
Being a startup founder is a shitshow.
You’re constantly handling unlimited things while wondering if this whole entrepreneurial pipe dream was just one big mistake.
Your days are a constant juggling act filled with:
- building an innovative product
- managing limited resources
- chasing investors
- navigating legal hoops
- and wondering when you’ll find time to sleep.
But keep the light shining because…this blog post has your back with 15 must-have tools to help you crush the daily grind.
You’ll be amazed at how these tools streamline tedious tasks, enhance productivity, and free up your mental bandwidth to focus on the big-picture vision.
You in?
1. 1Password (Password Management)
1Password is the ultimate password manager and secure digital vault to keep all your sensitive stuff locked down tight.
As a startup founder, you deal with enough chaos and stress already without having to worry about some sketchy data breach exposing your passwords and screwing everything up.
1Password generates crazy strong, unique passwords for every online account and stores them in an encrypted vault that only you can access.
The good news: 1Password isn’t just about security—it’s a straight-up productivity booster too.
With the slick browser extensions and apps, it auto-fills logins with a click, so you never waste time typing passwords or doing those annoying “Forgot Password” resets.
Every morning, 1Password helps you start your day right by having all your accounts and passwords synced across all devices and ready to go.
The dashboard gives you a bird’s eye view of your “Password Health” so you can see which ones are getting stale or duplicated across accounts.
Best 1Password Features
- Unlimited storage for passwords, documents, credit cards
- Military-grade encryption to protect data from hackers
- Autofill passwords and personal details across websites and apps on any device
- Secure sharing of passwords/documents with team members, guests, or family
- Travel Mode to temporarily remove sensitive data from devices when traveling
- Awesome password generator that creates crazy secure passwords for new accounts
Price and Plans
- Free plan/trial: 14-day free trial.
- Price: The paid plan starts at $2.99/month.
2. Canva (Graphic Design)
Canva is an online graphic design platform that makes creating stunning visuals as easy as ordering pizza.
The whole point of Canva is to empower anyone to create designs, even if you couldn’t draw a stick figure to save your life.
Canva makes design work simple with an intuitive drag-and-drop editor. Choose one of their pre-made templates, and start dragging design elements onto the canvas.
You’re a designer!
Canva comes with an insane library of stock images, graphics, fonts, icons, and other assets. We’re talking millions of high-quality media files waiting to elevate your designs to pro levels.
Whether you need social media graphics, a fire pitch deck, eye-catching ads, or even branded docs and reports—Canva has every startup’s design needs to be covered in one convenient package.
Best Canva Features
- Intuitive drag-and-drop editor for quick, easy designs
- Ginormous template library for any design you need
- Millions of stock images, graphics, icons, and other assets
- Brand Kit for sticking to your brand style across designs
- Collaboration tools for designing with your team
Price and Plans
- Free plan/trial: Free plan, 30-day free trial on paid plans.
- Price: The paid plan starts at $12.95/month.
3. Clay (Customer Relationship Management)
Clay is a relationship management tool that gets you to stay on top of your personal and professional connections.
It pulls in all your contacts from email, calendar, socials, and other apps and puts them in one place. So you’ve got a central database of everyone you know, both work and personal.
But Clay isn’t just a fancy address book—it enriches those contacts with extra info like job titles and education history.
And it keeps monitoring for updates, so their details stay fresh.
Now for the good stuff—Clay’s got some dope AI features to help you nurture relationships.
Like it analyzes your communication patterns and pings you when it’s time to hit up someone you haven’t chatted with in a while.
And it’ll alert you to major stuff happening in a contact’s life so you can reach out at the right moment.
You can also take notes and tag contacts so you never forget important details or conversations.
Clay syncs across all platforms too—web, desktop, mobile. So your contacts are always up-to-date and within reach.
Best Clay Features
- Automatic contact import & updates from tons of apps
- AI that analyzes communication patterns to recommend follow-ups
- Life event notifications to spark timely outreach
- Detailed contact profiles with bio, work, EDU info
- Notes, tags, and full interaction history for each contact
- Powerful search & filtering to find anyone fast
- Team collaboration capabilities
Price and Plans
- Free plan/trial: Free plan, 14-day free trial on paid plans.
