Non-technical founders

Reading path

• Choosing a startup program that fits: a decision guide

  Batch programs, incubators and community programs differ in length, terms and fit. What research reports, and ten questions to ask before applying.

• The time between funding rounds: what Carta data reports

  Carta reports that the median wait between rounds has stretched past 600 days. The figures, who they cover, and how to turn them into a runway question.

• Using SBA resource partners: SBDC, SCORE, WBC and VBOC

  Federal business counseling centers, volunteer advisers, women's centers and veteran centers. What each does, who it serves, and how to find one.

• A boring first technology stack

  How to choose a first technology stack for a SaaS product by asking about people, documentation and reversibility, with three technologies named as examples.

• A non-technical founder building SaaS: what to own and what to delegate

  If you cannot write the code yourself, the decisions, accounts and records to keep in your own hands, and the work you can hand to a technical team.

• A one-page positioning statement

  A five-part method for writing down who your product is for, what it replaces and why it differs, with an invented example and a three-buyer test.

• Acquiring a small software product instead of building one: what to check

  A checklist of what to verify before buying a small software product: the ownership chain, accounts and data, customer contracts, tax reporting and filings.

• AI features and customer data: what to decide first

  The decisions to make before customer data reaches a language model: what goes in, which account tier, how long it is kept, and what customers are told.

• Angels, micro-funds and funds: what the rules say and what to ask

  Founders talk about angels, micro-funds and funds as different investors. This article sets out what US securities rules say about each and what to ask.

• Books and basic accounting for a software startup

  What keeping books means for a small software company, what the IRS says about records, separate accounts and accounting methods, and what to ask an accountant.

• Choosing a model provider: the questions that matter

  Questions to put to any language model provider before you build on it, drawn from vendor documentation on data use, retirement notice, limits and terms.

• Choosing and managing a small company's software stack

  Criteria for choosing a small company's tools and a light routine to keep them in order, using a US consumer-protection agency's data principles.

• Cold outreach that follows CAN-SPAM

  What the U.S. CAN-SPAM Act and the FTC compliance guide say about commercial email, quoted from the sources, with questions to bring to counsel.

• Customer evidence and reference calls

  What records show a customer relationship, what a reference call is, and what the FTC endorsement guides and review rule say when a customer's words go public.

• Feedback loops that reach the product

  How a small SaaS team can collect customer feedback, sort it and turn it into product decisions, with a weekly routine that needs no research staff.

• Founder equity splits and vesting

  How founder shares are issued, what vesting is and how a repurchase condition works, with questions for counsel. It gives no recommended split.

• Human review in an AI feature: where to keep a person in the loop

  Where a person should review an AI feature's output, how review fails when it becomes a rubber stamp, and what standards and laws say about oversight.

• Mapping the alternatives a customer already uses

  A method for listing everything a customer does today instead of buying your product, from spreadsheets to doing nothing, and reading the gaps honestly.

• Marketplaces: the two-sided start-up problem

  How a two-sided marketplace works, why the first buyers and sellers are hard to win together, and the payments, trust and legal questions the model adds.

• Product management for a first SaaS: roles, backlog and decisions

  What product management is in a company of one to three people: three jobs, two ways to keep a backlog, and a decision log that outlasts memory.

• Runway and burn: the arithmetic

  How to work out burn and runway with one worked example, what the arithmetic hides, and how to read the result before a decision about spending or raising.

• Terms of service and privacy policy: what each document is for

  A terms of service is a contract and a privacy policy is a notice. What the primary sources say about each, and the questions to bring to counsel.

• The 83(b) election and its deadline

  What the 83(b) election is, what the statute and the IRS say about its 30-day deadline and how it is filed, and the questions to bring to a tax professional.

• Trademark name clearance before you commit

  What the USPTO and the federal trademark statute say about similar marks, clearance searches and likelihood of confusion, with questions for an attorney.

• Usage-based, seat-based and hybrid pricing models

  How seat-based, usage-based and hybrid pricing work, what each one asks of your product and billing, and the questions that help you choose a unit of value.

• Writing a job description people can answer

  How to write a job description that a candidate can answer: outcomes before tasks, plain words, essential duties and advertising wording to check.

• Writing a landing page that says what the product does

  A section-by-section plan for a first landing page in plain language, with accessibility basics from W3C and Digital.gov and a check you can run without code.

• Writing a product requirements document people read

  A short structure for a product requirements document that engineers and teammates actually open, with an invented, labelled example you can adapt.