The Entrepreneur’s Handbook: 120 Great Tools and Resources for Entrepreneurs and Startups

Whether you are starting a new business or scaling your business to new heights, these are some of the most useful entrepreneur resources you will ever need. My hope is that this post will be a great resource list for all your entrepreneurial needs. This is a huge list of blogs, tools and general resources I think could be useful for every entrepreneur.

Great business blogs and resource sites

1. Inc. Start-up — Advice for founders of start-ups and start-up entrepreneurs on writing a business plan, running a home-based business, naming a start-up business, how to incorporate, financing a start-up, buying a small business, and starting a franchise.

2. OnStartups — Run by HubSpot cofounder Dharmesh Shah, On Startups offers advice and insights for entrepreneurs.

3. For Entrepreneurs — A blog for startups and entrepreneurs, written by David Skok, a five time serial entrepreneur turned VC (now at Matrix. Partners)

4. Startup Lawyer — Ryan Roberts’Startup Lawyer breaks down the legal issues of startups.

5. Mashable on Small Business — Essential business advice for starting and growing small businesses.

6. About.com for Entrepreneurs — Help and advice for going from the idea stage to business plan to the marketplace and beyond.

7. Mixergy — Successful CEOs share their experiences with the masses.

8. Small Business Administration. Find information, links and resources to help you start and grow your business, including SBA-guaranteed loans.

9. AllTopStartups — Everything you wanted to know about starting a successful business.(disclaimer: I am the founder of Alltopstartups)

10. NYT Small Business — Find breaking news & money news on mortgage rates, mutual funds, the stock market, bonds & notes, company research, earnings reports and market insight.

11. Chris Dixon — A General Partner at Andreessen Horowitz. He is also a contributing writer for TechCrunch. A seed investor turned VC, Dixon takes a macro view, considering industry-wide trends.

12. Quora (Startup Founders and Entrepreneurs page) — Quora’s question-answering website has some fantastic responses from establish entrepreneurs and investors for entrepreneurs.

13. Wall Street Journal’s Small Business How To Guide — WSJ small business guide covering how to start, fund, run and manage your small business.

14. Forbes on Entrepreneurs — Forbes entrepreneur section, specifically on how entrepreneurs are running businesses and advice from entrepreneurs.

15. First Round Review — A compilation of startup-centric content. Case studies on the experiences of individual entrepreneurs and companies.

16. The Funded — An online community of entrepreneurs to research, rate, and review funding sources worldwide.

17. Paul Graham — Super awesome timeless essays about venture capital and entrepreneurship.

18. Springwise — Your essential fix of entrepreneurial ideas.

19. Big Think — Blogs, articles and videos from the world’s top leaders and thinkers.

20. PSFK — A go-to source for ideas and inspiration.

21. StartupDigest — Free weekly email to help you meet people and learn more.

22. The Startup Toolkit — Tools and guidance for all startup founders.

23. Both Sides of The Table — Upfront Ventures partner Mark Suster’s blog runs the gamut from sales strategies to fundraising and startup culture.

24. Chic-ceo — Slick site for women with the entrepreneur bug, but its downloadable tools makes this a must-visit for all.

Tools and apps exclusively for startups

Use these startups resources (mostly free) to launch your idea, gather feedback and grow your new business. Whether you are wondering about how to put your idea out there, how to make a good presentation or learn from the best you will find some of these resources useful.

1.GroupTalent — Top teams of developers and designers, on-demand.

2. Docstoc — Discover the best professional documents and content resources to help start and grow your business

3. CustomerSure — Simple, web-based customer feedback software.

4. Crowdvi.be — Get instant answers from over 50 million people.

5. AYTM (Ask Your Target Market) — Market research has never been this easy.

6. Term Sheet Generator — Generate a venture financing term sheet.

7. Cofounda — App platform that connects entrepreneurs and investors.

8. Feedbackify — Simple, private website feedback.

9. Appfigures — mobile analytics and sales data.

10. Mopapp — mobile analytics, sales data, rankings.

11. UserTesting.com — Low-cost website usability testing.

12. Prezi — The zooming presentation editor.

13. CircleUp — Like AngelList with a crowdfunding twist.

14. AngelList — A platform for startups. Standardizing the pitch deck.

15. Idea Flight — Get your ideas off the ground.

16. CapLinked — Making private investment easy, secure and social.

17. Go BIG Network — Helps entrepreneurs find funding.

18. Intern Avenue — Find interns. Intern directory.

19. A VC — Musings of a VC in NYC.

20. Startup Weekend — Global network of passionate leaders and entrepreneurs.

21. LiquidSpace — Airbnb for workspaces. Book last minute or plan ahead.

22. OpenDesks — Find and share places to meet and work.

23. Founders Den — Invite-only shared workspace and private club in SoMa neighborhood.

24. TechHub — A physical space for tech startups in London.

25. LaunchRock — Setup a “Launching Soon” page in minutes.

26. Unbounce — Easy landing page creator and tester.

27. Mobile Roadie — Full CMS, no coding app builder for iOS and Android.

28. Chupa — The marketplace for buying/selling mobile app components.

29. Grow VC — Get visibility with the right investing audience.

30. Appbackr — Crowdfunding for mobile apps.

31. LaunchRock — Setup a “Launching Soon” page in minutes.

32. LegalZoom: An inexpensive, fast, and easy to use online legal document service that can help you file the appropriate paperwork for your startup.

