Best Software for Start-Ups

Creating a start-up in 2021 has many benefits when compared to years gone by. The advent of social media allows you to reach a larger audience, services like Skype and Microsoft Teams can connect you to those across the globe, and Amazon Web Services lets you build databases and APIs without the need for your own hardware. However, given the wide range of software and services available, it can be difficult to find what suits you best. In an attempt to help your search for software, I will share with you the software we at Receipt Relay use and why.

Asana

Asana is an online team management platform where team members and projects can be tracked and managed with ease. A new project can be daunting, and without proper organisation can easily fall apart. Its here where Asana really shines, projects can be broken down into sub-tasks and allocated to your team members, with or without deadlines. Additional features like Insights allow you to see what areas of the team or of the project are holding you back from your goals. All of this information is presented in a clean and intuitive user interface, reducing the chance you'll miss anything of importance. If you're in the market for a team management platform, I would highly recommend Asana, for a small start-up team its free package is more than enough to get your projects in check.

Skype

While the world may have moved on from Skype, here at Receipt Relay we still use it as our main form of communication. Still not convinced? Well lets compare it to Zoom and Microsoft Teams. Zoom charges for calls above 40 minutes for non-premium users, which proves to be annoying if every scheduling meetings or introduction calls. To us, we would rather not have the impending 40 minute time limit hanging over our heads on each call. Microsoft Teams on the other hand does not limit your call time, and even allows you to share documents among team members. However, in our experience we have had a number of issues with Microsoft Teams, ranging from cameras not working, to meeting crashes, and latency issues when crystal clear connection was had among all participants. Eventually we may move to Teams, though Skype has yet to present any of these issues, so until then it will be our service of choice.

Google Drive

If you haven't heard of Google Drive, then I suggest putting the rock you were under on Airbnb as a solitude retreat. Google Drive is perfect for file sharing and online storage, with 15GB of free storage and an intuitive user interface there's really no beating it. e

Google Forms

Sticking with Google, have you ever heard of Google Forms? If not, Google Forms is an online survey platform where you can run opinion polls, event registration and even quizzes. The results of each can easily be collected and viewed live online, or exported as a spreadsheet for more in depth analysis. It has a very simple learning curve and once mastered can be a valuable asset. For a quick introduction to Forms check out the video here. Here at Receipt Relay we have used Google Forms to run surveys among Irish consumers and vendors. If you're looking to gain some market insight or poll potential customers, look no further than Google Forms.

In conclusion, those software mentioned above are the ones we choose to rely on day after day, and they have yet to let us down. While I would highly recommend doing your own research into the competitors offers, let this blog post be a starting point in your start-up software journey.