Guides

Each guide answers one question directly, then explains the reasoning. They're written for people starting a business with limited time and money — no jargon, no funding assumptions, and no pretending that any of it is guaranteed to work.

• How to find a business ideaYou don't find a business idea by brainstorming. You find it by noticing where people already waste money, time or patience — usually in work you've done or industries you know — and checking whether they'd pay to make it stop. Start from a problem you've personally watched happen, not from a category you think is growing.
• How to validate a business ideaValidation means getting evidence that people will pay, before you build. In practice that's a sequence: talk to people with the problem, make a specific offer at a real price, and see whether anyone commits money or a firm date. Surveys, likes and encouragement are not evidence.
• How to start an AI businessStart with a job someone already pays for, then use AI to do it faster or cheaper than the current option. The businesses that work sell an outcome — replies answered, reviews collected, reports written — and treat AI as the method, not the pitch. Almost none of them need you to build a model or, at first, any software at all.
• How to find your first customerYour first customer almost never comes from marketing. They come from a specific list of people you can name, contacted directly, with an offer that solves something you've already seen them struggle with. Build a list of thirty real names, reach out one at a time, and expect to talk to most of them before one buys.
• SaaS or service business: which should you start?Start with a service if you need income soon or don't yet know exactly what customers want; start with software only if you already know the problem deeply and can survive months without revenue. Most durable software businesses began as services — the founder did the work by hand until the repeated part became obvious.

Looking for specific businesses rather than how-to? Browse business ideas. Want our opinions? Read the insights.