HeadStartup

Gist: Where your Inbox meets the Web

Thu, 08 Sep 2011 07:16:22 EST

Where your Inbox meets the Web : Gist

Gist is a contact management application that integrates across various social networks and emails. Where Gist really adds its value is in its live social updates. After importing contacts, Gist intelligently searches the web for any information pertaining to your contacts. So not only does Gist compile basic contact information, it also keeps you updated on the most recent information such as twitter updates, Facebook posts, and anything that might show up on Google. Etacts and Rapportive offer similar services.
full review

CardCloud: Share business cards from your smart phone in 3 taps.

Tue, 19 Apr 2011 18:03:53 EST

Share business cards from your smart phone in 3 taps. : CardCloud

CardCloud (formerly MyNameIsE.com) is a digital business card application that is looking to replace the traditional printed business card. Rather than trading contact info by passing out a printed business card, CardCloud allows you to share your contact info directly from your iPhone to anyone in the room which is then stored automatically through .vcf or .vCard format. Alternatives to CardCloud include contxts, dub, Bump and BusinessCard2.
full review

Contxts: Contxt Enables Professionals to Share Their Contact Info via SMS

Tue, 19 Apr 2011 18:02:42 EST

Contxt Enables Professionals to Share Their Contact Info via SMS : Contxts

Contxts is a digital business card service incorporating contacts with texting. To use it, one has to create a quick profile (or card) on the website. This card can include information such as phone number, company name, email address, Digg id, Twitter id, Facebook id, etc. After the card and username are created, Contxts is ready to use. To get your information, all someone has to do is text your username to 50500, and he/she will get a text with all the information on the card you created. Contxts is free, and open to anyone with texting (texting fees do apply). Alternatives include DubMeNow, CardCloud and Bump.
full review

Setster: Online Calendar and Appointment Management Solution

Tue, 19 Apr 2011 10:52:11 EST

Online Calendar and Appointment Management Solution : Setster

Setster is an app for online appointment scheduling created by Boxador (makers of Wazala). Setster digitizes scheduling into a widget with clients/customers can easily access. The widget can be installed into any website, so an appointment can be scheduled without leaving your site. For the business, Setster is simple to set up, customizable, and extremely compatible. It syncs with 3rd party calendars, and also syncs with outside services such as Freshbooks, QuickBooks, and PayPal. The closest alternative to Setster is ScheduleThing.
full review

Sprout Social: Turn social connections into loyal customers

Wed, 09 Mar 2011 06:12:58 EST

Turn social connections into loyal customers : Sprout Social

Sprout Social is a social media monitoring app for small businesses looking to manage and grow their social media presence. With Sprout Social, business owners can link their Twitter, Facebook and LinkedIn social media profiles (and also Foursquare, Gowalla, Google Places for brick-and-mortar businesses) to their Sprout Social dashboard to track and manage conversations in real time. Sprout Social also provides in-depth analysis via its robust and customizable dashboard, offers the ability to schedule recurring Twitter messages/Facebook updates, and helps find new fans/followers via its Discovery tool. Competitors to Sprout Social include CoTweet, HootSuite, Tap11, and TweetDeck.
full review

CentralDesktop: Organize. Share. Collaborate.

Mon, 07 Mar 2011 06:05:42 EST

Organize. Share. Collaborate. : CentralDesktop

Central Desktop is an online collaboration tool that can also be used for online project management. Through the workspaces in the app, users can host web-conferences, have discussions over files and links, make milestones and specific task lists, and view all activity on a calendar. Central Desktop doesnt have contact management features, so its not the app to manage clients with projects. It does sync with most calendar services, track time, and export data in a .csv format. Dual email integration and RSS support are also both included in the various paid versions of Central Desktop. Alternatives include collaboration tools like Harvest Coop, and project management applications like WizeHive, Wrike, Smartsheet, BaseCamp, and GoPlan.
full review

DUB: The Easiest Free Way to Unify and Manage All Your Contacts

Tue, 01 Mar 2011 06:36:14 EST

The Easiest Free Way to Unify and Manage All Your Contacts : DUB

DubMeNow is a digital business card application that works across iPhone, Android, Blackberry, and Windows Mobile. Users create profiles which act as mobile business cards. These cards include necessary contact information, and can be sent out to anyone. When you collect someones card, its constantly updated as users update info, and cards sync up to phonebooks on mobile devices. Dub has native mobile apps that allow for easy exchange of cards anywhere, and the mobile software also keeps track of when and where the exchange happened. Dub is a free service, and is also compatible with notable CRM tools like SugarCRM and Salesforce. Alternatives to Dub include Bump and Contxts.
full review

Hashable: Who are you connecting?

