So, peruse, learn, and then flex your inner entrepreneur in whatever setting you find yourself in.
Don’t find a tool you love? Just add it in the comments and we can incorporate to the list.
A special thanks to my fellow participants of StartUp Weekend Next SF (Oct 2012) for contributing their favorite tools to the list!
- StartUp Weekend — find out what’s it’s like to have an idea, work on it non-stop for a weekend, get customer feedback, and build a prototype
- StartUp Weekend Next — take your StartUp Weekend experience further and work on your idea in a guided setting for another 3 weeks
- Udacity — learn about about how to map out your startup strategy including this class from Steve Blank author of “Owner’s Guide to StartUps”
- Tools for StartUp Weekend — list of nearly 30 more tools for startup success by TokBox Developer Song Zheng
- PitchCrawl — informal events organized by DishCrawl where startups can pitch to VC’s in a ‘speed dating’ setting
- Steve Jobs
— book by Walter Isaacson based on 100+ interviews of those who knew the Apple Co-Founder and CEO, and 40 interviews with Jobs himself. Candid, honest account of an innovation & entrepreneurship luminary.
- Delivering Happiness: A Path to Profits, Passion, and Purpose
— book by Zappos! CEO Tony Hsieh, an insightful narrative (he reads the audio book version himself)
- Life Entrepreneurs: Ordinary People Creating Extraordinary Lives — book on entrepreneurial leadership by Christopher Gergen and Gregg Vanourek, founders of Mountain Ventures.
- Founder Dating — an online network to help you meet your next co-founder
- LaunchPad Central — online tool to help you manage, track, and analyze your startup and business canvas
- Coursera — take online classes on what you don’t know from top schools across the country
- Codeacademy — learn how to code through these online, interactive classes.
- 24 Must-Read Blogs For Entrepreneurs — article by Alyson Shontell of Business Insider. Links to blogs by entrepreneurial thinkers such as Guy Kawaski, Penelope Trunk, Seth Godin and more.
- Meetup — search “entrepreneurship” to find meetup groups for start-ups, bootstrappers, and entrepreneurs, possibly just like you.
- DeskWanted — find a coworking space near you, or list one
- Animoto — make a totally unique, creative animated slideshow explaining your site or blog
- Dezquare — find a web or print designer who vibes with your design sensibilities and get a quote on a project
- Apple One to One — a one-year pass for in-store trainings with Apple trainers to learn the ins and outs of Apple software that can can make your presentations, videos, and slideshows sparkle
- MorningStar Financials — take a look at the financials of other players in the space
- AngelList — online platform where startups and investors can meet
- 10 Legal StartUps to Keep You Out of Trouble — blog post by Natasha Murashev, of StartUp Stats, re: new legal startups on the scene, including those that have forms available for startups.
- Privacy Icons for Privacy Policies — initiative by Disconnect to categorize privacy policies–a way to find privacy policies aligned with your startup’s goals. Read more here
- Venture Deals: Be Smarter Than Your Lawyer and Venture Capitalist — book by Brad Feld and Jason Mendelson
- Instagram — it’s more than a photo-sharing app—its the way millennials and their successors are building communities–around images and experiences
- Pinterest — expand your reach by finding ways to integrate this way of sharing content
- Facebook Groups — These private groups can be a way to manage internal communication on Facebook. Besides, you’re probably on FB all the time anyway—might as well get your startup updates here too!
- HootSuite — manage your startup’s Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn, Google+, etc. accounts from one place and schedule posts too.