My go-to tools for starting a startup in a week
Name
Namelix.com: to generate name ideas
Tld-list.com: to check available domains
Expireddomains.net: to find even more domains
Website
Godaddy.com: for purchasing your domain
Webflow.com: for developing a no-code website
Canva.com: design of logo and visual elements
Surveymonkey.com: website sign up form
Analytics.google.com: all stats in one place
upsum.io: summarize long-form texts into a paragraph
Social Media
Metricool.com: for managing socials in one place
Twilio.com: for setting up the newsletter
Canva.com: for the design of social media posts
Development
Bubble.io: for no-code app development (apps)
Appsheet.com: no-code app development
Webflow.com: no-code web app development
Launch
Producthunt.com: lunching our product
G2.com: review website with a software focus
Linkedin.com: cold outreach and community
IndieHackers.com: for building up the community
Collaboration and teamwork
Asana.com: for organizing the tasks
Miro.com: for ideation and visual collaboration
Slack.com: messaging and collaboration
Dont forget chat gpt for content😉
LOL! I have to say I was really impressed when I first see ChatGPT creating blog posts or reviews, and now I am curious to see how the marketing/SEO world will react to it!
Chatgpt is excellent and has its place but it's worthwhile looking to rewrite content a little. Definitely a good starting point.
Yes, absolutely!
Very true, crazy how fast it got adapted by so many!
perhaps a cold email tool like supersend.io (mine) for spreading the word!
Surfkey.io for growth! Get alert when relevant keyword is mention on Reddit. Jump in, provide value and plug your product if it make sense!
Great list of tools! It seems to be focused on the essential tools per category. It's easier than ever to go nuts with micro tools and chrome extensions.
I agree. There is really no excuse to get started and get your idea out there!
Good list of tools, but just be careful not to go too nuts with too many tools. The product is what matters.
Absolutely, focus on the product and PMF first and foremost.
I know I'm biased, but branition.com can suggest much more creative name ideas compared to Namelix.
Nice Suggestions! I'm creating a resource collection for the best tools to start a startup. I'll definitely be adding a few of these! https://jotted.page/community/224
I'm biased but highly recommend checking out getwaitlist.com if you want to set up a waitlist prior to launching the core product :)
where was this when I got started 😢
Honestly same! Please let me know anytime if you decide to test it out or have any feature requests 🤗
Really cool! Thanks for sharing
Excellent linear thought process here, thanks for laying it out!
Thanks a lot!!
A good list, but what is your plan for user acquisitions?
Very much depends on the business or startup you have set up.
Let me use the 19 traction channels as the framework to answer to your question: https://growthrocks.com/blog/infographic-traction-channels/
In my previous startup we spent about 10k a month on Google ads and in about 4-6 months we brought in enough subscribers to break even and even get very high value clients (10k+ annually). So if I had the cash to invest, and there is search volume, I would go for paid ads (Linkedin never worked, Facebook/Instagram is more demand generation, Google ads just works, because of the volume and placement - essentially people search for what they need).
SEO is also important (I use Ubersuggest.com for analytics) but takes at least 6 months of hard work to start seeing the ROI and can cost more than the 10k Google ads to see similar results. - Same goes for content marketing, blogs and affiliate marketing.
We had some bigger PR publications (even though our tech and product were interesting and novel - we never really got on the front page (even though we had contacts at Business Insider) - So I would not invest money in PR.
Vitality and PLG go hand in hand - but somehow viral marketing in today's world (where so much content is bombarding people) is just too much of gamble.
Obviously, if I have a product and know my target customer, Acquisition cost, ROI, I will go for sales, but that's rare just after you had an idea, set up a website and built an MVP.
Somewhat similar, for community building you need to know your customer, user or buyer and it helps if your product has the coolness-factor. I have never had much experience with community building, and as mentioned above, so much content and such is competing for people's attention nowadays.
All other channels require too much investment in my view for an early MVP - trade shows, online/offline events, speaking events...
Very simply put, if you have money to invest, use it to research users by targeting keywords in search, if you don't have any money it will be a longer process, but you can use hacks: auto Linkedin outreach, answer questions on Reddit/Quora, talk to people and so on... that's an other post.
What about you, have you got any proven strategies you can share?
wow, such a great explanation.
I had some great experiences with Google Ads and Facebook Ads before the pandemic, where I used to get paid users for my app below $5, and my main target market at that time was UAE, but things completely changed after that now I'm hardly getting any paid users regardless of the different strategies I tried and regardless of the amount I spent.
But still, ASO doing wonders for me, basically with a very low budget like $200 a month I compete with $100 million plus revenue-generating companies in markets like USA, Canada & India and mostly rank in the top 1 or 2 positions.
If you have an App, I suggest spending some time on ASO, a very easy-to-learn and highly cost-effective acquisition channel.
Very cool, glad it is working for you. I have no experience but heard some cool case studies around ASO!
Good list - this was helpful. I would also add Google Analytics and Keyword Planner if you are taking digital marketing approach to drive awareness.
Definitely, I actually used the list for a Linkedin post, and added Google Analytics later on, can't miss it!
Also tools like Caard, Softr, and tally forms where you can turn up a landing page quickly and start gathering interest
thanks for sharing
Thanks for sharing. Decent compilation.
Adding this one
Micro SaaS Ideas: For the actual product ideas.
Very cool!
Thankyou!!
Great list. Here are a couple from a data guy:
For easy and quick cloud compute and AI model deployments I've been using Modal (modal.com).
For databases and auth, Neon and Supabase are great!
Great, thanks for the addition!
Great resources here! What're some things that have worked well for you community building on IndieHackers?
Super great list! You can also use carrd for an even lighter-weight version of a web page for just idea validation too
Carrd came up in the comments several times, I will check it out!
I would add:}
Hey, can you please tell me why you suggested Toggl? What do you like about their tool over others?
I see you are very efficient with time! I used Trello before, now I am on Asana, no real reason, some team members used it so we adapted it.
Beforehand, I used to watch YouTube all the time (back before TikTok was popular).
Tracking time helps you stay more focused on what needs to be done.
Ah it makes sense, really cool!
I would add:
Notion (for collaborations)
Framer (for landing pages)
Figma (for design stuff)
Telegram (for messaging)
Gotta love Figma!
Your missing chatGPT.
It's making me so much more productive on the IndieHacker side. I built a system in PHP with a backend in Python. Don't really know either of those languages.
I asked it what questions I need to answer to build a privacy policy and then had it build one based on my answers. (lawyers cringe) As a first draft for a small site without any traffic its probably fine.
I was able to use cheap shared hosting.
Not the most visually appealing but gets the job done.
https://coolprojectideas.com/keyword_extractor.php
I used midjounery to create an image for the blog article I wrote.
The prompts was something like "Chatbot with idea caption of keywords"
Thanks for sharing, really cool stuff!!
Thanks everyone for the comments and additions, I will create a new list soon with your suggestions added.