@gracccy At the time of this writing, the top answer says "don't use a CRM yet" and the second answer says "definitely use a CRM right now". I think they're both right, it just depends on your business.
Do you have a sense of whether a CRM is important for your business? Like, are you going to be doing high-touch sales, automated outreach, biz dev, etc.? It's hard to say what you should use without knowing what problem it needs to solve.
I run a CRM SaaS myself, so I have a good amount of experience working with very early stage companies that are picking their first CRM. The most common mistake I see if people who are thinking way too far ahead. They think "one day I'll need $X, $Y, and $Z) and so they try to find a CRM that can do that all that stuff. This is a huge waste of time and money, and honestly, it's a big red flag about that person's ability as an entrepreneur because entrepreneurship is all about understanding the nine problems you should ignore so you can focus on the one that matters.
The second most common mistake is people picking a CRM that was right for someone they know, but it's not right for them. For example, a friend runs a business that does a ton of email automation. That friend recommends Klaviyo, so that's what you use. But it turns out you're doing high-touch sales, and Klaviyo is a terrible tool for that job. Or vice versa
If tracking relationships won't be important (at least not yet), go with Trello, Notion, etc. If it will be important from day 1, I'd use a real CRM, but optimize for something super simple instead of trying to find the set of features you think you'll need later. If you go that route, I'd figure out whether you're going to be primarily doing more of a manual process (tracking your first 20 customers) or a more automated process (cold emailing 50,000 people in order to find the first 20 customers), and keep that in mind when picking a CRM.
Do you have a sense of whether a CRM is important for your business? Like, are you going to be doing high-touch sales, automated outreach, biz dev, etc.? It's hard to say what you should use without knowing what problem it needs to solve.
I run a CRM SaaS myself, so I have a good amount of experience working with very early stage companies that are picking their first CRM. The most common mistake I see if people who are thinking way too far ahead. They think "one day I'll need $X, $Y, and $Z) and so they try to find a CRM that can do that all that stuff. This is a huge waste of time and money, and honestly, it's a big red flag about that person's ability as an entrepreneur because entrepreneurship is all about understanding the nine problems you should ignore so you can focus on the one that matters.
The second most common mistake is people picking a CRM that was right for someone they know, but it's not right for them. For example, a friend runs a business that does a ton of email automation. That friend recommends Klaviyo, so that's what you use. But it turns out you're doing high-touch sales, and Klaviyo is a terrible tool for that job. Or vice versa
If tracking relationships won't be important (at least not yet), go with Trello, Notion, etc. If it will be important from day 1, I'd use a real CRM, but optimize for something super simple instead of trying to find the set of features you think you'll need later. If you go that route, I'd figure out whether you're going to be primarily doing more of a manual process (tracking your first 20 customers) or a more automated process (cold emailing 50,000 people in order to find the first 20 customers), and keep that in mind when picking a CRM.