Index
Master list of all wiki articles.
| Article | Status | Tags | Summary |
|---|---|---|---|
| product-market-fit | complete | product, market, strategy, validation | The alignment between product and market demand; Sean Ellis 40% test, PMF Engine, value vs growth hypothesis |
| do-things-that-dont-scale | complete | growth, early-stage, execution, user-acquisition | Manual unscalable work; 5 categories, real stories, when to transition |
| customer-development | complete | customers, validation, product, lean-startup | Steve Blank’s methodology + The Mom Test interview framework |
| execution | complete | execution, leadership, operations | Focus and intensity, CEO’s five jobs, founder mode vs manager mode |
| fundraising | complete | fundraising, finance, investors | Lines not dots, default alive/dead, the fundraising danger zone |
| hiring | complete | hiring, team, culture, management | Barrels vs ammunition, the hiring trap, when/who/how to hire |
| growth | complete | growth, metrics, execution | Growth channels, network effects engine, default alive/dead test |
| lean-startup | complete | methodology, validation, lean-startup | Build-Measure-Learn methodology for validated learning |
| minimum-viable-product | complete | product, validation, lean-startup | The simplest experiment that enables maximum validated learning |
| pivoting | complete | strategy, product, adaptation | 9 famous examples, pivot data, how to pivot well, Ries’ decision framework |
| startup-failure-modes | complete | failure, strategy, business-model, data | Data tables, PG’s 18 mistakes mapped, Livingston’s tunnel of monsters |
| ideation | complete | ideation, product, strategy, early-stage | Well vs Sitcom, Schlep Blindness, Thiel’s contrarian framework, idea traps |
| go-to-market-strategy | complete | strategy, marketing, sales, growth | Leslie’s Compass: is your product bought or sold? Seven GTM dimensions |
| business-models | complete | business-model, monetization, strategy, finance | How companies create and capture value; SaaS, marketplace, freemium, etc. |
| founder-psychology | complete | founder, psychology, resilience, leadership | Mental health, resilience, and the founder’s paradox |
| unit-economics | complete | finance, metrics, business-model | CAC, LTV, payback period; why “we’ll make it up in volume” is never true |
| company-culture | complete | culture, hiring, leadership | ”Defined by who you hire, fire, and promote” — compounds over years |
| competitive-strategy | complete | strategy, competition, monopoly | Thiel’s “competition is for losers” + Altman’s “ignore competitors”; build a monopoly |
| user-acquisition | complete | growth, marketing, early-stage, sales | Founder-led sales, the 3Ws framework, and scaling to repeatable channels |
| cofounder-dynamics | complete | team, founder, equity, legal | Choosing cofounders, equity splits, vesting, and preventing breakups |
| the-startup-lifecycle | complete | synthesis, strategy, execution, growth | Synthesis article: the 6 phases from ideation through endurance |
| andreessen-only-thing-that-matters | complete | product-market-fit, market, strategy | Source: Marc Andreessen’s 2007 essay on PMF |
| pg-do-things-that-dont-scale | complete | growth, early-stage, user-acquisition, execution | Source: Paul Graham’s 2013 essay on unscalable startup tactics |
| altman-startup-playbook | complete | execution, fundraising, hiring, growth, product, strategy | Source: Sam Altman’s YC startup guide |
| blank-customer-development | complete | customer-development, validation, lean-startup | Source: Steve Blank’s customer development methodology |
| lean-startup-principles | complete | lean-startup, methodology, validation, product | Source: Eric Ries’ lean startup principles |
| startup-failure-study | complete | failure, data, business-model, fundraising | Source: Fractl’s analysis of 193 startup post-mortems |
| pg-how-to-get-startup-ideas | complete | ideation, product, strategy | Source: Paul Graham’s 2012 essay on finding startup ideas |
| leslies-compass-gtm | complete | go-to-market, sales, marketing, strategy | Source: First Round Review’s GTM framework |
| legal-foundations | complete | legal, finance, incorporation, equity | Delaware C-Corp, SAFE notes, 83(b) elections, vesting, essential legal steps |
