Methodology

The 5-tool ceiling

Each stack holds at most 5 tools, and the site's build fails on a sixth. Tool sprawl costs early-stage teams in context switching and admin, and stacks grow easily but rarely shrink without a hard limit.

A slot is filled only when the tools already in the stack can't do the job well. An open slot stays open until a tool earns it: the Founder Stack currently fills 4 of 5. Once a stack is full, a new tool gets in only by evicting one.

What we look for

Focused utility

One job done well beats a suite that does five jobs adequately.

Published pricing

We favour vendors that publish their prices and plan limits. Pricing traps count against a tool: unannounced restructuring, steep jumps between tiers, or annual-only contracts for small teams. Some categories, such as fund administration, are sold only through sales teams; there the scorecard says “Contact sales” rather than guessing.

Data portability

A team should be able to get its data out, through exports or an API, and move on without the vendor's help.

Fit with the rest of the stack

A tool should work with the systems around it, such as code hosting, banking, and the cap table, without custom middleware.

How facts are checked

• Every price, plan limit, and perk comes from the vendor's own pages: pricing, documentation, trust, and startup-program pages. We keep the source URLs; comparison pages list them.
• We don't use sales calls, vendor decks, or review sites as sources.
• Where we can't confirm a value, it is left out or marked “Review pending”.
• We state the billing basis where the vendor does, for example “billed yearly” when a monthly figure assumes an annual plan.
• Setup times are our own estimates, labelled “Setup (est.)”. Nothing on the site is a measured benchmark, and we don't publish speed or latency claims.
• Every scorecard and comparison shows when it was last reviewed. We re-check them quarterly. Prices can change between reviews, so confirm on the vendor's site before you buy.

How to read a scorecard

Seed cost

What an early-stage team pays to start, as the vendor publishes it.

Setup (est.)

Our estimate of the time to a working setup.

Keyboard

Yes: a command menu plus documented shortcuts. Partial: some shortcuts documented. No: none documented.

Perk

A startup offer, listed only when the vendor publishes it. Most require joining through a partner accelerator or investor.

Reviewed

The month the values were last checked against the vendor's pages.

When a tool is evicted

A tool loses its slot when:

• The vendor changes: an acquisition, a discontinued product, or no standalone way to sign up. Tactyc left the Investor Stack this way.
• The job belongs to the other audience. Carta's cap table left the Investor Stack for this reason; it stays in the Founder Stack.
• Pricing turns against small teams, through restructuring or by moving core features behind enterprise plans.
• Lock-in grows: exports or API access are restricted.
• An alternative does the job clearly better, with cleaner pricing.

Every eviction is recorded permanently in the eviction log: what was removed, what replaced it, and why.

Independence

• No vendor can pay for a slot, a listing, or a review.
• We may join a vendor's affiliate or referral program, but only for tools that already hold a slot. Whether a vendor has an affiliate program plays no part in whether its tool gets or keeps one.
• Products the site's owner has a financial interest in never hold a slot, and are marked “Affiliated” wherever they appear. Details are in disclosures.

Corrections

Prices and plans change. If you spot an error, email [email protected] with a link to the vendor page that shows the correct value. We check it against the source and update the page with a new review date.