What is the startup founder checklist?

The startup founder checklist is a comprehensive list of 1000+ tasks that startup founders often wish they had completed earlier. It covers everything from legal setup and compliance to product development, marketing, team building, and growth strategies. The checklist is designed to help founders avoid common mistakes and ensure they don't miss critical steps in building their startup.

What are the most critical items on the startup founder checklist?

The most critical items include: legal setup (incorporation, EIN, 83(b) election), financial setup (business bank account, accounting software), compliance (privacy policies, GDPR/CCPA), infrastructure (cloud setup, security), and customer-facing elements (website, analytics, payment processing). These should be completed before launching your product or raising funding.

When should I start working on the startup founder checklist?

Start working on the checklist as early as possible, ideally before you even launch your MVP. Many items like legal setup, compliance, and infrastructure are much easier and cheaper to implement correctly from the beginning rather than retrofitting later. The checklist is designed to prevent costly mistakes and ensure you're building on a solid foundation.

How do I prioritize items on the startup founder checklist?

Prioritize based on your startup stage: Pre-launch focus on legal, financial, and infrastructure setup. Post-launch focus on customer acquisition, support, and growth tools. High-priority items are those that become exponentially more expensive or difficult to implement later, such as legal structure, compliance, and security measures.

What are common mistakes founders make with the checklist?

Common mistakes include: skipping legal setup to save money (costs more later), ignoring compliance until forced to address it, not setting up proper financial tracking from day one, waiting too long to implement security measures, and not documenting processes early. The checklist helps prevent these costly oversights.

How much does it cost to complete the startup founder checklist?

Costs vary significantly based on your needs, but expect $5,000-50,000+ for comprehensive setup. Legal and compliance can cost $10,000-30,000, infrastructure setup $2,000-10,000, and ongoing tools $500-5,000/month. However, doing things right from the start saves money compared to fixing problems later.

What checklist items are most important for fundraising?

For fundraising, focus on: clean legal structure (C-Corp), proper cap table, IP protection, compliance documentation, financial projections, customer metrics, and team agreements. Investors will conduct due diligence on these items, and having them in order significantly speeds up the fundraising process.

How do I track progress on the startup founder checklist?

Use project management tools like Notion, Asana, or Airtable to track checklist progress. Categorize items by priority, timeline, and responsible party. Set up regular reviews (weekly/monthly) to ensure you're making progress on critical items. Consider using the interactive checklist feature to mark completed items.

What checklist items are most important for SaaS startups?

For SaaS startups, prioritize: security compliance (SOC 2, GDPR), data protection, customer onboarding, billing infrastructure, support systems, analytics, and scalability planning. SaaS-specific items include subscription management, churn prevention, and customer success metrics.

How often should I review and update the startup founder checklist?

Review the checklist monthly during early stages, quarterly as you scale, and annually for long-term planning. Update it based on your specific industry requirements, regulatory changes, and growth stage. The checklist should evolve with your startup's needs and the changing business landscape.

Draft: This document is a work in progress

We're actively building out this comprehensive startup checklist. More sections and items will be added soon.

1000 Things Startup Founders Should Have Done Yesterday

Startup founders don't fail because they're lazy. They fail because they're late. This tongue-in-cheek checklist is a painful, practical, and sometimes petty collection of everything you'll eventually wish you'd done earlier—across legal, product, marketing, hiring, funding, and more. If you're building something real, this list is your early warning system.

Total Regrets Remaining: 15

0 items completed • 0% done

Choose Company Name & Logo

HIGHCompany Setup

Everything is more fun with a logo. That's the only reason.

This guy on Fiverr

Register Company

HIGHCompany Setup

If raising money 100% Delaware C-Corp (Clerky) or (Atlas). Apply for EIN (ideally via the service).

Clerky Stripe Atlas

File 83(b) election to pay your taxes today vs later

HIGHCompany Setup

If you see future value of your equity via acquisition. If you register your company with Atlas it will handle. Instructions here & information here.

83(b) Election Instructions 83(b) Information

Register Company w/ DnB (Free)

MEDIUMCompany Setup

Selling B2B (enterprise), Gov & Lines of Credit.

D&B Registration

Move Domain Registrar / Register domain to Cloudflare

MEDIUMCompany Setup

They are the most effective DNS registrar, the quickest to replicate across the internet and you can give team permissions.

Cloudflare

Register Side Domains

MEDIUMCompany Setup

Domains you might use for outbound marketing or other programs. (Get/try/use<yourdomain>.com)

Register all Social Media Handles

MEDIUMCompany Setup

Upload a description, your website URL and post something (so a bot doesn't delete). Whether you think you need them or not, register them or your competitor will.

Namechk

Setup Free Google Voice Number (Free)

LOWCompany Setup

Choose personal for a free number, use this for all your corporate filings.

Google Voice

File Trademark (Product & Services Class)

HIGHCompany Setup

Basic Search here (a v1 website/landing page needs to be live). Use your generic email & google voice number (data is public). Class 9 (for the software) / Class 42 (for the services).

USPTO Trademark Search USPTO Trademark Filing

File Provisional Patent (if applicable)

MEDIUMCompany Setup

Primarily to prevent against Patent Trolls & 1 Yr to complete the process.

USPTO Provisional Patent

Register on Apple, Bing & Google Business

MEDIUMCompany Setup

This is the sidebar that shows up when people google you or your services.

Google My Business Apple Business Connect Bing Places for Business

Register on Crunchbase

LOWCompany Setup

If you want to "put on record" your company is here :)

Crunchbase

Get Google Analytics, Google Search Console, Full Story, SEMrush, Drift

HIGHCompany Setup

So you have them done. (all free, if you see a credit card screen you did it wrong!)

Google Analytics Google Search Console FullStory SEMrush Drift

The Pixels / Re-Marketing Tag: Meta, TikTok, LinkedIn, Google Ads, Ad Roll, Microsoft Ads

HIGHCompany Setup

All the pixels to build and retarget your audience. Maybe not critical today, but perhaps in the future you want to run a LinkedIn Ad to all people who visited a certain page of your site? Some brands are leveraging Mntn (paid) in addition to standard ad-channels.

Meta Business TikTok Ads LinkedIn Ads Google Ads AdRoll Microsoft Advertising MNTN

UTM Builder

MEDIUMCompany Setup

Make sure every link where you can is using UTM so you can start to track where traffic originates from. If you are doing cold outreach, you might make an edit on the UTM for each link in the email, so you know if it comes from the copy or the signature.

Google Campaign URL Builder Bitly

Why This Checklist Exists

Every founder has that moment—usually around 2 AM during a funding round or acquisition—where they realize they should have done something months ago. This checklist is that moment, written down. It's not about being perfect. It's about being less wrong, less often. Use it as your tactical regret prevention system.