Ask HN: What web/desktop apps do you use to manage your startup?
What set of utilities and services (online or offline) do you use to manage your startup? There are obviously many possible needs, like book-keeping, private and secure sharing and backing up of files, communication between co-founders and partners, customer care and ticket handling, etc... I'm not clueless about these subjects, but I'd like to hear what the HN community recommends.
23 comments
Do we seriously have to re-ask this question every few weeks?!
http://www.gabrielweinberg.com/startupswiki/Ask_YC_Archive
http://www.gabrielweinberg.com/startupswiki/Ask_YC_Archive
A couple of FREE products I would recommend are:
Simply Accounting First Step Express for accounting http://www.simplyaccounting.com/downloads/firststep/express/
and
Billing Boss for invoicing http://www.billingboss.com/
Simply Accounting First Step Express for accounting http://www.simplyaccounting.com/downloads/firststep/express/
and
Billing Boss for invoicing http://www.billingboss.com/
Book-keeping: Saasu
Issue/Bug Tracking: Lighthouse
SVN hosting: Beanstalk
Backups: Amazon S3
Site Monitoring: Pingdom
All of which I'd recommend - Saasu especially if you're based in Australia.
All of which I'd recommend - Saasu especially if you're based in Australia.
Planning: Pivotal Tracker.
Finance: Kashflow.
Todos: Basecamp.
SVN: Beanstalk.
Tickets: Zendesk.
Files [internal, collaboration & sharing]: Dropbox.
Email: Google Docs.
Finance: Kashflow.
Todos: Basecamp.
SVN: Beanstalk.
Tickets: Zendesk.
Files [internal, collaboration & sharing]: Dropbox.
Email: Google Docs.
Github, Campfire & Basecamp, and Google Apps for Domains.
PM: Basecamp
Finance: OSX Numbers
Billing: iBiz
Files/Hybrid SVN: Dropbox
External Com: OtherInbox.com
Internal Com: GTalk, Skype, iChat, etc.
Documents: OSX Pages and Google Docs
Finance: OSX Numbers
Billing: iBiz
Files/Hybrid SVN: Dropbox
External Com: OtherInbox.com
Internal Com: GTalk, Skype, iChat, etc.
Documents: OSX Pages and Google Docs
As a freelancer:
Misc: Backpack
Project proposals: Writeboard
Invoicing: Freshbooks
Source control: Github
Bugs: Redmine and Pivotal Tracker
Other docs: Google Docs
To dos: Things
Files: Dropbox
Misc: Backpack
Project proposals: Writeboard
Invoicing: Freshbooks
Source control: Github
Bugs: Redmine and Pivotal Tracker
Other docs: Google Docs
To dos: Things
Files: Dropbox
As a freelancer :
Project management : BaseCamp
Personnal GTD improvement : RescueTime
Invoices & estimates : Freshbooks
Accounting : my accountant uses Simply Accounting (Windows app on my vmware box)
Files : dropbox
Source control : Git on RepositoryHosting.com (6$/month and i can manage any number of SVN/Git repositories. And it just works)
Synch iCal with google calendar
Synch contacts with Plaxo
Project management : BaseCamp
Personnal GTD improvement : RescueTime
Invoices & estimates : Freshbooks
Accounting : my accountant uses Simply Accounting (Windows app on my vmware box)
Files : dropbox
Source control : Git on RepositoryHosting.com (6$/month and i can manage any number of SVN/Git repositories. And it just works)
Synch iCal with google calendar
Synch contacts with Plaxo
Thanks for the tip on RepositoryHosting :-)
Their price rocks.
Their price rocks.
I'm not happy with my mix yet, and spend too much time trying out new things. Here's what I'm currently using:
PM: Google notebook, Google calendar, "Stickies app" (Tomboy)
Finance: sigh still looking
Files: Dropbox
Communications: GMail, Skype (NOT Twitter)
Documents: Mix Google Docs & OpenOffice. I've started using Etherpad quite a bit as well.
