Entrepreneur & Startup Resources—April 2024 Edition

Kyle Murphy April 22, 2024 0 Blog, Business, Entrepreneurship entrepreneur help, entrepreneur tools, entrepreneurship, startup tools

I am frequently asked for recommended resources and tools for entrepreneurs and startups. So here is a list of tools, blogs, and other resources that I have personally used and would use again in my startups. Many other options aren’t on my list, but I have limited the list to options I’ve used or worked with recently. I also left some obvious options off because of little or bad experiences with them. I update this every so often, so it keeps fresh with the ever-changing startup landscape and my recent experiences (sorry, it’s been a while since the last update, I was busy running a startup). Notice: I may earn a referral fee from some of my links, including as an Amazon Associate.

Blogs & Knowledge Resources

Steve Blank (Created the Customer Development model)
Startup Lesson Learned—Eric Ries (The Lean Startup author)
For Entrepreneurs—David Skok (Entrepreneur and VC)
Guy Kawasaki (The Art of the Start author)
LeanFoundry—Ash Maurya (Lean Canvas creator)
Search Engine Land (SEO)
Ben Horowitz @ Andreessen Horowitz (Entrepreneur and VC)
Both Sides of the Table—Mark Suster (Entrepreneur and VC)
Seth Godin (Author)
ACV—Fred Wilson (VC)
Hubspot Blog (Marketing)

Books

Art of the Start 2.0—Guy Kawasaki
The Lean Startup—Eric Ries
The Startup Owner’s Manual—Steve Blank & Bob Dorf
Business Model Generation—Alex Osterwalder & Yves Pigneur
Value Proposition Design: How to Create Products and Services Customers Want—Alex Osterwalder & Yves Pigneur
Crossing the Chasm—Geoffrey A. Moore
The Founder’s Dilemmas—Noam Wasserman
Running Lean & Scaling Lean—Ash Maurya
How to Create the Next Facebook—Tom Taulli
Lean Analytics—Alistair Croll & Benjamin Yoskovitz
Lean UX: Designing Great Products with Agile Teams—Jeff Gothelf
The Hard Thing About Hard Things—Ben Horowitz
Zero to One—Peter Thiel (Controversial author but a good book)
The Startup Checklist—David S. Rose
Traction—Gino Wickman
Scaling Up—Verne Harnish
Disciplined Entrepreneurship & Disciplined Entrepreneurship Workbook—Bill Aulet

Startup & Entrepreneurship News & Events

CrunchBase (Startup company database)
TechCrunch
VentureBeat
socaltech.com (LA tech startup news)
Built in Los Angeles (LA startup news & events)
dot.LA (LA startup news & events)
TheFunded (Funding and VC database)
Tech.co
Product Hunt (New products)
GeekWire
Startup Grind
PitchBook

Find a Co-Founder

Business & Startup Planning

Lean Canvas (Lean startup business modeling)
Canvanizer (Lean startup business modeling)
Strategyzer (Buisness model canvas and value proposition design)
Startup Financial Model
XMind (Brainstorming tool)
Mindjet (Brainstorming and innovation tool)
Slidebean (Business plan pitch deck slides)
Foresight (Best practices and resources for financial modeling)
Startup Equity Calculator
Co-founder Equity Split
Comparably (Compensation/salary data)
Runway (Cash planning)
Signal (Fundraising CRM/database)
Causal (Financial modeling)

AI Tools (Generative)

No/Low-Code App Development

Email, Calendars & Scheduling

Google Workspace (formerly G Suite)
Microsoft 365
Doodle (Scheduling meetings and appointments)
Calendly (Appointment scheduling)

Marketing, Sales, & CRM (Customer-acquisition/retention tools)

Insightly (CRM)
SugarCRM
Pipedrive (CRM)
CapsuleCRM
Apptivo
ActiveCampaign (Email marketing, marketing automation, and CRM)
Iterable (Cross-channel campaign management)
Constant Contact (Email)
MailChimp (Email)
Campaign Monitor (Email)
Bravo (Email)
Drip (CRM & email)
Act-On (Campaign management & automation)
HubSpot (Campaign management & automation)
BenchmarkONE (CRM & campaign management)
AdSpeed (Online ad serving & management)
Facebook ads
LinkedIn ads
Google Adwords (Search advertising)
Bing Ads (Search advertising)
Moz (SEO and social media)
SEMRush (SEO)
Yoast (SEO)
Unbounce (Landing pages, A/B testing)
Optimizely (A/B testing)
SurveyMonkey (Online surveys)
Publicize (PR tools & tech reporter/bloggers lists)
Hootsuite (Social media management)
SocialPilot (Social media management)
Buffer (Social media management)
Splash (Event marketing automation software)
LaunchRock (Launching soon/idea testing pages)
Invoca (Call tracking & analytics)
Mapovate (Customer journey mapping)
UXPressia (Customer journey mapping)
Smaply (Customer journey mapping, personas and stakeholder maps)
Acxiom/Personicx (Personas)
Mention (Social media management)
Proof (Website personalization)
Wistia (Marketing content)
Verblio (Blog and other content)
Instapage (Landing pages)
Ambassador (Referral management)
Referral Candy (Referral management)
Referral Hero (Referral management)
Chili Piper (Email sales prospecting)
Outreach (Email sales prospecting)
Opteo (Google Ads optimization)
Grammarly (You need it!)
Seamless.AI (Contacts database)
Zoominfo (Contacts database)
Apollo (Contacts database)
Clearbit (Contacts database)
NeverBounce (Email verification)
Proposa (Proposals)
Levitate (Proposals)
PartnerStack (Partner management)
Reveal (Partner management)
Crossbeam (Partner management)
UserPilot (Customer journey mapping)
Printfection (Branded swag)
CMO Promo Partners (branded swag)
Sendoso (Gifting)
Mailshake (Email sales prospecting)
Gong (Sales call intelligence)
Conga (Revenue management)
HiHello (Digital business cards)
Popl (Digital business cards)

