Real numbers
What founders actually pay today.
Every line below is a real tool, at its real public price, that a founder is paying for right now. No anchoring, no markup, just the stack you are quietly bleeding money on each month. This is what CR3SCENDO AI's Nexus replaces.
Real numbers
What a founder actually pays today.
Pick the tile that fits. Each tile shows the high-level monthly range a founder pays today across the layers inside CR3SCENDO AI’s scope, plus what stays on your stack. Open a tile to see every line, every vendor, every link. Some categories are mutually exclusive (you pick one bookkeeper, not all four). Others stack. We do the math correctly so you can too.
Tech Startup
If you are building a tech startup
Venture-track or planning to raise. Heavy on legal hours, capital infrastructure, AI build stack.
What a founder is paying today across these layers
$59 to $17,136/ month
The low end is a founder who just incorporated and runs on free tiers wherever they exist. The high end is what the same founder spends as they grow, layering in fractional counsel, cap-table software, outsourced bookkeeping, growth-marketing retainers, and an applicant-tracking system. The shape varies by what you build.
Dive deeper into the breakdown
Tech Startup
If you are building a tech startup
Venture-track or planning to raise. Heavy on legal hours, capital infrastructure, AI build stack.
What a founder is paying today across these layers
$59 to $17,136/ month
The low end is a founder who just incorporated and runs on free tiers wherever they exist. The high end is what the same founder spends as they grow, layering in fractional counsel, cap-table software, outsourced bookkeeping, growth-marketing retainers, and an applicant-tracking system. The shape varies by what you build.
Formation, Legal & Cap Table
In scope for CR3SCENDOIncorporation and registered agent are day-1. Outside counsel, fractional GC, Clerky paperwork, and Carta are optional at entry and stack on as the company scales.
Founders pay every line below.
| Tool / Service | What it buys | Monthly |
|---|---|---|
| Stripe Atlas One-time, amortized 3yralso pay | Delaware C-Corp formation, EIN, registered agent year one, banking link $500 one-time | $14/mo |
| Northwest Registered Agent Annualalso pay | Registered agent service $125/yr | $10/mo |
| Clerky Lifetime, amortized 3yr | Self-serve startup paperwork (SAFEs, 83(b), option grants) $819 one-time | $23/mo |
| Outside counsel hours (tech-startup pace) Hourly | Commercial contracts, customer agreements, IP, employment offers, fundraising prep $125 to $350/hr; 4 to 12 hours/month is realistic between rounds Most entry-point months are $0; spike when a contract or filing lands. | $0 to $1,500/mo |
| Fractional General Counsel Retainer | Retainer for ongoing legal advisory without a full-time hire Industry-typical retainer Founders skip the retainer entirely until raising or a real legal need lands. | $0 to $5,000/mo |
| Carta Launch (free) to Growth (paid) | Cap table, equity, 409A valuations Free Launch tier under 25 stakeholders; $14,725/yr median once team grows | $0 to $1,227/mo |
| Realistic monthly (all-in) | $24 to $7,774/mo | |
Bookkeeping & Accounting
In scope for CR3SCENDOSoftware ledger is day-1. Outsourced bookkeeping is optional: founders DIY in QuickBooks at the entry point and pick an outsourced bookkeeper as the books get noisy. You pick at most one outsourced service, not all of them.
Founders pay every line below.
| Tool / Service | What it buys | Monthly |
|---|---|---|
| QuickBooks Simple Startalso pay | Bookkeeping software, expense tracking, invoicing | $35/mo |
| Pilot Essentials to Core | Outsourced monthly bookkeeping; YC-default Tax adds $2,450 to $5,400/yr separate | $199 to $599/mo |
| Bench Bookkeeping | Done-for-you monthly books with a dedicated bookkeeper Billed annually | $299/mo |
| Xendoo Essentials to Scale | Weekly bookkeeping with monthly financial reports | $395 to $995/mo |
| Bookkeeper360 Monthly to Weekly | Monthly or weekly cadence with a US-based bookkeeper Accrual accounting adds a tier | $399 to $549/mo |
| Realistic monthly (all-in) | $35 to $1,030/mo | |
Sales & CRM
In scope for CR3SCENDOPipeline, contacts, email marketing. The minimum a tech founder needs for customer conversations on day one.
