Tool and resource list for new founders Posted: 24 Sep 2014 04:17 AM PDT A braindump of the tools I frequently turn to for my projects. Some of these are super obvious, but I wanted to make a comprehensive list, so I put them in anyway. Others are more unusual. Analytics- Google Analytics – free and good enough for all your analytics needs
- Google Keyword Planner – see how many people are searching relevant terms
- Facebook Ads – use the targeting options to compare the approximate size and location of various interests and demographics
Talking to customers- Intercom – tasteful chat and help widgets for your site, plus good automated email triggers
- Drip – email courses and signup widgets for your site
- Mailchimp – newsletters and decent signup widgets
- Buffer – easier way to run your twitter and facebook accounts
Team collaboration- Slack – chat and messaging to reduce internal email load, with one room per major project
- Github – repository for your source code plus task lists and collaboration with your developers
- Dropbox – all company files should be here, not on email attachments or personal folders
- Streak – simple CRM plugin for gmail to manage and share your sales leads
- Trello – digital kanban board for project management
- Basecamp – I use it for project management with external teams who don’t know our Trello workflow
- Stormboard – digital sticky notes for remote brainstorming and workshops
- Meldium – team password sharing and management
DomainsPayments- Square (US) or iZettle (elsewhere) – accept credit card payments with your phone, e.g. for market stalls and contractors
- Stripe - best payment processing online
- GoCardless (UK) – accept direct debit payments
- Gumroad - easily sell digital files like PDFs, videos, and links
Physical products and print-on-demand- Createspace - upload a PDF, sell a printed book via Amazon
- Newspaper Club - ever wanted your own newspaper?
- The Game Crafter - prototype and sell your board and card games
- Shapeways - high quality 3d printing in a wide range of materials including gold and silver (for jewelry) and ceramics (for household goods); great for prototyping and market-testing physical products
- Alibaba - cut out the middle man and buy anything you want directly from the manufacturer; if you’ve ever wanted a 40’ shipping container full of go karts, this is the place for you
Building websites- Squarespace – visual site builder with good themes and integrations with stores, payments, newsletters, etc
- Strikingly – easy site builder for nice single-page sites like manifestos, personal/company pages, or landing pages
- Shopify – for ecommerce and online stores
- Themeforest – if you need something custom, start by buying a $30 theme and editing it
ArtPeople- Fiverr – pay $5 (or a bit more) for tasks ranging from logo design to copywriting
- 99designs – crowdsource design tasks (especially logos) for a few hundred dollars
- elance – various freelancers (assume you’ll hire several for trial projects before finding good ones)
- Clarity.fm – pay-by-the-minute advice from various startup specialists
- Dribbble – browse designer portfolios, many of whom also freelance
Phones- TextIt – create SMS applications without programming (e.g. for the developing world)
- Twilio – makes phone calls and SMS as easy to program as websites
Legals- Docracy – open source legal documents
- Companies Made Simple (UK) – set up and manage a UK corporation for £19
- Duedil (UK) – nice interface over companies house interface to research industry and competitors
LearningNewsInvestors- f6s – listing of all accelerator programs (and lots of other info) and a social network for startups and angels
- AngelList – social network and funding platform for startups and angels
- Capitallist – like Angellist, but focused on London and the UK
- The Funded – reviews and testimonials of investors from the founders’ perspective; do your investor due diligence here
Crowd funding- Crowdcube (UK) – equity crowd funding
- Seedrs (UK) – equity crowd funding
- Kickstarter – crowd-fund via pre-selling your products
- Indiegogo – crowd-fund via donations with a focus on arts and creative projects, including some which aren’t allowed on KickStarter
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