Customer Support Tools

Zendesk (Support platform)
Freshdesk (Support platform)
Intercom (Website chat & bot)
LiveChat (Website chat)
Olark (Website chat)
TeamViewer (Remote access)

Doc Management/Cloud Storage/eSignatures

Box (Cloud doc management and file sharing)
Dropbox (Cloud file syncing and e-signature)
Google Drive (Part of Google Worksite)
Onehub (Cloud file storage)
DocuSign (e-signatures)
Adobe Sign (e-signatures)
SignNow (e-signatures)
HelloSign (e-signatures)
DeliverySlip (Secure/encrypted email)
DocHub (PDF tools)
DocSend (Secure doc sharing)

Product Development, Project Management, and Team Collaboration

Github (Code management)
Slack (Integrated omnichannel team chat and collaboration)
Atlassian/JIRA (Software project management)
Pivotal Tracker (Software project management)
Asana (Project and task management)
Trello (Project management)
InVision (UX, wireframe & prototyping)
Figma (Visual collaboration platform)
Miro (Visual collaboration platform)
Basecamp (Team collaboration)
Monday (Team and project management)
Airtable (Team and project management)
Aha! (Product management)
ProductPlan (Product roadmaps/product management)
Canva (Collaborative design platform)
Harvest (Time tracking)
Clockify (Time tracking)
ClickUp (Team and project management)
Notion (Team collaboration)
Linear (Dev management & roadmap management)
Roadmunk (Roadmap management)
Coda (Document collaboration)
Xtensio (Document collaboration)

Telephone Solutions

RingCentral (Scalable & robust)
Phonebooth (Better for smaller needs)
Grasshopper (Basic)
SnapRecordings (Professional telephone greetings/messages)
MightyCall (Full featured for startups)
TalkRoute (Advanced forwarding)
Google Voice (Forwarding & VM)
Dialpad (Full featured for startups)
Ytel (Phone marketing)
Aircall (Virtual call center)

Video Conferencing

Zoom (Video conferencing and webinars)
Google Meet (Video conferencing)
Demio (Webinars)
Krisp (Background noise elimination)

Administration/HR/Talent/General Business Tools

Expensify (Expense management)
Quickbooks Online (Accounting)
Quickbooks Payroll
Wave (Accounting)
Zeni (Accounting)
Bill.com (Billing, AP & AR management, expense management & company credit cards)
IntelliCorp (Background checks)
GoodHire (Background checks)
Sterling (Background checks)
Rippling (Payroll)
Namely (HR, payroll & benefits management system)
Gusto (Payroll)
JazzHR (Applicant tracking system)
Workable (Applicant tracking system)
Breezy (Applicant tracking system)
TeamPassword (Password management)
CommonKey (Password management)
LastPass (Password management)
Dashlane (Password management)
1Password for Teams (Password management)
Xero (Accounting)
Hire Vue (Technical candidate assessments)
HackerRank (Developer technical assessment & recruiting)
TTI Success Insights (Candidate assessments; contact me to purchase)
QuantHub (Data science and data engineering skills assessment)
coderbyte (Technical skills assessments)
Textio (Job description/posting optimization)
HireRight (Background checks and HR compliance)
Justworks (Payroll & benefits)
ChartHop (HR tools)
Tability (OKR management +)
WorkBoard (OKR management +)
Quantive (OKR management +)
Perdoo (OKR management +)
Donut (Slack-based team building)
Loom (Recorded video messaging)
Lattice (OKR management +)
Onetime Secret (Secure messages)
Vestwell (401k program)
OpenComp (Compensation management)

Naming & Domain Registration

Domai.nr (Domain name generation and search)
Nameboy (Domain name generation and search)
NameStation (Domain name generation and search)
Lean Domain Search (Domain name generation and search)
Sedo (Domains for sale)
NameCheap (Domain registrar)
More…

