• The Lean LaunchPad Online  Class – FREE
• How to Build a Web Startup – Lean Launchpad Edition
• How to Create a $1M Web Business – Noah Kagan

Lists of Tools from Others

• Startup Weekend tools list
• Startup Foundry tools list
• Small Business tools list
• Software Advice

Groups

• Startup Weekend – Launch a Startup in 54 hours
• Startup Monthly – Launch a Startup in a month
• Meetup – Meet people you’re interested in

• Domainr – domain name search
• GoDaddy - domain names, web hosting
• NameCheap - cheap domain names

“How Big is the Market?” Tools

• Google Trends - what are the search trends for key items
• Google Insights - breaks down the search data by location
• Facebook ads - check out the total available market

“How Do I Contact Customers?” Tools

• InfoUSA – email lists for sale
• ThomasNet – find any company

Product Launch Tools

• KickOffLabs - another viral “coming soon” landing page
• Prefinery- Beta and Launch Mgmt software

Product Demo Videos

• Apptamin – App videos and websites
• Grumo Media – product demo videos
• Loose Keys – product videos as stories
• Piehole.tv - product demo videos
• Epipheo Studios - animated product videos
• How to roll you own - Grumomedia

On-Line Advertising Platforms (SEO)

• Startup Metrics for Pirates – read this before you spend time elsewhere
• SaaS Metrics Tutorial – worth reading as well
• The Noob Guide to Online Marketing – great graphic and tutorial
• Analytics review – mixpanel vs kissmetric vs google analytics review
• Analytics blog – good analytics tutorials
• SEO for Startups – good tutorial

Web/Mobile/Social Analytics Tools

• Google Analytics – web analytics and optimizer from the borg
• Kissmetrics– actionable analytics
• GetClicky – real-time web analytics
• Leadlander – marketing automation analytics
• Seomoz – SEO and social monitoring
• Wordtracker – find the best keywords and links
• Mixpanel– real-time event tracking
  • Mixpanel Analytics Tutorials
• Webtrends – analytics and segments
• Chartbeat – website analytics for doers
• Verint – web, mobile, social, contact center analytics
• Comscore – ad agency/enterprise analytics
• Cyfe – monitor social media, analytics, marketing, sales, support
• Mention – media and social monitoring
• Geckoboard – widget-driven business dashboard

Online Marketing Suites

• HubSpot - online marketing and web analytics system
• Salesforce – marketing automation for multi-touch sales
• Acoustic – end to end marketing automation
• Zoho – free/cheap web customer relationship mgmt software
• Pipedrive – sales pipeline management
• Genoo – marketing automation software
• HootSuite – social media dashboard
• Intercom – CRM and web messaging tool for web apps

Email Marketing/Blasting

• Best email Subject-lines
• MailChimp - free basic email blast software
• Adobe For Business – email blast and mgmt software
• Constant Contact – email, event promotion, social campaigns
• Campaigner - email marketing suite
• Salesforce – social media and email marketing
• Postmark – email blast and mgmt software
• Go Daddy Digital Marketing – email blast software
• JangoMail – marketing and transactional email
• Twilio – email blast software
• GroupVine – email marketing, community engagement, surveys
• Amazon Simple Email Service (SES)  - pretty cool
• Campaign Monitor – basic email software
• Litmus – email previews and email analytics
• Emma – basic email marketing
• Postcron – schedule posts on Twitter or Facebook
• Mailjet – bulk and marketing email

Surveys

• Google Consumer Surveys
• AYTM - Ask Your Target Market
• Ethnio - Recruit real people from your website for user research
• Qualtrics – cloud-based survey, free account
• Wufoo - create contact forms, online surveys and event registrations.
• AskYourTargetMarket – market research surveys
• SurveyMonkey-  granddaddy of on-line surveys
• QuestionPro – on surveys, plus templates
• SnapSurveys – online and mobile surveys
• Amazon Mechanical Turk – you can set up a question and get answers
• PickFu – A/B testing $5 for 50 opinions
• Alchemer – free version, survey creation and data integration tools
• SmartSurvey – UK’s leading survey tool, complies with the Data Protection Act

