Where the writing comes from
Sources & references
Every article on Yibud draws on a small library of books and a longer list of public founder writing. This page lists the references that show up most often, and how we use them.
What this page is
A reference shelf, not a reading list
The articles on Yibud are original analysis. They are not summaries of books, and they are not rewrites of other people's essays. The references below are the inputs that informed the work — the source material that the writing drew on, the way a research paper cites prior literature.
We try to credit ideas to the people who had them first. When an article leans on a particular book, that book is named. When an article leans on a particular founder's writing, that founder is named. The credit is part of the article, not an afterthought.
If you have read one of the books on this list, you will recognize its fingerprints in the articles. If you have not, the page below is enough to tell you which books are worth your time — and which ones, frankly, are not.
Books
The reference shelf
The Mom Test
Rob Fitzpatrick
The single most influential book on user research for solo founders. Most Yibud articles on customer interviews and assumption testing are downstream of this book. The line "don't ask people if they would buy — ask them about the last time they tried to solve the problem" is, in some form, in every interview section we write.
The Lean Startup
Eric Ries
The book that introduced build-measure-learn as a vocabulary. Useful for the framework, less useful for the specific tactics. We cite it where the framework is being named, not where the tactics are being described.
Continuous Discovery Habits
Teresa Torres
The clearest modern treatment of weekly customer contact for product teams. Most relevant for founders past the MVP stage; less relevant for pre-build validation. We cite it when an article touches ongoing product discovery.
Inspired
Marty Cagan
The standard reference on product management inside larger organizations. Most useful for the part of an article that contrasts solo-founder tactics with team-scale practices.
Rework
Jason Fried & David Heinemeier Hansson
The book whose tone we try to write in. Less cited for specific tactics, more cited for the underlying argument that small teams and short plans beat large teams and long plans.
Zero to One
Peter Thiel
Cited sparingly. Useful for the contrarian-questioning frame, less useful for the specific company-building advice. We reference it when an article discusses the difference between competition and monopoly dynamics.
Make Something Wonderful
Steve Jobs (oral history, edited by Leslie Berlin)
An oral history assembled from interviews rather than a memoir. Cited for the Apple-internal perspective on product taste, attention to detail, and the difference between shipping and announcing.
The Hard Thing About Hard Things
Ben Horowitz
Cited when an article touches the parts of building a company that don't show up in the origin story — the layoffs, the cofounder fights, the years where nothing is working.
Founders & essayists
Public writing we draw on
Beyond the books, Yibud's writing leans heavily on long-form essays by founders and operators. The list below is not exhaustive — it is the names that show up across multiple articles.
- Paul Graham — essays on startup growth, hiring, and taste
- Lenny Rachitsky — interviews on product management and growth
- Patrick McKenzie — essays on niche markets and small software businesses
- Joel Spolsky — essays on software management and product development
- Dharmesh Shah — writing on inbound marketing and bootstrapped SaaS
- April Dunford — writing on positioning and competitive narrative
Now run the same lens on your own idea
The reference shelf above informs how Startup MRI scores ideas. Put your own idea through the same engine — free, no signup, structured report in under a minute.