7 tools every entrepreneur should know about
Between 2018–2025, the founder toolkit has evolved faster than any other category of SaaS. AI automation, integrated workflows, and remote/hybrid work have reshaped how entrepreneurs operate. Below we have provided the update about the tools that has been used for the past 10 years.
1. Replacing Geckoboard: Real-Time AI Dashboards
Tools like Geckoboard still work, but modern founders now rely on AI-powered dashboards that can interpret data, not just display it.
Modern Alternatives
- Modern equivalents:
- Tango Analytics – automatically reads your product analytics and suggests actions
- Retool + GPT Automations – build your own AI-summaries on top of internal data
- Datadog + AI Notebooks – anomaly detection and smart performance reporting
What’s new in 2025?
Dashboards don’t just show metrics; they now:
- summarise anomalies,
- generate weekly business briefs,
- and predict revenue or churn based on live inputs.
2. Asana/Trello = AI-Native Work Management
Asana & Trello still dominate, but they now include AI project copilots that:
- generate tasks automatically from meeting notes
- forecast deadlines
- detect blockers before they emerge
- create roadmaps and capacity plans
.jpg)
Modern 2025 alternatives
- Linear + AI for product teams
- Notion Projects (AI-generated tasks and docs)
- Motion (AI schedules your day/hour-by-hour automatically)
The future of task management is no tasks without AI involvement.
3. Usabilityhub = AI User Testing & Instant Prototyping
In 2025, startups validate ideas 10x faster thanks to AI prototyping.
Tools replacing or complementing user testing
- Figma AI – generates UI screens, flows, and variants instantly
- Maze AI – runs automated usability tests with AI-generated user panels
- Uizard – turn sketches into prototypes instantly
New capability
You can now run a UI test without building anything, just describe the product, and AI simulates user interactions.
Beyond usability testing, LLM-native app builders such as Lovable, Storm and Base44 take things a step further by allowing founders to build fully functional applications through natural language. These platforms generate UI, data models, backend logic, and integrations automatically. Instead of waiting for engineering sprints, founders can iterate instantly and move from idea to prototype to deployed MVP in the same day.
4. Rapportive → AI Inbox Knowledge Panels
Rapportive is long gone, but its spirit continues.
Modern 2025 replacements
- Superhuman – shows social profiles + AI-generated relationship history
- Folk CRM – auto-builds profiles & reminders based on your Gmail activity
- Clay – your personal network memory, powered by AI
These tools know who someone is before you read the email.
5. Xero → Fully Automated AI Finance Stack
Xero remains strong, but the finance stack now includes autonomous tooling.
Updated tools:
- Pilot + AI – automated bookkeeping
- Tactyc – AI-powered financial planning for founders
- Anrok – automated global tax & compliance
- Ramp / Brex – automated expense management with receipt OCR + anomaly detection
Major shift
You no longer "do accounting."
Your system does it for you and asks only when exceptions occur.
6. Coworking Apps → Hybrid Work Infrastructure Apps
WeWork is still alive, but hybrid work changed everything.
Modern 2025 tools:
- Deskpass – book desks anywhere globally
- FlowSpace – hybrid office orchestration
- LiquidSpace AI – intelligent meeting-room routing for distributed teams
Teams no longer choose one space; they choose a network of spaces.
7. Boomerang → AI Email Orchestration
Scheduling emails is table stakes.
In 2025, email tools can also:
- rewrite messages
- route replies
- detect emotion
- draft agendas
- summarise threads
- prioritize who you should email today
Tools
- Gmail Gemini AI – built directly into the inbox
- Superhuman AI – contextual reply drafts
- Shortwave – bundles email like Slack channels
.jpg)
Boomerang walked so AI email could run.
Bonus: Import.io → AI-Native Data Extraction & Real-Time Web Intelligence
One of the biggest shifts since a few years back is how much founders rely on external web data to make decisions. Whether it’s competitor tracking, market research, pricing intelligence, investment signals, or feeding dashboards, data now drives nearly every operational decision.
But collecting that data manually?
Impossible in 2025.
This is where Import.io has become a core tool in the modern founder stack.
Why Import.io belongs in a 2025 entrepreneur’s toolkit
Import.io enables founders and teams to:
- extract structured data from any website without writing code
- automate web-to-database or web-to-Google Sheets workflows
- build continuous real-time data feeds for dashboards
- monitor competitor websites, product pages, and pricing changes
- generate datasets directly usable by AI agents and analytics systems
What’s new in Import.io?
Thanks to an AI-native pipeline architecture, Import.io now supports:
- AI-assisted extraction that adapts when a webpage layout changes
- automated compliance and traceability, critical for regulated industries
- full data lineage visibility, ideal for companies building AI models
- agent-ready datasets, which plug directly into LLM-powered tools
- streaming mode, enabling dashboards and AI copilots to receive fresh data continuously
Why it matters?
In 2025, founders who capture and operationalize external web data have a measurable competitive advantage. Instead of guessing what the market is doing, they watch it unfold in real time and their tools adapt automatically.
Import.io gives entrepreneurs the ability to turn the entire web into structured, actionable intelligence with no engineering team required.
Final Thoughts:
There is one thing that hasn't changed - entrepreneurs still wear 10 hats.
But now, AI wears half of them with you.
As new research on 2025 productivity trends and AI founder workflows shows, the modern founder toolbox is now:
- automated
- connected
- predictive
- data-driven
- and increasingly autonomous
AI isn’t replacing entrepreneurs, but it’s multiplying them. And with tools like Import.io feeding clean, structured web data into modern AI systems, founders in 2025 can build smarter, faster, and with fewer resources than ever.
