When thinking about starting a business, you have a ridiculous number of options to choose from when choosing the apps and tools that go into forming your day-to-day 'operating platform (or app stack).
I’ve built both B2C and B2B startups in various forms over the years. In that time, I’ve used and tested a bunch of tools. There are some, though, that shine brighter than the rest, and these tools are the first I sign up to when getting a new startup project off the ground.
Rather than overwhelm you with a list of 40+ tools, here are 10 that are tried and tested to help you be more effective and efficient in getting your startup off the ground.
All tools pass two important criteria:
1) There is a generous free plan available that allows you to go pretty far without paying a penny.
2) They all integrate together - so you can stitch them together to create lean, mean and in-sync machine.
Without further ado, here is the list:
Best for: website builder/CMS, CRM, lead capture forms
In my view, Hubspot provides the best free website builder/CMS out there - it strikes the perfect line between usability and flexibility. You can knock up an incredibly professional looking website in a few hours max.
There is also generous free plans available for the CRM and a host of great extra marketing tools such as forms for lead capture.
Best for: email marketing, audience segmentation, customer journeys
I would recommend running Mailchimp alongside Hubspot for the email part of your marketing. While the free plan limit (2,000 emails a month) is the same, its more specialised - and the paid plans are far cheaper than Hubspot's paid marketing plans if you end up scaling.
Best for: when you need a database vs spreadsheet, supercharging the functionality of any of your other apps.
I absolutely love Airtable. Its a natural progression for all spreadsheet users into the wonderful world of relational databases, which in turn, unlock a huge amount of possibility. Its incredibly flexible to different use-cases (whether that be as an extension to a B2B CRM, D2C inventory management, internal ops management etc) and can be integrated and added to automated workflows with practically everything. Its a superpower once you master it!
Best for: running workflows across your different apps so they all stay in sync
Zapier is the glue that holds everything together - allowing you to keep everything in sync with automated workflows that push data between all your apps. I've used it to automate everything from marketing processes (e.g getting your lead data to the right place and person at the right time) and to improve efficiency in operational and listing workflows in a warehouse based ecommerce business.
Best for: your hub for email and office tools
While not technically free (£4.14/month to get started), Google workspace is your business hub for email, cloud storage and the full array of office tools (spreadsheets, word editor, forms, presentations) etc. It also integrates beautifully with all your apps.
Best for: tracking usage of your website so you can optimise
Google Analytics gives you the tools you need to better understand your customers and how they use your website. You can then use those business insights to take action. Once you get some traffic going you can analyse where your best customers are coming from, what behaviour they are showing on your website, and who is/isn't taking the action you want. You can then use that to optimise everything from your marketing plans, channels and budget - to your website design.
Best for: notetaking + setting out processes
Get all that crucial experience and insight stored in your head down into a format that is accessible and readable to the rest of your team. I am big believer in the power of Standard Operating Processes (SOPs) if you want to build a repeatable and scalable growth engine. Notion is a great place to define your SOPs.
Best for: building the tools you need where nothing off the shelf is available
A web app builder that takes you closer to the flexibility of custom coded development - but without any cod. You can use Bubble to knock up an early MVP without hiring an expense developer - or to build a custom tool that you need which none of off the shelf apps quite fit the bill for.
Best for: instant communication with your team and clients, connecting your comms flows to other apps
Slack is far from just a instant messaging tool and communication hub for your team. Its real power is being able to hook your communication flows into your business's app ecosystem. So important events in your CRM, sales software, inventory management system etc get communicated to the right people at the right time so you can take the right action, fast.
Best for: a free, no-nonsense accounting software and invoicing
Quickbooks and Xero take the headlines as the primary accounting tools for small businesses. But I have leaned towards Pandle's software at the early stages of business building. It offers a free plan and a cheap paid plan - and does all the basics well - including bank integrations, invoices, reports - how much more do you actually need from a startup accounting software?
I would recommend this app stack across B2B and B2C - with the exception of swapping out Hubspot for Shopify with the latter.
The real power here is getting all the apps and tools working together. You can create some incredibly sophisticated workflows that can make your business far more efficient in the early stages (freeing up your valuable time) and unlocking new opportunities both for revenue generation and operational reliability and efficiency. I'd go as far to say that much of the boring "process" of running your business can be outsourced and automated with these apps - so you can focus the high-end value add stuff - or taking time off!