High-Performance Founder

Build faster than your competitors by using the right tools and automations.

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Core Tooling

Buildpad - Keeps you focused and organized, guiding you through each step of building your product efficiently and keeping you on track until launch.

• Google Workspace (link): Always pick this over Microsoft 365 unless you have a legacy reason. Every modern SaaS integrates with Google first. “Login with Google” is everywhere. Don’t fight the tide.
  In the Company Setup page, we’ll show you how to set up Google Workspace and company email/s.

• Password Manager: Use BitWarden or Dashlane (link) for simplicity and a nice UI. Don’t use browser-saved passwords or pen & paper. Sharing with your team is a must.
• CRM: Skip HubSpot/Salesforce unless you’re 500+ people. For small teams:
  • Folk (link): Dead simple, Chrome extension, AI features, best for CRM newbies.
  • Copper (link): More traditional, deep Google Workspace integration, scales to $50M+ revenue teams.
• Stable (Virtual Mailbox) (link): For US, but if you need a virtual mailbox elsewhere. Most modern, integrates with Slack, lets you shred/deposit mail from your inbox. Skip coworking spaces for mail unless you need a physical office.

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Financial Stack

Maybe Finance (link): Manage all your finances (bank accounts, investments, etc) from one place.

• Banking:
  • Tide: (For UK businesses), best experience, integrates with accounting tools.
  • Mercury (US Only): Free, integrates with accounting tools, even does invoicing. Personal Mercury.
• Accounting:
  • Flynt (link): Finances on autopilot for founders. Handles everything from transaction categorization to tax submissions, cutting your monthly finance work from hours to minutes.
• Payroll:
  • Gusto (link): Just works. Manage all of Payroll, benefits, and HR in one place. If hiring overseas, use Deel (link) for compliance.
• Expense Management:
  • Airwallex (UK/Outside US): Best for non-US/multicurrency and global payments.
  • BILL S&E (US Only): Best for small US businesses, free, silos virtual cards, makes reconciling painless.
  • Ramp (US Only): Better if you’ve raised millions. Brex is fine but less friendly for small teams.

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Operations Stack

• Project/Task Management: Motion (link): The only tool that actually schedules tasks on your calendar, factoring in meetings and real capacity. ClickUp/Monday/Asana are fine but don’t solve this core problem.
• Scheduling: Cal.com (link) beats Calendly, especially for free tier and payment integration. If you use Motion, its built-in scheduler is fine for light use.
• Email:
  • Superhuman (link): Minimal, distraction-free, AI-powered, team features, once you try it you won’t go back. 30-day free trial.
  • Help Scout (link): If you need a shared inbox for customer support, this is the proper help desk. We use both Superhuman and Help Scout.

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Product Development and Public Roadmap

• UserJot (link): User Feedback/Bug-Reports and Product Roadmap

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Customer Support

• GetFernand (link): Fast, Calm Customer Support

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Product & Team Management

When you’re hiring and scaling your team, you want to make sure you’re getting the most out of your team and keeping track of key deliverables. We’ve got some recommendations for some tools we think can help below:

1. Linear - A purpose-built tool for planning and building products, designed for modern software development.

Key benefits:

• Purpose-built for modern software development: Streamlines issues/tickets and projects.
• Designed for speed and efficiency: Create tasks in seconds, discuss issues in context, and use views tailored to you and your team.
• Facilitates project and long-term planning: Helps set product direction and align teams around a unified timeline with visual planning tools.
• Builds momentum with Cycles: Focuses teams on what work should happen next and helps create healthy routines.
• Integrates with various tools: Enhances capabilities and keeps the organization aligned (e.g., Figma, Git workflows).

Pricing:

• Free: For individuals and small teams.
• Standard: $10/user/month (billed monthly) or$8/user/month (billed annually)
• Plus: $19/user/month (billed monthly) or$14/user/month (billed annually)
• Enterprise: Custom pricing

2. Mesmer - An AI chief of staff for CTOs that helps track your entire organization to lead with clarity instead of meetings.

Key benefits:

• Reduced Meeting Overhead: Cut back on meetings and keep teams focused on shipping rather than reporting
• Early Risk Detection: Identifies problems early before they become crises
• Seamless Integration: Works with GitHub, GitLab, Bitbucket, Figma, Slack, Confluence, Notion, and more
• Automated Tracking: AI agents observe team work and build a real-time picture of your organization
• Proactive Updates: Delivers real-time updates and flags critical issues without manual intervention
• Enterprise Security: Offers read-only access, strict need-to-know policies, and private-cloud deployment options

3. Entelligence.ai - AI-powered platform that streamlines your entire software development lifecycle (SDLC) and helps technical founders effectively manage engineering teams ship products faster.

