LF Editor-in-Chief
MBA from Kellogg, former COO of a 50-person digital agency, $2M+ in SaaS evaluated
Laura ran operations for a 50-person digital agency for six years — managing the P&L, running payroll, onboarding clients, and personally evaluating every SaaS tool the company adopted — before deciding she'd rather help other business owners avoid the $47K in bad software decisions she made along the way (yes, she kept a running total). She reviews business tools with the eye of someone who has sat through a failed CRM migration at 11pm on a Friday and knows that 'easy setup' in the marketing copy and 'easy setup' in reality are different planets. Her evaluation framework weights actual workflow integration over feature count, because she learned the hard way that the tool with 200 features you use 8 of is worse than the tool with 30 features you use all of. She holds an MBA from Kellogg, which she mentions mainly because the ROI analysis she learned there is the same framework she uses to evaluate whether a $49/month tool is actually worth it.
10 years of experience in business software.
Tested 6 payment gateways across real ecommerce stores. Stripe leads in 2026 for flexibility and pricing transparency — full breakdown inside.
Tested 6 mobile payment solutions across 400+ transactions. Square wins for most small businesses at 2.6%+$0.10 with no monthly fee.
Compare the best HR software for small teams in 2026: Gusto vs Rippling vs BambooHR vs Zenefits — real pricing, tested limitations, and a clear winner.
Compare Mailchimp vs ConvertKit Kit for 2026. Real pricing, automation depth, and e-commerce fit — find the right email marketing platform.
Compare Notion vs Asana on real-world PM performance, pricing, and team fit. We tested both — here's which project management tool wins.
Compare Slack vs Microsoft Teams on price, integrations, video, and UX. Tested to find the best team collaboration tool for 2026.
Compare Hiscox, ERGO NEXT, and Simply Business small business insurance. Real 2026 pricing, honest trade-offs, and which insurer actually delivers.
Compare 8 top appointment scheduling apps for 2026. Calendly, Acuity, and Square tested head-to-head on pricing, integrations, and real scheduling workflows.
Tested 8 time tracking and invoicing tools for small business. FreshBooks leads, Clockify best free upgrade, Wave gets a warning. Real pricing, honest tradeoffs.
Compare Nextiva vs RingCentral 2026 on real pricing, CRM integrations, reliability, and billing practices to find the right VoIP system for your SMB.
Invoice2go wins mobile UX. Wave is free with no catch. Square holds payments up to 30 days — a risk most miss. 7 apps tested on speed, fees, and payment hold policies.
Wave is free and handles most small businesses. FreshBooks wins UX at $17/mo. QuickBooks wins if you need payroll too. 7 tools tested on features, fees, and ease.
Square wins retail with 0% monthly fee. Toast wins restaurants at 2.49%/transaction. Shopify wins omnichannel. 7 POS systems tested on speed, hardware, and fees.
RingCentral wins features. Grasshopper wins simplicity at $14/mo. Dialpad leads AI call summaries. 6 VoIP systems tested on call quality, uptime, and price.