30 tools that has made my life easier has a hub manager.

Credibility is the most important thing for the hub manager, you don't want your potential partners or sponsors to realize you can't write in a grammatical way. Small errors in your typing and wrong use of punctuation marks may degrade your credibility to zero and that is the reason Grammarly exist. Grammarly is the tool that helps you not only to avoid typing errors but also to make sure your statements and phrases are grammatically correct.

Ideation and product (service) development activities will always be easy when you have a canvas in front of you. Whether its Business Model Canvas  or Lean Canvas they will do the work just fine, depending on what exactly you need to do with the idea. The tools tend to make the brainstorming session interactive and organized. They also challenge the thinking of the owner of the idea. The digitized version of the tools can be found on the website canvanizer.com.

Not until recently when I joined a Design Thinking For Business Innovation course on Coursera which was taught by Dr. Jeanne Liedtka I came to understand the usefulness of the visualization and journey mapping tools, and how you can effectively use the tools to develop early stage ideas and create common understanding between the mentor and the mentee. The four most important questions; the what is, what if, what wows and what works are all combined together to help you design what is needed and not what you are anticipating to be needed.

Another cool tool to use is differentiation matrix, I have tried to look for it online, but I haven't been successful. The tool helps you to differentiate your idea, project or business in relation to two competitors available in the market with respect to product, service, employees, image, distribution channels, market & customer segments and price. I was exposed to the tool by a group of Swedish students who came to visit our hub to share knowledge and experience, and that is another reason to accommodate people at your hub. Always look at what value they are leveraging to what you do.


When trying to explain to people in which stage their startup exist it has never been this easier. I discovered this simple one-page tool from Startupscommons.org  which explains the key stages that startups have to go through before it establishes itself. The simple diagram combined with summarized explanation gives you quick understanding on the level of development of the startup.

To be continue...