Invoicing & Billing: Still looking for something that fits my needs, Spreadsheets & Docs for now
Source code: Local SNV server, thinking about Github
PM: Google notebook, Google calendar, "Stickies app" (Tomboy)
Finance: sigh still looking
Files: Dropbox
Communications: GMail, Skype (NOT Twitter)
Documents: Mix Google Docs & OpenOffice. I've started using Etherpad quite a bit as well.
Invoicing & Billing: Still looking for something that fits my needs, Spreadsheets & Docs for now
Source code: Local SNV server, thinking about Github
Give a try on CurdBee (http://curdbee.com) for invoicing and billing. It would fit perfectly for your startup if you are looking for a smart and low cost solution (you can start using it for Free!)
In no particular order:
Bitbucket (mercurial hosting), Gmail, Komodo Edit, Dropbox, Gtalk, Zoho Docs
For the record I know Komodo isnt really "management" but as it's the most crucial part of my workflow.... :)
Bitbucket (mercurial hosting), Gmail, Komodo Edit, Dropbox, Gtalk, Zoho Docs
For the record I know Komodo isnt really "management" but as it's the most crucial part of my workflow.... :)
I am a single programmer startup. Still working on my website.
TortoiseSVN (source control) is the only thing I am using as of now.
I have a to-do.txt in my desktop to remind me of what next. I use Gmail to communicate and StackOverflow to get help. Since I haven't completed building my application, I never needed other services to manage the work.
TortoiseSVN (source control) is the only thing I am using as of now.
I have a to-do.txt in my desktop to remind me of what next. I use Gmail to communicate and StackOverflow to get help. Since I haven't completed building my application, I never needed other services to manage the work.
This wiki was created to list what tools are used by which startups. http://startuptools.pbworks.com/
Pivitol Tracker, Harvest, Google Apps for Domain.
Jira & FishEye.
Planning: VIM
Blogging: VIM
E-mail: VIM
Coding: VIM
Finances: VIM
VCS: Git .. with comments edited in VIM ;)I would be interested in a write-up of how you do your planning and finances using Vim (format, helper scripts, etc).
I'm mostly interested in your workflow/text file formatting is like.
I'm mostly interested in your workflow/text file formatting is like.
Out of curiosity, how do you do your email and finances from Vim? Is there an awesome email plugin for vim that I don't know about =]
Have you seen this:
http://vimperator.org
http://vimperator.org
Project management: Trac
Versioning: SVN/Trac
Monitoring: Nagios, Pingdom
Support: Get Satisfaction
Newsletters: Campaign Monitor
Communication: Gtalk, Email
Just to mention, Microsoft office offers some pretty nifty services in this regard. Check out Office Live Small Business. You get a workspace with 5Gb of file storage. You can view docs, ppts right in the browser and with a plugin you can edit them right on your desktop MS office.
There's also Live Mesh service (seperate 5 GB) that allows you to sync files across different computers. You can use it as a documentation, file sharing tool. .
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We have a Team of 5. We started with a google based solution for now.
Conference Calls: Skype 3$ accounts(to dial into US) + http://www.freeconference.com/
Mailing List: Google Groups
Collaboration: Google Docs
Scheduling: Google Calendar
Project Mgmt: Google Sites (with different task list), with widgets showing our docs + calendars on google services.
Files: Google groups has 100 MB, so does Sites.
VCS: git/svn on pvt server.
There's also Live Mesh service (seperate 5 GB) that allows you to sync files across different computers. You can use it as a documentation, file sharing tool. .
.
.
We have a Team of 5. We started with a google based solution for now.
Conference Calls: Skype 3$ accounts(to dial into US) + http://www.freeconference.com/
Mailing List: Google Groups
Collaboration: Google Docs
Scheduling: Google Calendar
Project Mgmt: Google Sites (with different task list), with widgets showing our docs + calendars on google services.
Files: Google groups has 100 MB, so does Sites.
VCS: git/svn on pvt server.