Key benefits:

• 80% faster PR merge times - Automated code reviews catch 70% more bugs and accelerate the review process
• 30% less time spent searching for context - Unified access to your entire engineering stack
• 15 hours saved weekly on status updates - Automated weekly reports provide complete project overviews
• 0 hours spent maintaining documentation - Auto-generated, always up-to-date documentation

Core capabilities:

• Streamlined Reviews - AI-powered PR reviews with intelligent comments and quick fixes
• Automated Documentation - Generate comprehensive docs that stay current automatically
• Architecture Diagrams - Visual system architecture diagrams show components and relationships
• Engineering Stack Chat - Get instant answers to questions about your codebase, team performance, and metrics
• Cross-Tool Integration - Works with GitHub, GitLab, Notion, Slack, Teams, Linear, and more
• Management Reports - Automated weekly updates with customizable insights for better decision-making
• Security-First Design - SOC 2 compliant with self-hosted deployment options

4. Typo - An alternative for engineering team management, focusing on SDLC insights, automated code reviews, and developer experience.

Key benefits (from their site):

• SDLC Visibility - Unify engineering data to identify blockers and predict releases.
• Code Quality - Automate code reviews and identify code hotspots with AI.
• Developer Experience - Measure and improve developer experience with a research-backed framework.

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Developer Productivity

• (Paid) Delty.ai (link): World’s first AI staff engineer that helps you design and build enterprise-scale systems. Key benefits:

  • Deep system understanding - Acts like a staff engineer who knows your codebase
  • Context-aware evaluation - Researches and curates tech options with clear tradeoffs
  • Principal architect capabilities - Makes architectural decisions aligned with your stack
  • IDE integration - Adds system-level context to your IDE via Copilot extensions
  • Faster execution - Evaluates API/schema changes and generates grounded code

• (Paid - with Free Cursor Extension) CodeRabbit (link): AI-powered code review assistant that helps catch bugs, improve code quality, and speed up the review process.

• (Paid) Tuple (link): The best remote pair programming app on macOS and Windows

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AI Infrastructure & Debugging

• (In Beta) Antimetal (link): AI-powered infrastructure automation that learns your systems and helps debug production issues in real-time. Key benefits:

  • Intent-driven infrastructure - Define outcomes, not configurations
  • Automatic incident response - Pulls signals across observability data, source code, and deployment histories
  • Proactive monitoring - Recognizes early warning patterns and prevents cascading failures
  • Learning from your decisions - Adapts to your team’s patterns and organizational preferences
  • Context preservation - Institutional knowledge that doesn’t walk out the door

• Container Inc (link): AI-powered container debugging and production monitoring platform. Key benefits:

  • Real-time debugging - Intelligent agents that help identify and fix production issues faster
  • Automated root cause analysis - Uses AI to correlate logs, metrics, and traces
  • Container-native observability - Purpose-built for modern containerized applications
  • Production-safe debugging - Non-intrusive monitoring that doesn’t impact performance
  • Multi-stack support - Works across different container orchestration platforms

• Alfred 5 (link): MacOS productivity powerhouse that lets you:

  • Create custom workflows to automate repetitive tasks
  • Launch apps and find files instantly
  • Control system commands with hotkeys
  • Manage clipboard history and snippets Pricing: Free core features, Powerpack one-time payment of £34 for additional features

• Raycast (link): Modern alternative to Alfred with:

  • Built-in AI capabilities for quick answers and assistance
  • Rich extension ecosystem
  • Native performance and reliability
  • React-based extension API for custom tools
  • Window management and productivity features Pricing: Free core features, Pro plan at $10/month for AI features

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Scaling your team / Hiring

micro1 - AI-powered tech talent hiring platform with rigorous vetting process.

Key benefits:

• AI-powered screening - Zara AI Recruiter conducts initial interviews
• Pre-vetted talent pool - Only top 1% of 100k+ monthly applicants
• Global compliance - Handles international payroll and employment laws
• Productivity training - Engineers trained on AI tools to increase output
• Management dashboard - Track hours, performance, and give bonuses

Pricing:

• Early stage: $149/month (20 AI interviews/month)
• Growth: $599/month (100 AI interviews/month)
• Both tiers include:
  • Access to pre-vetted talent pool
  • AI talent sourcing
  • Talent management dashboard
  • Custom pipeline stages
  • Slack integration

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Hiring Process Best Practices

1. Pre-screening Tools

   • WhiteBridge AI - AI-powered background screening to verify candidates’ online reputation and credentials
   • Use automated technical assessments
   • Review portfolios and past work

2. Interview Process

   • Technical skills assessment
   • Cultural fit evaluation
   • Reference checks
   • Team compatibility sessions

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Getting Investment

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Incubators and Accelerators

1. InFive
2. Zabeel

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Islamic Investment Networks

Collective Continuum - A board of Islamic investors focused on funding companies that serve and benefit the Muslim Ummah. They look for:

• Shariah-compliant business models
• Clear benefit to the Muslim community
• Sustainable growth potential
• Ethical business practices

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Investment Platforms

To secure funding for your startup, consider submitting your business to these angel investor platforms:

Global Investment Networks

1. AngelList - Premier startup investment platform
2. Gust - Global funding platform
3. Angel Investment Network - US-based angel network
4. Angel Capital Association - Professional angel investors
5. Funded - Connecting startups with investors
6. Wefunder - Leading equity crowdfunding platform
7. Republic - Inclusive investment platform
8. LetsVenture - Asian startup ecosystem
9. Microventures - Access to curated startups
10. Seedrs - European investment platform

More potential funding opportunities can be found here.

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Virtual Assistants

Delegatoo - Affordable High-Quality Virtual Assistants