Doing The Work — a first-time founder's guide to building a startup, by Paul Smith
The first-time founder's guide to building a startup, not pretending to
Most first-time founders build things nobody asked for, confuse being busy with making progress, and pour their energy into work that never makes a difference. Doing The Work is a practical guide to making something people want, by focusing on what really matters. It offers best practice and tested frameworks, alongside new thinking that's become essential in the age of AI and vibe-coding.
- Why your real competitor isn't another startup — and how understanding why changes how you approach everything
- When to rely on AI, and when to avoid it — and how to make sure you're always the one doing the thinking on the decisions that matter most
- How to tell a real problem worth solving from one nobody cares about — time-wasting ideas aren't the obviously bad ones, so how can you tell the difference?
- Recognising the difference between enthusiasm and conviction — something customers say they'd love to try is not the same as something they'll spend money on, so learn how to get answers you can rely on
- Why demos often make things worse — how do you make sure the feedback you're getting is real?
- How to do work that matters — what progress actually looks like from the inside, week by week, and why the founders who succeed aren't necessarily working harder than the ones who don't
What readers are saying
“Paul has a rare ability to cut through the noise and get to what actually matters. This is the book I wish I'd had when I started.”
Sarah O'Brien
Founder, Stackwise
“The frameworks in this book completely changed how I think about customer conversations. I stopped building the wrong things within a week of reading it.”
James Afolabi
CEO, Loopline
“Every accelerator programme should make this required reading. Practical, direct, and genuinely useful from page one.”
Marta Villanueva
Partner, Northgate Ventures
Order Doing The Work
Paperback
The physical edition
Instant download
About me
I'm a startup operator, founder, and advisor with 15 years of experience coaching and advising hundreds of early-stage founders across three continents.
I've co-founded two AI-native startups, worked in senior management at two deeptech companies, and co-founded and supported several of Europe's earliest accelerator programmes.
Throughout my entire career in tech, I've tried to help smart people succeed, and time and again, the key character traits I've observed in the most successful founders, are the ability to focus and the need to consistently grind out execution and make progress.
In a world where distraction is a default, Doing The Work is a practical, hands-on guide to help new founders have better ideas and build successful ventures.
