29 software platforms I use to grow my business ($30/month budget)

I thought it would be fun to share all the software platforms I use at my business. 28/29 have completely free plans - you don't have to pay at all. For full transparency, I pay $30 / month for Ghost (for my blog; more on that later). I include links for each one!

I broke them out into different functional categories:

1. Outbound Marketing
2. Inbound Marketing
3. Social
4. Content Creation
5. Community
6. Newsletter
7. Analytics
8. Surveys & Feedback
9. UX/UI
10. Product Management
11. Payment
12. (What I'm building)

1/ Apollo (email database)

Once you have your ideal customer profile, you can use Apollo to filter and find emails, LinkedIn profiles, and contacts. Export as CSV or hook it up to your email automation platform for outbound marketing. Pretty straightforward! Here's the link: https://www.apollo.io/pricing

2/ Sendgrid (email automation)

Sendgrid integrates directly with Apollo and allows you to automatically send up to 300 emails per day. Make sure you don't go over your limit! The integration is not that easy to do, but it's possible. There are docs online, but LMK if you need help! https://sendgrid.com/pricing/

3/ OnceHub (automatic, dynamic calendar booking)

OnceHub allows you to create automatic booking pages that dynamically sync with your calendar of choice. It's free and allows you to manage resource pools (e.g. your teammates or cofounders). Helps with scaling any in-person meeting scheduling flows: https://oncehub.com/pricing

4/ Ghost (I pay $30 / month for the custom themes)

Ghost is the best option for setting up an SEO-optimized blog. The monthly costs are worth it because Ghost sites are more lightweight than free alternatives like WordPress. It took me years to figure out this is the best way: https://ghost.org/pricing/

5/ Medium

Once you have a blog set up on Ghost, you can easily import finished blogs directly to Medium by simply copying/pasting the URL into the import panel. The articles carry over all text very well. Easy canonical link + repurpose for new audiences - https://medium.com/

6/ Gumroad

Gumroad is king for getting emails fast if you need them. You can create a freebie (e.g. Kahana hub templates, Notion templates, PDFs related to your project) and "duplicate" to build a "product line" fast. Give Gumroad +90% of sales and boost visibility on the Discover page

My Gumroad store of freebies: https://kahana.gumroad.com/

7/ Indie Hackers

If you're reading this, you already know! 😉 Indie Hackers is where I go to learn from people who have been there and done that. There are some veterans who will share unbelievably helpful advice. You can also get feedback on landing pages, products, and strategies just by asking nicely.

8/ Product Hunt

Product Hunt lets discover new products that can enhance your workflow. You can create your own product page that people can follow and comment on. I use it differently than many because I ship updates so often, but here's my brand's page for example [https://www.producthunt.com/products/kahana]

9/ Twitter

Twitter - just a place to connect, tweet stuff, and engage with people

My Twitter: https://twitter.com/adam_kershner

10/ LinkedIn

LinkedIn is a great place to share every blog article you write, plus company/project updates. An optimized personal profile on LinkedIn functions as a sales landing page for potential customers. You can also create a company LinkedIn page and invite people to follow it!

My LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/adam-kershner/

11/ Canva (I pay $12.99 / mo)

Canva is a wonderful platform for designing content. You don't have to be a pro to use it and it has a lot of wonderful templates. I made the image of this thread in Canva! [https://www.canva.com/pricing/]

12/ OpenAI

OpenAI (ChatGPT) is a great tool for generating content ideas, transcribing messy notes into blog sections, and more. You can feed it information to teach it about your space, then simply request blog posts, tweets, LinkedIn posts, and more. [https://chat.openai.com/chat]

13/ Grammarly

Grammarly is so good that I forget I have it. I make a typo every time I put my fingers on a keyboard, and so often Grammarly corrects my mistakes. The browser plugin is an amazing tool for proofreading and quickly editing content: https://www.grammarly.com/plans

14/ Nas.io

Nas - If you've made it this far, you're successfully creating content and distributing. You likely have some connections and a community forming. Filter bots with entry application forms, connect to Discord, and schedule & host Live Events - https://nas.io/creators-and-experts

15/ Discord

Discord is a nice way to create cool lounge experiences and group chats for your community. I think it's super fun to introduce new members, share stories, and generally hang out on Discord. Take a break! 🐒 (hack: you can connect Discord to Gumroad receipt pages 😉📈): [https://discord.com/]

16/ Substack

Substack is a free way to make a newsletter and send lots of emails while also looking at delivery rates, open rates, and read rates. It doesn't just live in an inbox - posts can be discovered on Google and shared. Check out my latest post!! 😜 [https://kahana.substack.com/p/50-email-templates-for-creators-how]

17/ Databox

Databox is a FREE business analytics platform that allows you to connect data sources like Google Analytics, Mixpanel, and Stripe in a single place to create dynamically updated dashboards you can share with teammates! [https://databox.com/pricing]

18/ Hotjar

Hotjar lets you dive deeper into your website performance. You can look at heatmaps of what is most clicked, look at top "funnels" that represent peoples' journeys, and watch recordings of usage. To improve a website, Hotjar analytics helps! [https://www.hotjar.com/pricing/]

19/ Mixpanel

Mixpanel lets you track in-app usage patterns. For example, you can tag various buttons in your code and create cohorts of users based on their activity. This is helpful for tracking retention, flows, DAU, MAU, and more! [https://mixpanel.com/pricing/]

20/ Google Analytics

Google Analytics and Google Data Studio allow you to create dashboards and reports about your website traffic! This provides location data, traffic volume, keywords you rank for, and more! I'm not a Google Analytics expert, but yeah: [https://analytics.google.com/analytics/web/]

21/ Typeform

Typeform may be known for its aesthetics and logic, but its integrations are underrated. Connect it to Google Sheets to automatically populate responses of multiple tabs in one file. Send submission notifications directly to Slack 🥵 [https://www.typeform.com/pricing/]

22/ Figma

Figma allows you to create dynamic designs based on components that can be linked together to perform prototypes. Great for UX/UI. You can find pre-made Figma templates by googling. You can also invite collaborators to design and update w/ you [https://www.figma.com/pricing/]

23/ Jira

Jira is a platform that lets you add new features, bugs, and updates to a backlog using cards. Create a basic board with columns like "backlog, in progress, ready to deploy, complete" - assign team members and add info like complexity, severity, etc. [https://www.atlassian.com/software/jira/pricing]

24/ Slack

Slack is kinda similar to Discord but may be simpler for teams to use. I like segmenting Slack for actual work and Discord for "social stuff". Slack includes some powerful integrations like Typeform and Product Hunt subscriber notifications. [https://app.slack.com/plans/]

25/ Notion

Notion is a productivity platform that allows you to configure workspaces for many purposes and invite teammates. It's great for technical or marketing sprints. You can also use it to organize content and social media posts https://www.notion.so/pricing

26/ GitHub

GitHub is a must for developers and non-developers. Use it to manage your code and files in repositories and establish best practices! [https://github.com/pricing]

27/ Wave

Wave is a solid invoicing and accounting option for small businesses https://www.waveapps.com/

28/ Stripe

Stripe allows you to process payments as an independent business. You can also integrate Stripe payment processing into your website and application. If you're going to process payments (which you are) you will need to know about Stripe https://stripe.com/pricing

29/ Kahana

Kahana is the platform I'm working on! We help creators and experts connect and collaborate through hubs of knowledge. https://kahana.co/