Vidyard

Vidyard (Chrome extension) captures videos and uploads them for you. You share the link to the video/upload it directly into Gmail or Youtube. With one click, you capture a video of what is happening on your screen. As a technology startup, we mainly use this for demonstrations to clients to show bugs to the development team. Example: https://share.vidyard.com/watch/Qwm9VwRj5udCNZ74Evwd86

Hellosign

Hellosign is a digital way to sign contracts. You can use the web version for free at www.hellosign.com. You sign your signature and email it to others to sign too. It saves us a lot of time and money!

Paperspan

Paperspan is a very interesting app that instantly downloads webpages/articles to save offline and reads them out loud to you later. It’s perfect to catch up on reading and research during transport such as on airplanes, subways, or even just walking.

Crowdfire

Entrepreneurs don’t always know how to use social media. Crowdfire’s free trial (100 posts) helps post across Twitter, Instagram, and Facebook. The premium paid package includes other mediums. We used this and saw instant success:

• Twitter 400–900 followers
• Instagram 1–500 followers
• Facebook boost engagement

The app teaches users to like similar topics, know when to repost, maximize exposure and drive traffic to their website.

Shapr

“Tinder for LinkedIn,” Shapr allows you to select and match people’s profiles. It is great for B2B businesses like VenturX because it targets keywords and job titles. VenturX would be interested in: “CEO, Founder, or Investor.” We receive the closest 20 job-related daily picks from our geographical area and talk to them when there is a match. Also, users can “ask them for a coffee meeting” in order to encourage offline meetings. I loved this app so much that I tweeted a testimonial!

So there you have it! You are well on your way to boosting your startup with a bang in 2018!

The post 5 Best Free Apps for Startups for 2018 appeared first on WeBC.

What is data?

Data is a collection of facts and quantities used for analysis (ie. tracking your customer interviews and meetings, revenues/expenses, industry metrics, how many customers signed up, how many customers are retained, etc..) Business intelligence (BI) is the process of analyzing data to make business decisions.

1. I don’t have enough data to input!

Quality over quantity. 2 early adopters who love your product is far better than 100 people who are only so-so about it. Those 2 that really felt the problem your startup is trying to solve should definitely be tracked.

To do: Investors want to see how much you have evolved over time. Tracking early shows improvement!

2. I am too busy to input my data

Time is Money! If you don’t start tracking from the beginning, you might end up running into dead ends without even knowing it!

To do: What’s next: Invest 1 min/day to track your data. You can explore my affordable startup success tracker VenturX.

3. I don’t want investors to see my metrics

Investors want to see that startups are using business tools to monitor their customers, finances, etc. You need to prove your startup is investible. There is nothing better than seeing a visual. Investors are keen on data-driven results and decisions, therefore making metric-tracking is a great startup habit.

Don’t worry if your progress at that stage looks bad since improvement is the most important part. If you only track when you are rising, it doesn’t look like you improved by very much.

4. The data is not reflective of my business

BI focuses on the business as a whole, not just one particular part. Some founders are technical; others are management-oriented. Most focus on the parts they’re comfortable with. It’s a big reason why some founders feel discomfort when seeing low metrics regarding some parts of their business.

To do: Do track all aspects of your business! The good news is that modern tools come with hints on how to improve!

The bottom line is why wouldn’t startups want to use every resource in their toolbox, including tracking their data, to make the next decision?

The post 4 Reasons Why Startups Should Take Advantage of Business Intelligence appeared first on WeBC.