Gamification

• Hoopla – motivate employees, increase sales productivity

Loyalty Programs

• NextBee - customer referral and loyalty programs

Collaboration

• Dropbox – free store, sync, and, share files online.
• Box – online file sharing
• LibreOffice – free wordprocessor, spreadsheet, drawing, presentation, pdf maker and database office suite
• Skype- free voice and video communication tool
• Evernote - remember everything
• Campfire – Merged with Basecamp, team collaboration
• Slideshare – share Powerpoints and docs with customers
• Goto – free screen sharing
• Ning – Create your own social network
• Doodle – online group scheduling
• Freeconferencecall.com – Free conference calls – awesome!
• Piktochart – make infographics

On-line Q&A Communities

• Stack Overflow - questions and answers for programmers
• StackExchange – expert answers to your questions
  • Programmers StackExchange
  • AskPatents StackExchange
• Social Source Commons Q&A/tools for non-profit programmers
  • Social Source blog- blog for non-profit programmers
• Quora – questions and answers for non-programmers
• Yahoo Answers - post questions, sometimes get answers

Blogging Platforms

• WordPress- king of blogging platforms…doubles as startup website
• Tumblr – another blogging platform

Wireframing Tools

• Keynotopia – use PowerPoint/Keynote to create web/mobile apps – Cool!
• Balsamiq– rapid wireframing tool. software mockups in minutes
  • Napkee - export Balsamiq Mockups to HTML/CSS/JS and Adobe Flex 3 at a click of a button
• Draw.io – draw diagrams online
• MxGraph – client side JavaScript diagramming library
• Pencil- Firefox add-on to do GUI prototyping and simple sketching
• CSS Hat – Turn Photoshop layers into CSS3
• Mockflow – online/offline, extensible wireframing tool w/design library
• OmniGraffle – it’s been around before the web even existed
• JustinMind– define web and mobile apps with interactive prototypes
• JustinMind UserNote - get user feedback/test usability
• Wirify – turn any webpage into a wireframe
• LucidChart – Cloud-based drawing tool
• InVision – UX Prototyping from jpg, .png or .gif files
• Cacoo – free online drawing tool
• Gliffy – Online Diagraming
• Keynotopia - wireframing + high fidelity (pixel perfect) prototyping tool
• Wireframing Tutorial

Web Drawing Libraries

• Paperjs - vector graphics scripting framework runs on HTML5 Canvas
• Raphael – vector graphics JavaScript library – best for older browsers
• Processingjs - vector graphics scripting framework runs on HTML5 Canvas

Website Usability Testing/Heatmaps/Mouse Tracking

• Usertesting – $39 live users testing your site – cheap
• FiveSecondTest – fine-tune landing pages
• Trymata- watch videos of users using your site
• WhatUsersDo - UK live usability testing
• Survey Monkey – Micro usability tests
• OptimalWorkshop – tool suite for remote user research
• Labs Media – heat map of a website (where do users click)

Website A/B and Landing Page Testing

• A/B Testing Tutorial - read first
• Landing Page Tutorial
• Fivesecondtest – Landing page optimization
• VisualWebSiteOptimizer - A/B testing (split tests)
• Optimizely - A/B testing (split tests)
• 37Signals Advice on A/B testing

• Twitter Bootstrap - Twitter toolkit for development of slick, intuitive webapps and sites
  • Bootsnip- - free HTML snippets for Bootstrap
  • WrapBootstrap – Themes for Bootstrap
  • Bootswatch – More themes for Bootstrap
  • Buttons for Bootstrap
• Google Web Fonts - open API of 613 web fonts
  • Google Font Pairs - how to mix fonts and finding ideal pairings
• Subtle Patterns - free tileable textured patterns
• iStock Photos - Royalty Free stock photos and images
• ColourLovers – share colors, palettes, and patterns
• Meteor - open source platform for building web apps
• ThemeForest - site templates cheap
• Microsoft WebMatrix - Web server, database, and ASP.NET and PHP
• AppMakr – Mobile Ap Creator create quick mobile apps
• EditMe - create collaborative websites
• NewRelic - manage and tune website performance for Rails
• GooglePageSpeed - optimize your web pages
• Zencoder – online video converting/encoding/transcoding service
• Google: HTML, CSS and Javascript from the Ground Up