Between 2018–2025, the founder toolkit has evolved faster than any other category of SaaS. AI automation, integrated workflows, and remote/hybrid work have reshaped how entrepreneurs operate. Below we have provided the update about the tools that has been used for the past 10 years.
1. Replacing Geckoboard: Real-Time AI Dashboards
Tools like Geckoboard still work, but modern founders now rely on AI-powered dashboards that can interpret data, not just display it.
Modern Alternatives
- Modern equivalents:
- Tango Analytics – automatically reads your product analytics and suggests actions
- Retool + GPT Automations – build your own AI-summaries on top of internal data
- Datadog + AI Notebooks – anomaly detection and smart performance reporting
What’s new in 2025?
Dashboards don’t just show metrics; they now:
- summarise anomalies,
- generate weekly business briefs,
- and predict revenue or churn based on live inputs.
2. Asana/Trello = AI-Native Work Management
Asana & Trello still dominate, but they now include AI project copilots that:
- generate tasks automatically from meeting notes
- forecast deadlines
- detect blockers before they emerge
- create roadmaps and capacity plans
Modern 2025 alternatives
- Linear + AI for product teams
- Notion Projects (AI-generated tasks and docs)
- Motion (AI schedules your day/hour-by-hour automatically)
The future of task management is no tasks without AI involvement.
3. Usabilityhub = AI User Testing & Instant Prototyping
In 2025, startups validate ideas 10x faster thanks to AI prototyping.
Tools replacing or complementing user testing
- Figma AI – generates UI screens, flows, and variants instantly
- Maze AI – runs automated usability tests with AI-generated user panels
- Uizard – turn sketches into prototypes instantly
New capability
You can now run a UI test without building anything, just describe the product, and AI simulates user interactions.
Beyond usability testing, LLM-native app builders such as Lovable, Storm and Base44 take things a step further by allowing founders to build fully functional applications through natural language. These platforms generate UI, data models, backend logic, and integrations automatically. Instead of waiting for engineering sprints, founders can iterate instantly and move from idea to prototype to deployed MVP in the same day.
4. Rapportive → AI Inbox Knowledge Panels
Rapportive is long gone, but its spirit continues.
Modern 2025 replacements
- Superhuman – shows social profiles + AI-generated relationship history
- Folk CRM – auto-builds profiles & reminders based on your Gmail activity
- Clay – your personal network memory, powered by AI
These tools know who someone is before you read the email.
5. Xero → Fully Automated AI Finance Stack
Xero remains strong, but the finance stack now includes autonomous tooling.
Updated tools:
- Pilot + AI – automated bookkeeping
- Tactyc – AI-powered financial planning for founders
- Anrok – automated global tax & compliance
- Ramp / Brex – automated expense management with receipt OCR + anomaly detection
Major shift
You no longer "do accounting."
Your system does it for you and asks only when exceptions occur.
6. Coworking Apps → Hybrid Work Infrastructure Apps
WeWork is still alive, but hybrid work changed everything.
Modern 2025 tools:
- Deskpass – book desks anywhere globally
- FlowSpace – hybrid office orchestration
- LiquidSpace AI – intelligent meeting-room routing for distributed teams
Teams no longer choose one space; they choose a network of spaces.
7. Boomerang → AI Email Orchestration
Scheduling emails is table stakes.
In 2025, email tools can also:
- rewrite messages
- route replies
- detect emotion
- draft agendas
- summarise threads
- prioritize who you should email today
Tools
- Gmail Gemini AI – built directly into the inbox
- Superhuman AI – contextual reply drafts
- Shortwave – bundles email like Slack channels
Boomerang walked so AI email could run.
Bonus: Import.io → AI-Native Data Extraction & Real-Time Web Intelligence
One of the biggest shifts since a few years back is how much founders rely on external web data to make decisions. Whether it’s competitor tracking, market research, pricing intelligence, investment signals, or feeding dashboards, data now drives nearly every operational decision.
But collecting that data manually?
Impossible in 2025.
This is where Import.io has become a core tool in the modern founder stack.
Why Import.io belongs in a 2025 entrepreneur’s toolkit
Import.io enables founders and teams to:
- extract structured data from any website without writing code
- automate web-to-database or web-to-Google Sheets workflows
- build continuous real-time data feeds for dashboards
- monitor competitor websites, product pages, and pricing changes
- generate datasets directly usable by AI agents and analytics systems
What’s new in Import.io?
Thanks to an AI-native pipeline architecture, Import.io now supports:
- AI-assisted extraction that adapts when a webpage layout changes
- automated compliance and traceability, critical for regulated industries
- full data lineage visibility, ideal for companies building AI models
- agent-ready datasets, which plug directly into LLM-powered tools
- streaming mode, enabling dashboards and AI copilots to receive fresh data continuously
Why it matters?
In 2025, founders who capture and operationalize external web data have a measurable competitive advantage. Instead of guessing what the market is doing, they watch it unfold in real time and their tools adapt automatically.
Import.io gives entrepreneurs the ability to turn the entire web into structured, actionable intelligence with no engineering team required.
Final Thoughts:
There is one thing that hasn't changed - entrepreneurs still wear 10 hats.
But now, AI wears half of them with you.
As new research on 2025 productivity trends and AI founder workflows shows, the modern founder toolbox is now:
- automated
- connected
- predictive
- data-driven
- and increasingly autonomous
AI isn’t replacing entrepreneurs, but it’s multiplying them. And with tools like Import.io feeding clean, structured web data into modern AI systems, founders in 2025 can build smarter, faster, and with fewer resources than ever.
