StartupResources.io — Issue #105
It’s Friday, so guess who’s back? Jói! Except, last Friday, I wasn’t. Did you notice? I didn’t, not until Saturday. I was having a little break for the Easter weekend with my family, and I had planned to set aside some time to put together the newsletter, but I guess I was having too much fun and completely forgot.
Surprisingly, the world didn’t end, but I’m not taking the chance by forgetting a second Friday in a row, so I’m back now with an extra-large edition.
Tool of the week
Gravit Designer | Like Illustrator in the cloud
I love tools like Canva that let me throw out some graphics quickly, but if you need more power than that, Gravit Designer is a completely free tool that you can use online or install on your computer, that covers most of what something like Adobe Illustrator or Inkscape can do.
Tools discovered recently
LessChurn | Reduce churn by giving options — lesschurn.io
Running a subscription service or SaaS? LessChurn is an interesting product that helps reduce your churn by giving your users other options right before they delete their account.
Woodpecker.co | Cold emailing tool not just for Gmail — woodpecker.co
This is a cold email & follow-up automation tool. Works with Gmail, Outlook and any IMAP server. Free trial.
Plann3r | Multi-party calendar planning — plann3r.com
This is similar to something like Calendly, but designed for multi-party event planning. Probably more suited to planning internal meetings than client meetings, or planning meetings with a 7-person buyer team at one of your huge enterprise customers 😎 Freemium.
Landscape | Streamlined Image Resizing for Social Media — sproutsocial.com
Landscape is a free image resizing tool designed to help social media marketers, content creators and business owners. Drop an image in and get it resized to the standard social media sizes. Free.
Funnelytics | Map and Analyze Your Marketing Funnels
This is a free tool to map and analyze your marketing funnels. Once you sign up there is also an offer for a lifetime deal on a set of templates and videos that analyze existing funnels out there. Looks interesting for folks creating all lkinds of sales funnels.
ipdata.co | IP Geolocation and Data API — ipdata.co
Get various data including geolocation, currency, timezone, and more based on an IP address using this API. Freemium, 1500 free requests per day.
Proofy | Email verifier — proofy.io
Another tool you can use through an API, or alternatively as a bulk checker, this one lets you verify email addresses to reduce bounce rates and improve deliverability. Starting at $3 to check 500 emails, with 50 free checks to try it out.
Articles for this week
How to build a Cockroach Startup (instead of a Unicorn) — medium.com
Favorite quote: “A startup is by default a failing business until you make it profitable.” I’m a little biased as I’m a big fan of bootstrapping, but I think this is a really good article.
3 Ways to Use an Email Referral System to Grow Your List — www.paved.com
Brief discussion of three tactics for growing your email list by referrals. I’ve been thinking about running some kind of t-shirt giveaway or similar for referrals, although I’m a bit concerned about whether this would bring quality signups (readers who actually care, and actually read the newsletter) or mostly just peoples’ alternate email addresses. What’s your take?
The Best Checklist App Ever Created? 13 Tools To Try Today — www.process.st
I love productivity apps. What about you? Here’s a brief overview of 13 different tools you might want to try for keeping track of things.
How to build a press list that gets you coverage — medium.com
There are plenty of PR tools out there that claim to solve every problem for you, but if you want to just do it yourself, here’s a handy guide.
If You’re Going to Test Your Business Idea Make Sure You Do It Right. — entrepreneurshandbook.co
A guide on how to test a business idea using a landing page. Have you tried this? Would love to know how it went!
The product launch playbook: 25 tips and strategies for a flawless launch | Planio — plan.io
Good set of tips and strategies to help with your launch.
That’s it for this issue
Hope you enjoyed this super-sized issue. I’ll be back next week, I promise.
Cheers,
Jói
P.S. This newsletter is made possible by CrankWheel — screen sharing for inside sales and telesales teams. Try out the free-for-life plan!