Founders pay every line below.
| Tool / Service | What it buys | Monthly |
|---|---|---|
| HubSpot Starter CRM Suite | Customer relationship management and pipeline tracking Free HubSpot CRM tier exists for entry-point founders. | $0 to $20/mo |
| Mailchimp Essentials | Email marketing, newsletters, first 500 contacts Free tier covers the first 500 contacts. | $0 to $13/mo |
| Realistic monthly (all-in) | $0 to $33/mo | |
Calendaring & Scheduling
We work alongside, no overlapHow customers book time. Tech startup uses Google + Calendly free or paid. Local businesses pay for vertical-specific scheduling (often bundled inside vertical SaaS, but a marketing-facing calendar is still separate).
Pick one of the options below. You do not buy all of them.
| Tool / Service | What it buys | Monthly |
|---|---|---|
| Google Calendar (bundled) Free | Free with Google Workspace; bookings handled with sharing links Many tech founders never upgrade to a paid scheduler | $0/mo |
| Calendly Standard | Customer-facing scheduling links and team availability Free tier handles a single-event-type scheduler. | $0 to $16/mo |
| Realistic monthly (pick one) | $0 to $16/mo | |
Growth & Acquisition Retainers
In scope for CR3SCENDOWhat gets pitched to a founder's inbox the week they go live. Founders skip all four at entry and add channels as they scale. Range from $0 (skip everything) to all four running in parallel.
Founders pay every line below.
| Tool / Service | What it buys | Monthly |
|---|---|---|
| Reddit AEO retainer Retainer | Aged Reddit accounts seeding posts and comments so ChatGPT, Perplexity, and Google AI Overviews cite you Quoted to founders for 100 to 150 comments plus 4 to 6 posts | $999 to $1,299/mo |
| UGC short-form video Retainer | TikTok, Reels, Shorts fan-page seeding with paid creators 30 to 60 videos a month | $1,000 to $1,500/mo |
| Creator collabs Retainer + per-deal | Outreach plus managed deals with micro-influencers under 100K subs $1,000/mo to the agency plus $500 to $2,000 paid to each of 5 to 10 creators | $1,500 to $3,000/mo |
| SEO link insertions Retainer + per-deal | Contextual backlinks from niche bloggers and outlets $1,000/mo plus $500 to $1,000 per insertion; 25 to 50 placements | $1,500 to $2,000/mo |
| Realistic monthly (all-in) | $0 to $7,799/mo | |
Hiring & Recruiting
In scope for CR3SCENDOATS subscription + sourcing ads. Entry-point founders hire zero or one person and rarely carry an ATS. Tech startups graduate to JazzHR or Workable as headcount climbs. Local businesses run Craigslist or word-of-mouth most months and pay Indeed only when they need a hire.
Founders pay every line below.
| Tool / Service | What it buys | Monthly |
|---|---|---|
| JazzHR Hero to Pro | Applicant tracking system for small teams $75 entry; $267/mo Plus typical midmarket Skip until first ATS hire. | $0 to $267/mo |
| Workable Starter to Standard | Applicant tracking + sourcing for growth-stage teams Skip until first growth-stage hire. | $0 to $279/mo |
| Greenhouse Core | Enterprise-grade ATS used by funded startups ~$5,100 to $6,000/yr typical entry; quote-only Skip until mid-market; quote-only. | $0 to $500/mo |
| Realistic monthly (all-in) | $0 to $500/mo | |
Analytics, AEO & Discoverability
In scope for CR3SCENDOTech founders get Google Analytics + PostHog free tiers. Local businesses get pitched paid analytics packages and AI-compatibility audits constantly.
Founders pay every line below.
| Tool / Service | What it buys | Monthly |
|---|---|---|
| Google Analytics + PostHog free tier Free | Web analytics, funnel tracking, session recording (within free quotas) Tech founders rarely pay for analytics until material scale | $0/mo |
| Realistic monthly (all-in) | $0/mo | |
Productivity & Collaboration
We work alongside, no overlapEmail, chat, internal wiki. Personal preference. We do not overlap.
