Having worked at/with multiple web/software startups there are a certain set of tools I’ve gotten used to leveraging to save time and $. Some of these tools didn’t exist even 2-3 years back, so this list might / will get stale pretty fast!

The list that follows assumes these things:

• Time is money (duh!).
• Speed is everything (at least in a startup).
• Humans are expensive, machines are cheap.
• The “cloud” is safe, and everything is going to move there. If you’re a “cloud” startup and don’t buy into it, then go live in a cave.
• Your “startup” can afford $100-200/month of costs using these online services that make your team productive.

Now that we’ve gotten that out of the day, should we jump right in?

1. Google Apps – Please don’t waste time using MSFT outlook, or dreamhost, or Godaddy for your email needs. Setup a Google Apps account, it takes less than an hour (at max). You get 50 users for free, can’t beat that.Its safe, fast, Gmail rocks, Google docs works, wiki is barely usable.
2. Servers – Use Amazon EC2, Slicehost or Linode. If you’re new to server administration then stick with Slicehost or Linode.
3. Github – Source control is important. Its so important that Subversion doesn’t cut it. There I said it. Bitbucket (mercurial) would be the only other thing thats even remotely good. Trac/Assembla/running your own git/svn server etc. are all bad solutions!Notice I am not saying “git”. I am saying Github. It gives you permissions, ssh key based access, easy branching, commenting on code, reviewing merges, integration with 25 external services etc. Its a no-brainer.
4. Ticketing / issue tracking – There are many options here. On one extreme is Pivotal Tracker (a steep learning curve). In the middle are the likes of Fogbugz. On the linear/boring side are Assembla or Lighthouse app or even Basecamp todo’s!I really like Pivotal Tracker, but only if you’re a truly agile startup with realistic deadlines and goals. I find it useful even when working on a project alone (instead of in a team).
5. External Monitors etc. –  Every developer should have a dual monitor setup (minimum of 21″, ideally 24-27″), a fast machine and a chair to sit in that costs around 4-5 hours of their salary/pay-rate. Anything less than any of this doesn’t cut it and you’re pinching dollars where it matters least. Really.
6. Payment Gateways –  There are lot of (shitty) options out there. On one extreme you can go with Paypal. Thats a reasonable solution from a setup perspective. Sadly their API’s (still) suck … a lot!If you’re ok with getting your own merchant account setup etc. I highly recommend using Braintree Payment Solutions. They have amazing customer service, a well written/thought out API and an API wrapper written in most popular languages (Ruby, Java, Python, PHP etc.).
7. Online contracts/NDA’s – If you’re hiring employees, contractors and vendors you’re probably going to be signing a ton of paperwork! Do your brain a favor and use Echosign. It makes getting contracts, NDA’s, I-9 forms signed a breeze.

I’ll limit myself to these 7 things. There are other problems like invoicing (solved by Freshbooks), CRM (solved by 37Signals Highrise or Salesforce), wiki (solved by pbworks.com), sharing files (solved by Dropbox) etc. that need solving too.

But I’ll leave that an exercise for the reader. Just refer to the bullet points I mention above, and if the solution/tool you choose meets/exceeds the goals specified there then you’re good to go!

There seems to be a big disconnect between project management, bug/issue tracking and source control solutions out there. Simply put in most companies these systems don’t talk to each other as much as they should.

How have I solved the problem. I’m using bitbucket.org for source control that talks nicely with LighthouseApp which I use mainly for bug-tracking (Milestones feature is nice… but only for bigger teams).

We don’t really use anything for project management per se, although we do use Highrise as our CRM system and it has a cool, “Cases” feature. So lets say we’re doing a site redesign I  create a new case and upload all relevant assets  / discussions to that case. Highrise comes with awesome email integration, so each case gets a unique email address and I can fwd emails to it, and they get attached to the case automagically. I think BaseCamp is for dedicated project management, but for now I can live with leveraging Highrise features.

New API’s that would be awesome:

+ Friend list API to get list of friends (users) of currently logged in user. This will enable sharing applications.
+ Jabber messaging api (for currently logged in user and/or any of his/her friend(s)). Real-time messaging anyone?
+ API to schedule execution of arbitrary code at regular time intervals, which can span > 2 second request time limit currently imposed (hopefully)

More feature requests:
+ Be able to set how long the user session lasts

UPDATE:

+ How about more than 3 apps per developer?
+ Also would be neat to be able to take *1* app and have it run in several Google Apps domains?

I moved to SF in November to start work with a small company called Offermatica. Needless to say, am loving every bit of it (work, people and the city!). I do miss LA weather and my friends back there, but hey when it snows in Malibu and Tucson, all bets are off!!

Turns out Offermatica is on the lookout for a Software Engineer (job description here) and Web Designer (see here). If you or anyone you know is looking for a small company/startup feel, challenging work and nice work environment …. Aeron chairs, views from the window (yes, we’re “on” Pier 1) etc. …. then email me directly (am assuming you know me!) with any questions or leave a comment below.

Well thats what Katie Fehrenbacher is speculating on gigaOM. Google might be hiring 800 employees at 345 Spear St. (1 block from where I stay in SOMA). Should be fun to have some Googlers around. Although this office location might be great, I think Offermatica (the company I work for now!) has a much better location (on Pier 1) See for yourself below (red is us, green would be google!)