15 Entrepreneurs Share the Tools They Can’t Live Without
Think about someone you know. A family member, a friend, a colleague.
I’ll bet that at some point you’ve heard that person say something like: “ there aren’t enough hours in the day.”
For an entrepreneur that’s an everyday rule.
Marketing. Product Development. That quick chat but turned into an hour-long meeting. Remembering to eat. Enhancing your social media presence. Project Management. The list goes on.
Luckily, there are a plethora of tools for entrepreneurs out there to keep you organised and make life easier.
Slack for easy communication, Trello to stay on track of tasks, LinkedIn to build your network, the list goes on.
So I reached out to some entrepreneurs in my network, to find out which tools they can’t live without.
We’ll start with their picks, followed by a detailed rundown of how each of the tools can help you. Then I’ll cover some other common tools that haven’t been mentioned but have the potential to save you time and money.
Full Transparency: This article does not contain affiliate links. Meaning neither I nor Altar.io receives any commission if you should choose to use any of the tools for entrepreneurs listed here.
This list was created based on personal recommendations, the recommendations of entrepreneurs I work with.
All reviews below were sourced via G2.
The Tools Entrepreneurs Can’t Live Without
1. Adi Azaria, CEO of Workiz Inc.
Workiz Inc. is a SaaS CRM platform for small to medium-sized on-demand field service businesses, such as locksmith services, carpet cleaning and appliance repair.
Tool Choice: “MixMax, Canva and Headspace.”
2. Alon Hendelman,Co-Founder & CEO of Engie
Engie is a connected car maintenance solution for every car on the road. Engie’s technology provides fault diagnostics and maintenance information in a simple way.
As well as being the Co-Founder of Engie, Alon is a Forbes 30 Under 30 Entrepreneur.
Tool Choice: “Trello, Google Drive and WhatsApp.”
3. André Lopes, Co-Founder of Altar.io
Before co-founding Altar.io André built Table & Friends, a themed dinner & social restaurant booking platform that allowed anyone to create their own event, lock in a discount (10–50%), book a table within 3500 restaurants and invite friends for the dinner event.
Tool Choice: “I use Whatsapp with long term clients, teams and even interviews.
My overall CRM with flexibility for almost anything that needs sorting is Google Sheets from recruiting to finance management.
For inspiration and learning my go to’s are Kindle (I read one book a month on average via Kindle) and Twitter.”
4. Bar Mor, Co-Founder & CEO of Agora
Agora is a designated Investment management SaaS solution for real estate investment firms and funds.
Tool Choice: “Notion, Hubspot & Seamless.”
5. Dotan Galron, Project Management at Asurion
Asurion is the go-to solution for all things tech — their Experts can repair, replace and resolve nearly any tech issue. They’re easy to reach via call, chat, and in-person, too
Tool Choice: “My core stack includes, Slack, Notion, Figma.”
6. Dudley Gould, Founder of Audapio
Audapio provides secure, real-time access to auditors clients’ bank statements directly from their bank, and provides stakeholders with advanced analytics.
Tool Choice: “LinkedIn, Spotify & Boxing. I think about work all the time — unless I’m boxing — it’s the only time I completely switch off. Oh, and UberEats, I’m so busy I often forget I need to eat.”
7. Giacomo De Lorenzo — Founder of Moneymour
Moneymour (acquired by Klarna) can estimate people’s creditworthiness better than a bank, allowing instant, simple and transparent access to credit.
Their revolutionary credit scoring algorithm uses customers’ bank accounts information, enabled by PSD2, to make a highly informed decision in an instant.
Tool Choice: “Here are the tools I can’t live without — Linkedin for anything, from networking with investors and partners to new hires.
Mailtrack, a Gmail plugin to see opens and clicks for my emails. It’s the best litmus test for interest.
Google Workplace, mainly for spreadsheets.”
8. Hector Quintanilla, Founder of Be Business Smart
Hector Quintanilla is a Startup Expert, Investor, Mentor & Founder.
Tool Choice: “1. My Thinking weapons: My Moleskine notebook + my three pens (black, blue, red)
The best way to brainstorming is WITHOUT distractions and electronics.
I never use electronic devices when I want to solve a difficult problem or to be creative.
2. My attention-grabbing weapons: Quora.
I’ve been posting almost daily on Quora for years. Attention is the most valuable asset in today’s world. You either pay for it (ads) or you gain it. Traffic without trust is extremely expensive.
Get yourself out there!
3. My sales leads weapons: Clickfunnels to create my landing page together with Mailchimp to track and keep in touch with those who are interested in what I have to offer them.