- Price: The paid plan starts at $20/month.
4. Clerky (Legal Paperwork)
Clerky is the online legal platform for startups, helping busy founders like you knock out all the crucial paperwork.
Clerky helps you handle the full legal lifecycle.
From initially incorporating as a legit Delaware C-corp (the standard for high-growth startups) to raising funds, issuing stock options, making governance changes, and everything in between.
It’s like having a crack team of startup attorneys at your fingertips, minus the insane legal fees.
The incorporation process itself is a breeze.
Answer a few questions, and Clerky handles name availability checks, filing everything properly with the state, and giving you all the post-incorporation docs to get your company legit from day one.
From there, Clerky’s user-friendly dashboard becomes your one-stop legal shop.
Best Clerky Features
- Streamlined startup formation (incorporation, post-setup, stock plan adoption, etc)
- Tools for fundraising, hiring, granting equity compensation, and commercial agreements
- Collaborative legal dashboard for working with your team and attorney(s)
- Customizable documents and expert-vetted language
- Tight integrations with startup banks and other platform perks like cloud credits
Price and Plans
- Free plan/trial: N/A.
- Price: Pay per use at $427, Company lifetime package at $819.
5. ClickUp (Project Management)
ClickUp is an all-in-one productivity platform built to help startups and small teams cut through the chaos and get more done, faster
In ClickUp, you can create intricate task hierarchies, set up dependencies, assign comments, add multiple custom fields, and more to plan every aspect of your projects and processes.
Need to visualize work in a certain way?
ClickUp has you covered with flexible views like Boards, Calendars, Gantt charts, and custom Workloads so every team member can work how they work best.
It even allows you to create, collaborate, and organize your important docs and knowledge bases right alongside your tasks.
You can even brainstorm, diagram, draft proposals, and get everyone’s input in a single collaborative whiteboard space.
ClickUp is also big on automation. Save time by connecting and automating any of ClickUp’s actions, views, or triggers. Build entire workflows without code.
When you’re working with people, ClickUp’s built-in threaded Chat, comments, and notifications come in handy.
And those are just the highlights.
ClickUp is loaded with other tools like goals/OKRs, calendars, native time tracking, proofing, mind maps, and a whole app directory to extend functionality even further.
Best ClickUp Features
- Flexible hierarchy for organization (Spaces, Folders, Lists, Tasks)
- 15+ different views including List, Board, Calendar, Gantt, etc
- Robust task management with assignees, priorities, due dates, and more
- Built-in Docs, Whiteboards, and Chat for seamless collaboration
- Powerful automation to automate repetitive workflows
- Detailed reporting through Dashboards, Charts, and Timelines
- Seamless integrations with 1000+ apps
Price and Plans
- Free plan/trial: Free plan.
- Price: The paid plan starts at $10/month.
6. doola (Business commencement and compliance)
doola is an all-in-one platform that makes it stupidly simple for entrepreneurs from any corner of the world to kick off their business venture in the US.
Whether you need to set up an LLC, C-Corp, or even a fancy DAO LLC (decentralized autonomous org), doola’s got your back.
They’ll take care of every damn step—from scoring you a unique business name to filing all that boring paperwork with the state.
Best part?
You don’t even need an SSN (Social Security number) or step foot in the US. doola has your EIN (Employer Identification Number) and operating agreement covered.
But that’s just the tip of the iceberg. These folks also hook you up with a full suite of services to keep your business running smoothly once you’re up and running:
- A legit US address and mailbox to make you look 100% professional
- Help in opening a proper business bank account for all your cash flow needs
- On-demand bookkeeping and invoicing tools to keep your finances organized
- Tax prep support from real-deal CPAs to keep you IRS-compliant
Oh, and lest I forget—they recently rolled out “doola Money” which is like having your own digital bank.
You can wire money from anywhere on the planet into your doola account and then send it wherever the heck you need it for your US business operations.
