The #StartupStack by TechCityUK and Stripe

Stripe and Tech City UK have partnered to uncover the Startup Stack – the cloud-based toolkit fuelling the UK startup economy. A full list of the 192 tools broken down by the 13 different areas can be found in this report
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<p>The #StartupStack
In partnership with
From
@TechCityUK
@stripe
In partnership with
From
The #StartupStack
It used to cost £3.3m to launch a tech startup.
2000
£3.3m
2005
£275,000
2009
£32,000
2011
£3,200
Source: CB Insights, 2015
@TechCityUK
@stripe
In partnership with
From
The #StartupStack
It used to take startups twice as long
to grow and go global.
Source: Atomico, 2015
72
months
25
months
Founded
2003 - 2008
Founded
2009+
Time taken to reach 100m users
41 
months
22
months
Founded
2003 - 2008
Founded
2009+
Time taken to internationalise
from year of founding
@TechCityUK
@stripe
In partnership with
From
The #StartupStack
Why the change?
A suite of cloud-based tools designed to help 
entrepreneurs easily outsource and automate the 
fundamentals of running a business, such as data 
storage, accepting payments or team collaboration.
The #StartupStack
@TechCityUK
@stripe
In partnership with
From
The #StartupStack
Source: Tech City UK - Stripe Startup Stack Survey, 2016
The UK #StartupStack
190+ tools names across 13 business functions
Legal & Compliance
Database Management
Human Resources
Accounting
Code repositories
Cybersecurity
Customer Support
Recruitment
Hosting & Data Storage
Team Collaboration & Communication
Customer Relationship Management
Analytics
Payments
@TechCityUK
@stripe
In partnership with
From
The #StartupStack
These tools are making it easier and
cheaper to start a tech business today.
70%
believe some UK startups would 
not be able to exist without the 
stack of tools they use.
6 - 15
tools used by typical tech 
startup today, according to 
majority of respondents.
85%
agree that tools have made it 
cheaper to start a tech business.
89%
agree that tools have made it 
easier to start a tech business.
Source: Tech City UK - Stripe Startup Stack Survey, 2016
@TechCityUK
@stripe
In partnership with
From
The #StartupStack
Today, startups don’t reinvent the wheel.
Source: Tech City UK - Stripe Startup Stack Survey, 2016
Less than 10% build their
own payments infrastructure
Less than 12% build their
own CRM system
“The DIY-approach to setting 
up your own infrastructure 
no longer makes sense for 
today’s startups, when they 
can instantly integrate with 
Startup Stack tools that do 
all the heavy lifting. It also 
future-proofs businesses and 
accelerates growth by baking 
in the ability to scale.”
— James Allgrove
Head of UK Growth at Stripe
Less than 14% build their
own servers or data storage
@TechCityUK
@stripe
In partnership with
From
The #StartupStack
1 in 4 of the tools named in the survey
were launched within the past ﬁve years.
Source: Tech City UK - Stripe Startup Stack Survey, 2016
“Many of these businesses are also 
startups that didn't exist a few years ago, 
and so they have a deep understanding 
of our mentality and our desire to focus 
on what we do best and on growing 
really quickly while making our customer 
proposition better and better.”
— Aron Gelbard
CEO, Bloom & Wild
2011 - 2015
@TechCityUK
@stripe
In partnership with
From
The #StartupStack
Where are tools having the biggest impact?
Source: Tech City UK - Stripe Startup Stack Survey, 2016. Multiple answers possible.
Analytics
Team Collaboration & Communication
Hosting & Data Storage
Payments
Customer Relationship Management
Code Repositories
Customer Support
Accounting
Database Management
Cybersecurity
Recruitment
Human Resources
Legal & Compliance
0%
10%
20%
30%
Percentage of startups which rated tool group as most impactful
@TechCityUK
@stripe
In partnership with
From
The #StartupStack
#1 Analytics
Tools to help gather and analyse business data,
from social media engagement to conversion rates on mobile.
Source: Tech City UK - Stripe Startup Stack Survey, 2016
54%  QUICKER PRODUCT DEVELOPMENT
42%  BOOSTING PRODUCTIVITY
38%  GETTING TO MARKET MORE QUICKLY
“determine what 
parts of the product 
work or need change”
“user centric design 
and data driven 
development”
“better return on marketing 
investment and data with which 
to inform strategy development”
“understanding of what 
is happening to my 
business and customers”
“You grow 
what you 
measure”
“Actionable Data”
”Better ROI”
Biggest beneﬁts
What startups say
@TechCityUK
@stripe
In partnership with
From
The #StartupStack
#2 Team Collaboration
       & Communication
Tools to help with remote working,
ﬁle-sharing, issue tracking, project
management and communication.
Sources: Tech City UK - Stripe Startup Stack Survey, 2016     |     g2crowd, 2016
“Ideas 
easier to 
implement”
“Better 
customer 
service”
“Keeping 
information all 
in one place”
“Getting input from others, 
or sharing ideas with teams 
becomes easier”
“it inﬂuences and 
maintains company 
culture”
“taking project communications, issue 
tracking, and task tracking, assignment 
and management out of email”
89%  EASIER TO WORK REMOTELY
80%  BOOSTING PRODUCTIVITY
52%  QUICKER PRODUCT DEVELOPMENT
Biggest beneﬁts
What startups say
@TechCityUK
@stripe
In partnership with
From
The #StartupStack
#3 Hosting & Data Storage
Tools to help with managing cloud storage,
application platforms and web hosting.
Source: Tech City UK - Stripe Startup Stack Survey, 2016
“Simplicity - contracting 
out this service”
“Easier scalability 
and ﬂexibility”
“Reduced cost”
“Scalability”
74%  REDUCED OPERATING COSTS
46%  GETTING TO MARKET MORE QUICKLY
45%  QUICKER PRODUCT DEVELOPMENT