DO NOT wait to have something to sell to start building your audience.”
9. Jan-Philipp Kruip, Co-Founder of FitSense
FitSense is a B2B health and fitness fintech startup that is being used by some of the biggest multinational insurance companies in the world.
Tool choice: “I’ve become a big fan of Miro which is a great way to workshop efficiently remotely.
Pen & paper: my brain works differently when I scribble down my ideas and can mind map
Audible & podcasts: I rarely have the time and patience to sit down and read but listening while I go for a walk or during commutes allows me to get so much input/stimulation”
10. Marco Caputo, Founder of Hotbox Food
Hotbox Food has invented and patented a novel technology that allows you to transport food at 85ºC with a dehumidifier to extract the excess steam that makes food soggy.
This allows delivery companies to keep food hot for over 40mins while keeping the quality high.
Tool Choice: “There are three tools I use on a daily basis, they’re without a doubt my holy grails. First is Hubspot. I use it for basically anything to do with customers, it just makes my life easier.
The next is my notebook. I have a little Moleskine notebook that is with me everywhere I go. I tend to write things down or create a quick sketch before putting it online.
Finally, is my water bottle. I tend to drink with a certain frequency, it basically gives me a daily rhythm.”
11. Maria Rybak, Founder & CEO of PVLSE
PVLSE is a passion economy platform that enables users to monetise their skills and start their “side-hustle”. The company provides an all in one solution for users offering online and offline services, with a built-in billing engine, booking engine, custom portfolio and more.
Tool Choice: “My picks are Slack, Zoom and Google Drive.”
12. Nelly Yusupova — Founder of TechSpeak
TechSpeak for Entrepreneurs is an online platform that teaches entrepreneurs the most efficient and effective way to manage development teams and projects.
Nelly is a CTO, Startup Advisor and Entrepreneur with 18 years of industry experience.
Tool Choice: “Here are the tools I use all the time. Adobe XD or Sketch for prototyping. Calendly for more efficient scheduling. Optimizely for A/B testing.”
13. Paolo Dotta, Co-Founder of Altar.io
Before building Altar.io, Paolo built Venga — a Social Events Marketplace to enable hosts and participants to come together at amazing events such as themed dinners and retreats.
Tool Choice: “ The first one has to be Google Workspace. Moving from banking, where everything was Excel-based, to the collaborative workflows of the startup ecosystem changed my life.
The next has got to be my Kindle. I take over 60 flights a year, and having my entire library in one, easy to use device is amazing.
Finally, my notebook. I use it to note down ideas for everything from presentations, to spreadsheets, to documents.”
14. Paul O’Brien, CEO & Founder of MediaTech Ventures
MediaTech Ventures is a venture development group and holding company connecting innovation with capital.
Tool Choice: “Analytics, LinkedIn & Coffee!”
15. Yaron Samid, Founder of TechAviv
TechAviv is one of the largest founder clubs in the world.
Yaron is a multi-exit founder whose companies have been acquired by the likes of Microsoft and Cisco, to name but two.
Yaron is also a regular lecturer at Stanford and Columbia business schools.
Tool Choice: “The ones I couldn’t live without? Airtable, Google Workspace, Trello, WhatsApp & Superhuman Email.”
Detailed Overview of the Tools for Entrepreneurs
Here’s a detailed rundown of all of the tools for entrepreneurs mentioned above, aside from the obvious ones like coffee and a notebook.
- Trello
- Google Workspace
- MailChimp
- Google Analytics
- Hubspot CRM
- Slack
- Zoom
- Notion
- Canva
- Miro
- ClickFunnels
- Quora
- Adobe XD
- Sketch
- Optimizely
1. Trello
Trello is, by far, one of the easiest ways to organise, assign and keep track of tasks as a team. It’s one of the most popular project management tools for entrepreneurs on the market.
It follows the Kanban structure, allowing you to organise projects into topics (or boards as Trello calls them). In each board, you and your team members can create cards for specific tasks and track its progress.
As well as being fantastic for project management, this tool for entrepreneurs can be used for brainstorming, agenda planning, and any other list-based activities.
Pricing
Trello operates a “freemium model”. The free tier provides all the functionalities you’ll need as a small startup team.
When it’s time to upgrade they offer a “Business Class” model for $9.99 per user per month, which unlocks additional admin & security features, integrations and automation.
2. Google Workspace — Formerly G Suite
Google Workspace is Google’s suite of apps. It’s one of the dream tools for entrepreneurs for its many, unparalleled benefits.
