One of the most amazing things about the internet is its ability to build itself. Not in a ghastly 'Skynet' way, but simply by providing its human creators with the ability to easily share information, learn how to do things better and then build on other people's experience.
Years ago, this information would have been passed down from generation to generation over the course of decades - now it's done in the blink of an eye.
In many ways, Indibook is a child of this new sharing - learning - building cycle. If I get stuck on what to do or who to use, the first stop is Google with a crazy childish search request like - 'how do I launch a start-up?' Hey presto, the information is pretty much laid out for you.
So I thought it was high time I repaid the favour in some small way and list the most useful support services I have found while building our start-up. I hope someone somewhere finds it useful as part of their start-up journey...
BEST START-UP BLOG Without a doubt, the awesome Groove Blog which charts their journey from launch to growing their business, sharing some absolutely invaluable information along the way. If you're thinking about starting a Software as a Service, you'd be hard-pressed to find better insight anywhere.
BEST CUSTOMER SUPPORT SOFTWARE Hey, it's Groove again. The reason I first discovered Groove was the awesome online Help Desk software they run for any company that wants to provide email support and FAQs for their users. I've looked at LOTS of options for this, but it was Groove's simplicity I liked most - easy to use and just works really well.
BEST EMAILED NEWSLETTERS MailChimp - without a doubt. Another powerful (and mostly free) email service for your customer sign-ups, newsletters and onboarding emails. Linked with great analytics, social media integration and post scheduling, MailChimp gets a big 'Yaay!' all round.
BEST ACCOUNTS PACKAGE For me Xero. Again, I've looked at lots, but I really like the simplicity again. I just don't have the time to learn a bunch of new stuff, I just want it to work :-)
BEST CUSTOMER REFERRAL SERVICE We're going to give Referral Rock a try - it's too early to say how successful it will be but I like the cut of its jib.
BEST EXPLAINER VIDEO SERVICE Early days, but we like RawShorts and happy to give it a shake-down.
BEST CUSTOMER SURVEYS Looks like Respondster for us - great mobile surveys, Fun and easy to use. It delights us so I hope our clients will feel the same when they receive a survey request from us!