diff --git a/README.md b/README.md
index 5114884e7..ed10b933d 100644
--- a/README.md
+++ b/README.md
@@ -5,6 +5,11 @@ Viacoin Core integration/staging tree
 
 http://viacoin.org
 
+Quickstart
+----------
+
+See the [quickstart guide](doc/build-quickstart.md) to compiling on Debian/Ubuntu.
+
 What is Viacoin?
 ----------------
 
diff --git a/doc/README.md b/doc/README.md
index ec442ae64..1223cd6bb 100644
--- a/doc/README.md
+++ b/doc/README.md
@@ -5,6 +5,11 @@ Setup
 ---------------------
 [Viacoin Core](http://viacoin.org/) is the original Viacoin client and it builds the backbone of the network. However, it downloads and stores the entire history of Viacoin transactions (which is currently several GBs); depending on the speed of your computer and network connection, the synchronization process can take anywhere from a few hours to a day or more. Thankfully you only have to do this once. If you would like the process to go faster you can [download the blockchain directly](bootstrap.md).
 
+Build Quickstart
+----------------
+
+See the quickstart guide to compile on Debian/Ubuntu [here](build-quickstart.md).
+
 Running
 ---------------------
 The following are some helpful notes on how to run Bitcoin on your native platform. 
diff --git a/doc/build-quickstart.md b/doc/build-quickstart.md
new file mode 100644
index 000000000..466c58ee6
--- /dev/null
+++ b/doc/build-quickstart.md
@@ -0,0 +1,32 @@
+Quickstart Build Instructions
+=============================
+
+Ubuntu/Debian require the following dependencies:
+
+    sudo add-apt-repository ppa:bitcoin/bitcoin
+    sudo apt-get update
+    sudo apt-get install build-essential libtool autotools-dev autoconf pkg-config libssl-dev libboost-all-dev libdb4.8-dev libdb4.8++-dev libminiupnpc-dev 
+
+If you want to build the GUI you also need: 
+
+    sudo apt-get install libqt5gui5 libqt5core5a libqt5dbus5 qttools5-dev qttools5-dev-tools libprotobuf-dev protobuf-compiler libqrencode-dev
+    
+viacoind
+--------
+
+To build just `viacoind` (which will include `viacoin-cli` and `viacoin-tx`) but without the GUI
+
+    ./autogen.sh
+    ./configure --with-gui=no --enable-tests=no
+    make 
+    sudo make install
+    
+Qt GUI
+------
+
+To build with the GUI
+
+    ./autogen.sh
+    ./configure --enable-tests=no
+    make 
+    sudo make install