Gmail
It all starts with Gmail, arguably the most popular email client in the world. When you upgrade Gmail through Google Workspace, you get an enhanced version of the client, and the ability to create email addresses with your business domain.
Google Calendar
Organisation is key to successful entrepreneurship. And google calendar is one of those tools many of us couldn’t live without.
One of the great things about using Google Calendar with a Google Workspace subscription is the ability to create multiple calendars that are accessible by everyone in your company.
So whether it’s setting deadlines, company-wide reminders or scheduling calls, you can keep your team up to date from one shared source of truth.
Drive, Docs, Sheets & Slides
Google’s version of Microsoft Office 365, Drive offers a one-stop-shop to create, save & share documents, spreadsheets & presentations.
With the ability to edit as a team in real-time, It’s a tool we use at Altar.io every day.
Whether you’re writing blog content, crunching the numbers, drafting website copy or creating a presentation for your next investment pitch, Google Workplace makes it simple and easy to collaborate as a team.
Google Meet
In the age of the video call, Google Meet is invaluable. It’s easy to integrate with Google Calendar, it offers screen sharing, video & audio recording (on mid-tier plans and above) and is accessible on iOS and Android devices.
A major benefit of Google Meet is that it’s included in the Google Workspace price, so you don’t have to pay a separate fee just for video conferencing.
Pricing
Google Workplace start’s at $6 per user per month on their Business Starter plan. For $6 you get 100 participant video meetings, 30GB cloud storage per user & 24/7 support.
The most popular subscription, however, is Business Standard.
It’s double the price at $12 per user per month. But enables you to record video meetings (with up to 150 participants) and gives you a whopping 2TB of cloud storage per user.
At 18$ per user per month, you can upgrade to Business Plus which unlocks 250 participant video meetings + recording and attendance tracking, as well as 5TB of cloud storage per user.
They also offer an Enterprise plan which adds noise cancellation and in-domain live streaming to Google Meet and as much storage per user as you need per user.
3. MailChimp
MailChimp is one of the markets leading email tools for entrepreneurs.
Email marketing is a time-tested strategy for both B2B & B2C companies. And MailChimp makes it easy to create professional, well-designed newsletters. So all you need to focus on is the copy.
Pricing
The free version gives you all the tools you need to grow your audience. This includes a website builder with built-in marketing tools and integrations.
The premium versions, starting at $9.99/month open the door to email templates, custom branding, A/B testing and 24/7 support.
4. Google Analytics
Google Analytics helps you track the incoming traffic to your website. It’s by far one of the most useful marketing tools for entrepreneurs.
Essentially, it allows you to see what’s working and what’s not. This crucial information can help you create better marketing campaigns and increase your conversion rate.
Pricing
Google Analytics is free as long as one of your website pages doesn’t exceed 5M impressions per month.
5. Hubspot CRM
Hubspot is one of the most popular customer relationship management platforms on the market.
Hubspot centralises your contacts and offers a range of features that make expediting sales and marketing workflows convenient and easy.
One of the reasons Hubspot is so popular is because of its shallow learning curve. It’s extremely easy to use and isn’t as complex as other CRM alternatives.
Pricing
The free version of Hubspot offers a powerful range of tools that will help you build landing pages and manage your contacts & website activity — to name but two.
At $50 per month, you can upgrade to the marketing and sales starter bundle unlocking additional features including ad retargeting, reporting dashboards & automations.
6. Slack
Slack is one of the go-to tools for entrepreneurs and their teams. The communication tool makes it easy to reach out to your colleagues in both group conversations and direct messages.
Features include the ability to create channels, to organise discussion by topic, voice calls and video calls (for premium users). One of the benefits of using Slack is its integration with other tools (such as Trello & Google Workplace)
For example, if a colleague shares a file with you via google drive, Slack will notify you the moment it happens. Or allow you to edit tasks on Trello directly from Slack.
Slack offers apps for iOS, Android, PC & Mac. It can also be used directly from the browser.
Pricing
Slack offers a free plan for teams of any size, allowing you an archive of up to 10k recent messages, 10 integrations and 1:1 voice and video calls with teammates.
For $6.67 per active user per month, you get the full archive of chats, unlimited integrations and group voice and video calls of up to 15 people.
If you choose Slack’s Plus subscription you will gain access to advanced identity management and 24/7 support. The Plus subscription comes in at $12.50 per active user per month.
7. Zoom
Zoom has quickly become one of the most used communication tools for entrepreneurs on the planet.
It offers video and web conferencing, cross-platform messaging and file-sharing features. It supports screen sharing, recording and HD audio & visual quality.
