Entrepreneur/Startup Resources—Mar ’16 Edition
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. There are many other options that 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’ll try to update this every so often, so it keeps fresh with the ever changing startup landscape and my recent experiences.
Blogs
- Steve Blank
- Startup Lesson Learned–Eric Ries (The Lean Startup)
- For Entrepreneurs–David Skok
- How to Change the World–Guy Kawasaki
- Lean Blogs–Ash Maurya
- Search Engine Land (SEO)
- Ben Horowitz
- Both Sides of the Table–Mark Suster
Books
- Art of the Start–Guy Kawasaki
- The Lean Startup–Eric Ries
- The Startup Owner’s Manual–Steve Blank & Bob Dorf
- Business Model Generation–Alex Osterwalder & Yves Pigneur
- Crossing the Chasm–Geoffrey A. Moore
- The Founder’s Dilemmas–Noam Wasserman
- Running Lean–Ash Maurya
- How to Create the Next Startup–Tom Taulli
- The McGraw-Hill 36-Hour Course Product Development–Andrea Belz
- Lean Analytics–Alistair Croll & Benjamin Yoskovitz
- Lean UX: Applying Lean Principles to Improve User Experience–Jeff Gothelf
- The Hard Thing About Hard Things–Ben Horowitz
- Zero to One–Peter Thiel
Business & Startup Planning
- Lean Canvas (Lean startup business modeling)
- Canvanizer (Lean startup business modeling)
- Ideator
- Lean Launch Lab
- Startup Financial Model
- XMind
- TheBrain
- Mindjet
Email, Calendars & Scheduling
Doc Management/Filesharing/eSignatures
CRM & Sales
Customer Support (Ticket Systems & Chat)
- Zendesk
- Freshdesk
- GetSatisfaction
- LiveChat (Chat)
- Olark (Chat)
Product Development, Project Management and Team Collaboration
- Github
- Slack
- Atlassian/JIRA
- Pivotal Tracker
- Team Box
- Hipchat
- Flowdock
- Producteev
- Asana
- Trello
- InVision (UX, wireframe & prototyping)
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)
Conference Calls & Web Meetings
Administration/HR/General Business Tools
- Expensify (Expenses)
- Quickbooks Online
- Quickbooks Payroll
- Bill.com
- FreshBooks (Accounting & billing)
- IntelliCorp (Background checks)
- Zenefits (HR & benefits management system)
- Namely (HR, payroll & benefits management system)
- Gusto (Payroll)
- TheResumator (Applicant tracking system)
- TeamPassword (Password management)
- CommonKey (Password management)
Naming
- Domai.nr (Domain name generation and search)
- Nameboy (Domain name generation and search)
- NameStation (Domain name generation and search)
- UpName (Domains for sale)
- Sedo (Domains for sale)
Domain Registration
Logos & Design
Website/Software Design & Development
- Lynq Media (Freelance web design & development)
- LiveWebMedia (Website development & marketing)
- New Leaders (Full-service software development)
- 14Zen (Full-service software development)
Website/App Tools & Services
- LaunchRock (Launching soon pages)
- Amazon Web Services (Cloud datacenter/hosting)
- Rackspace (Cloud datacenter/hosting)
- Pair (Hosting)
- SendGrid (System emails)
- Postmark (System emails)
- New Relic (Server/site monitoring & performance management)
- Pingdom (Monitoring)
- TRUSTe (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)
- Chargify (Subscription based billing)
- Stripe (Payments)
- Square (Payments)
- BalancedPayments (Payments)
- Shopify (Online stores/ecommerce )
- Bootstrap (App framework)
- Wufoo (Forms)
Marketing & Testing
- VerticalResponse (Email)
- Constant Contact (Email)
- MailChimp (Email)
- Campaign Monitor (Email)
- Act-On (Campaign management & automation)
- HubSpot (Campaign management & automation)
- AdSpeed (Online ad serving & management)
- Facebook ads
- LinkedIn ads
- Google Adwords (Search advertising)
- Bing Ads (Search advertising)
- Moz (SEO and social media management)
- Positionly (SEO)
- Unbounce (Landing pages, A/B testing)
- Optimizely (A/B testing)
- SurveyMonkey (Online surveys)
- Brown & Egusa PR (Tech reporter/bloggers lists)
- Marketo (Campaign management & automation)
- Hootsuite (Social media management)
- Buffer (Social media management)
Investor & Equity Tools
- TruEquity (Cap table management)
- OptionEase (Stock option management and expensing)
- Gust (Angel funding)
- AngelList (Investor matching)
- The Funded (Investor & deal info)
- Caplinked (Investor relations)
- Term Sheet Generator (from Wilson Sonsini)
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
- Homeier & Law (Contact: Jor Law)–Los Angeles
- Orrick, Herrington & Sutcliffe (Startup forms templates)
- Cooley LLP (Privacy Policy Generator)
Intellectual Property (IP) Law Firms
- Lewitt Hackman–Los Angeles
- Fulwider Patton–Los Angeles
- Shaub & Williams–Los Angeles
IP Research
Accountants/CPA
- Prager Metis (Contact: John Gosch)–Los Angeles
Insurance Brokers (Startup Specialists)
- Costello & Sons
- Quickbooks Pay-As-You-Go (Workers’ Comp)
Shared Workspace (LA)
- Coloft–Santa Monica
- Nextspace–Culver City
- NextSpace @ Amplify–Venice
- Cross Campus–Santa Monica
- Hub LA–DTLA
- WeWork–DTLA & Hollywood
Recruiting & Startup Jobs
- Built in Los Angeles (local job board & startup news)
- elance (Freelancers)
- Dice (Tech talent)
- Meetup (Meetings)
- LinkedIn (Leverage groups )
- Decision Toolbox (Recruiter)
- AngelList (Startup platform)
- VentureLoop (Job board)
- StartUpHire (Job board)
- StartUply (J0b board)
- StartUpers (Job board
- F6S (Job/founders board)
- CodeEval (Programmers)
Misc.
- TR Trading (Used office furniture)–Gardena, CA
- CrunchBase (Startup company database)
- VentureBeat (Funding news)
- U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics
- U.S. Bureau
- Melissa DATA (Free data)
- Employer Identification Number registration
- socaltech.com (LA tech startup news)
Other Tools/Resource Lists
July 28, 2016 @ 10:38 pm
Great read thanks for sharing! These tools are a great help especially for freelancers and online businesses. Time tracking tools are also important as it helps you and your employees keep track of your time and productivity. By using web-based time tracking tool from sites like https://www.clockspot.com/ you can micro manage your projects and be more effective with completing your tasks.
October 31, 2016 @ 2:03 pm
THIS IS AMAZING, so helpful! Thank you so much Professor!
February 13, 2017 @ 10:56 pm
This blog is a great resource for reading great articles.
Thanks for sharing this