The first step in turning a duct-taped-together set of tools into an intentional software team is to understand the strategy of choosing technology. Listen to this episode of the Begin as You Mean to Go On podcast where I share the tools we use at Karvel Digital and why. 

What is a Tech Stack?

A tech stack is a phrase that means the technology that you use to run your business.  What are all the technical tools that you use to run your business day today? All of those things that make up your ability to do business online is your tech stack.   It's very overwhelming for people to figure out which tools to use, put them together, and try to integrate those tools.

Many people like the idea of using all-in-one tools so they have less software to manage. There are several reasons this is a bad idea:

• It promotes 'platform imprisonment' where your business data is stuck in one tool making it difficult to access your data or migrate to other services.
• Tools that try to do everything, usually end up doing many things in a mediocre way.

Categories of Technology

• Marketing tools
• Sales tools 
• Operation tools 

Technology Considerations

Do not base your technology choices solely on price! You are hiring technology to do a job and should be getting ROI from your tools. 

Things to consider: 

• The age of your business. Are you just getting started, or is your business pretty established?
• The technical experience of your team. Do you have the expertise on your team to use the technology to maintain the technology? And if not, then that's something that you're going to have to consider as you go forward.
• What are your goals? What are your long-term goals? What are your short-term goals?
• Does this tech allow integrations? Can I connect my CRM with my website? 
• The other thing to keep in mind is customer service. Especially if you're not technical, if you need to get help with this tool with either setting it up or managing or doing some kind of troubleshooting,  like how has the customer service,  is there going to be anybody there?
• Another thing I like to keep in mind is how responsive this company is and how proactive this company is in developing its tool? I want to know if they are going to keep improving things as we go along.
• Other considerations are do assholes run it? People weren't asking this question before May of 2020,  but it’s something that's been on my radar. If the company’s people have an opposite set of values, you don't want to give them your money.

Want to know what we use here at Karvel Digital? Sign up for the full course and get the complete Action Guide with links to all our recommended tools!