Pricing
Zoom is free for 40-minute group meetings with up to 100 participants. On the free plan, you can also host 1:1 meetings with no time limit.
Zoom’s Pro plan starts at $14.99 per license per month. On this plan, the time cap on group meetings is removed. You also get 1GB of cloud recording per license and the ability to stream in social media.
8. Notion
From note-taking to kanban boards, Notion is one of the best all-in-one tools for entrepreneurs.
It’s adaptable to any type of team from software development and design to marketing and HR.
The only notable downside to Notion is that it can be tough to get started. That being said there’s a huge community of users all with tips and tricks on how to get going.
Pricing
Notion provides everything you need to get organised for free, with a Personal Pro plan starting at $4 per month.
Their Team plan starts at $8 per member per month and includes unlimited team members and a collaborative workspace.
9. LinkedIn
LinkedIn is one of the best tools for entrepreneurs to build their professional network.
It enables entrepreneurs an unprecedented ability to locate and connect with a variety of stakeholders. Investors, employees, partners, customers are all with reach for practically zero cost.
Pricing
LinkedIn is completely free to use but offers several premium plans.
Arguably the best premium plan for entrepreneurs is their Business plan. It gives you access to InMail messages allowing you to contact anyone even if you’re not connected. As well as profile views and business insights.
10. Canva
Canva is an easy-to-use, no experience required graphic design platform. It’s one of the essential tools for entrepreneurs looking to create graphic elements for everything from social media to infographics.
It’s a simple, drag-and-drop tool that offers a library of over one million photos, graphic elements and fonts.
Pricing
Canva is committed to being free to use, forever. On the free plan, you gain access to 250k+ templates and over 100 design types. You will also get 5GB of cloud storage and the ability to invite members to your team.
The Pro version is $12.95 a month for up to five people. The Pro plan allows you to create a brand kit, with custom fonts and logos. It also gives you access to 420k free templates, 100GB of cloud storage and over 75M stock photos, videos and graphics.
You can also schedule and publish social media content to seven platforms, directly from Canva.
11. Miro
Miro is one of the go-to tools for entrepreneurs for collaboration. The digital whiteboard is a must-have for any teams working remotely.
It allows teams to brainstorm together in real-time. With features like pre-built templates, freeform digital pens and wireframing — all built on an “infinite canvas” you can keep throwing out ideas until you find your diamond.
Pricing
The free version of Miro allows you to have unlimited team members and up to three editable boards. It includes all the premade templates and board integrations.
Starting at 8$ a month, the premium features include unlimited boards, project organisation. Custom template, Kanban frameworks, remote meetings toolkit, and much more.
12. ClickFunnels
ClickFunnels is a landing page builder that focuses on building a sales funnel for your business.
It boasts an easy-to-use drag-and-drop editor, A/B testing capabilities and integrations to email and payment platforms.
As tools for entrepreneurs go, this one has proven extremely popular. In the words of Forbes, ClickFunnels is “silently revolutionizing the online marketing industry.”
It’s easy to use and focuses on making you money.
Pricing
ClickFunnels offers a 14-day free trial, with pricing starting at $97 per month. With this option, you can build up to 20 funnels across 100 pages and up to three domains.
$297 will get you unlimited funnels across unlimited pages, with the ability to connect to up to nine domains.
13. Quora
Quora is one of the most popular Q&A platforms on the web. It’s quickly become one of the best tools for entrepreneurs to ask their target users questions, and drive business growth.
Many entrepreneurs leverage Quora by:
- Asking customers to post questions related to their product, so it’s seen by a larger community.
- Identifying topics relevant to their business
- Using quora as a customer support & marketing platform
Pricing
Quora is free to use and offers advertising on a CPC bidding system.
14. Adobe XD
Adobe XD is a vector-based design tool for websites and apps.
This user-experience design tool is quickly becoming one of the most popular on the market for wireframing and prototyping. One of the reasons for this is the easy to use interface and cross-platform support Adobe offers.
Pricing
Adobe XD starts at $9.99 for professionals and small teams. However, as it is part of the Adobe Creative Cloud you can choose to subscribe to full-suite of apps (including Photoshop & Illustrator) for $52.99 a month.
15. Sketch
A competitor to Adobe XD, Sketch is a digital design tool for mobile, wearable & web apps and icon design.
Sketch is currently the leading tool for UX/UI design. It can be used for everything from prototyping and wireframing to creating vector illustrations and social media images.