Web Application Frameworks

• Web Application Frameworks - start here
• Comparison of Web Application Frameworks – continue here
• PHP
  • CakePHP – a PHP open source framework
  • Symfony – another PHP framework
  • Zend – yet another PHP framework
  • PHP Tutorial  and PHP Manual  and Freaks
• Python
  • Django - high-level Python framework
  • Tornado – Python framework
• Ruby
  • Ruby on Rails – open source framework for Ruby
    • Capistrano - Rails deployment tool
    • Ruby on Rails Tutorial - Michael Hartly
    • Ruby on Rails Guides - great tutorials
    • RailsCasts – Ruby on Rails Screencasts
  • Sinatra - another Ruby framework
• Node.js -  event-driven I/O server-side JavaScript environment based on V8
  • Express - web development for Node.js
• JSON - lightweight data-interchange format, subset of Javascript
• SproutCore - open-source JavaScript framework
• Drupal – open source content management platform
• Joomla – another open source content management system

Cloud Services and Tools

• Web Hosting Tutorial
• Heroku - Ruby, Node.js, Clojure, Java cloud platform - Platform as a Service
• Amazon Web Services - Amazon’s cloud solution - Infrastructure as a Service
  • Amazon Web Services very basic primer
  • Amazon CloudWatch - Monitoring for Amazon EC2 and RDS DB
  • Scalr - Tool to manage scaling servers in Amazon’s cloud.
  • Amazon EC2 developer tools
  • Amazon AWS developer tools
• Joyent – high performance cloud - Infrastructure as a Service
• Rackspace - Managed and cloud hosting- Infrastructure as a Service
• Linode - Linux virtual servers in the cloud
• Google App Engine - Googles version of a cloud solution
• Google SQL – Googles version of MySQL in the cloud’
• Windows Azure – Microsoft Cloud Platform
• Contentful – content mgmt for web & mobile apps
• Armor – secure Cloud hosting
• Wowrack – managed Cloud hosting
• Wistia – video hosting for businesses
• Splunk - Cloud Performance Mgmt
• Epicnms - flexible data collection and plots
• Engine Yard - Ruby and PHP Cloud Hosting platform
• Netflix experience in moving from datacenter to cloud

NoSQL Databases

• NoSQL list – start here
• Hadoop - distributed processing of large data sets across clusters
  • Hive - data warehouse for Hadoop
• Cassandra – scalable database no single point of failure
• Couchdb – document database
• Redis - data structure server
• MongoDb –  NoSQL database
• Riak - NoSQL database implementing Amazon’s Dynamo
• Single Store – SQL in memory

Development Tools

• Twisted – easy to implement custom network applications, event-driven networking engine written in Python
• Perl Object Environment - Perl framework for reactive systems, cooperative multitasking, and network applications
• jQuery - cross-browser JavaScript library
  • jQuery UI - official jQuery user interface library. interactions, widgets, effects
  • Javascript tutorial – jQuery
  • JSFiddle - preselect/add JavaScript frameworks and test your code
• Kodingen – cloud development environment, code editor, hosting service, collaboration platform
• CircleCi – Continuous integration and deployment tool for web apps
• TeamCity – continuous integration and unit testing, code quality analysis, pre-tested commits, reporting on build problems
• yUML – sketch uml diagrams.
• WebSequenceDiagrams -sketch sequence diagrams. automatic links to generated images
• Rietveld - asynchronous code reviews on changesets
• Fluid – turn webapps into Mac OS X apps
• TextMate – code and markup editor
• Coda - one-window web development app for the Mac
• Coderunner - Edit/run code in any programming language with a click
• SourceLair & SourceLair API- cloud coding platform C, Python, Ruby and API
• WebBiscuits – framework for web apps for smartphones and tablets
• CodeAcademy - learn to code

