I’m a firm believer in dividing work smartly. So when someone else has a product, at the right price, that can give you more time to focus on the important stuff, it’s a win-win. When it’s cheap or free, the decision is even easier — you can try it and discard if it’s not useful!
Luckily in the context of building a web startup there are a plethora of tools available, but just staying aware of what’s out there can help you make better decisions about what to tackle yourself, and what to try to grab off the shelf.
Here are some tools that I have used personally (not in rank order, btw) in the last year:
Brainstorming / Mindmaps
1. mindmeister.com – great when you’re rambling off lots of ideas in lots of directions and you want to write them down and group them somewhere for later reference
Checking Names (yes, a decent, memorable, spellable, and pronounceable name can be helpful!)
2. nxdom.com – search recently expired domain name lists for names that start with or end with certain words
3. ud.com – checks domain names and popular social networks for reserved name availability all at once
Prototyping user interfaces
4. balsamiq.com – throw together screen concepts to help communicate your idea to others
Screen sharing, conferencing, feedback
5. vyew.com – great for getting feedback remotely . . vyew even lets you mark up a screen shot collaboratively
Project Planning and Story/Task tracking
6. Pivotal Tracker - Prioritize, Prioritize, Prioritize. Drag-and-drop prioritization and automatic velocity calculations to help you improve your estimates.
Usability testing
7. usertesting.com – cheap independent feedback on your web site which includes video-capture of user using the site and talking out-loud about their reactions.
Cross-browser,email testing
8. litmusapp.com – screenshots of a url in a laundry list of browsers, cross-email client testing too!
Build and keep in contact with your following
9. madmimi – build that initial e-mail list and keep in contact with a newsletter, or announcements
Price-scalable hosting
10. appengine – pay for what you use, for most apps it’s free until traction
Gathering feedback / mkt. research
11. survey.io – broad swath feedback on what people think of your product/value.
12. ask500people.com – poll general web population for opinion – i.e. – find out which logo people like better, etc
If there’s something you feel should be on the list and particularly if you have used it personally, please chime in!
Posted by matt 