Pricing
Sketch offers a free 30-day trial. Once you’ve completed the trial you can buy a personal license at a one-time fee of $99.
If you plan to use Sketch as a team, it will set you back $99 per year per contributor.
16. Optimizely
Optimizely is “the world’s leading experience optimization platform.”
It has a long list of features, for everything from product & marketing to Engineering and Data. But one of the most popular is its A/B testing feature.
Optimizely allows you to easily collect and track data through their platform as you carry out A/B testing.
Pricing
Optimizely’s Pricing plans are available on request.
Other Essential Tools for Entrepreneurs
There’s a sea of tools for entrepreneurs out there. Here are a few that the entrepreneurs I reached out to didn’t mention — but can undoubtedly add value to your workday.
- Asana
- Calendly
- Buffer
- Hunter.io
- WordPress
Asana
Asana, like Trello, is a project management tool for entrepreneurs and businesses.
There is a steeper learning curve with Asana than Trello. That being said Asana offers some more powerful tools for delegating tasks and managing multiple projects.
It comes down to taste. Asana also offers a freemium model, so there’s no harm in trying out both to determine which is better for your startup, before implementing it.
Pricing
Asana’s basic model is free for up to 15 people and will give you everything you need as a small team.
The premium plan will set you back $10.99 per user per month (billed annually) and offers advanced reporting, project timelines, dashboards and more.
Moving to the Business plan will get you everything in the premium plan plus portfolios and advanced integrations. The business plan comes in at $24.99 per user per month (billed annually)
As with many of the tools for entrepreneurs in this list, Asana offers an enterprise model for a more customisable plan, with prices on request.
Calendly
Calendly allows you to easily schedule meetings by simply sharing a link, and has quickly become one of the must-have tools from entrepreneurs.
Calendly’s simple yet effective interface allows you to sync multiple calendar accounts and block out the hours you’re available.
When a meeting is booked it sends out an automatic invite to both parties. The tool can integrate with several major video conferencing apps (including Zoom).
More than this, you can create a widget of your calendar and include it on your website, so potential clients can book a call with ease.
Pricing
The basic feature is free and includes all the features needed to set up one on one meetings.
The premium version, starting at $8 a month, allows you to book group events, pooled availability options for teams and add custom branding to calendly widgets.
Buffer
Buffer allows you to take your social media game to the next level.
It’s one of the best tools for entrepreneurs looking to easily schedule, publish and analyse social media content.
Buffer integrates with Instagram, Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn & Pinterest.
Pricing
When signing up to Buffer you will be asked to start a 14-day free trial for one of their paid plans. However, after the trial, you may downgrade to the free basic account.
The free plan allows you to schedule 10 posts a month across three social channels of your choice.
For $15 a month, you can schedule 100 posts across eight channels.
For $65 a month, you can schedule 2,000 posts across eight channels.
For $99 a month, you can schedule 2,000 posts across 25 channels.
Hunter.io
Hunter.io allows you to discover business emails quickly and easily.
By simply inputting a company name into the search bar, Hunter.io will find any email address associated with the URL.
This is one of the most powerful tools for entrepreneurs to connect with relevant contacts. Hunter.io has over 200 million indexed email addresses in its database and offers a handy chrome extension for free.
Pricing
Hunter.io is free for up to 50 searches a month.
The premium plans start at $49 per month and allow you to increase your searches per month, depending on the plan. They also offer premium features such as bulk domain search.
WordPress
WordPress is the worlds most popular website builder and CMS on the market, powering around 38% of the internet. All companies need a website, from startup to enterprise. And if you plan to build yours yourself, WordPress is a must-have tool.
WordPress offers social sharing features, design customisation, SEO tools and a vast range of widgets and plugins. It is the ideal place to start generating online traffic easily and cheaply
Pricing
It’s free to get started with WordPress, with premium plans starting at $8 a month. This plan allows you access to custom design tools and a custom domain name.
If you choose to upgrade to the business plan (at $25 a month, you gain access to 200GB of storage and the list of features becomes immense.
Wrapping Up
From writing content and publishing a website to keeping your schedule organised and staying in touch with your team, there is a tool on this list that can make your life easier.
They help you focus on what matters. Turning your vision into reality and building a successful business.
How about you? What tools do you use regularly that feel like lifesavers? Drop me a message and let me know.
And By The Way,
I’m the Head of Content at Altar.io — a team of experienced second-time founders & world-class developers and product talents based in London and Lisbon. We help startups and corporates to build great tech products.
If you have a brilliant idea that you want to bring to life — drop us a message and let’s chat!
Thanks for reading,
Jamie
