Which Online Tools Should Every Start Up Use?

You, as a start-up, have probably thought a lot about how to optimize online collaboration across you team and processes. About two years ago, we asked ourselves the same question: Which online business tools should every start up use? 








Since then, we have come up with a long list of helpful services (see list below). We realized how complex our web of online tools has gotten: it takes a countless number of log-ins and open tabs before even starting to work. 

Especially when on-boarding new employees, we noticed that it was time for an intranet solution. Previously, all intranet solutions were provided internally. Now, most functions are provided externally and only sourced into the intranet. We are looking for an intranet that will consolidate all of our tools - and therefore help us with our process management. It should:

• Search over all services: cue, google site search, elastic search
• Bookmarks/site of all services and for what: google sites?
• Activity stream of all updates: hipchat, yammer etc. (via zapier)
• Calendar events, birthdays...

Are YOU currently using an intranet solution that you would recommend?


Here's the list of online tools we are using to make (work)-life easier. This might assist you if you are facing the same question as we were: Which online business tools should every start up use?  


Team Communication

Google Hangout - video conferencing

Hipchat - group chat and team collaboration

Team Organization

Google apps docs, calendar, gmail...

box cloud storage

google drive cloud storage/docs
Getflow - task management

Project + Product Management

Basecamp project management

smartsheet - project management

Rackspace cloud computing

New Relic Performance Management & Monitoring

github Online project hosting

pivotaltracker Agile Project Management Software

Airbrake error tracking

If This Then That  - process automation

notableapp - mockup annotations 

Business Model Canvas  - strategic product planning
unbounce Landingpage and A/B Test

HR + Legal

oDesk Freelancer

Freshbooks - cloud accounting

elance Freelancer

lawpivot - legal crowdsourcing platform

Marketing/Sales

blogger.com google blogging site

HootSuite Social Media Management

Sendgrid Email Delivery

Blogmutt Crowd Sourced Blog Content 

Balsamiq Mockups

Wufoo online forms

Mailchimp Newsletter

Nimble social CRM

paper.li daily news aggregation

Twitter social media content stream

audiodraft audio crowdsourcing

Facebook app our UFOstart platform

99design logo design

designcrowd broshures

Community

GetSatisfaction help forum, crowdsource customer service

zazzle merchandising store

Google Analytics site traffic analysis
zapier Syncing Data via API`s

We believe: at the end of the day every start up will run as a mash-up of outsourcing & crowdsourcing services. These will be used and drawn together with an individual brand and focus. 
We would recommend using the tools listed above and would love to hear which ones we could add! 

What online tool is missing on our list? Do you have a suggestion for an intranet solution? Please let us know in the comments!

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