Founder Guides
Startup validation articles built for founders
Practical reading on validating startup ideas, reading market signal, sizing opportunities, and learning from real founder debates on Hacker News.
Idea Discovery
How to Find Startup Ideas People Will Actually Pay For
A practical way to find painful, recurring problems before inventing a solution.
Customer Research
Customer Discovery Questions That Get Honest Answers
A founder-friendly interview script for learning about real behaviour instead of collecting polite opinions.
B2B SaaS
How to Validate a B2B SaaS Idea in 14 Days
A two-week validation plan for founders who need evidence before building a B2B product.
Experiments
How to Run a Landing Page Smoke Test for Your Startup Idea
Use a simple landing page and a meaningful next step to test demand before building the product.
Competition
A Startup Competitor Analysis Template That Finds Your Wedge
Map competitors, alternatives, and unhappy customer segments without turning research into a spreadsheet exercise.
YC RFS
YC Fall 2026 RFS Ideas: Founder Validation Breakdown
A breakdown of YC's Fall 2026 Requests for Startups, translated into practical validation questions for founders.
Validation
How to Validate a Startup Idea Before Writing a Line of Code
A practical validation workflow covering community signal, interviews, smoke tests, and competitor research.
Frameworks
Startup Idea Validation Frameworks Compared
A founder-friendly comparison of Lean Startup, JTBD, YC thinking, and IdeaCheck's community-signal approach.
Research
What Hacker News Tells You About Your Startup Idea
How to use HN discussions as signal without overfitting to a technical audience.
Timing
Market Timing: The Most Underrated Factor in Startup Success
A guide to evaluating whether the market is ready for your startup now, not just eventually.
Execution
How to Think About Technical Complexity When Evaluating a Startup Idea
A grounded look at hidden build risk, product scope, and whether your team can actually ship.
Case Study
YC Spring 2026 RFS: We Ran Every Idea Through IdeaCheck
A data-backed content series scoring all 10 Y Combinator Spring 2026 Requests for Startups ideas.