Keir Whitaker

The Vault

My personal secret stream of links to tools, ideas, resources & inspiration. Updated daily(ish). You can subscribe to updates via my newsletter or RSS.

Books

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  Reset

  Reset by Dan Heath offers a roadmap for leaders and teams to diagnose and fix the systems that hold them back.

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  You're On Your Own

  An ebook for anyone who wants to work for themselves by former agency owner (now agency coach) Mark Nichols.

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  Make It

  A book by Martina Flor on how to turn your creative skill into a business and thrive doing what you love.

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  Solo

  A practical guide to creating and running a digital product business as a company of one.

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  Pricing Design

  Free PDF of Dan Mall’s classic guide that has been updated for 2025!

Design

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  SimpleBits

  SimpleBits® is a tiny type foundry + goods shop + design notebook by the man whose books taught me all about web design and CSS "back in the day" Dan Cederholm.

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  Footer

  Simply put it claims to be "the only footer gallery on earth". Plenty of inspration here for your next project.

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  DDC Fonts

  Industrial strength typefaces from the hand of Aaron Draplin of Draplin Design Co. You might also know him as one half of Field Notes.

• 
  Standards Manual

  An independent publisher on a mission to archive and preserve artefacts of design history and make them available to future generations.

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  Deck.Gallery

  "We curate beautifully designed decks, slides, keynotes, guidelines — or whatever you call them."

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  Logo Archive

  Get access (via subscription) to a comprehensive, carefully researched and growing archive of categorised and tagged modernist logos.

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  People’s Graphic Design Archive

  A crowd-sourced virtual archive that aims to expand, diversify, and preserve graphic design history!

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  Fictional Brands Archive

  All you ever wanted to know about brands that appear in film, TV and more.

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  SaaS Landing Page

  Review 800 landing page examples and get ideas and inspiration for your next design project.

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  Brand Style Guides Archive

  Probably the best graphic design resource I’ve ever come across.

Desk

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  POP Phone

  The POP phone helps you disconnect from distractions and reconnect with people. Its USB-C connection works effortlessly with your smartphone, laptop or tablet!

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  Home Display

  "Thoughtfully designed to seamlessly blend into your workplace and elevate your health & productivity."

• 
  Lon:HUB Ultra

  An under desk Thunderbolt 5 docking station complete with power, optional SSD and cable management. Lovely but pricey.

• 
  Mini Train Departures Board

  One for UK residents who have turned up to their local station only to find out that all the trains have been cancelled!

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  Thinkable Desktop Studio

  A modular workspace - an instrument for thinking by hand through writing, sketching, and visualising ideas.

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  DeskMat

  A $3.99 Mac app that clears your desktop. Ideal for streaming, video call, screen sharing and distraction free work.

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  The Mishmash Notebook

  A customisable notebook system with multiple layout and custom covers to choose from — what's not to like?

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  Do-Its Sticky Task Pads

  Premium sticky task pads that spilt your day up into AM and PM by Cameron Moll.

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  Chilly ATC

  Blend live Air Traffic Control with ambient music for perfect focus!

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  Busy Bar

  A productivity multi-tool device with an LED pixel screen.

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  Sidekick Notepad

  A companion for all your notes and thoughts. Perfectly sized to sit between you and your keyboard.

Email

• 
  Maillayer

  A one time fee self hosted fully featured Mailchimp alternative. Connects to Amazon SES — $0.10 per 1,000 emails!

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  Rumicat

  A simple newsletter service designed to help you "rediscover the joy of writing for its own sake".

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  Mailboard

  Find, save, and analyse the internet’s best emails.

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  Stripo

  Drag-n-drop and HTML email template builder.

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  Really Good Emails

  A searchable directory of inspiring emails from ecommerce, small business and more.

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  Buttondown

  A simple but powerful email platform. Plans start from $9 a month.

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  Mailcoach

  SaaS or self hosted email marketing platform. Plans start from $9 a month.

Events

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  Creator Day

  You Are The Media (YATM) Creator Day is the annual occasion dedicated to creative business people.

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  Freelance Unlocked

  Bringing together a diverse community of 700+ independent professionals from various industries. If you’re working solo, this event is for YOU!

• 
  Ticket Tailor

  Whether it's your first event ever, or your biggest event yet, we make it simple and affordable to sell tickets online.

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  Digital Clubhouse

  An exclusive gathering in Leeds UK that bridges the gap between leading agencies and innovative brands.

