Selecting the Right Tools for Your Startup: A Look Inside Talisman's Toolset

With hundreds of different SaaS tools, frameworks, and services to choose from, it can be tricky to choose the right technologies for your startup’s tech stack. There are several factors to consider, but the main ones should be user-friendliness, scalability, security, and cost-effectiveness.

Today, we’ll let you in on Talisman’s toolset and explain what makes these tools particularly exceptional. If you’re still in the process of building or refining your tech stack, hope this little guide helps!

Linear

We love linear. It has the technical capabilities of JIRA, but unlike JIRA, it is not overwhelming for those not as experienced with project management tools. It also has an excellent inbox feature that lets you focus on the main things that pertain to you. Talisman puts all our tasks here, from engineering tickets to marketing campaigns.

If you’re still in the market for the ideal project management software and issue-tracking tool for your development team, Linear is our main recommendation. The centralized dashboard allows your team to track projects, tasks, and issues in a clean and intuitive interface. Linear is a relatively new player, launched in 2019, as compared to its main competitor Jira with decades of experience under its belt. Although Jira is also a formidable bug tracking tool, Linear has a refreshingly sleek design and its pricing model is also more straightforward.

At Talisman, a streamlined and user-friendly experience is always a decisive factor when building our tech stack, and Linear offers just that. The tool also makes collaboration more seamless. They’ve even added a new triage and customer support tooling which is incredibly useful. Overall, Linear is fast, effortless, and really simple to use.

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Loom

Loom has this tagline “Skip The Zoom, Send A Loom”, which is right on the money. Many startups waste a lot of time and productivity in endless meetings when things can pretty much be discussed asynchronously via simple video walkthroughs and updates.

Especially now that more and more startups are accessing a diverse pool of talent around the world, teams can better work across time zones with tools like Loom. If your team is experiencing meeting fatigue, it’s probably high time to substitute virtual meetings with quick and easy screen recordings and detailed walkthroughs. Try their Free Starter Plan if you still haven’t. This simple shift alone can make a huge difference.

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HubSpot

Hubspot is arguably one of the best CRMs out there right now in terms of cost-effectiveness and functionality. It is the most user-friendly CRM we’ve worked with. At this early stage, we primarily use it to keep track of net new and existing customers and leads coming through the site, and we are now starting to look at some of the automation capabilities.

Hubspot is just so cohesive, connected, and customizable, perfect for any startup. From sales to marketing to operations and content management, everything is made seamless and scalable.

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Slack

The classic Slack vs. Teams debate. This wasn't a very scientific decision, honestly. When we started the company, Slack was easy to set up, and the pricing structure was perfect for our needs. We don't use the Microsoft suite of products as we mainly use Google Workspace, so the benefits of bundling that make Teams an attractive option did not apply to us.

Slack is one of the fastest-growing B2B enterprise software in recent history. Today, it has over 12 million active users daily. If you’re still relying on the siloed communication of email, it’s about time to bring your internal and external teams together and make collaboration easier with Slack. The messaging app also supports better security, integrations, and automation and is plain fun and easy to use.

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Miro

Miro is virtually the ultimate whiteboard app. In our opinion, this is the best place for brainstorming and dumping ideas. We have also started messing with Figjam from Figma but haven't fully transitioned to using it as we still prefer Miro. We’ll workshop anything from sales strategy and understanding common client challenges to product feature concepts and technical workflows.

If you’re looking for the perfect tool to create mind maps, plan sprints, compose schematics, and discuss possible code solutions, Miro is your go-to tool.  Planning and online discussions have just been much easier for us since we started using Miro. The tool even has a voting feature to support company-wide decision-making.

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Rippling

Rippling has been the most user-friendly and straightforward payroll and HR platform we’ve evaluated. Especially for a smaller org that wants to focus on keeping things short, Rippling keeps our process very simple. From employees’ payroll and benefits to time tracking to tax compliance, everything can be managed in one place. There are also automation and customization options in place to further streamline your administrative workflows your way.

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Figma

We use Figma for everything design. Everything from our website, our decks, and, of course, our product. It allows collaboration between our team, which is mainly remote and has almost become our home base.

For real-time and hassle-free prototyping, Figma is the place to be. Designers, developers, and stakeholders can come together to work on the design project simultaneously. Everyone can do live editing and commenting to simplify feedback and iterations and ensure efficient workflows and decision-making. Third-party integrations are also supported.

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In Conclusion

As a startup, you need to focus on streamlining workflows and saving valuable time and resources for operational efficiency and strategic success. Leveraging the right tools can help you achieve maximum efficiency and rapid growth. At Talisman, price and ease of use were the main priorities given that as a startup, we want to preserve the runway and move with speed.

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For more startup tips and SaaS insights, feel free to visit our blog.

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