How to be a CEO of a start-up?

Mon, 19 Jan 2026 12:34:25 -0800

How to Start a Startup

Introdution

A curated and opinionated list of resources for startup founders and leaders of high-growth companies

A list of courses are as follows:

CS 183B: How to Start a Startup
CS 183C: Technology-enabled Blitzscaling
CS 183E: Effective Leadership in High-Tech
CS 183F Startup School: The First 100 Days

Awesome CEO

A curated and opinionated list of resources for startup founders and leaders of high-growth companies

Fundraising

A Guide to Seed Fundraising - YCombinator
Very good starting point.
A Playbook for Fundraising - Lenny Rachitsky
Great summary.
The Startup Fundraising Playbook - Dropbox
How to raise money before launch - Khosla Ventures 💰
How I got 50 high-profile angel investors to join our seed round
What does it take to raise capital, in SaaS, in 2022?
How to Raise Money for Your Startup - Alex Banks
How to pitch to a VC - David S. Rose
How to Talk About Valuation When a VC Asks - Mark Suster
Pre-seed and seed founder’s hardest question - Aditya Agarwal
The single hardest question at the pre-seed and seed stage for a founder is knowing whether to persist on the current product or to move on to the next idea.
Option grants at seed round - Index Ventures
How Startup Funding Works
IPOs and Beyond: A Guide to Exit Options for Companies - a16z
What would a CTO equity be for a small startup?
Options vs Cash - Dan Luu
How To Invest In Startups - Sam Altman

Fundraising tools

Angels directories

Startup decks

Entrepreneurship

What are the things startups have to get right?
85 Things I learned being a CEO
What’s the Second Job of a Startup CEO? - Y Combinator
Things I will tell my kids if they become entrepreneurs
What do VCs really look for when making investments?
As an employee of a startup, how do you know when to quit?
YC’s Series A Diligence Checklist - Y Combinator
Startup Playbook - Sam Altman
Startup Class - Sam Altman
Lean Canvas + Miro template
Open Source Pitch Deck Templates for Figma
List of startups that had successful pivots

Product

Product is Hard - Marty Cagan
Solutions need to be:
- Valuable – Something that our customers will choose to use
- Usable – Easy to figure out how to use
- Feasible – Buildable using the technology stack and skills we have
- Viable – Workable for our stakeholders within our budget, legal, ethical, and reputational constraints
Red Oceans: How to Find Profitable Startup Ideas
The Secrets Of Creative Thinking
Most Startups Should Be Deer Hunters - Mark Suster
8 Product Hurdles Every Founder Must Clear - First Round Capital

Product-Market Fit

12 Things About Product-Market Fit - a16z

Sales

Your first 10 customers - Stripe

Marketing

Management

What makes for a successful CEO and CTO relationship in a startup?
Maker’s Schedule, Manager’s Schedule - Paul Graham
The Secret To Discussing Pay With Employees
Awesome Leading and Managing
Lessons from Keith Rabois: How to be an Effective Executive - Keith Rabois
How Context Switching Sabotages Your Productivity
10,000 Hours with Reid Hoffman: What I Learned
7 Ways to Set Up a New Hire for Success
Individuals matter - Dan Luu
Mandate Levels - John Cutler
10 ideas for building great culture in a distributed (remote) team - Nathan Barry
Adapting to Endure / Crisis management - Sequoia Capital

Hiring

Finance

Books

📕 The Hard Thing About Hard Things - Ben Horowitz
Practical advice on how to handle the toughest challenges while building and leading a startup, from laying off employees to dealing with personal crises. How to cultivate a strong company culture and lead with empathy and humility.
📕 Zero to One: Notes on Startups, or How to Build the Future - Peter Thiel
A framework for identifying and developing disruptive ideas that can create new markets and transform industries. A contrarian view on how to build truly innovative startups.
📕 The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People - Stephen Covey
The title is misleading - because of it I was avoiding this book for years. It’s actually very smart and actionable: principles of personal responsibility, proactive action, and continuous improvement. An approach to achieving success and fulfillment, developing strong personal relationships, cultivating a growth mindset, and aligning your actions with a clear sense of purpose.
📕 First Things First - Stephen Covey
Time management and productivity guide. How to overcome procrastination and achieve your most important goals, while balancing your work and personal life, and focusing on the things that truly matter in the long term.
📕 The Cold Start Problem: How to Start and Scale Network Effects - Andrew Chen
A framework for building a new network effect startup. Strategies and tactics that successful network effect startups have used to overcome the challenges of building a user base from scratch.
📕 Atomic Habits: An Easy & Proven Way to Build Good Habits & Break Bad Ones - James Clear
A framework for building and maintaining good habits and breaking bad ones. How to make small, incremental changes in your daily routines that can lead to long-term success and personal growth.
📕 Thinking, Fast and Slow - Daniel Kahneman
A framework for improving your decision-making abilities. Our automatic, intuitive “fast” thinking often leads to errors and biases, while our more deliberate and analytical “slow” thinking can help us make better decisions and avoid common pitfalls.
📕 The Mom Test: How to talk to customers & learn if your business is a good idea when everyone is lying to you - Rob Fitzpatrick
A framework for conducting effective customer interviews and building products that people actually want to use. How to validate your ideas without relying on false positives or biased feedback.
📕 Disciplined Entrepreneurship: 24 Steps to a Successful Startup - Bill Aulet
A framework for developing and testing innovative business ideas, from identifying customer needs and segmenting markets, to prototyping and testing solutions, to launching and scaling a successful venture.
📕 Mochary Method Curriculum - Matt Mochary

Other

Awesome CTO (GitHub)
Awesome TPM (GitHub)

Startup on Hanguangwu

How to be a CEO of a start-up?

How to Start a Startup

Introdution

Awesome CEO

Fundraising

Fundraising tools

Angels directories

Startup decks

Entrepreneurship

Product

Product-Market Fit

Sales

Marketing

Management

Hiring

Finance

Books

More links

Other

License