Embarking on the journey of entrepreneurship is akin to setting sail into uncharted waters. It's exhilarating, nerve-wracking, and filled with uncertainty at every turn. As an aspiring entrepreneur, I’m constantly learning and getting advice on how to navigate the unknown. Here are a few of my favourite resources and advice!

My Favourite Books and Resources

* Must Reads

Co-Founders

50 co-founder questions by First Round*

Ideation

• The Mom Test by Rob Fitzpatrick*

• Tartpit Ideas by YCombinator*

• Zero to One by Peter Thiel

• Lateral Thinking by Edward de Bono

• How to be a Founder by Alice Bentinck and Matt Clifford
• Specifically The Edge Framework by Alice Bentinck

• Requests For Startups by YCombinator

• Entrepreneur First - How to survive by Bill Leaver

• The Quest For True Signal by a16z podcast

Mental Health

• Mimetic Traps by Brian Timar

• Maker Schedule vs Manager Schedule by Paul Graham

The Framework Of An Idea

Why Now?

What has changed in the last 6 months that means that this is now possible?

For 2024, this is usually an advancement in AI, or how consumers are changing because of Covid. Brexit used to be a popular one too. Apple’s struggles with the EU are becoming popular too. More health conscious consumers.

For nicher industries, this can be expanded up to about 5 years, but the essence of this question is to eliminate any other competition that might be out there.

Remember, the phrase “nobody else is doing this” is a sign of 1 of 2 things:

• You haven’t researched your competition space enough
• Product Hunt
• Reddit
• Beta Testers
• Recent YC batch

• Nobody wants it (See YC tarpit ideas)

Why This?

What hair on fire problem do your customers have so much that they are willing to use a terrible MVP?

Talk about what you have learnt about your customers problems and how you will uniquely solve their problem. The gold standard is to give an anecdote of a user’s journey of how they found their magic moment with your product.

I’ve also written a bit more about how to find your magic moment in your consumer focused product 👉 here, but for a more general advice just read The Mom Test.

Why You?

What do you know that not many other people know

This is where you get to flex your badges. Humans are inherently risk averse and make decisions based on other people’s opinions. If you have something that directly supercharges your idea too you instantly become 100x more credible.