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  Luma

  Set up an event page, invite friends and sell tickets. Start for free (5% fee for paid events) or subscribe for 0% fee and extra features.

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  Tito

  Ticketing platform used by 1,000s of technology, developer and B2B conferences worldwide!

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  Pulse Ecommerce Summit

  An ecommerce conference in London and New York City hosted by Vervaunt.

• 
  beyond tellerrand

  Twice yearly (Düsseldorf and Berlin) event focused on the web, design and technology.

Newsletters

• 
  Mildly Independent

  A newsletter for those trying to stay sane, solvent, and softly rebellious by a freelance designer in the UK.

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  No Silver Bullets

  "There aren’t any ‘hacks’, ‘make a mil in a minute’, or eye-roll worthy bro-speak here". Now that's my kind of newsletter.

• 
  Shop Haul

  Discover the most innovative Shopify stores, game-changing tools, and insider trends—all in one newsletter.

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  For Starters

  Weekly inspiration, ideas, tips & tools for starting and growing a small business.

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  Founder to Thought Leader

  One public speaking tip every Monday for Founders who want to build their personal brand.

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  Hype Yourself

  A Substack from Lucy Werner covering all things PR for soloists.

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  Broken Growth

  A weekly newsletter by Matilda Lucy to reimagine how and why we grow brands online today.

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  2PM

  Analysis on the intersection of media and commerce and how those principles are applied elsewhere.

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  $hopifreaks

  Shopifreaks is like Morning Brew, The Hustle, and TLDR — but for people who care about the e-commerce industry.

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  Basic Arts

  The newsletter for leaders who want to get unstuck, sell more, and grow fast.

• 
  The Ask by Ellen Donnelly

  Helping founders cut through generic advice to find clarity and their next big move (sign up in footer).

• 
  The Shift by Nika Talbot

  Stories and ideas to help you live and work creatively on your own terms.

• 
  Dense Discovery

  Brings together a compact collection of links from design, tech, art, urbanism, sustainability and more.

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  Factory

  Newsletter (sign up in footer) and podcast hosted by Tim Richardson from Factory — The CX agency.

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  I Only Speak Liquid

  Bi-weekly insights from a rotation of active Shopify developers.

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  Liquid Weekly

  Newsletter and podcast for Shopify developers created by Shopify developers.

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  Vervaunt Pulse

  Ecommerce trends and more. Find the signup form in the footer.

• 
  Jonathan Stark

  Daily email list covering all things pricing and small business.

Tech

• 
  Lisa's Final Act

  A documentary by The Verge on how Apple invented its future by burying its past.

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  Before Macintosh

  A fascinating look into the computer that really changed the way we used personal computers.

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  Viva Amiga

  In 1985 in upstart team of Silicon Valley mavericks created a miracle: the Amiga computer. This is it’s story.

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  The Commodore Story

  A cram packed feature documentary film that takes us through Commodore's evolution.

• 
  General Magic the Movie

  General Magic, though relatively unknown, is considered by many to be one of the most influential innovation startups in the history of technology.

• 
  Gomi Power Bank

  A power pack made almost entirely from post-consumer waste.

Tools

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  TheBoringNotch ✨

  Use your MacBook’s notch more effectively with music controls, battery indicators, calendar prompts and drop-zone file sharing.

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  Podcast Magic

  The simplest way to capture podcast insights!

• 
  Supertiny

  Claims to be The smallest 65W GaN Charger ever! A useful addition to the carry-on travellers tech pack.

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  Ente Photos

  Safe home for your photos. End-to-end encrypted. Cross-platform. Open-source.

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  Convierto

  A powerful, native macOS app that intelligently converts files while maintaining quality.

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  TinyWow

  Free AI writing, PDF, image, video, file and other online tools.

• 
  Nillkin Cube Pocket

  A foldable Bluetooth keyboard with numeric keypad/touchpad. Looks ideal for the road warrior who likes to travel light.

• 
  Kite

  Kite is a screen recorder that makes your demo videos look like Apple commercials in minutes (apparently).

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  Umso

  A simple but flexible website builder for when you don't want the full power of a CMS or the simplicty of a hosted form or landing page. From $7 p/m.

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  Meco

  "The inbox is full of distractions and too many subscriptions lead to inbox chaos. Time to liberate your inbox and move to Meco, a newsletter aggregator built for reading."

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  Spill

  A minimalist Mac writing app that describes itself as a "distraction-free space to spill your thoughts for a set time — brainstorm ideas, draft scripts, process life, whatever."

