Free tools to build a successful startup
I really believe in always bootstrapping projects, side-hustles, start-ups, anything.
In that spirit, i have compiled a list of Free or really cheap tools & resources to help you create a successful start-up that has helped me and dozens of my founders friends.
I am going to mention 1 tool for every major part of running a start-up:
- Sales & Marketing (Getting customers)
- Development (Having something to sell)
- Operations (Everything runs smoothly, the glue)
Hyperbound.ai
Hyperbound.ai is practically the only tool available where you can actually practise cold calling on the phone without the pressure of it being an actual prospect. Now because many of the people on indiehackers don't usually talk about sales, but more about marketing; a question i think i should answer is:
"Why should i cold call?"
"I am a sole developer, it's not scalable"
The answer is simple. ITS. THE. ONLY. WAY. to actually get customers proportionally to the time put in without relying on some degree to luck. Plus, its the fastest way to validate a start-up idea. Don't create literally anything, get some contact information from (Google, Apollo.io, Lusha, Hunter.io, LinkedIn etc) and then just call them and pitch. If you see interest, create a website and collect sign-ups and go from there. But if you can actually master cold calling, it will save you months or years.
Claude 3.5 Sonnet
I am not going to say much, it's the new "best" AI according to benchmarks and personal experience. When it comes to code, it's the best tool i have seen when it comes to brainstorming and helping you optimise code, structure, design and also help you debug.
The most important part for me is that it actually has "opinions". By that i mean it doesn't just spit out the most generic piece of text you have ever read. I have literally ended up arguing with it about certain topics and quite often it wins.
Discord + Miro + Google Sheets
You honestly don't need anything for a knowledge base, communications tool, organisation etc.
Please for te love of god stop overcomplicating operations before you have even gone to market, you need speed. It might feel productive to spend time thinking about and optimising these aspects of a start-up. But, it's not. The only 2 things you should be doing before having a sustainable start-up is:
- Sell
- Build
- Optimise
The end.
If you have any other cool tools, please actually comment them. I am WAY to interested in tools.
If you have any questions feel free to also email me at [email protected]
P.S. If anyone wants more Free tools, sign-up to my newsletter, its just free or really cheap tools: www.startupsteals.cc
Excellent, appreciate this!
Hello hello, I don't mean to be annoying. I just launched a newsletter on PH for exactly this reason if you could go and check it out: https://www.producthunt.com/posts/startup-steals
Sure, I'll check it out!
Free tools play a crucial role in helping startups thrive without the burden of high costs. Platforms like Trello and Asana streamline project management, while tools like Slack and Zoom enhance communication efficiency. Utilizing these resources boosts productivity and fosters collaboration and scalability, essential elements for achieving success in the competitive startup landscape.
Which AI did you use?
Thanks for sharing good information...
Hello hello, I don't mean to be annoying. I just launched a newsletter on PH for exactly this reason if you could go and check it out: https://www.producthunt.com/posts/startup-steals
Happy to help, if you have any specific problem with a project of yours you can also DM me on https://x.com/Start2Fund we can brainstorm together solutions
Sell
Build
Optimise
Great Advice, But what can we use this combo[ Discord + Miro + Google Sheets] for?
Hello hello, glad you found the advice helpful. I don't mean to be annoying. I just launched a newsletter on PH for exactly this reason if you could go and check it out: https://www.producthunt.com/posts/startup-steals
Company knowledge base, centralised communication, CRM, Financial Analysis + Fundamental accounting etc. If you have a specific use case with that you want help to use this combo for we can brainstorm a set-up. But they are such general tools that with some cerativity you can do practically everything when it comes to operations
Thanks for sharing info on these valuable tools.
Hello hello, glad you found the info useful. I don't mean to be annoying. I just launched a newsletter on PH for exactly this reason if you could go and check it out: https://www.producthunt.com/posts/startup-steals
Also, recommend you guys Hyperly AI for LinkedIn post creation with maximum engagement.
Do you have any personal linkedin posts you have created with Hyperly AI so i can get a feel for what to expect?
We can also add notion to the list
I am going to be completely honest, never really understood the whole notion craze. Seems more of a cult than anything else at this point. What exactly does notion do so well that people seem to love it?
As a past experience working in Atlassian, we love to use confluence for most of the work. It was easy & support lot of the functionality & integrations out of the box. I deeply understand the value it brings.
Now companies or startups, who are not using Atlassian bundle of products (e.g Jira, confluence, trello etc..) because of subscription cost, they are bound to use notion for almost everything, & it makes their life a lot easier.I believe because of that many love using notion.
That actually makes a lot of sense, thanks man
Thank you very much for your advice. Handy and practical tools are incredibly important for independent developers who are just starting out!
Hello hello, glad you found the info useful. I don't mean to be annoying. I just launched a newsletter on PH for exactly this reason if you could go and check it out: https://www.producthunt.com/posts/startup-steals
Have any tools you've found while working that you found useful? I always try to find new ones
Lately, I’ve been particularly interested in AI voice tools, so I’ve been exploring a lot of AI-related content. For example, the text-to-speech tool Tiktokaivoice-top is completely free, and the upgraded Claude 3 offers a great experience.
Google sheets on the backend has been such a great hack for us. We will need to replace it before we can really scale, but it has been great as we refine our MVP!
Hey Austin, I don't mean to be annoying. I just launched a newsletter on PH for exactly this reason if you could go and check it out, though you might find it interesting: https://www.producthunt.com/posts/startup-steals
Tried to check it out but your URL startupsteal.cc isn't working...
Honestly think you can use google sheets way more than just the MVP phase. Is there a specific concern you have about scalability?
I was talking to another founder 6 months ago and I can't remember the exact details but he said a couple years ago he ran into some limits on the amount of times some of his scripts could be run. I wish I could recall exactly what it was because I would love to hear your thoughts on the exact problem.
Basically the concern became as we grow the user base, we would hit some limits that Google imposes on sheets. Would love to hear that this concern isn't valid!
Before you build anything, the easiest way to validate your idea is to build a landing page. It helps you verify your initial assumption and quickly pivot if necessary. You can check https://justvalidate.it/. It's a super simple and fast landing page builder, which let you focus on your idea, not fancy design, and start validating in minutes 💪
Here is also a blog post about how to build a landing page - https://justvalidate.it/blog/how-to-build-landing-page 🙏
Wow, thanks for such a useful selection of tools! I really liked the approach to using Hyperbound for cold calling – it’s definitely something that might seem intimidating to many startup founders, but as you said, it’s one of the fastest ways to validate an idea. Do you have any specific scripts or strategies for cold calls that have worked well for you? And I agree about minimalism in operations – Dicord, Mir, and Gogle Shets do everything you need without extra costs.
I know this is a boring answer, but it just depends. If someone tells you there is a golden cold calling script, block him (ok maybe a little extreme). What i CAN do, is we can get on a call and brainstorm for like 30 minutes a script for you. Because, it does really depend on your start-up, industry, your strong points, how many people are on your team, marketing channels etc.
Thanks for the insight! It makes sense that there's no one-size-fits-all script. I might take you up on that offer to brainstorm further when I'm ready. Your approach seems very practical and tailored to individual needs.
How do you use Miro?
I mainly use Miro for many things: (Some use cases)
Hey, Dionysis! If you're looking to boost your startup's visibility and customer acquisition through SEO, check out SEO AI. It helps founders optimize their website structure, detect and score keywords, and diagnose code issues. It's perfect for those who want to improve their search engine ranking without breaking the bank.
Hi Dionysis,
Seems like you are asking me to plug my tool and so I will - Uclusion.
Thank you,
David
This comment was deleted 2 years ago.