Building a startup is exhilarating… but also kind of like trying to assemble IKEA furniture in the dark. With one eye closed. While fundraising.
You're probably juggling 15 things at once - product, pitching, hiring, marketing, keeping your head above water, and probably forgetting where you saved that investor’s email. The good news? You’re not alone. And better still, there’s tech that can take a lot of the chaos off your plate.
So let’s break down three common challenges early-stage startups face when setting up and scaling, and how to actually tackle them with tools that work for you, not against you.
1. The “Too Many Contacts, Not Enough Clarity” Problem
Investors. Customers. Partners. Beta testers. Old schoolmates you might want to pitch to. All great people, but chaos when they’re spread across sticky notes, your inbox, LinkedIn DMs, and a spreadsheet called FINAL_Investor_List_v3_actually_FINAL.xlsx. Sound familiar?
The fix: A CRM (Customer Relationship Management tool) keeps everything in one place - contacts, conversations, deals, notes, follow-ups - and gives you a central hub you (and your team) can access from anywhere.
Add all your contacts to your CRM, but when you're doing this tag them as "Investor", "Customer", "Potential Partner", etc. This will help you find them easier in searches and set up email nurturing later on.
Schedule automated follow-ups (no more “meant to email them last week” guilt).
Use filters and custom views to focus on just investors or just warm leads.
Sync with your calendar, email, and even form submissions from your website so it’s all automatic.
2. You’re Hustling, But Don’t Know What’s Working
You’re sending emails, pitching to investors, and updating your deck... but how do you know what’s actually landing? And more importantly, who's ready to move forward? That’s where lead scoring comes in.
The fix: Tools like Zoho Campaigns sync with your CRM to track what your contacts are doing. Every time someone clicks a link in your newsletter, attends a demo, or opens your pitch deck, they get points. You decide the rules. Once they hit a threshold, say 20 points, you get notified to take action.
Set up a lead scoring system in Zoho Campaigns linked to your CRM.
Create automated workflows: “If score > 20, assign follow-up task to me.”
Filter hot leads and reach out with a personal message or call.
The best part? Once this is set up, it runs automatically. You’re not manually checking who opened what. You just get a little nudge from your CRM saying “Hey - this person’s warming up.”
3.You Don’t Have Time to Waste on Admin (But It’s Eating Your Day)
Most founders don’t quit their jobs to become full-time admin managers. But without systems, that’s where you end up stuck updating spreadsheets, chasing email replies, and manually reminding yourself to follow up.
The fix: Automation. The smart kind. A CRM can create tasks, send emails, trigger notifications, and even move people through your pipeline without you lifting a finger.
How to action it:
> Automate follow-ups: Set up workflows in your CRM like “If no reply after 5 days, send this follow-up email.”
> Trigger tasks: “If this lead opens 3 emails, create a ‘Call them’ task for me.”
> Auto-add new leads from your website forms (instead of digging through emails to see who filled out your Typeform).
> Connect your CRM to tools like Google Workspace, Slack, Zoom, and more to keep your stack slick and synced.
It’s about making your tools work together, so you don’t have to be everywhere at once
Free Software? Don’t Mind If I Do...
As part of our collaboration with Manchester Digital, we’re giving eligible early-stage businesses £4,000 in Zoho Wallet Credits. Use them on CRM, marketing tools, finance software, project management, email campaigns - you name it.
Even better:
No credit card required.
CRM starts at just £12/month after credits.
No up sells, no fine print. Just real support to get you moving.
Ready to supercharge your startup? Sign up for the Zoho for Startups programme via Manchester Digital.