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  Pinery

  The all-in-one solution for writing, designing, and self-publishing books with Markdown.

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  SnappyNotes

  A sleek, modern notepad that lives on the side of your screen. It opens instantly so you can take notes while working, without switching apps or breaking your focus.

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  Favicon Extractor

  A free online tool that allows you to instantly check and download or link to favicons from any website.

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  Aperture

  "Aperture is a product in development that blends AI, physical design, and digital wellbeing to encourage more mindful tech use, not by adding new devices, but by reimagining the ones we already have."

• 
  Domain Addiction Support Group

  "My name is Keir and I have a domain name problem!" Click the button, you might just feel better.

• 
  ‎Dumb Phone (dp)

  Replace colorful app icons, pesky notification badges, and anything that might give you a dopamine hit when you unlock your phone, with simple buttons to open your essential apps, and nothing more.

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  Tolt

  Affiliate marketing software platform designed for SaaS startups.

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  Save to Notion

  Save web pages to read later in Notion or simply bookmark them. Take screenshots, fill in database properties right within the extension and more.

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  Easyful

  Sell digital products with no delivery fees.

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  Shottr

  A very hand screenshot app for pixel professionals. Does more than your average grab tool!

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  OG Studio

  Create static or dynamic OG (Open Graph) images with an intuitive, Figma-like visual editor. Currently free to create templates and serve via URL.

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  Minimis

  Minimis Launcher brings your phone back to basics. You control your phone. Not the other way around.

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  Tool Finder

  Huge directory of tools and integrations.

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  Utilio

  A collection of privacy-focused online utilities to boost your productivity including QR code and favicon generators.

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  Granola

  The AI Notepad for people in back-to-back meetings.

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  Obscura VPN

  "The first VPN that can't log your activity and outsmarts internet censorship"

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  Pimosa

  Simple Video, Photo & Music Editing Tools in one app.

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  Meeter

  Link Meeter up to one or more of your calendars, and never miss a call again. Clicking on the meeting link in the menu automatically opens the relevant app and allows you to sign in hassle-free.

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  ProNotes

  An Apple Notes extension that “makes your favourite note-taking app even more enjoyable to use”.

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  aText

  Text template, shortcut, expansion for Mac and Windows. $9.99 p/a or $29.99 lifetime.

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  AddEvent

  Everything you need to share your events, schedules, calendars, and appointments—and easily add to calendar.

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  Coolors

  The super fast color palettes generator!

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  SavvyCal

  A great Calendly alternative that aims to cut the friction and awkwardness out of scheduling time with people.

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  GoFullPage

  Create full page screenshots in just a single click. Go Premium for $12.99 a year — well worth it!

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  Meta Tags

  A great site to help you preview how your webpage will look on Google, Facebook, Twitter and more!

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  PollKit

  Collect responses from your audience. Add interactivity to your emails.

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  Screely

  Upgrade your screenshots with backgrounds, window frames and subtle shadows. Runs 100% locally in your browser.

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  Font Awesome

  The Internet's icon library and toolkit, used by millions of designers, developers, and content creators.

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  Paperform

  Flexible online form builder that support multiple integrations and payment platforms.

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  Screenshot.Rocks

  Create mobile or browser screenshots and mockups.

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  Open Alternative

  A curated collection of the best open source alternatives to everyday SaaS products.

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  Phosphor Icons

  A flexible icon family for interfaces, diagrams, presentations — whatever, really.

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  Jelly

  A simpler way for teams to share an email address.

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  MaxFocus

  Stop multiplying hundreds of tabs and peek at links without leaving your current page.

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  CalendarLink

  Create and share your events in seconds and make sure no one forgets.

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  Circleback

  AI-powered notes, action items, and automations.

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  Fireflies.ai

  AI notetaker to transcribe, summarize, analyse meetings.

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  Social Cards

  Create professional social media posts

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  Screen Studio

  An opinionated screen recorder that makes your videos look beautiful.

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  Real Favicon Generator

  Make your favicons stand out with this super reliable generator.

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  Cap

  Cap is the open source alternative to Loom. Includes S3 support.

• 
  Five Taco

  A treasure trove of online tools and services for solopreneurs

• 
  Calndr

  Neat little service to create add to calendar URLs for events, workshops, meetups etc.

Work

• 
  Duolingo Company Handbook

  A free PDF download covering 14 years of Duolingo's big learnings in one little handbook!