Startup Productivity Tools: Our Essential Stack

Startup Productivity Tools

As a remote-first startup, we rely heavily on tools to stay productive and aligned. After trying dozens of tools, here is our essential stack that actually works. We optimize for simplicity, integration, and async-first workflows.

Communication: Slack for real-time chat with channels for teams, projects, and fun. Zoom for video calls when needed. Loom for async video updates. Email for external communication only. Rule: Default to async, use sync sparingly.

Project Management: Linear for engineering tasks with great GitHub integration. Notion for documentation, wikis, and long-form content. Google Workspace for spreadsheets and presentations. Figma for design collaboration.

Development: GitHub for code and version control. Vercel for frontend deployments. AWS for infrastructure. DataDog for monitoring. Sentry for error tracking. We ship to production 20+ times per day.

Productivity: Calendly for scheduling meetings. Grammarly for writing. 1Password for security. Superhuman for email. Notion for personal notes and todos.

What We Avoid: Too many tools create fragmentation. We say no to: separate wiki tools when Notion works, complex project management when Linear suffices, multiple chat apps when Slack is enough. Result: Team spends less time in tools, more time building. Check out what we are building at /contact