There are many startup software tools that can help you build, design, market, operate, and sell your product/business services. While the abundance can be confusing, it also gives you the chance to choose what best suits your own needs. We’re here to ease your entrepreneurial life!
In this article, we will share the 10 best tools for startups in different categories so you know when to use each.
- Communication Tools
- Project Management Tools
- Scheduling Tools
- Team Culture / Team Building Tools
- Holiday Management Tools
- Automatic Daily Startup and Status Report Tools
- Marketing Tools
- Sales Tools
- Customer Success Tools
- Product / Design Tools
Best communication software tools for startups:
Instant messaging and video conferencing software are two common Saas communication tools for startups. Quick updates and simple questions are fine for instant chat tools, but for more complicated issues, starting a video conversation is frequently more efficient. For your startup’s user base is international, video conferencing software can also be quite helpful when holding client meetings.
Zoom
Zoom is one of the top software tools for startups. It is the most widely web-used web conferencing software on the market.
Why Zoom?
- It can help you start an online conference/ meeting or webinar with ease.
- It has a screen-sharing feature and good video/audio quality.
- With Zoom, you can set up recurring meetings using the same URL, which is a helpful feature for organizing and hosting internal team meetings for your startup.
Note: The free plan for a video call covers your basics, but for group calls, it is only 40 minutes.
Slack
Slack is a preferred method of instant messaging. It allows you to set up channels for discussions on various subjects. You can simply integrate Slack with tools that your startup already uses in your daily workflow or add more features to help you utilize Slack in a more productive way thanks to the large Slack App Directory that Slack offers. Almost everything a startup requires is covered by the free plan; however, the free plan only has a limited history and can only install a maximum of 10 apps.
Best project management software tools for startups:
The productivity of a startup can be greatly increased by using a project management tool to plan and monitor the progress of projects and tasks. This is because, in the beginning, when you are still looking for product-market fit, it’s likely that your priorities and task arrangements will change quite a bit. Without the proper tools, things can get quite disorganized, making it difficult for your teammates to monitor the tasks at hand and the progress being made.
Trello
Trello is a list-making software tool in the Kanban style for startups that is useful for project or task management.
How to use?
To organize the tasks and projects your team is working on, you can create boards, lists, and cards with labels, checklists, and due dates. You can then drag and drop these items to see how things are going. You can also add a lot of Power-ups (basically apps for Trello) to the platform to enhance its already fantastic features.
Note: The free plan, which is restricted to 10 team boards and one Power-Up per board, is limited for most small startup needs.
Asana
Another well-liked project management tool among startups is Asana. With Asana, you can simply move between lists, kanban boards, and calendar views while keeping all of your projects and tasks organized in one place.
Best scheduling software tools for startups:
Startup founders need to schedule a lot of meetings with various stakeholders, including investors, prospects, and customers. Using a scheduling saas tool software will help you save a lot of time and enhance conversion rate because reserving a meeting has become much easier and hassle-free for your prospects and clients as well. This is because you won’t need to send back and forth emails to arrange a time.
YouCanBook.me
YouCanBook.me is a well-liked online appointment-scheduling software tool for startups. It functions well with cloud calendars from Google, iCloud, and Microsoft. Simply connect to your calendar so that consumers can make reservations directly on it. They will then get notifications, calendar invites, reminders, etc. instantly.
Best team culture/team building software tools for startups
Donut
Donut is a particularly helpful software tool for startups that operate remotely because it allows team members to get to know one another better across departments, office locations, and continents. Donut encourages strangers on teams of different sizes to connect in person or digitally for a variety of programmes by introducing them to one another via direct message. Donut can also be used to greet new employees and introduce them to coworkers or onboarding companions.
Best holiday management software tools for startups
Even if your startup is small, maintaining high productivity requires having a proper leave management strategy. With effective vacation management, your team can expect when workers will require time off and guarantee that your stringent deadlines won’t be missed.
This is especially important for remote teams because it might be challenging for them to know who is unavailable on a given day and may not be responding to their requests because they are not all based in the same office.
Absense.io
You can easily manage team absences like sick or vacation days with the help of Absence.io. Since it is integrated with Slack, supervisors can reject or approve absence requests there, and team members can quickly view existing and upcoming absences by using Slack slash commands.
Best automatic daily standup/status report software tools for startups
Most teams currently use standup meetings. Daily standups are a regular component of every team’s schedule, whether they are adhering to the principles or just need to keep their entire team informed regardless of the work methodology they are adopting.
However, most teams continue to hold lengthy standup meetings, which risk not covering everything.
Status Hero
Status Hero is a simple solution for keeping track of daily objectives, tool activity logs, and team status updates all in one location. It facilitates team check-ins and facilitates gathering daily goals. Your teammates will be asked to check in and provide a brief report on their progress to the team using Status Hero. The daily check-in data will then be combined with information from linked project management platforms like GitHub, Trello, and Jira by Status Hero to produce status reports that can be distributed across the team.
Best marketing software tools for startups
Marketing is crucial, regardless of financial constraints. No matter how great your product is, nobody will know it even exists without it. Startups should take advantage of all available resources to spread the word about what they have to offer. Here are our recommended digital marketing tools to help in your do-it-yourself campaigns.
Buffer
Buffer is a social media management tool that allows you to manage all of your social media accounts in one place, which can help you save a lot of time. Buffer allows you to simultaneously plan items for sharing across numerous social media platforms and track the performance of your content.
SEMrush
SEMrush is a well-known SEO tool with expertise in Google Ad optimization, competitor analytics, backlink analysis, and keyword research. If you want to increase website traffic, this is a really helpful tool.
Best sales software tools for startups
Whether you’re looking to acquire your first clients or keep up your momentum, startup sales tools can assist you in optimizing your sales process. Check out the list of startup sales tools to assist you in growing your company, attracting qualified leads, and closing more sales.
Close CRM
Close is a CRM made specifically for sales teams. Every interaction with a lead is automatically tracked in a graphic timeline, making it simple for your coworkers to keep track of the lead’s stages. All the data are also very helpful for handover as the lead moves through various stages.
Best customer success software tools for startups
You need tools to help you measure, organize, and manage everything in order to maintain track of your customer success best practices and workflows, such as gathering and evaluating customer feedback, managing customer contacts, and putting up self-service customer education.
FullStory
FullStory is a platform that offers helpful analytics like heatmaps, conversion analysis, user session recordings, etc. to help you better understand how prospects and customers are interacting with your website and product. This platform is a great resource for product, marketing, and support teams.
Best product/design software tools for startups
It can be challenging to navigate design tools. There are a tonne of tools available for creating logos, landing pages, social media images, video editing, and other things, but the most of them are just a waste of time.
Productboard
Productboard is a framework for managing products that assist teams in identifying user needs, prioritizing what to produce, and unifying behind a roadmap. It has great connections with platforms for customer support, such as Intercom, so you can simply combine consumer feedback. You may also use its built-in capabilities to help you better prioritize what to build next, share your roadmap with your team, and track progress toward launch.
Do you have more specific needs? We have a network of software-as-a-service (SaaS) startups that can help you! Check out the list of our “LaunchSaaS” incubated startups.
