Coming off UNBOUND im increasingly convinced that HubSpot’s not long for this world. Particularly when it comes to early stage startups. Its ability to justify its price is becoming harder and harder.

Clearly they know this and it’s part of an effort to move up market (might succeed, but I’m doubtful). So I’m curious, what gins be the next defacto CRM for the Series A and Series B folks?

Pipedrive seems like a nightmare. Not sure what else is out there that’s well built and truly scales.

-consultant that makes most of their money on HubSpot and early stage startups

"I think we renew in November, but procurement handles the notice period." That's the kind of answer I'm trying to find a place for in our CRM. I handle discovery calls, and a comment like that leaves me without a confirmed renewal date or a deadline for giving notice. The day and year aren't specified either. I'd need more information before using it to assess when our deal might close.

My inclination is to keep the quote in the call note and set a task for myself to confirm the renewal date and notice deadline with the buyer. An approved call recording could go through Vomo AI for transcription; I'd check the passage against the audio before copying it into the note. The note would identify who said it and when. I would leave the renewal date field empty until confirmed, and assess our expected close date separately.

The snag is finding these deals again. If the tentative month only lives in notes, a report filtered on renewal dates won't pick it up. Do you use a separate text field for an estimated renewal window and a confirmation status, or rely on tasks until you have an exact date? I don't want to enter November 1 just to satisfy a date field and have that placeholder show up as a customer deadline in someone else's report.

A few things I've noticed help small agencies/solo businesses once deals start slipping through the cracks:

Keep company info, contact info, and the deal itself linked not spread across a spreadsheet, your email, and your notes app

Have one view that shows every deal's stage at a glance, so nothing needs "checking in on" from memory

Track deal value somewhere, even roughly knowing your pipeline's worth changes how you prioritize your week

If you're a solo owner and a paid CRM tool is just out of budget right now, I build Notion CRMs and I'm happy to send mine over free genuinely, no strings, just comment or DM if that's useful to you

I am a one man band outfit. I dont need multiple apps and addons...what I need is the following all built-in

• A work email (I have the domain) and interface that looks or mimics outlook in functionality
• Email sequencing
• An outbound/inbound phone system to mainly call US and UK
• CRM/ATS functionality.

Please suggest some very low cost all in one options.

We are a 2 person companies. Doing lots of outreach and also public tenders offers. I am technical the other founder is non technical.
I saw twenty seems like a great CRM. Will I be able to self-host on my linux computer and send over access credentials so that my cofounder can use it too. So that we can have access to the same dashboard and work together on it. He uses a Mac.

Spreadsheets, WhatsApp, sticky notes—what do you keep going back to, and what makes it work better for you?

I'm an accountant, and I noticed that those big CRMs like Karbon, Financial Cents, and others aren't caring for the customers that much. They only improve their software if they believe it's needed, but I feel like they're not in the accounting day to day to know all the issues. So I built my own CRM.

After trying to get firms to use it, every conversation went the same way. They'd say it looks good, come back when you have some clients using it, then we'll talk. Which is funny because how am I supposed to get clients if nobody's willing to be the first one.

All I want is feedback so the software can be improved with real data. If you're a firm that wants to have this in exchange for feedback, I'd appreciate it. Not seeking anything here, just trying to get a firm other than me to use it.

Please DM me if you're interested.

I make Boring CRM for solo property agents. Here's a small test I'd use for any mobile CRM, including mine.

Create a fictional buyer using your own number. Give them one awkward requirement: “Ground floor only. Call next month, after the move.”

Then test four things:

1. Close the app. Reopen it and find that requirement without digging through unrelated notes.
2. Set a test reminder for a few minutes ahead. Enable notifications, lock the phone and check what actually appears.
3. If you need access between viewings, turn on airplane mode and try reading the saved details.
4. Export or back up the test record. Check whether the notes and dates survive, and whether the file is useful outside that app. A contact list and a restorable backup solve different problems.

One fake buyer won't prove a CRM scales. It can expose a daily annoyance before your real contacts depend on it.

Which has caused you the most trouble: finding context, reminders, offline access or getting data out?

we have been using hubspot crm for small business operations for about six months now and it has been great for keeping our pipeline organized.

the clean contact timelines, native email tracking, and simple layout made onboarding our team smooth. it saved us a lot of manual data entry right away.

for other small teams using it, what specific features, dashboards, or integrations gave your team the biggest efficiency boost?