The Founder Manual
A playbook for entrepreneurs to get from 0 to 1 quicker. Get clear guidance, avoid common mistakes, and save time and money.
Alex’s Founder’s Manual has been a total game-changer for me. It’s exactly what you need when you’re in the midst of it all. The PMF + iteration pages helped me tighten my feedback loops and finally say “no” to changes that didn’t move the needle.
What I love most is how many topics it covers without wasting a word — from hiring to cash flow to “what to do when you can’t sleep at 3 am.”
— Sudha Shankar, Founder & CEO, Troo
Who is this playbook for?
First-time entrepreneurs working on a new tech-based product or business idea and need help figuring out the next steps. Use the playbook for guidance, templates, and recommended solutions so you can get back to work without spending hours scouring the internet for relevant advice.
Just a few included topics
- Finding market validation
- Finding early users
- Hiring technical talent for your company
- Building your product & analytics stack
- Protecting your time and addressing self-doubt
- Building the foundation for founder-led sales
- Legal: when do you need to hire a lawyer? What can you manage with online templates?
- A detailed M&A journey
Why The Founder Manual?
Save time & money
Get timely guidance without spending tons of money on consultants and sifting through hours of videos and websites just to get a few insights.
Build momentum
Start building traction quickly with best practices and access to templates for setting up product analytics, user interviews, assessing technical talent, and much more.
Recommendations
Save time researching solutions with free and low-cost recommendations for setting up product analytics, incorporating your company, and more.
Note: I’m not affiliated with any solutions. I’ve just found them valuable.
About me
Hi there, I’m Alex! I co-founded and operated a bootstrapped EdTech company for a decade as CEO until its exit in 2024. I’ve also worked with several early stage startups as a fractional CTO and product manager.
I created The Founder Manual because it’s a resource I wish I had as a founder to fast track building momentum. I understand the challenge of getting advice from all directions while operating on a limited budget. I learned how to run my company very lean and found the advice relevant to early stage companies by talking to a lot of people, experimenting a lot, and sifting through online material.
I often pay it forward by mentoring and providing adhoc support to founders. This playbook is another way for me to pay it forward.
Subscribe today
Your subscription includes:
- Full, anytime access to the playbook, including 50+ resources and templates
- Monthly updates to the playbook
- Exclusive blog posts with guidance on running a company
Frequently asked questions
It’s a playbook filled with guidance on how to build your product and/or company with a strong foundation to quickly build traction. It includes templates and resources so you don’t have to reinvent the wheel from scratch. As a founder, your time is valuable. Use the playbook to learn what you need to start making progress.
The Founder Manual is not necessarily meant to be read like a book. When you’re working on a new area of your business (ex: Sales) that you have little experience on, read the Sales chapter in the Manual to learn a strong foundation for how to get started rather than building from scratch. Then go ahead and start making sales!
Yes, once you sign up, you can read a short preview of every chapter.
Yes, the Founder Manual is a complement to any program(s) your company is in. It does not prescribe a specific way to build your company; rather, it offers guidance that helps you get started on making progress.
The Founder Manual costs $15/mo or $144/yr. The goal is it will save you a lot of time and money by providing advice, resources, and templates to get you started in the correct direction. No need to hire an expensive consultant or spend hours searching the internet for the right advice.
If you’re on the fence, subscribe for a month and see how you like it. You can cancel any time. It’s just the price of 3 cups of coffee.