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Pre-Seed Tool Stack Example

Slide 1: Pre-Seed Tool Stack Example

On-screen

Pre-Seed Tool Stack Example

Stay lean without starving operations

Narration

Anna: [upbeat] Welcome to our pre-seed stack tour—eleven slides to prove that discipline beats signing up for every shiny SaaS trial.
Greg: Exactly. We are keeping the runway intact while still looking like grown-ups to customers, investors and auditors-in-training.
Anna: Think of this session as giving Sarah a starter pack she can actually afford to run for six months.
Greg: And it sets the tone for future upgrades—we are deliberate, not reactive.

Slide 2: Why a curated pre-seed stack?

On-screen

Why a curated pre-seed stack?

  • Keeps the founding team focused on shipping product instead of chasing logins.
  • Shows investors and early customers you have basic governance covered.
  • Avoids the "try every tool" chaos that quietly burns $500+/month.
  • Creates artefacts—templates, rituals, admin settings—that scale into Series A.

Narration

Anna: [curious] Before we jump into vendor logos, let's clarify why a curated stack matters.
Greg: Every new hire brings their "game-changing" productivity app—suddenly you're managing more tools than team members.
Anna: Worse, diligence calls expose the chaos when investors ask "who administers access" and the answer is "we'll get back to you".
Greg: A lean, intentional toolkit gives Sarah language for governance without drowning in enterprise overhead.

Slide 3: Runway guardrails

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Runway guardrails

  • Budget baseline: ~$200/month for 6–8 active seats.
  • Optimise for tools that bundle multiple workflows (email + drive + calendar).
  • Prefer monthly billing until product-market fit is clearer.
  • Track true cost-to-serve: count founders, contractors and bots that consume paid seats.
  • Typical trap: founder signs up for Asana, designer wants Figma, engineer prefers Jira—suddenly you're burning $150/month on tools that do not sync.

Narration

Anna: [pragmatic] Here are the guardrails—around two hundred dollars a month for six to eight active seats.
Greg: That number keeps payroll sane while covering email, chat, documentation and security basics.
Anna: Monthly billing matters; long contracts feel cheaper but they erode optionality if the product pivots—or dies.
Greg: And track the bots—automation accounts often quietly consume paid licences like hungry ghosts in your billing system.

Slide 4: Communication & identity core

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Communication & identity core

  • Google Workspace Business Starter – $72: email, calendar, Drive with basic admin controls.
  • Slack Pro – $54: async conversations, searchable history, guest channels.
  • Decision cue: stay on Starter/Pro tiers until customers demand SSO or retention beyond 90 days.
  • If procurement pushes for Microsoft 365 parity, document the total migration lift before agreeing.
  • Capture GDPR and Australian Privacy Act considerations early, including where primary data resides and which regions host backups.

Narration

Anna: [informative] Google Workspace Starter gives us admin controls, shared drives and basic DLP for seventy-two dollars.
Greg: Pair that with Slack Pro so conversations are searchable and partners can join via shared channels without legal headaches.
Anna: We hold off on enterprise SSO because no customer has demanded it yet—that's the upgrade trigger.
Greg: 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.

Slide 5: Knowledge & project heartbeat

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Knowledge & project heartbeat

  • Notion Plus – $32: shared wiki, lightweight project tracking, investor update templates.
  • Airtable Team – $20: structured CRM-lite, partnership pipeline, lightweight inventory tracking.
  • Resist the urge to split into six niche apps; combine databases and pages before expanding.
  • Revisit seat counts monthly—viewers can stay free while editors hold licences.
  • Build standard operating procedures and onboarding playbooks here so new hires land smoothly within week one.

Narration

Anna: [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.
Greg: Airtable fills the structured gap—a light CRM and operations tracker without buying a full Salesforce instance.
Anna: The discipline is resisting app sprawl; we build new workflows inside these tools before swiping cards elsewhere.
Greg: Also audit the editor list monthly—lots of contributors only need viewer seats, and embed onboarding SOPs so new hires ramp fast.

Slide 6: Security & access hygiene

On-screen

Security & access hygiene

  • 1Password Teams Starter – $24: vault per function, onboarding checklists, emergency access.
  • Enforce hardware security keys via Google Advanced Protection only after a high-risk trigger.
  • Enable Google Workspace context-aware access instead of buying a dedicated CASB this early.
  • Document joiner/mover/leaver steps in Notion to make offboarding a 10-minute ritual.
  • Scenario: contractor Sarah offboards a dev, but without the checklist they keep Drive access six months later—privacy review nightmare.

