4. Productivity & AI
As a founder, time is your most limited — and most abused — resource.
You're in back-to-back calls, deep in product one minute and rewriting investor decks the next. It’s chaos. You don’t need another to-do list. You need leverage. And that’s exactly what the right productivity and AI tools give you.
Whether it’s scheduling, note-taking, communication, or just clearing mental bandwidth, these tools buy back time. And in early-stage land, time = survival.
According to McKinsey, generative AI has the potential to automate 60–70% of tasks across many roles — including tasks in customer support, content, and admin ops. That’s not just efficiency. That’s capacity you don’t have to hire for.
AI aside, having the right workspace and doc tools also reduces context switching (a massive productivity killer). You need one place to think, write, plan, record, and share — especially when you’re moving fast and multitasking hard.
These aren't just nice-to-haves. They're team-multipliers. They help you operate like you’ve got a team of 10 — when it’s really just you and one person contracting out of Lisbon.
This isn’t about becoming a productivity guru. It’s about building a system that saves your sanity.
👉 Dive into the tools below. Then make sure to check out the final post in the series — covering finance, accounting, and payment tools to keep your business bank balance as lean (and smart) as the rest of your stack. Or book a quick call if you want help cutting through the chaos and building a setup that works for how you work.
Productivity & Docs
Google Workspace
🔗 workspace.google.com - Save 10% with us: contact us to get your coupon
Summary: Docs, Sheets, Drive, and Gmail for teams.
Price: Free for personal use. Workspace from $6/user/month.
Pros:
Real-time collaboration
Ubiquitous and easy to use
Cons:
Custom email domains require paid plan
Docs are unstructured
Cal.com
🔗 cal.com - Bonus: Save 20% on paid plans: https://refer.cal.com/peak-strategic
Summary: Cal.com is an open-source, privacy-first alternative to Calendly that’s rapidly gaining traction with developers, consultants, and startups that want more control over their booking system.
Price: Free for individuals. Paid from $12/user/month.
Pros:
Free version is better than Calendly (IMHO)
Fully open-source with self-hosting options
White-labelling available even on lower tiers
Integrates with Stripe, Zoom, Google Meet, and more
Great for dev teams who want extensibility
Cons:
UI less polished than Calendly
Some integrations need manual setup
Calendly
Summary: The OG in scheduling tools — Calendly makes it dead simple for people to book time with you, without the back-and-forth.
Price: Free for basic scheduling. Paid from $10/user/month.
Pros:
Super easy to set up
Syncs with Google, Outlook, Zoom, etc.
Group/event types, round-robin options
Cons:
Calendly branding on free plan
No advanced workflows unless paid
Not very customisable visually
Slack
Summary: Team chat and internal comms.
Price: Free. Paid from $7.25/user/month.
Pros:
Unlimited users
Integrates with hundreds of apps
Cons:
90-day message limit on free tier
Only 10 integrations on free
Loom
🔗 loom.com
Summary: Asynchronous video and screen sharing.
Price: Free. Paid from $12.50/user/month.
Pros:
Saves time on updates
Great UX
Cons:
5-minute limit per video on free plan
25 video cap
Zoom
🔗 zoom.com
Summary: Zoom is the default video conferencing tool for a reason — it’s reliable, scalable, and still the go-to for sales calls, demos, team check-ins, and events.
Price: Free for 40-minute meetings. Paid from $15.99/month.
Pros:
Ubiquitous and familiar
Solid recording/transcription options
Works well even on weak connections
Cons:
40-minute limit on free meetings
UI hasn’t evolved much
Some features behind paywall (e.g., breakout rooms)
Airtable
Summary: Hybrid of database and spreadsheet.
Price: Free up to 1,000 records.
Pros:
Beautiful UI
Great templates
Cons:
Record limits on free
Costs rise at scale
Miro
🔗 miro.com
Summary: Visual online whiteboard.
Price: Free. Paid from $8/user/month.
Pros:
Great for brainstorming
Tons of templates
Cons:
3-board limit on free
Premium features gated
Fathom
Summary: AI-powered meeting assistant.
Price: 100% free.
Pros:
Full call transcriptions and summaries
Auto-generated action items
Cons:
Only works with video calls
Summaries may need light editing
Blinq
🔗 blinq.me
Summary: Blinq replaces traditional business cards with smart digital cards you can share via QR code, link, or NFC tap. Clean, simple, and way more memorable than paper cards.
Price: Free with Blinq branding. Paid plans from $2.99/month.
Pros:
Instantly shareable contact info — no app required for recipients
Customisable branding and design
Multiple profiles for different roles/pitches
Integrates with Apple Wallet & Google Wallet
Cons:
Blinq branding on free plan
Some features (e.g., analytics) require Pro plan
Limited offline functionality
Navan
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Summary: Navan (formerly TripActions) is a corporate travel and expense management platform designed to simplify booking, reporting, and reimbursement for startups and scale-ups with distributed teams or frequent travel.
Price: Free for basic usage. Paid enterprise plans available (contact sales).
Pros:
Save 10–20% (approx.) on travel by leveraging negotiated rates, smart booking, and policy controls
Combines travel booking + expenses in one dashboard
Smart policy controls and approval workflows
Streamlines reimbursement (and integrates with your finance tools)
Mobile-first experience is genuinely great
Cons:
Better suited for teams who travel regularly
Smaller teams may not benefit from full feature set
Reporting depth increases only with paid plans
AI Tools
ElevenLabs
Summary: ElevenLabs offers best-in-class AI voice generation — perfect for startups building product demos, pitch videos, onboarding experiences, or content that needs a human voice without hiring voice actors.
Price: Free tier includes limited characters per month. Paid plans start at $5/month.
Pros:
Hyper-realistic AI voice generation (seriously impressive)
Supports multiple languages and accents
Easy to use, fast turnaround
Custom voice cloning available on higher tiers
Cons:
Character limits go fast if you’re building lots of audio content
Custom voice access locked behind higher tiers
Not ideal for full-scale audio production
ChatGPT
Summary: AI assistant for writing, coding, and brainstorming.
Price: Free (GPT-3.5). Plus plan $20/month for GPT-4.
Pros:
Extremely fast
Easy to use
Cons:
Limited to GPT-3.5 on free plan
Occasional inaccuracies
Perplexity AI
Summary: AI-powered research tool with citations.
Price: Free. Pro version $20/month.
Pros:
Great for quick, cited research
Very fast
Cons:
Limited GPT-4 access
Not ideal for long-form writing
Microsoft Copilot
Summary: GPT-4 search engine inside Microsoft Edge.
Price: Free with Microsoft account.
Pros:
Free GPT-4 access
Direct web integration
Cons:
Requires Edge browser
Usage caps apply
Google Gemini
Summary: Google's AI assistant with web integration.
Price: Free with Google account.
Pros:
Summarizes web content well
Deep Google integration
Cons:
Verbose responses
Less refined than GPT models
And if you’ve been nodding your way through this post thinking “yep, that’s me” — take it as a sign. These tools aren’t optional anymore. They’re how small teams punch above their weight. If you want help setting your stack up or figuring out where you’re leaking time, let’s chat.
