The Tools I Actually Use: My Cloud Stack for Running a Modern Business
There’s no shortage of SaaS tools promising to make your business faster, smarter, or more automated. I’ve tested dozens. Some stick. Some don’t. This is my current cloud stack—what I use every day to run operations, stay organized, and keep our teams productive and aligned. It’s not theoretical. It’s battle-tested.
Communication & Collaboration
Slack: The central nervous system of the team. Replaces most internal emails and keeps decision-making transparent.
Asana: Where projects go to live (and ideally, to die completed). Simple, visual task management that scales from personal to team-wide execution.
Intermedia Elevate: Business phone, voicemail, conferencing—still necessary for some of the old-school workflows.
Sales, Marketing & Automation
LeadSimple: Our lead tracking and CRM layer. Clean and focused on sales workflows without being bloated.
Mailchimp: Email marketing workhorse. Solid for newsletters, announcements, and drip campaigns.
SEMrush: For keeping tabs on keywords, SEO performance, and competitive search data.
Fathom Analytics: A privacy-first alternative to Google Analytics. Fast insights, no creepy tracking.
Zapier: The duct tape of automation. It connects nearly everything here, saving hours on repetitive tasks.
ChatGPT: A new daily companion—for drafting emails, writing code, summarizing documents, and brainstorming ideas. Not replacing people, but multiplying output.
Web Presence
WP Engine: Hosting our legacy WordPress sites. Reliable, fast, and easy to manage at scale.
Squarespace: Used for past microsites or when we need quick visual polish without a dev team.
Framer: Our new go-to for fast, beautiful, responsive sites. I built a live site in about an hour—no code needed.
Documents & Content Creation
DocuSign and HelloSign: We still use both depending on partner preferences, though we’re likely to consolidate soon.
Canva: Where we create everything from pitch decks to social assets. Design for non-designers and fast-moving teams.
Tools I Tried and Ditched
PandaDoc: Slick interface but redundant once we committed to HelloSign and DocuSign.
Blaze.ai: A promising AI content tool, but it didn’t save time in our real-world use cases.
Lessons Learned
Don’t chase shiny tools. If it doesn’t save time, increase revenue, or reduce complexity, it’s out.
Integrations matter more than features. Zapier is often the glue that turns “nice to have” into “must-have.”
AI tools are like interns—great for drafts and research, but still need review.
When in doubt, simplify. More tools mean more training, more maintenance, and more chances for things to break.
What’s Next
I’m always testing new tools, but they have to prove their ROI quickly. The future stack will likely include more AI-native platforms, lighter CRMs, and fewer tools doing more.