Logos, Design, & Video/Animation

Dribbble (Freelance designers)
99designs (Crowdsourced design)
Fiverr (Small design projects)
Envato (Digital goods marketplace)
Themify (WordPress themes)
Sparkol (Video/animation creator)
Animaker (Animated video creator)
Wideo (Animated video & presentation creator)
Slidebean (Presentation creator)
Vyond (Video/animation creator)
Powtoon (Video/animation creator)
Raw Shorts (Video/animation creator)
Vidyard (Video creator)
SocialSizes.io (Image and video sizing)
BrandCrowd (Logos)

Website/Software Product Development Firms/Consultants

LiveWebMedia (Website development & marketing)
New Leaders (Full-service software development)
Koder Labs (Full-service software development)
Upwork (Freelance developers)
Toptal (Freelance software developers, designers, finance experts, product managers, and project managers)
LeanStack (Entrepreneur/startup product support & development)

Website/App/Dev Tools

Amazon Web Services (Cloud datacenter/hosting and software tools)
Pair (Web hosting)
WP Engine (WordPress Hosting)
BlueHost (Web hosting)
SendGrid (System emails)
Twilio (System messaging)
Postmark (System emails)
New Relic (Server/site monitoring & performance management)
kissmetrics (User & performance management)
Pingdom (Monitoring)
TrustArc (Privacy & compliance)
OneTrust (Privacy & compliance)
Google Analytics
MixPanel (User analytics)
RapidSSL (SSL certificates)
Verisign (SSL certificates)
Zapier (API/web services integration & management)
BrowserStack (Browser testing tool)
Loop11 (Usability testing)
Qualys (Security & compliance)
Maxio (formerly Chargify)(Subscription-based billing)
ChargeBee (Subscription-based billing)
Stax Bill (Subscription-based billing)
Recurly (Subscription-based billing)
Zoura (Subscription-based billing)
Stripe (Online Payments)
Square (Retail/POS Payments)
Shopify (Online stores/e-commerce )
WooCommerce (e-commerce for WordPress)
ChartMogul (SaaS analytics)
Bootstrap (App framework)
Flutter (App framework)
Wufoo (Forms)
Typeform (Forms)
JotForm (Forms)
Webflow (Websites)
UsabilityHub (UX testing)
Contentful (Content management)
Algoria (Search)
Churn Buster (Churn prevention/credit card dunning)
JW Player (Video player)
Plasmic (Visual builder)
Material Design (Google’s open-source design system)
Codepen (Front-end coding)
Gitlab (Devops)
Snyk (Site/code security)
Framer (Web builder)

Fundraising, Investor & Equity Management Tools

Diligent Equity (Cap table management)
Shareworks (Stock options management and expensing)
Gust (Angel funding)
AngelList (Investor matching)
The Funded (Investor & deal info)
Term Sheet Generator (from Wilson Sonsini)
PitchBook (Investor & deal info)
Signal (Fundraising CRM/database)
LA/OC Venture Capital and Angel Fund Directory
Foundersuite (Investor CRM)
LA Tech Investor List
LA based incubators & accelerators
Runway (Cash planning tool from Erie Ries)
LTSE Equity (Cap table management tool from Erie Ries)
Carta (Cap table management)
PitchPages (Fundraising)

Banking & Credit

Silicon Valley Bank/First Citizens Bank (Startup and technology experts)
First Republic Bank (Startup experts)
Mercury (Startup experts)
Stifel (Startup experts)
Brex (Startup finance management)
Rho (Startup finance management)
Ramp (Startup finance management)

Technology Training/Education

Law Firms (Startup Experience) & Legal Forms

Stradling Yocca Carlson & Rauth (Contact: Mark Skaist)—OC
Stubbs Alderton & Markiles (Contact: Kevin DeBré)—Los Angeles
Wilson Sonsini Goodrich & Rosati (Top startup firm in Silicon Valley)
Lexcuity PC (Contact: Jor Law)—Los Angeles
Orrick, Herrington & Sutcliffe (Free startup forms and agreements)
Cooley LLP (Silicon Valley firm)
TermsFeed (Privacy Policy, Terms and Conditions, etc.)
iubenda (Privacy Policy, Terms and Conditions, etc.)

Intellectual Property (IP) Law Firms, Research, & Services

Stubbs Alderton & Markiles (Contact: Kevin DeBré)—Los Angeles
Lewitt Hackman (Law firm)—Los Angeles
Fulwider Patton (Law firm)—Los Angeles
United States Patent & Trademark Office (USPTO)(IP search)
Trademark Engine (Trademark search and filings)

Accountants/CPA/Bookkeepers (Startup Experience)

Insurance Brokers (Startup Specialists)

Quickbooks Pay-As-You-Go (Workers’ comp)
coverwallet
Founder Shield
Bryce Insurance
Ease (Employee benefits)
Vouch
Thimble

Recruiting/Hiring & Startup Jobs

Built in Los Angeles (local job board & startup news)
Upw o rk (Freelancers; former elance)
Dice (Tech talent)
Meetup (Meetings)
LinkedIn (Leverage groups)
Wellfound (formerly AngelList Talent)
VentureLoop (Job board)
StartUpers (Job board)
F6S (Job/founders board)
Toptal (Freelance software developers, designers, finance experts, product managers, and project managers)
Zip Recruiter