33. VCgate — Venture capital firms, angel investors and private equity firms directory.

34. Envestors — Pay-to-pitch investor network.

35. Startup Compass — Benchmark your startup’s KPIs against more than 10k internet startups.

36. Startup Tools-Complete list of startup tools by Steve Blank

37. KickoffLabs — Find new customers with a viral landing page in less than 60 seconds.

38. RocketHub — Launch, fund and fly.

39. Prosper– Prosper can help you get the seed funding you need to launch your own online business.

Mobile app development tools

These are some of the best mobile app development resources out there that guarantees stunning app for mobile devices. These tools offer drag-and-drop interfaces, fast and easy mobile prototyping with support for designing some of the best Android, iOS and Windows mobile apps.

1. Ooomf — Create a beautiful landing page for your iPhone app in minutes.

2. Appcelerator — Mobile app platform for building on Android, iOS and mobile web.

3. GameSalad Creator — Create, test and publish your own game. Drag and drop.

4. Parse — Add a powerful and scalable backend to your app in minutes.

5. Mobile Roadie — Full CMS, no coding app builder for iOS and Android.

6. Proto.io — Silly-fast mobile prototyping.

7. StackOverflow — Question and answer site for programmers.

8. Kendo UI Mobile — Build HTML5 apps that look native on any device.

9. Tiggzi — Cloud-based mobile app builder.

10. Verious — A mobile app component marketplace.

11. justinmind — Rich interactive wireframes to define mobile apps.

12. UXPin — User experience design tools for professionals.

13. Chupa — The marketplace for buying/selling mobile app components.

14. Distimo — Providing valuable insight into the app store marketplace.

15. App Annie — App store analytics and market intelligence.

16. Kontagent — User analytics for the mobile web.

17. Applingua — iOS app localization (translation) service.

18. AppMakr — Point and click solution for building rich content based apps.

19. Flurry — Analytics, traffic acquisition and monetization.

20. Crittercism — Gives you real-time, actionable crash reports for mobile apps.

21. PhoneGap — Easily create apps using well known web technologies.

Incubators & Accelerators

Incubators and accelerators can be a great option for any young company or even idea to get off the ground. These programs offer everything from funding, connections with top investors and mentors and collaborative work environments.

1. Y Combinator — Has funded over 380 startups (3 months).

2. TechStars — Mentorship-driven seed-stage investment program (3 months).

3. The Brandery — Accelerating startups by building powerful brands (14 weeks).

4. KickLabs — Ready to start acquiring customers? (3–6 months).

5. i/o Ventures — Early-stage startup program focused on mentorship (3 months).

6. Capital Factory — Entrepreneurs like entrepreneurs (10 weeks).

7. NYC SeedStart — Focused on advertising, ecommerce, digital and mobile (12 weeks).

8. Tech Wildcatters — Mentor-driven and led by entrepreneurs (12 weeks).

9. Seedcamp — Early stage mentoring and investment program (1 year).

10. Excelerate Labs — Amazing mentors, Chicago resources, high-profile demo (3 months).

11. Springboard — Mentorship-led accelerator program (13 weeks).

12. Dreamit Ventures — Helping build great companies.

13. The ARK — Mentorship-driven tech startup accelerator (3 months).

14. Betaspring — Mentorship-driven accelerator focused on tech and design (12 weeks).

15. InnoSpring — Start in Silicon Valley, grow in the US and China.

16. BizSpark — Microsoft accelerator for Windows Azure (3 months).

15. Media Camp — Startup academy camp for media innovations (12 weeks).

18. Founder Institute — Helping founders to build great companies (4 months).

19. AlphaLab — Funding, mentorship, education and more (20 weeks).

20. 500 Startups –Provides early-stage companies with up to $250K in funding.

21. Startup Chile –Apply from anywhere in the world, start in Chile. $40k grant per project (24 weeks).

22. MEST — Entrepreneurial program designed to foster the growth of tech companies in Africa (24 weeks).

Crowdfunding resources

If you can’t find funding from angels, how about seeking help from the crowd.

1. Seedrs — Equity-based crowdfunding platform.

2. Crowdfunder — Equity crowdfunding for your business.

3. CircleUp — Like AngelList with a crowdfunding twist.

4. Grow VC — Get visibility with the right investing audience.

5. appbackr — Crowdfunding for mobile apps.

6. Kickstarter — World’s largest funding platform for creative projects.

7. Indiegogo — Fund your passion.

8. Crowdtilt — Group fund anything.

9. Invested.in — Raise money, reach goals, build community.

10. Funding Circle — Online marketplace where people lend to businesses.

11. Sponsume — Fund your project through social networks.

12. RocketHub — Launch, fund and fly.

13. SellAnApp — Make app ideas happen.

14. Petridish — Crowdfunding for science startups.

The author is the founder at Alltopstartups (where he shares startup resources). He is also the curator at Postanly (a free weekly newsletter that delivers the best, most popular and long form posts from top publishers).