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Five business apps running an eight-figure company (and three to avoid)
Executive overview
Most business tool recommendations come from people who haven't actually run a company. Noah Kagan runs AppSumo and shares what he genuinely uses — including one popular app he actively dislikes.
Five primary tools are reviewed hands-on. Three bonus tools get a brief mention as ones worth exploring.
The best tool is the one you'll actually use, not the most feature-rich one.
Data visibility without developers
- Metabase connects to your database and renders it visually — no SQL required.
- Shows buyer counts, refund rates, revenue trends, weekly and monthly graphs.
- Free tier available; designed for non-technical founders and marketers.
Live streaming for business audiences
- StreamYard is the simplest and most affordable live streaming tool tested.
- Supports simultaneous streaming to YouTube, Facebook, and other platforms.
- Guests join via link — no Skype or third-party coordination needed.
- Aggregates comments from all platforms in one screen during broadcast.
- Cost: approximately $39–$49/month.
Journaling and writing
- Bear (bear.app) is a clean, minimal writing and journaling app.
- Works across iPad, phone, and laptop.
- Tag-based organisation makes it easy to find entries by category (e.g. book reports, monthly reports).
- $2/month; no unnecessary features.
Community building
- Circle.so is positioned as an alternative to Facebook Groups, Slack, and Discord.
- Those platforms are chat-first; Circle is closer to a structured forum.
- Key principle: own your community — control the organisation and data, not be subject to platform rules.
- Membership/payment integration was not yet fully visible at time of review.
Notion: the honest take
- Notion.so is widely praised but found overly complex in practice.
- Setup and maintenance time may outweigh the organisational benefit.
- Google Docs + Google Sheets achieves most of the same outcomes for free.
- Salesforce parallel: pays for itself in complexity, not output.
Bonus tools worth exploring
- Tiller HQ (tillerhq.com) — auto-syncs bank data into Google Sheets for personal finance tracking.
- Coda.io — spreadsheet-meets-database tool, competing in the Airtable space.
- Miro.com — virtual whiteboard for remote team collaboration and brainstorming.
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