50+ tools I use to run a $100M/year business

HAPPY THURSDAY!

This year for Sumo Day, we’re giving away a Cybertruck!!

(I wish I could win, but I’m not eligible 😢)

Enter here for a chance to win: https://appsumo.com/sumoday/giveaway

Now onto this week’s email 🤝

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At AppSumo, we spend nearly $1m a year on software tools.

Our team has tested tens of thousands of tools across dozens of categories.

Today, I’m revealing the tool stack we use to run AppSumo.

Some will surprise you, some will disappoint you, and some will be new that you can take to run your own million-dollar business.

Business Intelligence Tools

When you’re just starting, I recommend sticking with simple tools. You’d be surprised by how much of our business runs on Google Tools.

But as you get to a larger size - and you’re tracking millions of data points, transactions, and pricing… it’s better to use tools like Fivetran and Tableau to analyze your data.

We use Snowflake to store large data sets in the cloud. It makes it easy to connect to tools like Looker and Metabase that turn our data into easy-to-digest charts and graphs so we can visualize our company performance.

Metabase data on TidyCal user signups

Website Tools

A bunch of people mentioned they liked the design of my website.

With Webflow, I didn’t have to write a single line of code. I simply dragged in different elements, and it generated the code for me.

We use WordPress to host my personal website. The dashboard makes it easy for our team to create new posts and pages (without technical experience).

WordPress dashboard

We also use ClickFunnels to build high-converting websites and sales funnels.

Our product team uses Splunk to alert us if there are any issues on our site - so we can handle them quickly. Also, we use Sentry for monitoring - fun fact the founder of Sentry helped build the first AppSumo website (Thanks David Cramer!)

Content Tools

Both my personal content team and AppSumo use Frame.io to collaborate and edit our YouTube videos. You can leave feedback directly on the video with timestamps.

The team giving feedback with Frame.io

Our YouTube team occasionally uses Epidemic Sound for royalty-free music.

We use Canva to create the graphics you may have seen on social media. It’s easy to use (even if you’re a non-designer). For more detailed designs, we use Figma.

HemingwayApp corrects your sentence structure to help your writing read better. I used to think the goal was to impress readers - so I used big words and fancy jargon. But the real goal is clarity. Confused readers don’t buy.

SendFox helps you set up email automations, send drip campaigns, and create landing pages.

We use SendFox for my weekly personal newsletter, the Million Dollar Weekend autoresponders, and for lead magnets. And Klaviyo for AppSumo to send our daily newsletter.

The marketing team uses Later to manage and schedule posts.

We also use Twemex for content inspiration. Twemex shows you the top tweets from someone. You can also use the search bar to hunt for specific keywords. (Pretty cool!)

Meeting Tools

Messaging back and forth trying to schedule a call sucks… especially when multiple calendars are involved.

TidyCal has been exploding in popularity recently - and for good reason.

It’s the simplest way to book and schedule meetings. You can also charge for people to meet with you.

Set your price to meet with TidyCal

For the actual meetings, we use Zoom. Nothing fancy here.

Sometimes I forget what people say in meetings, so I use Rewind.AI to take notes.

The team also uses Laxis and Fathom. They’re AI meeting assistants that transcribe your meetings and extract key insights.

We also use Figjam as an online whiteboard during our Zoom meetings.

Sales Tools

Our product team uses Dovetail for our customer calls. It takes scattered customer feedback and distills it into simple insights you can implement.

The sales team uses MixMax to schedule meetings with potential customers and partners. They also use Hubspot and Clearbit - which is everything you need to generate, nurture, and close customers.

BreezeDoc is a pay-once, use-forever Docusign alternative. We use BreezeDoc to sign contracts and documents digitally.

BreezeDoc e-signatures

Half of our revenue at AppSumo comes from sending emails (which is crazy!!).

Klayvio uses data to create personalized automations for your customers across many channels (email marketing, SMS, and mobile push).

Since we send so many emails, we use Mailtrap and Litmus to inspect and debug them before sending them.

The sales team also uses BetterProposals so proposals don’t get lost in people’s email inboxes.

FindThatLead allows you to find and verify email addresses directly from websites - and scrape emails in bulk from LinkedIn search engines. I also like to use Rocketreach for this.

Finance Tools

When I started AppSumo, I used my personal card to finance things (like office rent and team lunches).

I’d have to expense every payment to the company to get reimbursed. It quickly became a mess trying to keep everything organized.

Now, we use Ramp as our company card. It helps us pay bills, stay on budget, and make payments to employees. It also has good cash-back rewards.

If your team reaches 10 or more - I’d recommend checking them out.

AppSumo company card

If you’re ever thinking about giving out equity, we use Carta to track who has options and shares.

Also QuickBooks online for tracking everything, wish there was a better solution for tracking finances.

Team Tools

Whether you're a company of 10 or 100 people, setting clear objectives is key.

A question I ask myself: “At the end of the quarter, is it very objective whether we had success or not?”

At any time, there are dozens of initiatives in progress simultaneously. We use Atlassian to organize all of our coding projects. It stores our tickets, documentation, and meeting agendas.

We use CleanShot to take screenshots and share in-depth screen-recorded feedback.

Bitwarden stores all our passwords in one place. It also has a browser extension that auto-fills the password for you. (Game-changer!)

Bitwarden Password Vault

Most people know about Slack. But what’s interesting is we use a lot of Slack Bots. We have a pulse bot that gives daily updates on KPIs like (new buyers, gross sales, and average order value) that are color-coded red, yellow, or green so everyone can quickly know if we’re on track.

We use Insperity for our human resources. It’s kind of old-school 1995 internet tech. They offer payroll services, tax filing, and compliance support. If you’re getting started, I’d recommend checking out Gusto.

Greenhouse helps us source and onboard new hires. Our team also uses Contra to find freelancers for our design team.

Productivity Tools

Since the team is remote, a new tool we’re trying is FocusMate. It pairs you with a partner to ensure you’re both working productively.

My friend Ali Abdaal recommended BearApp. I do all my weekly journaling and create our marketing plans there. My favorite part is using the tags to keep my notes organized.

Zapier helps us automate repetitive tasks without coding.

The marketing team has been testing ReplyGuy - an AI tool that mentions your product on Reddit and Twitter naturally. 

We use Circle to manage our VIP Plus community for AppSumo. It’s an all-in-one platform that allows you to host a community and create courses.

We’ve been using it for the past 2 years - and I loved it so much that I invested in it.

The AppSumo VIP Plus community

Important note:

While the team and I spend a lot of time testing new tools (it’s kind of our job haha)...

If you’re just starting your business - it’s less about finding the perfect tool, and more about getting started.

Remember: do what works for YOUR business.

Rooting for you,

Noah 🌮

Ps. If you’re looking for more awesome tools for your business, our team just launched FiveTaco - a curated directory to find the best software for entrepreneurs. Check it out! 💚

Sumo Group Inc. 1305 East 6th Street Suite #3 Austin, TX 78702 USA Unsubscribe