You don’t have a tools problem.
You have a categories problem.
After asking this community about their stacks, one pattern emerged. Not which tools people use. Which types of tool every portfolio career actually needs.
There are three. Maybe four.
1. A thinking tool.
Where ideas live. Where you plan. Where you capture the half-formed thought at 11pm that turns into a client proposal by morning.
You need one. Not three.
What this community actually uses:
Notion — the most common. Notes, client management, project planning.
Claude — mentioned in every single response. The one tool nobody cut.
ChatGPT — common but being replaced. Two respondents moved to Claude and haven’t looked back.
Granola — the quiet one. Meeting notes. Underrated.
The pattern: most people have two or three thinking tools running simultaneously. That’s not a stack. That’s a pile.
2. A time tool.
How you protect your hours. How you sell them. How you stop giving them away to people who haven’t paid for them yet.
Your calendar is not just a scheduling tool. It’s a revenue decision made visible.
You need one. Maybe two.
What this community actually uses:
Google Calendar — universal. Every single respondent starts their day here.
Calendly — the most common paid tool in the stack.
Luma — event management. Mostly free tier.
Zoom — the default for calls. Nobody loves it. Everyone uses it.
The pattern: time tools are the most consistent part of the stack. Everyone has them. Nobody questions whether they’re earning their place.
3. A money tool.
How you track what’s coming in. How you know whether this month is a good month before it’s already over.
Most portfolio careers are running blind on this one.
You need one. Not a spreadsheet you update when you remember.
What this community actually uses:
Excel — still here. Usually inherited from a corporate life.
Google Sheets — functional. Not built for portfolio income.
Taxfix — the only purpose-built tool in this category.
The pattern: this is the weakest category across every stack. People are tracking money in the same tool they use for meeting notes. That is a problem.
4. The tools that don’t fit.
Here is where it gets interesting.
Every respondent listed tools that don’t belong to thinking, time or money. Nobody named the category. But they’re all paying for it.
What this community actually uses:
LinkedIn — in everyone’s stack. Visibility, community, business development.
Slack — communication. Mostly inherited. Mostly running in the background.
Outlook — non-negotiable for anyone with corporate clients or NED roles.
Canva — the design tool that replaced Adobe for most.
Circle — community platform. The most expensive non-essential in the stack.
Call it what it is: a visibility and communication layer. The fourth category nobody talks about. And where most of the money goes.
The question isn’t whether you need these tools. You probably do. The question is whether you’re treating them with the same intentionality as your thinking, time and money tools.
Most people aren’t.
The full community stack.
Across three respondents, here is every tool mentioned:
Thinking: Notion, Claude, ChatGPT, Granola
Time: Google Calendar, Calendly, Luma, Zoom
Money: Excel, Google Sheets, Taxfix
Visibility: LinkedIn, Slack, Outlook, Canva, Circle
15 tools. Spend ranges from £21 to £100+ per month.
The one thing every single person said?
None of them talk to each other.
From the community: real stacks, real people.
June Angelides MBE
The Orchestrator
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Investor. Advisory. Fractional. NED. Speaking.
Stack spend: £51-100/month
Four income streams. Nine tools. One frustration.
None of them talk to each other. A calendar that doesn’t know about the invoice. A notes app that doesn’t connect to the client. An AI tool that lives in a different universe from the inbox.
One thing that works across every part of my life. Work, family, finances. All of it. In one place.
We’re not there yet. But that’s exactly why I’m asking the question.
🔗 theportfolio-method.com
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Victoria Hogg
The Packager
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Consulting. Fractional CMO. Advisory. Content
Stack spend: ~£38/month
Victoria didn’t overhaul her stack because something broke. She got honest about what was actually earning its place.
Adobe Creative Cloud went. Gamma and Captions came in. ChatGPT went. Claude stayed.
Better output. Less money. More focus.
Her Notion is client-facing. Every client gets their own section.
That’s not a tool choice. That’s a positioning decision.
What she’s working on: Power Hours for female founders with one key question that needs answering properly.
👉victrixlabs.as.me/powerhour
Exclusive discount for Portfolio Method members: TPM25
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Emmie Faust
The Bridge Builder
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Female Founders Rise. Female Founders Breakfast. Consulting. Speaking.
Stack spend: £100+/month
Emmie starts her day on LinkedIn. Not as a habit. As a strategy.
It’s where she built her community. Where opportunities find her before she goes looking for them. Where she shines a light on female founders and connects the people who need to know each other.
“LinkedIn isn’t a tool. It’s the whole infrastructure.”
Eleven tools. £100+ a month. And one frustration that cuts to the heart of what portfolio careers need most.
There is still no perfect platform for community.
Claude is her favourite right now. She’s leaning in, figuring out how it can make her more efficient and better support her members.
What she’s working on: A podcast and YouTube show launching soon with her friend Mae. Plus a growth accelerator for female founders at £25k+ monthly revenue looking to hit £1M within 12 to 24 months.
👉 emmie@emmiefaust.com
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What’s your stack?
I want to feature more of you in the next issue. Three questions. Reply here.
- What does your current stack look like? Day-to-day only.
- What changed in the last 12 months?
- One tool you could not live without. Just one. Why?
Or fill out the full audit. Takes 3 minutes. Honest answers only.
👉 tally.so/r/Pd89Ad
One more thing.
If your stack is a mess and your calendar is chaos, come and work alongside us.
Five free coworking days at Fora, 42 Berners Street. 11 May to 8 June. 9am to 5pm. 20 spots only.
No agenda. Just space, focus and good company.
Grab your spot:
👉 I want to feature more of you in the next issue. Three questions. Reply here.
- What does your current stack look like? Day-to-day only.
- What changed in the last 12 months?
- One tool you could not live without. Just one. Why?
Or fill out the full audit. Takes 3 minutes. Honest answers only.
One more thing.
If your stack is a mess and your calendar is chaos, come and work alongside us.
Five free coworking days at Fora, 42 Berners Street. 11 May to 8 June. 9am to 5pm. 20 spots only.
No agenda. Just space, focus and good company.
Grab your spot!
See you there.
June x
