Best Productivity Tools for Early-Stage Startups
Posted on Monday, June 18th 2012. Written by Michal Ugor
I am London based entrepreneur & writer on this website, you can follow my updates at @fortunepick
We've put together a list of all the tools you'll likely need in the early stage of your startup, up to the point you'll take off and need to focus on different stuff. This isn't the most comprehensive list of web based tools available, we instead focused on listing the 3-5 of the best tools for each category. ( What's the point of flooding you with 50 email marketing tools if you'll only use the one that performs the best, right? )
Books to read
1. The Four Steps to the Epiphany by Steve Blank
3. Lean Startup by Eric Ries
Sites to use
Offline tools
1. Whiteboard
2. Pen and paper
3. Headphones
4. Post-it
5. Smartphone
2. Pen and paper
3. Headphones
4. Post-it
5. Smartphone
Finding a domain name
Wireframing
1. Balsamiq
2. Mocking Bird
Surveys
2. Pick-fu A/B test approach to market research (50 responses for $10)
3. Kiss Insights Collect customer feedback on your site
4. Surveygizmo
5. Wofoo
Launching soon page
1. Launchrock Viral lauching soon page (Free)
Sites to promote for beta users
1. Killer Startups
2. Beta List
3. Startup List
2. Beta List
3. Startup List
more sites here
User Testing
1. Usabilla Gain design feedback
2. UserTesting
3. Fivesecondtest
4. Startuplift
2. UserTesting
3. Fivesecondtest
4. Startuplift
Pitch Deck
1. Slideshare
2. Speakerdeck Slideshare with a nicer look
3. Sliderocket
4. Prezi For more creative visualization
Affordable product demo videos
1. Goanimate Create animated videos for free
2. Animoto - Free for up to 30 seconds (or $2.50 p/m)
3. Wyzowl - Product demo videos from $475
2. Animoto - Free for up to 30 seconds (or $2.50 p/m)
3. Wyzowl - Product demo videos from $475
Analytics
Outsourcing
1. Odesk General freelance work
2. Elance General freelance work
3. 99designs Design
4. Crowdspring Design
5. Designcrowd Design
Project management
Personal Productivity
1. pomodoro.me / focusboosterapp - Time tracking (Pomodoro Technique)
2. Wunderlist To-do-lists
3. Stayfocused Manage distractions
4. Evernote Get organized
5. Mindmeister Mindmapping
Socialmedia
1. Buffer Schedule your posts
2. Hootsuite Social media dashboard
3. Tweeriod Determine the best tweeting times
4. If This Then That Auto-manage twitter
5. Pagemodo Facebook page design ($6 p/m)
2. Hootsuite Social media dashboard
3. Tweeriod Determine the best tweeting times
4. If This Then That Auto-manage twitter
5. Pagemodo Facebook page design ($6 p/m)
Create infographics
Email marketing
1. Madmimi - Great software, best pricing
2. Activecampaign Email and social media
3. Sendgrid
4. Mailchimp ( Free for up-to 2000 contacts )
5. Campaignmonitor
2. Activecampaign Email and social media
3. Sendgrid
4. Mailchimp ( Free for up-to 2000 contacts )
5. Campaignmonitor
A/B Testing
1. Visual Website Optimizer probably the best A/B testing tool
2. Optimizely
3. Google website optimizer (Free)
Livechat
Cloud storage
Accounting
1. Wave Accounting ( Free )
2. Tradeshift Free and simple invoicing
3. Xero Accounting ( from $19 p/m )
CRM
1. Pipedrive - Simple, minimalist, easy to use. Best paid option.
2. Base - Free for up to 150 contacts. They're not very transparent about further pricing though. If you know you will need over 150 contacts, make sure you check out premium pricing with them before you spend all the time uploading details of your leads. It's still a great product.
3. SugarCRM - Free opensource version
4. Nimble - Social CRM
2. Base - Free for up to 150 contacts. They're not very transparent about further pricing though. If you know you will need over 150 contacts, make sure you check out premium pricing with them before you spend all the time uploading details of your leads. It's still a great product.
3. SugarCRM - Free opensource version
4. Nimble - Social CRM
You should subscribe for more updates & valuable tips (no spam promise)
WE RECOMMEND:
TOPICS:
What is your favourite productivity tool?