Narration

Anna: [serious] Security cannot wait until Series A, so 1Password anchors secrets management for twenty-four dollars.
Greg: We capture onboarding checklists inside the vault—who gets which shared vault, when MFA is confirmed, what to rotate.
Anna: Hardware keys and CASBs are overkill today; instead we enable context-aware access inside Google Workspace.
Greg: 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.

Slide 7: Optional add-ons when justified

On-screen

Optional add-ons when justified

  • Calendly Teams (pay-per-user) once demo volume >10/week and founders become scheduling bottlenecks—because nobody wants to spend more time scheduling meetings than having them.
  • Gusto or Rippling contractor payroll when payments exceed quarterly manual workflows.
  • Freshdesk Growth if support volume surpasses shared inbox discipline.
  • Map API/SSO integrations before adding tools so automation flows stay intact and you avoid integration debt.
  • Tie every add-on to a measurable pain point with a sunset review date.

Narration

Anna: [balanced] Some add-ons are worth the spend, but only when the pain point is measurable.
Greg: Calendly saves hours once demos exceed ten a week—otherwise you've spent money to schedule meetings you haven't had yet.
Anna: Payroll platforms like Gusto or Rippling become necessary when contractor invoices arrive monthly.
Greg: 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.

Slide 8: Moments to resist the upsell

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Moments to resist the upsell

  • Slack enterprise grid demo? Decline until a signed enterprise customer mandates compliance exports.
  • Google Workspace upgrade emails? Stay put until storage or legal hold needs are real.
  • Vendors offering "founder discounts" for 24-month commitments—compare to the cash runway impact.
  • When a board advisor insists on a tool, ask them to map the exact control gap it closes.
  • Example: Slack touts 99.99% uptime on Enterprise, but your Pro plan already meets customer SLAs—keep the cash.

Narration

Anna: [cautious] Upsell pressure is relentless, so we script polite "not yet" responses.
Greg: Slack's enterprise team will dangle grid analytics—Sarah waits until a signed enterprise contract demands exports.
Anna: Google will email about storage limits; that upgrade happens only when the current quota truly blocks delivery.
Greg: 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.

Slide 9: Customise without losing discipline

On-screen

Customise without losing discipline

  • Swap Google Workspace for Microsoft 365 only if your product already depends on Azure AD.
  • Replace Airtable with HubSpot Starter when marketing automation is a priority.
  • Document why each substitution preserves the $200/month guardrail.
  • Keep a single source of truth for domains, billing owners and renewal dates.
  • Maintain exit plans: note export formats, backup cadence and how you unwind vendor lock-in before upgrading.

Narration

Anna: [encouraging] Customisation is fine as long as the budget guardrail survives.
Greg: If Sarah swaps Google for Microsoft 365 because the product uses Azure AD, she documents the rationale and new admin tasks.
Anna: Same story with replacing Airtable—maybe HubSpot Starter makes sense once marketing automation matters.
Greg: Every substitution goes into a single source of truth covering billing owners, renewal dates, data export paths and how to unwind vendor lock-in.

Slide 10: Workshop exercise for learners

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Workshop exercise for learners

  • Draft your own six-tool stack under $250/month and justify each choice.
  • Identify the trigger that would force an upgrade or extra tool.
  • Note which roles (founder, ops lead, fractional CTO) own configuration and governance.
  • Present back with a "stay lean" checklist to pressure-test with peers.

Narration

Anna: [interactive] Time to apply it: learners craft their own six-tool stack under two hundred and fifty dollars.
Greg: They justify each pick, list the upgrade trigger and nominate an owner for governance.
Anna: Sharing that "stay lean" checklist with peers invites constructive pushback before real money gets spent.
Greg: It's rehearsal for the boardroom question: "Why this tool, why now, and what happens if it fails?"

Slide 11: Key takeaway

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Key takeaway

Start with a deliberate, budget-conscious stack that covers collaboration, knowledge, security and customer touchpoints.

Treat every new tool as an experiment with an exit plan so cash burn stays aligned with runway.

Narration

Anna: [confident] The takeaway is simple—startups win when every tool purchase has a runway impact statement.
Greg: Collaboration, knowledge, security and customer touchpoints are covered without losing agility.
Anna: Treat each new app as an experiment with success criteria and an exit plan.
Greg: That mindset protects cash, keeps audits boring and leaves room to scale when product-market fit finally lands.