Article · 9 min read

The SaaS Tools I'd Give Every New Startup on Day One

Jackki Ashgrove · Medium Free Beginner

This is the anti-overspend stack argued out loud: Google Workspace, Notion free, Google Chat, Canva free, one accounting tool, one AI seat, everything else nothing, at roughly 60 a month for a team of five. Its rule (install the minimum, start free everywhere, only add a tool when its absence physically stops you from doing something) is exactly the discipline that keeps a 5 to 20 person team from buying an HRIS and a data warehouse it cannot feed yet.

  • The whole day-one stack fits in about six tools and one paid AI seat, not the twenty the SaaS ads push
  • Default to free tiers; a paid upgrade is only justified when the free tier is actively blocking work, usually around 12 to 15 people
  • Google Workspace plus one accounting tool covers email, docs, chat, and money, which is most of what a small team touches
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The question it answers

  1. What tools does a 5 to 20 person startup actually need, and what am I overspending on?

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