Mon, 28 Feb 2011 16:07:30 EST

Who are you connecting? : Hashable

Hashable is an app designed to connect people. More specifically, it gives you (the user) an easy way to connect your friends and contacts with each other. To use Hashable, its best to first link up your Gmail, Twitter, Yahoo, and other accounts. From there, making an introduction is as simple as entering in the two Twitter handles (or email addresses) of the people you want to connect. few days after the intro, Hashable follows up to see if your contacts actually did meet each other, and youre notified Hashable also has built in game-play mechanics, so you get points as you connect more people. Most recently Hashable released a gorgeous mobile app for both the iPhone and Android OS, that are capable of all the features mentioned above.
full review

Backupify: Secure Your Online Life

Mon, 28 Feb 2011 12:50:47 EST

Secure Your Online Life : Backupify

Backupify is an online backup site that focuses on your online prescence. Unlike most other backup apps, Backupify does not back up physical hard drives. Rather, it backs up emails, online calendars, facebook profiles, twitter accounts, and many other interactive online profiles. Once all of these online sites are synced up to Backify, the app automatically and regularly scans and archives all information to preserve your online presence. The data is backed up daily, and works for a multitude of social media profiles. Other backups exist, but none I have tested are so solely dedicated to protecting an online presence.
full review

FatFreeCRM: Free and Open Source CRM

Mon, 28 Feb 2011 12:07:57 EST

Free and Open Source CRM : FatFreeCRM

FatFreeCRM is a bare-bones (no pun intended) web-based CRM app. The app is entirely open-source, so you can install it onto your website and customize it to your specifications. In its core, FatFree has a simple multi-tabbed interface that supports tasks, campaigns, leads, contacts, and a few other features. The app is designed on Ruby on Rails, which is what 37 Signals uses in their popular products Basecamp and Highrise (and youll notice a resemblance). Alternatives include KarmaCRM, Highrise, and Relenta.
full review

Square: Square enables anyone to accept credit cards anywhere.

Mon, 28 Feb 2011 10:27:09 EST

Square enables anyone to accept credit cards anywhere. : Square

Square is an application that allows anyone (individuals or businesses) to easily accept debit or credit card payments on their iPhone, iPad or Android. Users can create an account on the Square website, answer a few questions to confirm identity and within a few days, receive a small credit card reader that connects to the mobile device earphone jack allowing the user to swipe and accept card payments. Square makes it easy to accept credit and debit card payments anywhere there's cell phone service and without the hassle of the traditional merchant processing account typically offered through banking institutions.
full review

Hootsuite: Your Social Media Toolkit

Sun, 27 Feb 2011 07:05:36 EST

Your Social Media Toolkit : Hootsuite

HootSuite is a web-based social media manager that works with Twitter, Facebook, FourSquare, LinkedIn, Ping.fm, WordPress, MySpace (if you still use MySpace), and more to come. Multiple accounts can be linked together on the same page, greatly simplifying social media for businesses across different networks. HootSuite also integrates with RSS feeds for autotweeting, has built in tweet scheduling, and offers powerful analytics with its own URL shorteners. Alternatives to HootSuite include CoTweet and TweetDeck.
full review

Weebly: Web Creation Made Easy

Sun, 27 Feb 2011 06:58:04 EST

Web Creation Made Easy : Weebly

Weebly is a website that lets you make websites. And by websites, I mean advanced, polished sites that compete with many of the best small business sites out there. Weebly lets you add text and play around with it as necessary, but it all lets you add picture slide shows, audio, video, documents, and forms. Users can also choose from multiple, professionally designed skins and add multiple pages to their websites. The interface to design sites is completely drag and drop, and no advanced technical skills are needed (though you can work directly with the code and CSS if you want). Squarespace is a site that offers similar functionality.
full review

Splendid Bacon: Project Management that's as easy as eating bacon.