Best Doola Features
- Hassle-free business formation for LLCs, C-Corps, and DAO LLCs in any US state
- Free registered agent service + compliance management from real humans
- US business address + virtual mailbox setup
- Help to open a legit US business bank account
- On-demand bookkeeping and invoicing software
- Federal + state tax prep support from certified CPAs
- doola Money for international banking and fund transfers
Price and Plans
- Free plan/trial: Free consultation.
- Price: The paid plan starts at $297/year.
7. GetResponse (Email Marketing)
GetResponse is an all-in-one email marketing and online campaign tool that helps startup founders grow their email lists.
In a nutshell, it gives you all the digital marketing firepower you need—email blasts, landing pages, webinars, marketing automation, and more—in one simple, affordable package.
With GetResponse, you can quickly design newsletters and promotional emails using their no-coding-needed builder.
Then target those emails to specific segments of your audience so the right people get the right message.
And instead of just blasting one-off emails, you can set up entire automated campaigns that nurture new leads from first contact to conversion. It’s dope.
At the same time, GetResponse lets you build high-converting landing pages and opt-in forms to grow your email list in the first place.
Basically, GetResponse gives you all the tools you need to attract new customers, nurture relationships with them over time, and maximize sales.
Best GetResponse Features
- Drag-and-drop email builder with responsive templates
- List segmentation and advanced targeting
- Automated email campaigns and sequences
- Landing page builder and optimization
- Marketing automation workflows
- Analytics and performance reporting
Price and Plans
- Free plan/trial: Free plan, 30-day free trial on paid plans.
- Price: The paid plan starts at $19/month for 1,000 contacts.
8. Gust (Startup Funding)
Gust is a comprehensive online platform to support founders like yourself through every stage of the startup grind. From initially getting your shit together to raising serious capital and beyond.
Gust’s got your back no matter where you’re at in the journey.
Need to form a legitimate company structure?
Gust’s “Launch” tool walks you through incorporating a startup-friendly Delaware C-Corp with all the legal/financial ducks in a row.
Figuring out your equity split with co-founders? They’ve got a tool for that too, helping you hash out a fair deal based on everyone’s roles and contributions.
But where Gust shines is helping you lock down that money, money, money to fund your vision.
We’re talking access to a massive global investor network of over 800,000 founders and 85,000 angel investors/VCs across nearly 200 countries.
You can create a data-driven profile spotlighting your startup and get automatically matched with potential investors who are a perfect fit.
Best Gust Features
- Startup formation tools for incorporating, issuing founder stock, managing equity
- A searchable database of over 85,000 angel investors/VCs to pitch your startup
- In-depth resources covering fundraising strategy, legal docs, financial modeling, and more
- Regular expert-led webinars, “office hours,” and dedicated support
Price and Plans
- Free plan/trial: N/A.
- Price: The paid subscription starts at $450/year.
9. Gusto (HR & Payroll)
Gusto handles pretty much every “people” operation a small business or startup needs. I am talking payroll, benefits, HR tasks, hiring/onboarding, compliance, and more.
With Gusto, you get a unified system to manage your team’s payroll, taxes, health insurance, retirement plans, onboarding, time tracking, and compliance requirements.
Every pay period, Gusto automatically calculates payroll taxes, files them, and pays them for you across federal, state, and local jurisdictions.
It syncs seamlessly with your accounting software and time-tracking apps to capture all the relevant hours and expenses data.
Just review and approve, and then Gusto handles paying your employees via direct deposit, physical checks, or pay cards.
On the HR side, you can fully customize onboarding workflows with e-signature capabilities for offer letters and other documents.
Best Gusto Features
- Unlimited payroll runs with direct deposit, tax filings, PTO tracking
- Benefits like health insurance, 401(k) plans and workers’ compensation
- Onboarding tools like e-signatures and document management
- Time tracking, scheduling, and attendance tracking
- Tons of integrations with accounting, HR, and ops tools
Price and Plans
- Free plan/trial: Free plan.
- Price: The paid plan starts at $40/month.