| pricing-strategy | complete | pricing, monetization, business-model, sales | Value-based pricing, the 10-5-20 rule, pricing models and mistakes |
| thiel-zero-to-one | complete | competition, strategy, monopoly, innovation | Source: Peter Thiel’s Zero to One frameworks |
| pg-18-mistakes | complete | failure, execution, team, fundraising | Source: Paul Graham’s 18 startup-killing mistakes |
| superhuman-pmf-engine | complete | product-market-fit, metrics, product, validation | Source: Rahul Vohra’s quantitative PMF measurement framework |
| scaling | complete | growth, execution, operations, strategy | When and how to scale; blitzscaling 5 stages; the scaling paradox |
| the-validation-stack | complete | synthesis, validation, product-market-fit, lean-startup | Synthesis: from hypothesis to PMF in 4 layers |
| building-the-team | complete | synthesis, hiring, team, culture, founder | Synthesis: from cofounders through culture to scaling teams |
| network-effects | complete | growth, business-model, strategy, competition | Direct, two-sided, data, and platform effects; when they asymptote and break down |
| the-money-playbook | complete | synthesis, fundraising, finance, unit-economics, pricing | Synthesis: from ramen profitability to revenue to raising |
| livingston-what-goes-wrong | complete | failure, founder, determination, execution | Source: Jessica Livingston’s “tunnel of monsters” from 467 YC startups |
| pg-default-alive-dead | complete | finance, execution, hiring, growth | Source: Paul Graham’s default alive/dead framework |
| founder-mode | complete | leadership, execution, founder, management | Founder mode vs manager mode; skip-level meetings; selective depth |
| a16z-network-effects | complete | growth, business-model, strategy, competition | Source: a16z’s analysis of network effect dynamics and breakdown |
| mom-test | complete | customer-development, validation, product, interviews | Source: Rob Fitzpatrick’s 3 rules for customer interviews |
| operations | complete | operations, execution, management, scaling | Editing metaphor, barrels vs ammunition, delegation matrix, anomaly principle |
| pg-founder-mode | complete | leadership, execution, founder, management | Source: Paul Graham’s 2024 essay on founder vs manager mode |
| bootstrapping | complete | bootstrapping, finance, growth, contrarian | The anti-VC path; Fried’s 37signals philosophy; ramen profitability; famous examples |
| startup-metrics | complete | metrics, growth, product, execution | AARRR pirate metrics, vanity vs actionable, OMTM, paired metrics |
| rabois-how-to-operate | complete | operations, execution, hiring, management, leadership | Source: Keith Rabois’ Stanford lecture on startup operations |
| wartime-peacetime-ceo | complete | leadership, execution, management, strategy | Horowitz’s 17-contrast framework; when to fight vs when to build |
| the-leadership-modes | complete | synthesis, leadership, execution, founder, management | Synthesis: wartime/peacetime + founder/manager + editing; mapped to lifecycle |
| fried-bootstrapping | complete | bootstrapping, growth, culture, contrarian | Source: Jason Fried’s contrarian philosophy on slow growth and calm companies |
| case-study-airbnb | complete | case-study, product-market-fit, growth, do-things-that-dont-scale | Case study: air mattresses to $100B, mapped to all wiki frameworks |
| leverage | complete | strategy, growth, business-model, founder | Naval’s 4 types (labor, capital, code, media); permissionless leverage; wealth equation |
| pg-right-kind-of-stubborn | complete | founder, psychology, execution, pivoting | Source: PG on persistence vs obstinacy — “attached to the goal, not the idea” |
| glossary-of-frameworks | complete | guide, quick-reference | 35+ named frameworks alphabetical: Collison Installation, Well Test, Max MRR, etc. |
| the-saas-playbook | complete | synthesis, business-model, pricing, growth, metrics, retention | Synthesis: $0 to $1M MRR in 8 steps; Cohen + AARRR + PMF + PLG |
| cohen-max-mrr | complete | metrics, growth, retention, unit-economics | Source: Max MRR = New MRR ÷ Churn; predicts revenue ceilings |
| cohen-annual-prepay | complete | pricing, unit-economics, growth, bootstrapping | Source: Cohen’s cash-flow hack — annual prepay reduces CAC payback from 12mo to instant |