Sun, 27 Feb 2011 06:42:31 EST

Project Management that's as easy as eating bacon. : Splendid Bacon

SplendidBacon is a project management app thats very simple, and truly barebones (albeit with sprinkles of bacon) The dark themes aesthetics boast an intuitive interface that lets you manage multiple organizations and multiple projects. Within projects, its possible to create teams, set countdowns, and update participants with any form of progress. There is no complex hierarchal task structure, and the closest youll see to a GANTT chart is an easy-to-read timeline summarizing all tasks. SplendidBacon has various alternatives, from Basecamp to Rule.fm, though none are quite as simple to use.
full review

CrashPlan: Cross-Platform, Multi-Destination, Secure Backup

Thu, 24 Feb 2011 08:11:36 EST

Cross-Platform, Multi-Destination, Secure Backup : CrashPlan

CrashPlan is the ultimate backup solution for your home or business. Files are automatically compressed, encrypted, and transmitted to your designated backup destinations. Easily back up your laptop to a desktop, the office server off-site, or a remote employee's laptop to HQ. By using your own backup destinations you avoid monthly fees, enjoy greater security, and can recover from data loss much faster. Don't have a destination? CrashPlan comes with CrashPlan Central, your built-in online destination for a small additional fee. CrashPlan runs on Mac, Windows, Linux, and now VMWare--our enterprise virtual appliance for business, at no additional cost.

full review

Tradeshift: Free Instant Invoices. All In One Place. Always Up To Date.

Wed, 23 Feb 2011 07:08:18 EST

Free Instant Invoices. All In One Place. Always Up To Date. : Tradeshift

Tradeshift is an online invoicing app striving to be the one place where professionals can exchange invoices and notes. Tradeshift pushes the idea of business networks, and works best when you get your relevant contacts to signup for the service (sort of like Facebook or any other social networking site). Between Tradeshift users, exchanging invoices and comments is simple and convenient. For people not on Tradeshift, the software still generates professional PDF invoices and sends them via email. Tradeshift is a free service, and should be treated as a substitute to excel rather than something more robust like FreshBooks or Harvest.
full review

Paymo: Wise time tracking pays more!

Tue, 22 Feb 2011 11:44:38 EST

Wise time tracking pays more! : Paymo

Paymo is a web-based time-tracking and invoicing software app aimed at serving the freelancer and small business user that needs to track billable hours. Paymo users can easily track time using either their online time tracker or can download and use a desktop widget which is available for both Windows or Mac environments. Once hours are tracked, Paymo users can then generate professional looking invoices for their clients. Paymo users can also manage their clients, projects and tasks though the Paymo Dashboard that provides a quick glimpse of both activity and performance. There are many alternatives to Paymo including Freshbooks, Invoivera, Harvest, Xero, Co-Op, and Curdbee.
full review

Chrometa: Track, Analyze, and Manage Your Time

Mon, 21 Feb 2011 11:39:50 EST

Track, Analyze, and Manage Your Time : Chrometa

Chrometa is a web-app designed to track computer activity, both on and offline. It runs as a background application once you download and install it, but as a user youre never going to interact with this part of the app after installation. Instead, you log into the main site and thats where all of your collected data is displayed. Chrometa shows how much time you spend per program, and per tab in the case of browsing. Users can create clients and projects, and associate billing rates that go into effect once you tag logged time a specific project. There are many other features mentioned in the full review, but other apps that offer similar functionality are RescueTime and Slife.
full review

Rapportive: Rapportive shows you everything about your contacts right inside your inbox.

Thu, 17 Feb 2011 10:44:23 EST

Rapportive shows you everything about your contacts right inside your inbox. : Rapportive

Rapportive is a Y-combinator funded social CRM/social media CRM tool thats an add-on to Gmail. It keeps you updated on your contacts on the same window as your email, and works as a browser add-on (supported on Firefox, Safari, Mailplane, and Chrome). Replacing the area where Google typically shows ads, Rapportive shows a picture, recent tweets, location, and links to Facebook and LinkedIn profiles. Its similar in function to Etacts in-email display, though Etacts has outside features too.
full review

Goplan: Project management and team-based collaboration done right.

Thu, 17 Feb 2011 10:41:03 EST

Project management and team-based collaboration done right. : Goplan

Goplan is an online project management tool with a clean, simple design and a variety of features. The app gives a comprehensive summary of activities, comments, and tasks across all projects. It also gives the option of filtering activity by project, and gives quick access to individual projects. Tasks themselves are very customizable, and its easy to establish deep hierarchies and assign numerous users. Goplan also features a status update feature, which allows for users to check up on colleagues.Alternatives include Basecamp, LessProjects, and SmartSheet.
full review