# Cofounder — How to run a company

> Step-by-step founder playbook for starting, building, selling, and scaling a company.

A practical, fluff-free guide by Cofounder detailing the entire lifecycle of launching a modern software company. It spans from early ideation, market wedges, and naming to technical architecture, deployment pipelines, sales motions, and scaling. It is available to read on the web or download as a standalone PDF guide.

Website: https://cofounder.co/how-to/start

## What it is for

- Evaluate startup ideas and define narrow wedge markets before writing code
- Structure modern web application MVP architecture using Git, Vercel, and Supabase
- Establish branch protection, preview environments, and secret management hygiene
- Design initial sales and customer onboarding workflows for early-stage software

## Features

- Four core chapters: How to Start, How to Build, How to Sell, and How to Scale
- Framework for evaluating ideas via market size, founder-market fit, customer pain, and unique insight
- Technical guidance on MVP scoping, scaffolding, GitHub repos, environments, and secrets
- Low-cost production stack recommendations (e.g., Vercel + Supabase for under $50/month)
- Downloadable full PDF version alongside the web reader
- Clean editorial design featuring custom pixel-art illustrations

## Pricing

Free to read and download

## Details

- Type: Website
- Category: [Business & Money](https://xiry.app/topics/business-money.md)
- Open source: no
- Platforms: Web
- For: First-time founders, solo developers, and early-stage entrepreneurs building software products.
- Alternative to: Y Combinator Startup School, The Lean Startup
- Tags: startups, playbook, mvp, entrepreneurship, bootstrapping, software

## Why it was saved

- [@ndrewpignanelli, 12 May 2026](https://x.com/ndrewpignanelli/status/2054209984104452123): Expert-written founder playbook without SEO filler, covering the full lifecycle from idea to production infrastructure.

## Compare

- [Alternatives to The Lean Startup](https://xiry.app/alternatives/the-lean-startup.md)

## Related

- [The Lean Startup](https://xiry.app/resources/the-lean-startup): Framework for building businesses through continuous experimentation and validated learning (Article or course, Paid)
- [Everything They Teach at Y Combinator](https://xiry.app/resources/everything-they-teach-at-y-combinator): A one-page reference summarizing core startup lessons from Y Combinator. (Framework, Free)
- [Peter Thiel's 7 Core Mental Models](https://xiry.app/resources/peter-thiel-s-7-core-mental-models): A distilled summary of key startup and investing principles from Zero to One (List, Free)
- [33 Startup Grants and Alternative Funding Sources](https://xiry.app/resources/33-startup-grants-and-alternative-funding-sources): Curated list of grants, equity crowdfunding, and non-dilutive startup funding sources (List, Free)
- [8 Rules for Startups by Jesse Min Zhang](https://xiry.app/resources/8-rules-for-startups-by-jesse-min-zhang): Core operating principles for early-stage startup execution and decision-making. (Tip, Free)
- [8-Step $0-to-$2.5M Startup Playbook](https://xiry.app/resources/8-step-0-to-2-5m-startup-playbook): An eight-step go-to-market framework for launching and validating B2B software before building. (Framework, Free)

Updated 10 October 2026. Page: https://xiry.app/resources/cofounder-how-to-run-a-company

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