Project Management

• Github - Free public repositories, collaborator management, issue tracking, wikis, downloads, code review, graphs
  • Unfuddle - Git and subversion hosting
  • Bitbucket – cloud hosting for Git or Mecurial projects
• Mercurial – free, distributed source code control management system
  • Bitbucket - free code hosting site for Mercurial
• Kanban Tools
  • Kanban Tool – Another Kanban tool
  • KanbanFlow – free Kanban tool
  • Swift-Kanban - enterprise Kanban
• Scrum Tools
  • Telerik -Scrum and Kanban
  • Broadcom - Automates Agile / Scrum development
  • YoDiz - agile/scrum tool, issue tracking
  • digital.ai – agile product management and Scrum tool
  • Axosoft – provides bug tracking, scrum project management
  • Acunote – Agile project management and Scrum
• Basecamp- web-based project management and collaboration tool
• Trello - team collaboration around “boards”
• Planview - cloud project management tool
• ChiliProject - web based project management
• Preceden - simple way to make timelines for presentations
• Intervals - time tracking and task management
• Asana - shared task list for your team
• Teambox -combines social networking and project management
• Milestone Planner - planner for deadline/outcome driven environments
• 5pm – Online project management tool
• GoPlan – collaborative project management
• Unfuddle -hosted project management solution for software teams
• Lighthouse – Issue Tracking Tool
• Toggl Trak – time tracking tool
• Tabb – online time mgmt and to-do
• Jira – Bug, Issue and Project tracking tool
• Kantata - manage project communications, documents, schedules, budgets, payments
• Industrial Logic – Agile eLearning

Web Server Stress Testing

• Jmeter - java-based server load testing
• Tourbus - ruby website load testing tool

Digital Asset Management

• MediaValet – for agencies, creatives, enterprise
• Celum – digital and video asset mgmt.
• Canto Cumulus – digital asset mgmt
• ThirdLight - digital asset mgmt

Billing/Subscription Management/E-Store

• Square - accept credit cards from ipad/iphone/android
• Stripe - accept credit cards on the web
• Maxio - Recurring billing without the headaches
• Recurly - Subscription billing
• Paypal – the standard for payment
• Enterprise Payments - online credit card merchant processing
• Aria - online billing platform
• Shopify – create an online store
• EStoreApp - a webstore in 5 minutes
• Vindicia - on demand billing and fraud management
• Volusion – shopping cart software
• CheddarGetter - online recurring billing
• Spreedly - sell subscriptions on your site. signup, upgrade, trial pricing
• Zuora - online subscription management
• FeeFighters - find the cheapest credit card processors
• HealPay - Collections made easy

Customer Support/Feedback

• Tender - support, knowledgebase tool for your site
• Zendesk – web help software
• Clickdesk – Help desk, live chat, social toolbar
• SnapEngage - live chat integrates with your apps
• Freshdesk – completely unique never seen before web help software
• Kayako – Help desk
• UserVoice - turn customer feedback into action
• Medallia – turn customer feedback into sales and relationships
• Olark - live customer chat and customer loyalty
• Salesforce - Support customers by Web, email, chat, and social networks
• Vision Helpdesk - Support for multiple companies from one place
• OneDesk – ideation to delivery and support issues, tickets, tasks
• HappyFox – collate, categorize and respond to all requests
• HelpSpot – Helpdesk software
• Webengage – website survey, feedback and notification tool

Recruiting Tools

• JobVite – recruiting software, applicant tracking
• Zoho Recruit – applicant tracking
• JazzHr - applicant tracking and social recruiting
• Trakstar Hire - recruitment software, applicant tracking
• Zartis – social recruiting
• VidCruiter – video interview software
• LinkedIn – the uber connector

Misc Office Help

• Grasshopper – virtual phone system
• Ringio – cloud phone system
• RingCentral – cloud based phone system
• Freedom Voice and FreedomIQ - $3.95 800 #’s, hosted VoIP telephony
• InDinero – easy business finance software
• gusto – delightful employee payroll software
• Expensify – billing, expenses, receipts
• BambooHR - Employee Records, Benefit Information, Payroll Data, etc.
• pandadoc – create, deliver and negotiate proposals online

