TOOLS AND RESOURCES FOR FIRST-TIME ENTREPRENEURS
This is definitely not objective, top or ultimate at all, just some people and things I know. This is what I tell my friends who ask me “How do I do a tech startup in New York City?”
This is an on-going project so please add comments/links and I will update the list.
Know/follow what’s going on
TechMeme http://TechMeme.com
AlleyWatch http://AlleyWatch.com
Hacker News https://news.ycombinator.com/
TechCrunch http://TechCrunch.com
The Verge http://TheVerge.com
VentureBeat http://VentureBeat.com
Learn/understand how VC’s think
Fred Wilson http://avc.com
Chris Dixon http://cdixon.org/
Marc Suster http://www.bothsidesofthetable.com/
Ben Horowitz http://bhorowitz.com/
Paul Graham http://paulgraham.com/
John Ason http://www.johnason.com/
Meet new people/network
Gary’s Guide — one-stop shop: comprehensive list of all startup and technology events: http://Garysguide.com
Some suggested events to start with: NY Tech Meetup, Entrepreneurs Roundtable (big disclaimer: I’ve been organizing this since 2008
), Ultra Light Startups
Get on these mailing lists / newsletters
Bonnie Halper’s awesome weekly newsletter/community news http://StartupOneStop.com
Benedict Evans Mobile Newsletter http://ben-evans.com/newsletter
NY Tech Meetup mailing list http://www.meetup.com/ny-tech/
Charlie O’Donnell weekly newsletter http://www.thisisgoingtobebig.com/
Startup Digest https://www.startupdigest.com/
Founder Weekly http://www.founderweekly.com/
Get to know other entrepreneurs and learn from them
We are NY Tech http://wearenytech.com/
Mixergy http://mixergy.com/
Stanford Entrepreneurship Corner http://ecorner.stanford.edu/
Co-work and learn
Alley NYC http://AlleyNYC.com
WeWork http://WeWork.com
Projective Space http://www.projective.co/
MicroOffice http://MicroOffice.com
Find and register a domain
Lookup-as-you-type domain search http://instantdomainsearch.com
Google Apps (no longer free but still worth it) http://google.com/a/
Host your website
Amazon EC2 http://aws.amazon.com
Rackspace program for startups http://rackspacestartups.com/
Microsoft Azure cloud services http://www.windowsazure.com/en-us/
Find freelancers
Mobile developers: http://tapfame.com
Elance http://elance.com
ODesk http://odesk.com
Guru http://guru.com
For graphic design, especially logos: http://99designs.com
Learn online
Comprehensive list: http://www.mooc-list.com/
Udemy https://www.udemy.com/
Coursera https://www.coursera.org/
Udacity https://www.udacity.com/
Codecademy http://www.codecademy.com/
Wizpert — talk to experts online — http://wizpert.com
MIT Open Courseware http://ocw.mit.edu/index.htm
Stanford Engineering Everywhere http://see.stanford.edu/default.aspx
Bento — resources for coding http://www.bentobox.io/
Read
Read these books to start understanding the vocabulary and concepts of startups:
Disciplined Entrepreneurship
http://www.amazon.com/Disciplined-Entrepreneurship-Steps-Successful-Startup/dp/1118692284
The Startup Owner’s Manual
http://www.amazon.com/The-Startup-Owners-Manual-Step-By-Step/dp/0984999302
Lean Startups
http://www.amazon.com/The-Lean-Startup-Entrepreneurs-Continuous/dp/0307887898
Venture Deals
http://www.amazon.com/Venture-Deals-Smarter-Lawyer-Capitalist/dp/1118443616
Patents. Simplified.: Entrepreneur’s Guide To US Patents And Patent Applications
http://www.amazon.com/Patents-Simplified-Entrepreneurs-Patents-Applications/dp/0615891705
The Fundraising Rules
http://www.amazon.com/The-Fundraising-Rules-ebook/dp/B00C0WFMU4
Incorporate online
The Company Corporation https://www.incorporate.com/
LegalZoom http://legalzoom.com
Patents
Patentory — one-stop shop to learn about patents and file provisional patents http://www.patentory.com/
Determine the size of your market
Google Trends http://www.google.com/trends/
Google Insights http://www.google.com/insights/
Research website traffic
QuantCast https://www.quantcast.com/
Compete https://www.compete.com/
Take payments online
Stripe http://stripe.com
Take payments offline
Square http://square.com
CardFlight https://getcardflight.com/
Track your customers online
Google Analytics — very comprehensive, all you need with some effort http://google.com/analytics
MixPanel http://mixpanel.com
KissMetrics http://kissmetrics.com
Email marketing
DirectIQ http://directiq.com
MailChimp http://mailchimp.com
Improve your social media presence
Hootsuite http://hootsuite.com
Manage Flitter http://manageflitter.com/
Agolo: http://agolo.com
Online marketing
Google AdWords http://www.google.com/ads/adwords2/
Google AdWords Keyword Planner https://adwords.google.com/ko/KeywordPlanner/Home
Facebook advertising https://www.facebook.com/advertising
Twitter advertising https://ads.twitter.com/
LinkedIn ads https://www.linkedin.com/ads/start
Bing/Yahoo ads https://secure.bingads.microsoft.com/
Pricing Engine — manage all from one place: http://pricingengine.com
Rockerbox — better targeting http://getrockerbox.com/
SEO
Beginners guide to SEO http://moz.com/beginners-guide-to-seo
Analyze and fix your website http://www.woorank.com/
See who is linking to your website http://www.opensiteexplorer.org/
SEO for Chrome plugin https://chrome.google.com/webstore/detail/seo-for-chrome/oangcciaeihlfmhppegpdceadpfaoclj?hl=en-US
Email tools
Rapportive — 411 in your gmail http://rapportive.com
MxHero — take charge of your emails http://mxhero.com
Gmail Canned Responses (in settings -> labs) http://gmail.com
Project Management
Asana — shared task lists https://asana.com/
Pivotal Tracker — agile project management http://www.pivotaltracker.com/
Forms/Surveys
Google Forms https://drive.google.com
Wufoo http://www.wufoo.com/
Other
Dropbox http://dropbox.com
JoinMe — conference calls/screensharing http://join.me
SeamlessDocs — sign docs online and on mobile http://SeamlessDocs.com
SlideShare — share presentations online http://www.slideshare.net/
Optimizely — easy A/B Testing http://www.optimizely.com/
Microsoft BizSpark — get free software and services http://www.microsoft.com/bizspark/
AngelList — fundraising http://angel.co
Create a free privacy policy online http://www.generateprivacypolicy.com/
Originally published at muratak.com on October 7, 2013.
