How to Choose the Best Tools for Business Growth

What's the most expensive data tool your company bought that no one uses anymore? After decades as a data leader, I've seen it all - the game-changers and the expensive shelf-ware we don't talk about anymore. But here's the thing... Every single tool that became irreplaceable checked the same 4 boxes. Here they are: 1. The 80/20 Rule My rule of thumb: If a tool offers at least 80% of what you need out of the box, consider buying. If not, you're better off building. Why 80%? When you customize more than 20% of a tool's functionality, the maintenance and upgrade costs spike your TCO (Total cost of ownership) and eat into the ROI. 2. Look beyond the usual options "Nobody ever got fired for hiring IBM" Sure, going with established players feels safe. But are you missing innovative solutions that could give you a competitive edge? Instead of defaulting to the big names: - Connect with peers at smaller, focused conferences. - Look beyond Gartner quadrants & major analyst reports. - Tap into specialized discovery platforms for emerging tech. Your goal isn't finding the most established vendor - it's finding the right fit for YOUR needs. 3. The Proof of Concept (POC) Strategy Never (and I mean never) do your proof of concept in the vendor's environment. Yes, they'll offer their pristine cloud setup. Yes, it's tempting. Yes, it's "free." But it's misleading. You need to see how it performs in your environment, with your security controls, your connectivity, your everything. 4. The Business User Test If your tool needs business participation (like data catalogs or MDM), put it in front of actual users before buying. I've seen million-dollar implementations fail because this step was skipped. Selecting the right tool isn't about features and pricing. It's about understanding how it fits into your ecosystem and culture.

Your ops stack can make or break your startup. Building a startup is exhilarating, but it's the unsexy parts that often determine success. Here's what we've learned at Clarify after 9 months of building our foundation. 🏗️ 🔍 Do your homework: Don't just copy your friends' stack. What works for them might not work for you. We evaluated alternatives for each tool. It took time, but saved us from "referral hell" and tool regret later on. ⚒️ Get your hands dirty: Resist the urge to hire an "ops person" right away. I set up and ran our system for months. It was tough, but gave me invaluable insights into our operations. ⚖️ Balance innovation and stability: As a startup, it's tempting to try every shiny new tool. Be cautious with core systems (HR, finance, etc.). We're bold with low-impact tools, conservative with the essentials. 🔗 Integration is key: Great individual tools don't always play nice together. We prioritize integration capabilities when choosing new tools. 🧑💻 Adoption > features: The fanciest tool is useless if your team hates using it. We involve key team members in tool decisions and provide thorough onboarding. 🌱 Plan for scale, but don't overdo it: Early on, we over-engineered our stack, preparing for 100+ employees when we were just 10. Now we choose tools that can grow with us, but optimize for our current needs. 🛡️ Security isn't optional: In the rush of startup life, it's easy to backburner security. Big mistake. We bake security considerations into every tool choice from day one. ♻️ Continuous improvement is key: Your ops stack isn't set-it-and-forget-it. We do quarterly reviews, gathering feedback and reassessing our needs. Remember, your stack shapes employee experience, operational efficiency, and your ability to make data-driven decisions. It's about building a foundation for scale. Here's where we landed after 9 months: 📨 Email: Google Workspace 🤝 HRIS: Rippling (onboarding, payroll, devices) 💬 Comms: Slack (pro tip: custom emojis boost culture) ✍️ Docs: Notion + Google Docs (company wiki vs. collaborative editing) 🛣️ Project management: Linear (roadmaps, projects, milestones) 🎨 Design: Figma (open access) 💰 Banking: JPMorganChase + Mercury (stability meets UX) 💳 Credit cards: Ramp (expense management on steroids) 🤔 Financial planning: Causal (because spreadsheets don't cut it forever) 📅 Calendars: Cal.com, Inc. + CalendarBridge (bye-bye, scheduling headaches) Takeaway: Stay flexible and keep optimizing – your needs will evolve. For folks building a company: What's been your biggest ops stack challenge or win?

It's 2024, you lift up a rock and there is a new GTM tool selling you the magic potion that will solve all your business problems…. 🤦♂️ Having evaluated hundreds of such tools in my RevOps career, here are the top 4 pieces of advice I would give to every Revenue/GTM leader out there looking to add to their tech stack: 1) All that glitter is not gold Do not just go for the shiniest new tool on the market because someone shared a LinkedIn post about how amazing it was for them, including this one 👀 (your org’s problems, capabilities, or timing might not be the same for it to work well). Do your thorough research and see if it fits the needs of your current business well and if it actually solves any of the real challenges your teams are having. 2) Go beyond the features list The ever-growing feature list for these tools is head-spinning at times and it will only get larger with time. Your conversational intelligence tool will tell you that they also do outbound calling now, and your outbound calling tool will tell you that they also do forecasting now, and on top conversational intelligence too 🤯 Just because they do it doesn’t mean they do it well! You probably wouldn’t go to Domino’s for a burger if they told you they added it to their menu. You need to narrow down to the core competencies of that product and align with your need. 3) Be future-forward Ask yourself if you stayed with this tool, will you need to shop around for a different one 3 years down the line? If the answer is no, sign a multi-year deal and bring your costs down. Be strategic instead of reactive, and keep in mind that the migration costs down the line will be much higher than today, as a badly done change management can be very costly. 4) Find a partner, not a service provider There are so many great companies out there that have a customer-first philosophy. These companies truly become partners with you and are willing to take the work off your plate (in a startup there is nothing better than someone taking the stress of implementing and enabling your GTM team). Quarterly account reviews from such partners also keep your goals aligned. Here are some of the best partners I have worked with in terms of tech stack and would recommend: Chili Piper, Salesloft, Clay, 6sense 👌🏽 Here are the worst ones: Linkedin Sales Navigator, Zoominfo, and Outreach 😑 (Will spare them the tag as the goal is awareness not ridicule) #revops #revenueoperations #gtmstrategy #techstack #gtmtools

Teaching my son how to choose the right tools from a young age! 🔧💪🏻 Okay, I’m obviously joking, but when he grows up, I will definitely try to teach him this lesson, cause I learned it the hard way. In the early days of running Peeklogic, I often picked the first available #tool that seemed to get the job done. Sometimes it worked—other times, I found myself spending more time fixing issues than actually getting results. So now, whenever I choose a business tool, here are the key factors I always consider: 1️⃣ Efficiency – a tool should make my life easier, not create extra work. Trust me, the right tool saves time. 2️⃣ Flexibility – a tool that works today should still work when my business grows. I remember trying a cheap project management tool, only to realize it couldn’t scale. We had to migrate everything to Jira and it was not fun. 3️⃣ Ease of Use – if I need an instruction manual every time I log in, that’s a problem. Whether through simplicity or #customisation, a tool should work for me, not make me work harder. 4️⃣ Reliability – This one is huge. I’ve seen companies lose data or deal with constant system crashes because they picked the cheapest option. The right tool should be dependable—even under pressure. I always remind myself: just because something can get the job done doesn’t mean it’s the best way to do it. You can hammer a nail with a wrench, but a hammer will do it faster and with less effort. The same goes for #businesstools — why struggle when the right tool can make things effortless? What’s one tool you regret choosing? Or one that made your life way easier? #Automation #LessonsLearned