The Archive
Every guide, playbook, and review — practical, data-driven, lightly technical writing for founders who build.
How Much Equity to Give Your First Employees
A data-backed guide to early-employee equity: benchmark bands by hire number and role, vesting and cliffs, option-pool sizing, dilution math, ISO/409A basics, and how to explain the offer honestly.
Best Expense Management Software for Startups (2026)
We compared the 8 best expense management platforms for startups — Ramp, Brex, Expensify and more — on real pricing, corporate cards, and accounting sync.
Ramp vs Brex: 2026 Comparison
A neutral, deeply sourced Ramp vs Brex comparison for founders — qualification rules, credit limits, the real cashback-vs-points math, banking, and a stage-by-stage decision framework.
8 No-Code Tools to Ship Your MVP Without Hiring an Engineer
A ranked, honest rundown of no-code builders for getting a real product in front of users — what each is genuinely good at, and where it breaks.
Red Bull Is a Media Company That Happens to Sell Caffeine
The real Red Bull playbook isn't extreme stunts — it's inverting the marketing model so you own the audience instead of renting it. What founders can actually steal, and what they can't.
The Lean Founder Tool Stack: 10 Tools to Run a Startup Without Bloat
A category-by-category, opinionated stack for building and running an early startup — chosen for leverage, not logos.
Your First SaaS Pricing Model: How to Set a Number Without Guessing
A first-principles way to price your product when you have no data — value metrics, tiers, and the mistakes that quietly cap your growth.
SEO for Startups: The Compounding Channel Most Founders Quit Too Early
A practical playbook for turning search into a durable acquisition channel — topic clusters, buyer intent, and the patience it actually requires.
The 90-Day Path From Idea to a Shipped MVP
A week-by-week operating plan for technical founders who want traction, not a perfect codebase. What to build, what to fake, and what to cut when the clock is the real constraint.
The Retention Curve That Predicts Your Next Raise
One chart tells investors whether your growth is real. Here is how to read it before they do.
The Lightly Technical Guide to Your First Engineering Hire
How to evaluate an engineer when you are not one, and the three signals that actually matter.
Pre-Seed Fundraising, Decided by Data
The benchmarks, dilution math, and check sizes behind a clean pre-seed round — and how to decide whether to raise one at all.
Runway Math: The Burn Model Every Founder Needs
A spreadsheet you can build in an hour that turns fear about money into a decision you can make.
Validate Before You Build: A Solo Founder's Playbook
Five cheap experiments that tell you whether an idea has legs, before you write a line of code.