Startup Tools for Founders
These are worksheets and calculators for the early, messy stage of a company, before there is a product, a team agreement or a funding round. Founders, product managers starting something new inside a larger company, and accelerator cohorts use them to turn opinions into written assumptions and numbers that someone else can challenge.
17 free tools · no sign-up · no ads
Test an idea before building it: validation plans, survey drafts, competitor profiles, market sizing and LTV:CAC unit economics.
Idea Validation Framework
Validate startup ideas through market researchUser Survey Designer
Create effective user research surveys with templatesCompetitor Analysis Tool
Framework for analyzing competitors and market positioningMarket Sizing Calculator
Calculate TAM, SAM, SOM for market analysisTAM Calculator
Size a market top-down, bottom-up or by problem value, then narrow it to SAM and SOMLTV-CAC Calculator
Calculate Customer Lifetime Value and Acquisition Cost metrics
Lean Canvas, sprint worksheets, an idea maze, pivot planning, MVP scoping and a one-page PRD for turning an idea into a plan.
Foundation Sprint
Validate business ideas with structured foundation sprint frameworkDesign Sprint
Google Ventures 5-day rapid prototyping processLean Canvas Generator
Create lean business model canvas for planningPivot Strategy Planner
Strategic framework for planning business pivotsIdea Maze
Map out different possibilities and paths for your startup ideaInitial Launchable Product Planner
Plan your product launch with MLP, MVP, MMP, or SLC frameworksOne-Pager PRD Creator
Generate a one-pager PRD outline from three answers
Co-founder alignment, an equity split model with vesting, a weighted idea scorer and a pitch deck outliner.
Founding Team Alignment
Assess founding team vision and goal alignmentPitch Deck Builder
Build a pitch deck outline from proven investor slide templatesIdea Prioritizer
Evaluate and rank startup ideas with decision matrixCo-founder Equity Allocation
Calculate fair equity splits for co-founders using proven frameworks
Which tool do I need?
Find out whether anyone actually has the problem I want to solve
List your riskiest assumptions and the tests that could disprove them in the Idea Validation Framework, then draft neutral questions for interviews or a survey.
Put a defensible number on the market for an investor
Size TAM top-down, bottom-up or from the value of the problem, then narrow it to SAM and SOM with filters you can explain line by line.
Check whether customers are worth what they cost to win
Work out lifetime value, acquisition cost, the LTV:CAC ratio and the payback period in months, for either a one-off purchase or a subscription model.
Get the whole business model onto one page
Fill the nine boxes of a Lean Canvas, starting with problem and customer segments, and download it as Markdown for a doc or investor update.
Decide what goes into the first release
Pick a release framework such as MVP or SLC, cut the must-have list, then turn the result into a first-draft one-page PRD.
Agree on roles and equity with a co-founder
Compare each founder's goals, time and expected equity side by side, then model a split with vesting and a cliff.
About Startup Tools
The tools fall into three groups that follow the order most founders work in. Validation & Research asks whether the problem is real and the market big enough: an idea validation plan, a survey drafter, a competitor notebook, two market sizing calculators and an LTV:CAC calculator. Planning & Strategy turns a tested idea into a plan, from a Lean Canvas and sprint worksheets to a launch scope planner and a one-page PRD. Team & Funding handles the people and the pitch: co-founder alignment, an equity split model, an idea scoring matrix and a pitch deck outliner.
None of them call an AI model or fetch outside data. The competitor notebook does not crawl websites and the market sizing tools only multiply the numbers you type, so the output is only as good as your sources. Most tools autosave drafts to your browser's local storage on that device, but the Pivot Strategy Planner and the One-Pager PRD Creator keep nothing between visits, so export before you close the tab. The equity calculator is a starting point for a conversation, not legal or tax advice.
Guides
- Validating a Startup Idea: Interviews, Surveys and CompetitorsTurn an idea into testable assumptions, interview without leading (The Mom Test), write survey questions that measure something, and map the alternatives you compete with.
- How to Fill In a Lean Canvas, Box by BoxThe nine boxes of Ash Maurya's Lean Canvas, the order to fill them in, how it differs from the Business Model Canvas, and the mistakes that make a canvas useless.
- TAM, SAM and SOM: Sizing a Market Top-Down and Bottom-UpWhat TAM, SAM and SOM really mean, a worked bottom-up example with customer counts and ACV, how to cross-check it top-down, and the mistakes investors spot first.
- How to Split Co-founder Equity (and Agree Before You Argue)Equal splits, contribution scoring and role weights compared, how 4-year vesting with a 1-year cliff actually works, and the alignment questions to settle first.
Frequently asked questions
In what order should a first-time founder use these startup tools?
Validate first, plan second, and settle team and funding questions last. Start in Validation & Research with the riskiest assumptions and customer conversations, move to Planning & Strategy once the problem holds up, and use Team & Funding before you incorporate or raise. Skipping straight to a pitch deck usually means rewriting it later.
Do I need an account to use the startup toolkit?
No. Every tool opens straight away and runs in your browser. There is no login, so there is also no cloud copy: drafts that autosave are stored in local storage on the device you used, and clearing site data removes them. Export anything you want to keep or share.
Which startup worksheets lose my answers when I close the tab?
The Pivot Strategy Planner and the One-Pager PRD Creator keep answers only in page memory, so a reload or closed tab clears them. Most of the others, including the Lean Canvas, Idea Maze, pitch deck builder and market sizing calculators, autosave to local storage on the same browser.
How do I share a startup worksheet with my co-founder?
Export it, because there are no shared workspaces. The sprint worksheets, validation plan and launch planner export text, image or PDF; the Lean Canvas, pitch deck, competitor report and market sizing analysis export Markdown; the Idea Maze and survey export JSON. Paste the result into a shared doc or send the file.
Can startup templates replace talking to customers?
No. The worksheets organise what you know and expose what you are guessing, but the evidence has to come from interviews, landing page tests, pre-sales and usage. A complete canvas or a 100% readiness score means the plan is written down, not that the idea is proven.
Are the startup tools only for venture-backed companies?
No. Validation, market sizing, unit economics and a scoped first release matter just as much for a bootstrapped business, a side project or a new product line inside an existing company. Only the pitch deck builder and parts of the equity tools assume outside investors.