Biggest beneﬁts
What startups say
@TechCityUK
@stripe
In partnership with
From
The #StartupStack
#4 Payments
Tools to help with accepting payments
and automating ﬁnancial operations.
Sources: Tech City UK - Stripe Startup Stack Survey, 2016     |     g2crowd, 2016
“Better cash ﬂow and 
payments experience”
“Easier to integrate 
Apple Pay”
"Decreased developer time 
for concept to completion"
“Eﬃciency”
“Better monetisation”
"Developers don't have to worry 
about security and PCI compliance"
"Get an idea to market 
as quickly as possible"
58%  GETTING TO MARKET MORE QUICKLY
58%  EASIER TO EXPAND INTERNATIONALLY
51%  REDUCED OPERATING COSTS
Biggest beneﬁts
What startups say
@TechCityUK
@stripe
In partnership with
From
The #StartupStack
Source: Tech City UK - Stripe Startup Stack Survey, 2016
Case study: Unbundling Bloom & Wild’s Startup Stack
“We've used a huge 
number of tools to 
accelerate our 
growth… All the 
areas that we use 
third party tools for 
are big sources of 
complexity and 
would have taken a 
huge amount of 
time, eﬀort, staﬀ 
and cost to create 
ourselves.”
—  Aron Gelbard
CEO, Bloom & Wild
Analytics
Collaboration
Payments
Cybersecurity
Accounting
Hosting & Data Storage
Customer Communication
Code Repositories
Delivery
Customer support
@TechCityUK
@stripe
In partnership with
From
The #StartupStack
Where is there demand for more tools?
think more tools in cybersecurity 
could help startups grow faster
2 in 5
think that more tools in legal & compliance 
could help startups grow faster
Source: Tech City UK - Stripe Startup Stack Survey, 2016
“...in key areas, such as legal function, HR functions, and cybersecurity, there is still more to look forward to. At 
Seedcamp, we’re actively investing into companies that will plug these last remaining infrastructure gaps, including 
CharlieHR, a free to use automated HR platform, and cybersecurity startup, Rawstream, which helps employees stay 
safe and productive. This year we partnered with NextLaw Labs to invest even more into the legal tech space, and 
have already backed companies including Juro to automate legal contracts.”
—  Carlos Espinal, Partner, Seedcamp
emerging examples
emerging examples
1 in 5
@TechCityUK
@stripe
In partnership with
From
The #StartupStack
What do startups look for in tools?
Cost-eﬃciency is important, but certainly not the only deciding factor.
Source: Tech City UK - Stripe Startup Stack Survey, 2016
“...the research also highlights the importance of factors such as cost, ease of integration and stability, all 
three of which ring true. I’d also add user experience and global performance to the list – for a global 
business such as ours, cloud based tools must work as well for our colleagues in our APAC oﬃces as they 
do in our European ones…”
—  Michael Hall, Employee Enablement Tech Manager, Skyscanner
Cost
Simple Integration
Stability/Reliability
UX/Interface
Interoperability Between Tools
Scalability
Support and Documentation
Other
72%  COST-EFFICIENCY
59%  EASE OF INTEGRATION
56%  STABILITY
@TechCityUK
@stripe
In partnership with
From
The #StartupStack
Get in touch and share your thoughts.
#StartupStack
About Tech City UK
Tech City UK’s mission is to accelerate the growth of London and the UK’s digital economy.
It focusses on areas like digital skills, smart capital investment, infrastructure, international 
development and leadership.
It started life in Shoreditch in 2010, launched by the UK Prime Minister David Cameron to support 
the East London tech cluster known as London Tech City or Silicon Roundabout. Since then it has 
grown its support to Greater London, Manchester and other major cities around the UK.
About Stripe
Stripe is a technology platform that developers and entrepreneurs use to build internet 
businesses. Thousands of businesses—ranging from startups to listed companies—rely on 
Stripe’s software tools to accept payments and expand globally. Since it was founded in 2010, 
Stripe has been at the forefront of expanding internet commerce, supporting entirely new 
business models and powering payments for the world’s most innovative companies, such as 
Deliveroo, Mondo, Kickstarter, Shopify, Salesforce and Twitter.
@Stripe
@TechCityUK
@TechCityUK
@stripe
In partnership with
From
The #StartupStack
Appendix
Source: Tech City UK - Stripe Startup Stack Survey, 2016
Research background
Tech City UK and Stripe 
conducted a survey in June 2016 
on how startups use tools.
311 responses, and more than 
half of these came from 
founders & entrepreneurs.
Focus on early-stage startups - 
half of respondents worked in 
companies with 5 or fewer staﬀ.
Founder/entrepreneur
Software engineer
Sales manager
Product manager
Operations manager
Designer
Marketing/PR manager
Investor
Other
@TechCityUK
@stripe
In partnership with
From
The #StartupStack
Appendix
Tools as named and categorised by survey respondents
Analytics
4q by Iperceptions
Adobe
Alexa
Alteryx
Amazon
Appsﬂyer
Atlas by Quartz
BIME
Bing webmaster tools
Brandwatch
Buﬀer
Canddi
Clicky
Constant Contact
Crazyegg
Delta DNA
E-Tracker
Fabric
Facebook Insights
Fivetran
Flurry
Gecko
Google Analytics
GoSquared
Hadoop
Heroku
Hootsuite
HotJar
Hubspot
IBM
Import.io
Intercom
KeenIO
Keyword xp
Kissmetrics
Looker
Microsoft
Mixpanel
MonsterInsights
Moz
Open Web Analytics
Optimizely
Oracle
Periscope data
Piwik
pulsar
Rateaco
RJ Metrics
Salesforce
SAP
Segment
Sendible
similar web
SiteCatalyst
Snowplow
Solver
sproutsocial
SPSS
Suade
Tableau
UXCam
WolframAlpha
Wordpress
Yahoo
Accounting
Financial Force
FreeAgent
FreshBooks
Kashﬂow
QuickBooks
Quicken
Sage
Wave
Xero
Code repositories
Bitbucket
GitHub
gitlab
Google Code
Jira
SourceForge
SourceTree
Stash
Waﬄe
 