| cohen-startup-drake-equation | complete | strategy, failure, founder, probability | Source: Cohen’s probability chain model — one zero in any variable kills everything |
| cohen-pricing-business-model | complete | pricing, business-model, strategy, bootstrapping | Source: Jason Cohen’s price-point framework — $0 to $100K/mo, each creates a different business |
| naval-how-to-get-rich | complete | strategy, founder, contrarian, business-model | Source: Naval Ravikant’s wealth creation framework — specific knowledge + leverage |
| focus | complete | execution, strategy, founder, leadership | Altman’s “focus and intensity”; Rabois’ editing; Seibel’s 90/10; what to ignore |
| remote-teams | complete | hiring, culture, operations, execution | Remote vs co-location; 4 models; tactical advice; remote in the AI era |
| onboarding | complete | product, growth, retention, product-led-growth | The aha moment; time-to-value; 3 onboarding patterns; funnel metrics; 90/10 applied |
| retention-and-churn | complete | metrics, growth, product, unit-economics | Why retention > acquisition; cohort curves; churn playbook; the death spiral |
| moats | complete | strategy, competition, growth, network-effects | 7 startup moats; evaluation framework (0-21 score); when moats form; what doesn’t work |
| marketplace-dynamics | complete | business-model, growth, network-effects, distribution, strategy | Cold start problem; atomic network; liquidity metrics; take rates; 5 failure modes |
| technical-decisions | complete | product, execution, scaling, engineering | Ship fast; tech debt (when fine vs kills); the rewrite question; stack choice |
| product-led-growth | complete | growth, distribution, product, strategy | PLG flywheel; freemium trap; PLG vs sales-led; bottom-up enterprise wedge |
| regulatory-navigation | complete | legal, operations, strategy, deep-tech | Regulation as obstacle vs moat; sector landscape; the Uber problem; practical advice |
| diverse-founder-perspectives | complete | founder, contrarian, strategy | Bias in standard advice; fundraising reality; network disadvantage; overlooked market opportunity |
| deep-tech-startups | complete | strategy, product, fundraising, contrarian | How deep tech differs; Valley of Death; regulatory as moat; different MVPs and fundraising |
| international-expansion | complete | growth, scaling, strategy, operations | When/how to expand; 4 strategies (replicate, adapt, acquire, partner); non-US founders |
| storytelling | complete | communication, fundraising, marketing, leadership | The founder’s story arc; audience-specific narratives; techniques; story as culture |
| community-building | complete | growth, distribution, marketing, network-effects | Community as moat; 4 types; 3-phase playbook; health metrics; anti-patterns |
| board-management | complete | leadership, fundraising, governance, scaling | Board composition, running meetings, good vs bad board members, by mode |
| exits-and-acquisitions | complete | strategy, finance, fundraising, scaling | Exit types, acquisition dynamics, IPO readiness, when to say no |
| tan-yc-ai-era | complete | ai-era, growth, execution, founder | Source: Garry Tan — 25% of YC startups 95% AI code, 10-20 people to $10-20M ARR |
| seibel-yc-essential-advice | complete | execution, product, growth, fundraising, founder | Source: Michael Seibel’s distilled YC advice — the 90/10 rule, fire bad customers |
| horowitz-wartime-peacetime | complete | leadership, execution, management, strategy | Source: Ben Horowitz’s wartime/peacetime CEO framework with 17 contrasts |
| pitching | complete | fundraising, sales, communication, strategy | Essential pitch structure, investor/customer/recruit pitching, common mistakes |
| distribution | complete | growth, sales, marketing, strategy | Thiel’s distribution spectrum; power law of channels; the dead zone; viral distribution |
| founder-faq | complete | guide, quick-reference | 30+ common founder questions mapped directly to wiki articles |
| cheat-sheet | complete | guide, synthesis, quick-reference | The entire wiki distilled into one page: 6 phases, 10 commandments, key numbers |
| start-here | complete | guide, synthesis | Reading guide: 30-min essentials, 5 learning paths by stage, source index |