10. Hootsuite (Social Media Management)
Hootsuite is a powerhouse social media management app that lets you control your entire social presence from a single dashboard.
Hootsuite lets you publish content, monitor what’s going on, engage with your audience, measure results, and more.
Instead of posting stuff whenever you get a chance, you can use Hootsuite’s scheduling tools to plan out a strategic content calendar in advance.
You can load it up with pre-written posts tailored for each channel, set optimal send times, and let it systematically roll out your social updates while you focus on other priorities.
Hootsuite is also a central hub for listening to convos about your brand, tracking important keywords and hashtags, and replying to all comments, DMs, and mentions in a single stream.
Plus, you get powerful analytics showing you how your content is performing across platforms so you can understand what resonates best with your audience.
Moreover, with team collaboration features, you can delegate social tasks, get posts approved, and make sure your startup’s social channels are being managed.
Best Hootsuite Features
- Schedule posts in advance across all your social accounts
- Get a unified inbox for all comments, messages, and mentions
- Monitor relevant conversations, trends, and keywords with handy social listening streams
- Get detailed analytics on your posts, growth, audience demographics – the whole shebang
- Team collaboration so everyone can easily manage social channels together
Price and Plans
- Free plan/trial: 30-day free trial.
- Price: The paid plan starts at $49/month.
11. Intercom (AI-Powered Customer Service)
Intercom is a definitive customer service platform, using cutting-edge AI technology to revolutionize how businesses communicate with their customers from start to finish.
Intercom was built around this AI-first approach.
Their AI agent, known as Fin, acts as the first line of support. It resolves up to 50% of customer inquiries right off the bat with human-like conversations, no wait times, and 24/7 availability.
But Fin is just the start.
For the human support agents, Intercom equips them with an AI copilot that works alongside them in real-time during customer interactions.
This AI assistant provides personalized guidance and recommendations, almost like having a brilliant mentor whispering in your ear exactly what to say or do next.
And in 2024, they’re taking it to another level with the AI Analyst.
This new feature will give support leaders comprehensive AI-powered insights, analyzing all those customer conversations to surface key trends, problem areas, and recommendations.
So you can easily pinpoint what’s working well, and what needs improving, and then take data-backed actions to optimize your team’s performance.
What’s crazy is that all of Intercom’s AI components – the agent, the copilot, the analyst – are constantly adapting and getting smarter through every single customer interaction that happens on the platform.
Best Intercom Features
- AI agent for instant 24/7 customer support
- AI copilot assisting support agents in real-time
- Omnichannel support across messaging, email, social media, etc
- Personalized help center and knowledge base
- AI-enhanced ticketing system for efficient collaboration
- Reporting and analytics to track performance
- Automation tools for workflows and outbound messaging
Price and Plans
- Free plan/trial: 14-day free trial.
- Price: The paid plan starts at $39/month.
12. Make (Automation)
Make is a powerful no-code automation and integration platform that lets you connect all your apps, tools, and services to create custom automated workflows.
Make serves as an Integration Platform as a Service (iPaaS) with robust data integration capabilities.
But Make takes it a step further by letting you visually design automated workflows and processes using that integrated data.
It has this intuitive drag-and-drop interface that makes automating complex workflows stupid simple—even for non-techies.
You can mix and match pre-built integrations from over 1,800 apps like HubSpot, OpenAI, Google Sheets, Discord, and more to design custom automation tailored to your startup needs.
And that’s just the tip of the iceberg.
Make gives you the power to automate virtually any process—customer onboarding, invoicing, contract management, employee off-boarding, you name it.
Best Make Features
- Visual drag-and-drop workflow builder (coding = optional)
- Thousands of pre-built app integrations (1,800+ and counting)
- Robust data integration and merging capabilities
- Scalable AF to grow with your startup’s needs
- Monitoring and error handling for smooth workflows
- Automate EVERYTHING—lead capture, invoicing, customer onboarding, you name it
Price and Plans
- Free plan/trial: Free plan.
- Price: The paid plan starts at $10.59/month.