CRM
Agile
Base
Capsule
Dynamics
Google
Hubspot
Insightly
Leadscore
MailChimp
Odoo
One Page CRM
Oracle
Pipedrive
Sage
Salesforce
Zoho
 
Customer support
Asana
Conversocial
desk
facebook
GitHub
Intercom
Invoice Ninja
Linkedin
MailChimp
Microsoft Dynamic CRM
Olark
PipeDrive
Slack
smp
Stripe
Team Inbox
Team Support
Trello
uservoice
Zendesk
 
Cybersecurity
Avast
Cisco
Kaspersky
Verizon
 
Human resources
CharlieHR
Hired
Simplydocs
Workable
Database management
Access
Amazon
Google
IBM
Microsoft Azure
Microsoft SQL Server 
Management Studio
MySQL
Oracle
Salesforce
SQLyog
Squel.js
 
Hosting & data storage
Amazon S3
Amazon Web Services
Bitbucket
Box
Cisco
Digital Ocean
Dropbox
Engine Yard
Godaddy
Google Cloud
Google Drive
Hadoop
Heroku
Hostgator
IBM
Juniper
Microsoft Azure
Microsoft OneDrive
OVH
Rackspace
Strikingly
Talend
UK fast
 
Legal & compliance
DocuSign
 
Payments
Adyen
Apple Pay
Avangate
Braintree
Chargify
Currency Cloud
Datacash
GoCardless
Google
Harvest
Ingenico
Instamojo
iZettle
Mangopay
Payoneer
PayPal
Quaderno
Realex
Sagepay
shopify
Skrill
Square
Stripe
Transferwise
Worldpay
Recruitment
Entelo
Greenhouse
Lever
LinkedIn
TalentRocket
Workshape
Workable
 
Team collaboration 
& communication
Asana
Atlassian
Basecamp
Cisco Webex
Conﬂuence
Dropbox
Evernote
Facebook
Flowdock
GitHub
Gmail
Google Apps
Google Calendar
Google Drive
Google Hangouts
Hipchat
Huddle
iMindmap
inMotion
Intercom
JIRA
Microsoft Oﬃce 365
Outlook
Ryver
Salesforce
Samepage
Skype
Slack
Smartsheet
Trello
Waﬄe
Whatsapp
Yammer
</p>