What are the best free resources for a startup?

Question's focus is: free + resource = value

So, far there have been a lot of answers related to software, have any other suggestions?

Examples: Books, Trial Services, etc.

Bootstrapped Resources Books Free

asked Oct 16 '10 at 23:21

Blunders .
899 points

what do you mean by resources ? Do you mean material to read up on for knowledge and advice or do you mean sites and software for your operations ? – Sherif Buzz 14 years ago
Try this question as well - possible duplicate. http://answers.onstartups.com/questions/4322/useful-free-or-low-cost-software-applications-for-business – Tim J 14 years ago

7 Answers

Microsoft BizSpark Microsoft tools and software for free.

It allows startups to get a foot in the door without ridiculous, upfront costs. In fact, there is no cost for the first year.

answered Oct 17 '10 at 00:17

Joe Philllips
221 points

**@Joe Philllips:** Yeah, I've seen that too -- but the long-term vender lock-in to a MS system never seemed like a good idea. Really don't know of any existing MS product that can't be replaced with an open source version. That said, if someone has a lot of experience using MS products - I'd say use them and then three months before the year is up do an eval to decide if sticking to MS is worth it. Thanks for posting!! – Blunders . 14 years ago
Choosing a platform or toolset based solely on cost is not a good idea - make the decision based on how well it does the job, how much savings it gives you in terms of time, etc. Total cost of ownership of a "free" product can many times be more than a paid product. – Tim J 14 years ago
**@Tim:** Yes, I know. My point was aimed at MS's core products, not all closed-vs-open source products. Also, I covered the number two factor in TCO, that being labor, and stated that if you got experience with MS, just go with it - then do an evals later. – Blunders . 14 years ago
Also @blunders, if you are a startup and don't spend the time to work through the MS partnership hoops to become at least a Certified partner, you are missing out. Take a look at the pile of software that you get for the $1495/year. Sure, BizSpark is a gateway drug, but the final subscription that you __should__ transition to isn't bad either. – Larry Smithmier 14 years ago
Bizspark now also gives you free Windows Azure hosting too. – Steve 11 years ago

Google Apps (Email, document sharing, hosting, forms)
FreshBooks (Invoicing)
MailChimp (Email marketing)
Unbounce (Landing pages)
Skype (Video calling, online phone)
Express versions of Visual Studio and
MS SQL (Development tools)
Getting Real (Book from 37 signals)
SurveyMonkey (Surveys)

All of the tools above are offered free, some of them have a more advanced version that it is not free. These are all great tools and I use most of them often - no complains.

answered Oct 17 '10 at 08:59

Ricardo
4,815 points

Some essential tools:

http://dropbox.com (storage)
http://markup.io (screen shots)
http://screenr.com (screencasts)

answered Oct 17 '10 at 07:19

Jeff Epstein
1,532 points

**@Jeff Epstein:** All nice tools, thanks for posting! – Blunders . 14 years ago

Free books:

Hubspot's internet marketing eBooks
Unbounce's conversion optimization eBooks: 101 Landing Page Optimization Tips, Using Twitter to enhance, promote and measure your landing page campaigns
Neil Davidson's software pricing eBook (highly recommend)
IRS Publications (You need to know what you are looking for on the IRS website, but for a more managable, small business oriented list, see my blog post Top 15 IRS Resources for Small Businesses )
The Gutenberg Project (Over 33,000 free ebooks for download available)
Your local library (One of my favorite resources)
Also see Best Places to Get Free Books – The Ultimate Guide

Free tools/software:

Trac for ticket tracking/wiki with subversion integration (highly recommend)
Subversion for version control (highly recommend)
Hubspot's grader tools
Uservoice and Getsatisfaction
Google Analytics
SEO rank checker tools: See this question, WooRank (thanks to Slatecaster )

Free images For blogs:

answered Oct 18 '10 at 01:58

Zuly Gonzalez
9,194 points

Wordpress is a pretty amazing application for blogs and website creation.

answered Oct 17 '10 at 00:47

Mark Stephens
976 points

**@mark stephens:** Agree. It's by far the most popular CMS, and if you're using it for blogs it's the way to go. – Blunders . 14 years ago

google voice is a good one

answered Oct 17 '10 at 09:11

Tim J
8,346 points

**@Tim:** Yep, like Google Voice too, although I wish they won't lockout phone numbers from creating new accounts... :-) – Blunders . 14 years ago

I'm a huge fan of Followup.CC. It's free and easy - all you do is BCC an address like "[email protected]," and the system will automatically send you a reminder on Monday at 7am. You can also add details, like "[email protected]" and it will follow up on Nov 7 at 1:23pm.

answered Oct 18 '10 at 22:26

Josh Sam Bob
1,578 points