Startup Planner: The Steps, Programs & Services for Your Startup
Tell us what you need, your business type and budget, and get the build steps to take with the startup programs, accelerators and founder services for each.
Your plan: 6 steps for funding
Work through them in order. Every step links to its guide and to the programs and services that help.
Choose a business model Medium
Decide who pays, for what and how often, and check that the numbers can work before you build.
Why this step matters A business model answers three questions: who pays, what they pay for and how often. The same product can succeed or fail depending on those answers. A tool sold as a monthly subscription to small businesses needs very different marketing, support… Read the step →
Incorporate your startup Medium
Form the right legal entity in the right place so you can sign contracts, open a bank account, issue equity and raise.
Why this step matters A company separates your personal finances from the business, gives the business its own contracts, bank account and intellectual property, and lets you issue shares to co-founders, employees and investors. Many startup programs, cloud credit offers and banks require a registered… Read the step →
Split equity and sign a founder agreement Hard
Agree who owns what, how shares vest and what happens if someone leaves, while everyone still gets along.
Why this step matters Co-founder disputes are one of the most common reasons early startups fall apart. Most of them come down to equity, roles and what happens when someone stops contributing. Settling these questions in writing while everyone is optimistic is far easier than… Read the step →
Open a business bank account Easy
Keep company money separate from personal money, get paid by customers and unlock card perks and credits.
Why this step matters Mixing personal and company money is one of the fastest ways to create tax problems and weaken the legal separation between you and the business. A dedicated account makes bookkeeping simple, gives customers and investors a proper place to send money,… Read the step →
Get the legal basics right Medium
Put the core contracts, policies, IP protection and registrations in place so small legal gaps do not become big problems.
Why this step matters Early-stage legal work is mostly about avoiding preventable problems: a contractor who still owns the code they wrote, a product name you have to abandon after launch, a privacy policy that does not match what your app collects, or a missing… Read the step →
Get press coverage Medium
Pitch a real story to the right journalists and newsletters to earn credibility, links and a burst of qualified traffic.
Why this step matters Coverage in a trade publication, a respected newsletter or a podcast does three things a startup struggles to do alone. It borrows trust, because an independent writer chose to mention you. It sends a concentrated burst of the right readers. And… Read the step →
How the planner works
Each build step carries what it gets you, a typical cost and the kinds of startup it matters most for. The planner scores every step against your answers, drops anything your budget cannot fund, and shows the best programs, accelerators and services for each step that remains. It is a starting point: read each step, then claim the credits you qualify for before you spend money.