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. Where a tool we pick sells only through its sales team, as our portfolio monitoring pick does, the scorecard says “Contact sales” rather than guessing, and the missing price counts against it.

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. Carta Fund Administration left the Investor Stack this way, replaced by AngelList.

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 desk@befficient.net 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.