Your "Burn Rate" Is Just Subscription Bloat.
I audited a Seed Stage startup yesterday. They had 12 employees. They were spending $6,000/month on SaaS.
- $2,000 on AWS (mostly idle).
- $1,000 on Salesforce (empty).
- $500 on Slack (for GIFs).
- $800 on Jira/Confluence (that nobody reads).
Stop it. In 2025, the "Default Stack" (AWS + Salesforce + Slack) is a trap designed to extract venture capital from your bank account. You don't need "Enterprise Grade" tools when you have zero enterprise customers. Here is the "Anti-SaaS" Stack—the tools that actually work, save money, and keep you compliant.
1. The "Infrastructure" Winner: Hetzner (Not AWS)
Everyone tells you to use AWS. "It scales!" AWS scales your bill, not your product. For 99% of startups, AWS is overkill. You are paying for Jeff Bezos's yacht.
- The AWS Bill: $800/month for a managed RDS database and 2 EC2 instances.
- The Hetzner Bill: $60/month for a massive dedicated server (64GB RAM) that runs everything in Docker.
The Move: Buy a dedicated server on Hetzner or OVH. Install Coolify (Open Source Vercel). You get the same "Push to Deploy" experience as Vercel, but you pay $60 flat, no matter how much traffic you get.
2. The "Coding" Winner: Cursor (Not Copilot)
If your engineers are still using vanilla VS Code, you are losing 30% productivity. But don't buy GitHub Copilot. It’s getting lazy. The winner in late 2025 is Cursor.
- Why: It indexes your entire codebase. You can ask: "Where is the auth logic for the Stripe webhook?" and it takes you there.
- The ROI: It replaces a Junior Developer. For $20/month, it is the highest leverage tool on the market.
3. The "Global HR" Winner: Deel (Not Your Lawyer)
You want to hire a dev in Brazil. Your lawyer wants $5,000 to draft a contract. Fire the lawyer. Use Deel.
- The Risk: If you pay a contractor directly via Wise/PayPal, you are risking "Worker Misclassification" fines (see my previous article on the '1099 Trap').
- The Fix: Deel acts as the "Employer of Record." They take the legal liability.
- The Cost: It’s expensive (~$500/month), but it is cheaper than a lawsuit. It is the only "expensive" SaaS I recommend because it buys you Safety.
4. The "Compliance" Winner: Vanta (The Necessary Evil)
I hate that I have to recommend this. But if you want to sell to Enterprise, you need SOC 2. You can pay a consultant $50k. Or you can use Vanta.
- The Scam: It’s a "Pay to Play" badge.
- The Reality: It connects to your cloud and automates the audit. It is the "Fast Pass" to closing B2B deals.
- The Strategy: Do not buy it until a customer demands it. Then, use the contract size to negotiate the Vanta price.
5. The "CRM" Winner: HubSpot (Free Tier)
Salesforce is for companies with 50 sales reps. If you have 2 founders selling? Salesforce is a nightmare of configuration. Use HubSpot.
- Why: The Free Tier is actually usable.
- The Trap: They get you on the "Marketing Contacts" later.
- The Hack: Keep your "Marketing Email" list in a cheap tool (like Loops.so or Resend) and only put "Qualified Leads" into HubSpot. Don't let HubSpot hold your newsletter hostage.
The "Do Not Buy" List (Save Your Cash)
- Slack: Use Discord (Free) until you have 50 people. It’s the same chat, just darker mode.
- Jira: Use Linear. It is faster, cleaner, and developers actually like it. Jira is where motivation goes to die.
- Zoom: Use Google Meet (It comes with your email). You don't need HD video to say "Can you hear me?"
The Real Numbers: The "Anti-SaaS" Savings
I calculated the monthly burn for a 10-person startup.
| Category | "Default" Stack (AWS/Salesforce) | "Anti-SaaS" Stack (Hetzner/Linear) |
|---|---|---|
| Cloud | $2,500 (AWS) | $120 (Hetzner) |
| CRM | $1,500 (Salesforce) | $0 (HubSpot Free) |
| Project Mgmt | $800 (Jira) | $120 (Linear) |
| Chat | $400 (Slack) | $0 (Discord) |
| Total Monthly | $5,200 | $240 |
The Verdict: That $5,000/month savings is an extra engineer. Or your own salary. Stop donating it to Larry Ellison.
Leon Staffing helps startups build lean teams. We hire engineers who know how to deploy on Linux, not just click buttons in AWS. Find low-burn talent here.