| case-study-stripe | complete | case-study, ideation, do-things-that-dont-scale, product-market-fit, competitive-strategy | Case study: Schlep Blindness, Collison installation, developer-first payments |
| second-time-founders | complete | founder, strategy, contrarian, execution | What repeat founders do better (and worse); the calibration advantage |
| ai-era-entrepreneurship | complete | synthesis, strategy, execution, contrarian | What AI changes (team size, cost, distribution) and what it doesn’t (PMF, taste, customers) |
| product-development | complete | product, execution, validation, lean-startup | Discovery vs delivery; 4 risks; empowered teams; product by stage (pre/post PMF) |
| founders-operating-system | complete | synthesis, execution, operations, founder, guide | Daily/weekly/monthly/quarterly rhythms; decision framework; anti-pattern dashboard |
| where-the-experts-disagree | complete | synthesis, contrarian, strategy | 7 tensions: VC vs bootstrap, founder vs manager mode, speed vs care, and more |
| case-study-wework | complete | case-study, failure, unit-economics, scaling, founder-psychology | FAILURE case study: $47B → bankruptcy; every anti-pattern in one company |
| case-study-shopify | complete | case-study, bootstrapping, product-market-fit, scaling, ideation | Case study: bootstrap first, scale second; snowboard shop → $11.5B revenue |
| about-this-wiki | complete | meta, guide | How an LLM built this wiki; methodology, knowledge graph map, source table |
| recommended-reading | complete | guide, reference | The 21 sources ranked; 5 essentials; by-topic guide; full bookshelf |
| case-study-comparison | complete | synthesis, case-study, strategy | All 6 companies compared across every framework; universal patterns vs failure |
| lenny-first-1000-users | complete | distribution, growth, user-acquisition, do-things-that-dont-scale | Source: Lenny’s 7 strategies for first 1K users from 40+ apps — pick ONE |
| kahl-audience-first | complete | bootstrapping, ideation, customer-development, niche | Source: Arvid Kahl inverts the order — audience first, code fourth |
| tringas-calm-company-fund | complete | fundraising, bootstrapping, alternative-funding | Source: Tyler Tringas on the third path — revenue-based financing, no exit pressure |
| chen-cold-start-problem | complete | network-effects, marketplace, growth, distribution | Source: Andrew Chen’s 5 stages, atomic network, hard side vs easy side |
| knoop-zapier-ai-code-red | complete | ai-era, execution, founder, product-development | Source: Mike Knoop’s Zapier AI code red playbook and research sabbatical |
| dry-marketing-examples | complete | distribution, marketing, copywriting, growth, bootstrapping | Source: Harry Dry’s 3 copywriting rules, content-led growth, newsletter-first |
| walling-saas-playbook | complete | bootstrapping, business-model, pricing, distribution, growth | Source: Rob Walling’s 6 critical areas for bootstrapped SaaS |
| shankar-husain-ai-evals | complete | ai-era, product-development, execution, metrics | Source: Shankar & Husain on AI evals — the hottest new skill |
| ai-evals | complete | ai-era, product-development, metrics, execution | The discipline of measuring AI features; error analysis first, manual beats automated |
| ai-agents | complete | ai-era, execution, operations, scaling | AI agents as employees; solo founder agent stack; multi-agent orchestration |
| frankl-developer-facing-startup | complete | distribution, marketing, developer-tools, go-to-market | Source: Adam Frankl on marketing to developers — “developers don’t lie to other developers” |
| programmatic-seo-zapier | complete | distribution, seo, growth, marketing | Source: Programmatic SEO case studies — Zapier 6.3M visits, TripAdvisor 226M visits |
| case-study-gumroad | complete | case-study, bootstrapping, founder-psychology, pivoting | Case study: VC failure → minimalist success; investor sold shares back for $1 |
| case-study-midjourney | complete | case-study, ai-era, bootstrapping, distribution, community | Case study: Midjourney — $500M ARR, ~11 employees, Discord-native, zero VC |
| case-study-basecamp | complete | case-study, bootstrapping, founder-psychology, company-culture, pivoting | Case study: Basecamp/37signals — 25+ years bootstrapped, Rails as byproduct |
