There are never enough hours in the day for entrepreneurs, but there are lots of online resources for getting your business off the ground and keeping it going. Here are a few that will help you get funded and streamline your workflow, so you can focus on your core mission.
Funding: Gust
Formerly known as Angelsoft, Gust is a sort of matchmaking service for startups and investors. Just fill out a profile to start connecting with future funders; the wizard will help you tailor your profile for investors in your sector. Afterwards, you can browse funders by location or industry. To date, tens of thousands of investors have put up more than $1.8 billion through Gust to fund 400,000 startups.
In addition to the free platform, you can spring for Gust Launch, a set of legal and accounting tools for incorporating and forming a business. There’s also Gust Equity Management, a platform for issuing stock and options, simulating fundraising scenarios, complying with all applicable taxes, and more.
Dozens of organizations have endorsed Gust, including the Angel Capital Association, the National Association of Seed and Venture Funds, and the World Business Angel Association.
Startup Pitch Decks
Feeling overwhelmed or uninspired when it comes to tackling your pitch deck? Try browsing real pitch decks from businesses you probably know. Think LinkedIn, Airbnb, YouTube, Buzzfeed, and similar companies. Collectively, the (former) startups on this site have raised more than $400 million.
The website shows the industry, funding round, and amount raised for each pitch deck. The detailed view even gives the name of the investor, so you can investigate who’s funded similar initiatives.
Productivity: Trello
If you’re looking for a way to manage projects without having to learn a complicated system, give Trello a try. Trello is a simple but powerful project management tool that organizes cards on boards in a Solitaire-like arrangement. Just create a card for an idea or task, then drag it to another position or list to reflect its status as your team digs in. Trello is designed for collaboration; you can add due dates, checklists, comments, and files to cards, and assign specific team members to them.
Trello notifications will keep your team up to speed on project status. Once you’ve completed a task, simply archive it, and it will always be searchable in Trello.
Trello is admittedly no-frills; it doesn’t have Gantt charts, time tracking, or reporting functionality. That may be deliberate, because the platform’s simplicity make it incredibly quick and easy to use. Even if it doesn’t have all the functionality you’d like, consider keeping it open in your browser permanently—it’s the perfect way to capture and organize your ideas, fast.
ZonePDF
ZonePDF is one of the newest and most sophisticated PDF processing sites. It offers tools for splitting PDF files apart and merging multiple PDFs all together. You can utilize the site to convert JPG, PPT, Word, and Excel files to PDF, then combine them into a single document, for example. That means you can merge screenshots with spreadsheets of sales figures or A/B testing results.
The site generates high-quality files that preserve the original document’s formatting, but its main advantage is its speed. While other PDF tools can take up to a few minutes to convert a large PDF to a JPG, ZonePDF can do it in just a few seconds.
You don’t even need…