justinkan.com/the-founders-guide-to-selling-your-company

• Tickets for restaurants: http://website.alinearestaurant.com/2014/06/tickets-for-restaurants/

• How to create a million dollar business this weekend: http://fourhourworkweek.com/2011/09/24/how-to-create-a-million-dollar-business-this-weekend-examples-appsumo-mint-chihuahuas/

• How to make wealth: http://paulgraham.com/wealth.html

• Relentlessly resourceful: http://www.paulgraham.com/relres.html

• Competition is for losers: http://www.wsj.com/articles/peter-thiel-competition-is-for-losers-1410535536

• Milestones to startup success: http://www.startup-marketing.com/milestones-to-startup-success/

• Writing a business plan: http://www.sequoiacap.com/grove/posts/6bzx/writing-a-business-plan

• 13 ways to get to $10 million in revenues: http://techcrunch.com/2010/10/10/teardown-13-ways-10-million-revenues/

• How to build online businesses that gross $250,000+ per month: http://fourhourworkweek.com/2013/04/24/how-to-online-business/

Videos

• Muhammad Younus – The social business model: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0C3XQ3BTd4o

• Can a green business also be a profitable one?: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_OEZMVB2n4o

Marketing

Articles

• When SEO fails: http://www.aaronkharris.com/when-seo-fails-single-channel-dependency-and-the-end-of-tutorspree

• Best metrics for digital marketing: http://www.kaushik.net/avinash/best-web-metrics-digital-marketing-own-rent-strategies/

• If you build it, will they come?: http://blakemasters.com/post/22405055017/peter-thiels-cs183-startup-class-9-notes-essay

• Copywriting 101: http://www.copyblogger.com/copywriting-101/

• Build before you launch: http://www.danmartell.com/buildbeforeyoulaunch/

• Vanity metrics versus actionable metrics: http://fourhourworkweek.com/2009/05/19/vanity-metrics-vs-actionable-metrics/

• From 0 to $1 billion: http://firstround.com/review/From-0-to-1B-Slacks-Founder-Shares-Their-Epic-Launch-Strategy/

• 6 tips for buildings relationships with journalists: http://www.bothsidesofthetable.com/2010/03/22/6-tips-to-building-relationships-with-journalists/

• A visual guide to keyword targeting and on page SEO: https://moz.com/blog/visual-guide-to-keyword-targeting-onpage-optimization

• The startup pyramid: http://www.startup-marketing.com/the-startup-pyramid/

• How to build a high traffic blog without killing yourself: http://fourhourworkweek.com/2009/06/29/how-to-build-a-high-traffic-blog-without-killing-yourself/

• How to gather 100,000 emails in one week: http://fourhourworkweek.com/2014/07/21/harrys-prelaunchr-email/

• How to acquire customers without a marketing budget: http://www.entrepreneur.com/video/248432

• 8 stupid press outreach mistakes you need to stop making: http://www.marketdominationmedia.com/8-stupid-press-outreach-mistakes-need-stop-making/

• 5 step process to create your own free press: http://www.entrepreneur.com/article/245397

• The marketer’s guide to Reddit: https://blog.kissmetrics.com/reddit-marketing-guide/

Courses

• Beginner’s Guide to SEO: https://moz.com/beginners-guide-to-seo

• Beginner’s Guide to Link Building: https://moz.com/beginners-guide-to-link-building

• Beginner’s Guide to Social Media: https://moz.com/beginners-guide-to-social-media

Blogs

• Independent Street – Combining old media with new media: http://blogs.wsj.com/independentstreet/

• Men with Pens – World class copywriting: http://menwithpens.ca/

Videos

• Startup metrics for pirates: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hEp8ttE7WVc

• Seth Godin – Ideas that spread, win: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=m4Ch2z5ftwQ

Pivoting and Adapting

Articles

• Burn your business plan before it burns you: http://blogs.wsj.com/accelerators/2012/11/26/burn-your-business-plan-before-it-burns-you/

Investors and Funding

Articles

• If I launched a startup: http://startuplawyer.com/startup-issues/if-i-launched-a-startup

• Valuation: http://avc.com/2004/07/valuation/

• Building typekit on relationships: http://www.veen.com/jeff/archives/investors.html

• Lessons from a study of perfect pitch decks: http://techcrunch.com/2015/06/08/lessons-from-a-study-of-perfect-pitch-decks-vcs-spend-an-average-of-3-minutes-44-seconds-on-them/

• Invest in lines, not dots: http://www.bothsidesofthetable.com/2010/11/15/invest-in-lines-not-dots/

• How to fund a startup: http://paulgraham.com/startupfunding.html

• The hacker’s guide to investors: http://paulgraham.com/guidetoinvestors.html

• The equity equation: http://paulgraham.com/equity.html

• The venture capital squeeze: http://paulgraham.com/vcsqueeze.html

• How to present to investors: http://paulgraham.com/investors.html

• A fundraising survival guide: http://www.paulgraham.com/fundraising.html

• Misadventures in VC funding: https://moz.com/rand/misadventures-venture-capital-funding/

• What I wish I knew before pitching LinkedIn to VCs: http://reidhoffman.org/what-i-wish-i-knew-before-pitching-linkedin-to-vcs/

• Fundraising mistakes founders make: http://blog.samaltman.com/fundraising-mistakes-founder-make

• Black swan seed rounds: http://blog.samaltman.com/black-swan-seed-rounds

Blogs

• Venturebeat – Keep up to date with venture trends: http://venturebeat.com/

Videos

• 10 things you need to know before you pitch to a VC: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lzDBrMisLm0

• How to craft your 30 second elevator pitch or networking introduction: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tgCssZhVUUE

General

Articles

• The secret to winning customers and growing your business: http://www.entrepreneur.com/article/245559

Blogs

• Looking at entrepreneurship from a big business perspective: http://www.inc.com/

• Venture Hacks – Thought provoking advice for entrepreneurs: http://venturehacks.com/

• Guy Kawasaki – How to change the world: http://guykawasaki.com/blog/

• Netsetter – Blog for web based businesses: http://thenetsetter.com/

Videos

• The location independent entrepreneur – 300 videos to achieving complete location independence: http://www.tropicalmba.com/

• Must watch Ted Talks for Entrepreneurs: http://www.shopify.com/blog/6553665-12-must-watch-ted-talks-for-entrepreneurs

• Entrepreneurship 101: http://www.academybridge.org/videogallery/entrepreneurship-101/

• Brian Williams – My First Big Break: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JpeJqP44nWw

• Richard Branson – Life at 30,000 Feet: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DudfBIxw6do

• Dave Morin on Startups: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gfDEYmI7ORI

• Interview with Sean Parker, Shervin Pishevar & Alexia Tsotsis: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jxNhc64b_po

• Simon Sinek – How great leaders inspire action: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qp0HIF3SfI4

• Steve Jobs’ Stanford commencement speech: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UF8uR6Z6KLc

• Drive – The surprising truth about what motivates us: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=u6XAPnuFjJc

Audio

• Seth Godin’s Startup School: https://itunes.apple.com/us/podcast/seth-godins-startup-school/id566985370