| case-study-levels | complete | case-study, ai-era, bootstrapping, distribution, solo-founder | Case study: Pieter Levels — $3M ARR, zero employees, <$200/mo infrastructure |
| case-study-stitch-fix | complete | case-study, bootstrapping, product-market-fit, diverse-founders | Case study: data meets taste; $42M to profitable IPO; youngest female tech founder to IPO |
| case-study-cursor | complete | case-study, ai-era, product-led-growth, product-market-fit, growth | Case study: $0 → $1B ARR in <24 months; fastest B2B SaaS growth in history |
| case-study-slack | complete | case-study, pivoting, product-market-fit, growth, distribution | Case study: greatest pivot in SaaS; failed game → $27.7B messaging platform |
| case-study-linear | complete | case-study, distribution, product-led-growth, focus, moats, company-culture | Case study: Linear — $1.25B valuation on $35K lifetime marketing spend; craft as moat |
| case-study-lovable | complete | case-study, ai-era, distribution, product-led-growth, leverage, bootstrapping | Case study: Lovable — fastest to $100M ARR in history (8 months); Stockholm; $2.77M ARR/employee |
| case-study-kit | complete | case-study, bootstrapping, distribution, pivoting, community-building, founder-psychology | Case study: Kit (ConvertKit) — 22 months near-death → $43M ARR bootstrapped; concierge migration, niche down |
| niche-selection | complete | strategy, ideation, product, early-stage, bootstrapping | The discipline of narrowing aggressively; the naming test; beachhead strategy; niche quality characteristics |
| positioning | complete | positioning, marketing, sales, strategy, go-to-market | Dunford’s 5-component canvas; positioning vs messaging; 3 category options; applied to Linear, Kit, Lovable, Basecamp |
| dunford-positioning | complete | positioning, marketing, sales, strategy, go-to-market | Source: April Dunford’s Obviously Awesome + Sales Pitch — the canonical B2B positioning methodology |
| raskin-strategic-narrative | complete | pitching, storytelling, sales, positioning, fundraising | Source: Andy Raskin’s strategic narrative framework — big change → winners/losers → promised land → magic gifts → evidence |
| jobs-to-be-done | complete | jobs-to-be-done, product, customer-development, ideation, strategy | The foundational “products are hired” framework; milkshake story; Four Forces; Job Story format; switch interviews |
| christensen-jobs-to-be-done | complete | jobs-to-be-done, product, customer-development, ideation, strategy | Source: Clayton Christensen’s Competing Against Luck + JTBD framework origin |
| founder-led-sales | complete | sales, user-acquisition, early-stage, founder, distribution | The discipline — target list, cold email, concierge offer, discovery-first, the Collison Installation, transition threshold |
| decision-making | complete | execution, founder, leadership, strategy, psychology | Type 1 vs Type 2, 70% rule, pre-mortems, reference classes, disagree & commit, pre-commitment devices |
| case-study-notion | complete | case-study, product-led-growth, distribution, community-building, ai-era, focus | Case study: 4 rebuilds, Kyoto survival, $600M ARR; sugar-coating the broccoli; 27 employees at $800M valuation |
| case-study-fast | complete | case-study, failure, unit-economics, scaling, founder-psychology, fundraising | FAILURE case study: $125M raised, $600K revenue, 480 employees, dead in 6 days after exposure; $166 spent per $1 earned |
| growth-loops | complete | growth, distribution, metrics, strategy, product-led-growth | Balfour/Winters/Chen: loops replace funnels; 4 types (viral, content, paid, sales); 7 company deep-dives (Pinterest, HubSpot, Figma, Notion, Slack, Superhuman, AI data flywheel); Four Fits; flywheels vs loops; Andrew Chen Cold Start connection |
| balfour-growth-loops | complete | growth, distribution, metrics, strategy, product-led-growth | Source: Brian Balfour + Casey Winters + Kevin Kwok + Andrew Chen — growth loops framework, Four Fits, content loops at Pinterest/Grubhub, extended with Figma/Notion/Superhuman/Slack/AI mechanics |
| case-study-perplexity | complete | case-study, ai-era, distribution, competitive-strategy, product-market-fit, growth | Case study: AI answer engine vs Google; $200M+ ARR, 45M MAU, $20B+ valuation; dropped ads for trust; 52 employees at $3B |