Outsourcing/Freelance Help

• Amazon Mechanical Turk - set up any task and get answers
• upwork - find/hire freelancers, hire low-cost international engineering talent
• Freelancer - outsourcing for small business

Manufacturing Resources

• Digikey - Electronic components distributor that offers products including semiconductors, passives and interconnects.
• Custom Circuit Boards  - Printed circuit board manufacturer (USA) for prototype and production quantities
• Alibaba.com
• GlobalSources.com
• Smart China Sourcing

__________

Market Research Tools

• ScreenClip – Camera for the web/great research clippings
• Private “pay for market research” firms
  

• Gartner, Yankee - IT
• Frost & Sullivan – mulitple industries
• IQVIA –  health care

Your local business school, should have a subscription to some or all of these

• Public or University library Resources:
  • Standard & Poor’s Industry Surveys
  • Encyclopedia of Emerging Industries, Gale Research
  • Encyclopedia of American Industries, Gale Research
  • Encyclopedia of Associations, Gale Research (find Trade Associations)
  • Harris InfoSource Business Directory
  • Lifestyle Market Analyst, SRDS – used for collecting psychographic data

  Market Research Resources Online

  • Edsurge – educational software
  • Alexa – competitive website info
  • Silicon Valley Bank Analytics
  • SEC EDGAR – research on public U.S. firms
  • Thomas – find any company in any industry
  • BizStats.com – free business statistics and financial ratios
  • U.S. Bureau of the Census
  • EASI – estimated demographic statistics within a user-specified radii for any address
  • Claritas – psychographic information and analysis of zip code areas
  • Standard and Poors – Industry Surveys
  • NVCA – venture capital industry data
  • Chemical Industry data
  • FDA News – medical device and drug data/news
  • Asymco – great market intelligence blog

__________

Starting and Running a Startup Advice

Entrepreneurship Reading List

• Books for Startups my favorite business books.

Entrepreneurship Online

• Stanford Entrepreneurship Corner

Angel/SuperAngel Investors

• Venture Hacks Angel List – raise money with angel investors
• Gust – Platform for Startup Funding

Crowdfunding

• Kickstarter - crowdfunding
• Indiegogo – crowdfunding
• CoFoundersLab – crowd funding

Best Startup Advice

• Tom Eisenmann Platform & Networks – Harvard Business School
• Uber list of Startup Resources – Legal, Equity, etc. – Bottom Line Law Group

Founder Equity Issues

• Fred Wilson Advice and spreadsheet
• Intro to Stock and Options – David Weekly
• Venture Hacks equity section
• Awesome Valuation/Equity Calculator - OwnYourVenture
• Splitting the Founders Pie - Frank Demmler
• Valuation on Revenue – Bill Gurley Above the Crowd

Executive / Advisory Board Compensation

• Comp Study – Executive Compensation Website- unbelievably useful
• SaaS Sales Team Compensation – Philippe Botteri, Bessemer Venture Partners
• VentureHacks on Startup Advisory Boards – great basics

Public Relations (PR) For Tech Companies

• How to get media coverage - Leo Widrich

Finance 101 for Entrepreneurs

• MBA Mondays – Fred Wilson’s Tutorials

Lawyers/Legal

• Yoichiro “Yokum” Taku – Startup Company Lawyer
• Orrick – Startup Legal Tool Kit
• Goodwin, Proctor – Founders Workbench
• Law & Disorder: ARS Technica Legal Blog
• Likelihood of Confusion-trademark, copyright and Internet Law
• Technology & Marketing Law Blog
• American Bar Association Best Legal Blogs
• Music Law – one of the best legal blogs period. Read all of it.

List of Investment Platforms

• CapLinked - manage and close business transactions

Must Read Blogs

• Best Blogs Every Entrepreneur should read
• Fred Wilson – A VC
• SK Murphy
• Marc Andreessen
• Hacker News
• Chris Dixon
• Both Sides of the Table – Mark Suster
• 37signals
• Eric Ries – Startup Lessons Learned
• Venture Hacks and http://twitter.com/venturehacks
• Andrew Chen
• Venture Made Transparent