Speaker 1: [upbeat] Welcome to our pre-seed stack tour—eleven slides to prove that discipline beats signing up for every shiny SaaS trial.
Speaker 2: Exactly. We are keeping the runway intact while still looking like grown-ups to customers, investors and auditors-in-training.
Speaker 1: Think of this session as giving Sarah a starter pack she can actually afford to run for six months.
Speaker 2: And it sets the tone for future upgrades—we are deliberate, not reactive.
Speaker 1: [curious] Before we jump into vendor logos, let's clarify why a curated stack matters.
Speaker 2: Every new hire brings their "game-changing" productivity app—suddenly you're managing more tools than team members.
Speaker 1: Worse, diligence calls expose the chaos when investors ask "who administers access" and the answer is "we'll get back to you".
Speaker 2: A lean, intentional toolkit gives Sarah language for governance without drowning in enterprise overhead.
Speaker 1: [pragmatic] Here are the guardrails—around two hundred dollars a month for six to eight active seats.
Speaker 2: That number keeps payroll sane while covering email, chat, documentation and security basics.
Speaker 1: Monthly billing matters; long contracts feel cheaper but they erode optionality if the product pivots—or dies.
Speaker 2: And track the bots—automation accounts often quietly consume paid licences like hungry ghosts in your billing system.
Speaker 1: [informative] Google Workspace Starter gives us admin controls, shared drives and basic DLP for seventy-two dollars.
Speaker 2: Pair that with Slack Pro so conversations are searchable and partners can join via shared channels without legal headaches.
Speaker 1: We hold off on enterprise SSO because no customer has demanded it yet—that's the upgrade trigger.
Speaker 2: And if someone insists on Microsoft 365, document migration time, identity mapping, data residency shifts and the training burden before agreeing—you might discover it's a $10K decision disguised as a $20/month subscription.
Speaker 1: [thoughtful] Notion handles company wiki, retrospectives and investor updates for thirty-two dollars—just remember it can become a black hole where documentation goes to die without clear structure.
Speaker 2: Airtable fills the structured gap—a light CRM and operations tracker without buying a full Salesforce instance.
Speaker 1: The discipline is resisting app sprawl; we build new workflows inside these tools before swiping cards elsewhere.
Speaker 2: Also audit the editor list monthly—lots of contributors only need viewer seats, and embed onboarding SOPs so new hires ramp fast.
Speaker 1: [serious] Security cannot wait until Series A, so 1Password anchors secrets management for twenty-four dollars.
Speaker 2: We capture onboarding checklists inside the vault—who gets which shared vault, when MFA is confirmed, what to rotate.
Speaker 1: Hardware keys and CASBs are overkill today; instead we enable context-aware access inside Google Workspace.
Speaker 2: The win is standardising joiner, mover and leaver flows so offboarding is muscle memory—otherwise that three-month contractor still has Drive access half a year later.
Speaker 1: [balanced] Some add-ons are worth the spend, but only when the pain point is measurable.
Speaker 2: Calendly saves hours once demos exceed ten a week—otherwise you've spent money to schedule meetings you haven't had yet.
Speaker 1: Payroll platforms like Gusto or Rippling become necessary when contractor invoices arrive monthly.
Speaker 2: And a support desk like Freshdesk only earns its keep when shared inbox triage starts missing customer deadlines; double-check the API and SSO hooks first so you don't rack up integration debt.
Speaker 1: [cautious] Upsell pressure is relentless, so we script polite "not yet" responses.
Speaker 2: Slack's enterprise team will dangle grid analytics—Sarah waits until a signed enterprise contract demands exports.
Speaker 1: Google will email about storage limits; that upgrade happens only when the current quota truly blocks delivery.
Speaker 2: And any so-called founder discount tied to 24-month commitments gets weighed against runway reduction and pivot risk—remember the Enterprise rep boasting 99.99% uptime when your Pro plan already meets every SLA.
Speaker 1: [encouraging] Customisation is fine as long as the budget guardrail survives.
Speaker 2: If Sarah swaps Google for Microsoft 365 because the product uses Azure AD, she documents the rationale and new admin tasks.
Speaker 1: Same story with replacing Airtable—maybe HubSpot Starter makes sense once marketing automation matters.
Speaker 2: Every substitution goes into a single source of truth covering billing owners, renewal dates, data export paths and how to unwind vendor lock-in.
Speaker 1: [interactive] Time to apply it: learners craft their own six-tool stack under two hundred and fifty dollars.
Speaker 2: They justify each pick, list the upgrade trigger and nominate an owner for governance.
Speaker 1: Sharing that "stay lean" checklist with peers invites constructive pushback before real money gets spent.
Speaker 2: It's rehearsal for the boardroom question: "Why this tool, why now, and what happens if it fails?"
Speaker 1: [confident] The takeaway is simple—startups win when every tool purchase has a runway impact statement.
Speaker 2: Collaboration, knowledge, security and customer touchpoints are covered without losing agility.
Speaker 1: Treat each new app as an experiment with success criteria and an exit plan.
Speaker 2: That mindset protects cash, keeps audits boring and leaves room to scale when product-market fit finally lands.
Narrative Outline — Pre-Seed Tool Stack Example Tasks - [x] Break down the sample $200/month tooling mix and why each tool earns its keep. - [x] Emphasise moments when Sarah should resist upsells to enterprise tiers. - [x] Invite learners to adapt the stack for their own hypothetical start-up budgets. Notes - Detail the sample pre-seed stack, monthly costs and decision cues for staying lean.