These all have a forever freemium option and do their jobs better than most pricey premium software do. They are the same tools that my internal team has been using to get HyperFundIt up and running from concept to launch.
Team Communications
Slack is hands down the most effective business communications software at the moment. Built-in functions such as Snooze allow for designated work hours to ensure a work-life balance for team members.
However, if a message is urgent, it can be pushed through.
Integrating apps adds another layer of sophistication and convenience, for example by adding Hangouts to my teams Slack, anyone is able to start a video conference simply by typing "/hangout".
Anyone can start a poll by typing "/poll".
There are thousands of apps available to customize your Slack channel to your team's needs.
Project Management
Trello can help you organize your thoughts and goals. The drag & drop feature and simple interface allow you to easily set or change milestones, deadlines, and assign tasks to individual team members.
Organize your tasks with a color code system, you can use this function however you see fit. My team used to use the colors to differentiate between High, Medium, or Low Priority.
Now, we're using the colors to differentiate between different types of tasks.
Sync Trello's timelines to your calendar and boom! Time management doesn't get any easier than this.
Contact Management
HubSpot CRM helps you track, record, and organize your leads.
Visually manage your Customer Life Cycle / Sales Pipeline. Again, drag & drop is found here too. This makes it super easy to make any changes.
Another useful tool to note is HubSpot Sales Extension, this simple app allows you to track and get notified when an important client you sent an email to, opens your email. If they haven't opened it in a week, then it's possible that it got lost in their mail so this lets you know to send a follow-up.
(While I've heard that HubSpot Marketing works great, my team chose to work with MailChimp in its place, so I can't say anything about that segment.)
Email Blasts
MailChimp is dominating the email software game. There are good reasons for this as their freemium comes with detailed analytics and allows for 12,000 emails with up to 2,000 subscribers which is plenty enough to get your feet wet.
Choose from email templates and/or customize emails to your liking.
Email automation allows you to spend less time on handling email blasts and more time on engaging with clients or other important tasks.
Automate Functions
Zapier wraps it all up in a nice and neat bundle. You can connect all the above apps by synchronizing and automating specific functions.
By automating mundane tasks, this frees up your schedule to focus on more important things. Here are a few examples:
Furthermore, Zapier's database allows you to choose from over 1,000 apps to connect with one another.
Bonus
Pexels gathers free to use images from across the internet for your convenience. Thank
for bringing this up!
*****
I hope these tools will help you set the stage for success, but at the end of the day, the most important thing for you as a founder is to get started. Talk to people, validate your ideas, then build the brilliant vision that you have in mind. My team is here to help, see how you can raise funds for your project at HyperFundIt.
Catch you next time,
Rob Chen, CEO
P.S. Let's chat in our Discord channel