13. Notion (Productivity & Collaboration)
Notion is a productivity tool that crams a bunch of different productivity apps into one workspace. We’re talking notes, tasks, wikis, databases, etc.
The fact that it covers SO much ground is both a blessing and a curse. On one hand, it’s super convenient to have everything under one roof.
But on the other, mastering all of Notion’s powerful features takes some serious effort.
That said, Notion’s got solid note-taking and document editing tools. And then it gets really wild with all the extras.
You can create custom databases to track anything from content calendars to job applications to product roadmaps.
Notion gives you a blank canvas to define your own data types and structures, then view that data however you want—tables, kanban boards, calendars, etc.
There are templates for days if you don’t feel like building everything from scratch. And setting up task boards for project management is a total breeze.
Notion also has neat collaboration features like real-time editing, comments, and version history.
And if that’s not enough, you can integrate a ton of other apps you’re already using, like Trello, Asana, Dropbox, and GitHub.
Best Notion Features
- Note-taking and document creation with rich formatting
- Task management and project tracking with Kanban boards, calendars, etc
- Real-time collaboration with editing, comments, version history
- A vast library of pre-built templates for quick workflow setup
- Integrations with apps like Trello, Asana, Dropbox, GitHub, and more
- Cross-platform availability with web, desktop, and mobile apps
- Publishing and sharing capabilities to create public websites
Price and Plans
- Free plan/trial: Free plan.
- Price: The paid plan starts at $10/month.
14. QuickBooks (Accounting)
QuickBooks is accounting software for small businesses, freelancers, and startup founders.
QuickBooks lets you manage your income, expenses, invoices, payments, inventory, payroll, taxes – basically anything money-related for your company.
Instead of wasting hours recording every transaction, QuickBooks can automatically import data from your bank accounts and credit cards.
It categorizes expenses, sends payment reminders, and tracks unpaid invoices – everything you need to stay on top of your cash flow.
You can even generate reports like profit & loss statements and balance sheets with a few clicks.
Instantly see which products are your best sellers, what your expense trends are, and where you might be losing money.
Best QuickBooks Features
- Easy invoicing that lets you create professional-looking bills and track payments
- Seamless bank and credit card integration to import transactions
- Expense tracking with receipt capture capabilities through the mobile app
- Multi-currency support for businesses operating internationally
- Collaboration features to securely share access with your accountant or team
- Integrations with third-party apps for additional functionality
Price and Plans
- Free plan/trial: 30-day free trial.
- Price: The paid plan starts at $30/month.
15. Slack (Team Communication)
Slack is a cloud-based messaging platform that replaces email for team communication and collaboration.
Slack provides a centralized workspace where teams can communicate in real-time through dedicated channels, direct messages, voice and video calls, and share files and documents.
Conversations in Slack happen in shared channels organized by topic, project, or team. This keeps everyone in the know and promotes transparency.
Slack is more than just a group chat.
Its powerful search functionality makes it easy to find past messages, files, and information without digging through your inbox.
And with integrations for over 2,400 apps and services like Google Drive, Dropbox, Trello, and GitHub, you can access all your tools from one convenient place.
Slack also offers features like huddles for quick audio/video meetings, workflow builders to automate routine tasks, and mobile apps so you can stay connected on the go.
Best Slack Features
- Channels (group chats organized by topic, team, or project)
- Direct messages (one-on-one or group private convos)
- Share docs, images, and more with a click)
- Search function to find any past message or file
- Connect with tools like Google Drive, Trello, GitHub, and more
- Customizable notifications
Price and Plans
- Free plan/trial: Free plan.
- Price: The paid plan starts at $8.75/month.
Focus on Your Startup, Leave the Rest to Robots
That is it, founders – 15 tools that could change the game for your startup.
These are battle-tested, startup-approved tools to make your limited time and resources go way further.
You’ve got enough to worry about already without stressing over passwords getting hacked, legal paperwork going awry, or your payroll getting botched.
These tools take care of the not-so-glamorous backend stuff so you can devote your energy to the big-picture vision.
Don’t wait anymore!
Start exploring and decide which ones will be most clutch for your unique startup needs.