Founders pay every line below.
| Tool / Service | What it buys | Monthly |
|---|---|---|
| Google Workspace Business Starter | Custom-domain email, Drive, Docs, Sheets, Calendar | $7/mo |
| Slack Pro | Team and contractor communication, threaded history Free tier holds for solo and small teams; Pro kicks in around 5 contributors. | $0 to $9/mo |
| Notion Plus | Internal wiki, project docs, founder notes Personal Free covers a solo founder; Plus unlocks at multi-person. | $0 to $12/mo |
| Realistic monthly (all-in) | $7 to $28/mo | |
Development & Infrastructure
Your stack, we do not touch thisHosting, cloud, source control. Tech startups pick a hosting stack and a cloud. Local businesses do not pay this; their vertical SaaS hosts everything.
Pick one of the options below. You do not buy all of them.
| Tool / Service | What it buys | Monthly |
|---|---|---|
| GitHub Teamalso pay | Source code repository, CI/CD minutes, code review 5-person team typical Free plan supports unlimited private repos plus 2,000 CI minutes. | $0 to $50/mo |
| Vercel Pro + overages | Frontend hosting, edge functions, preview deploys $20 base; bandwidth + function overages add $15 to $50 Hobby tier is free for personal and early projects. | $0 to $70/mo |
| Fly.io Pay-as-you-go | Container hosting and global edge deployment Soft $5 free credit; realistic for small app + DB Soft $5/mo free credit covers a tiny app. | $0 to $100/mo |
| AWS or Google Cloud Usage-based | Backend, databases, storage, queues for serious workloads Compliance or high-traffic startups routinely exceed $1,000/mo 12-month free tier on most early-stage services. | $0 to $500/mo |
| Realistic monthly (pick one) | $0 to $550/mo | |
Application Monitoring
Your stack, we do not touch thisError tracking, performance monitoring, uptime. Optional at entry (Sentry free tier or skip entirely). Tech founders add Datadog as traffic scales.
Founders pay every line below.
| Tool / Service | What it buys | Monthly |
|---|---|---|
| Sentry Team + overages | Error tracking, performance monitoring, release health About 5K errors per month free tier. | $0 to $100/mo |
| Datadog Infrastructure starter | Infrastructure + application monitoring once you outgrow Sentry alone $15 per host base; scales fast Skip entirely at entry; only adopt as traffic warrants. | $0 to $500/mo |
| Realistic monthly (all-in) | $0 to $500/mo | |
AI Coding & Build Tools
Your stack, we do not touch thisWhichever AI stack lets you ship the product. Pick one IDE; pay the API spend.
Pick one of the options below. You do not buy all of them.
| Tool / Service | What it buys | Monthly |
|---|---|---|
| Lovable Pro + credits | AI app builder; base plan plus credits | $25 to $175/mo |
| Cursor Pro | AI coding IDE; code generation and refactoring | $20 to $50/mo |
| Replit Core + checkpoints | Cloud IDE; deployments; agent-driven coding | $20 to $150/mo |
| Claude Pro or API spend Pro + APIalso pay | AI assistant subscription or API spend for product use | $20 to $100/mo |
| Realistic monthly (pick one) | $40 to $275/mo | |
Design
Your stack, we do not touch thisYour craft, your tools. We do not touch this. Both Figma and Canva have free tiers most founders never outgrow.
Founders pay every line below.
| Tool / Service | What it buys | Monthly |
|---|---|---|
| Figma Professional | Product and marketing design, brand assets Free tier covers 3 active design files. | $0 to $15/mo |
| Realistic monthly (all-in) | $0 to $15/mo | |
Local Business
If you are building a local business
Coffee shop, salon, clinic, contractor, retail. Most of what gets pitched is snake oil: weekly site refresh, AI-compatibility, analytics retainers. Real money still gets spent: vertical SaaS, payment processing, website maintenance.
A real Seattle therapeutic-massage practice in our discovery interviews (1.1M revenue) tracked roughly 1,500 to 3,000 dollars a month across just booking software, scheduling, payment-processing tax, and a static website. None of it connected.
What a founder is paying today across these layers
$153 to $10,873/ month
The low end is a new business on the basic plan of whichever booking or POS software your industry uses, with free email and free everything else. The high end is the same business once it grows: a bigger plan on that industry software, someone paid monthly to keep your website fresh, someone managing your Google and Yelp reviews, and the credit-card processing fees that grow as you sell more. It looks different for a coffee shop than a clinic than a contractor.
Dive deeper into the breakdown
Local Business
If you are building a local business
Coffee shop, salon, clinic, contractor, retail. Most of what gets pitched is snake oil: weekly site refresh, AI-compatibility, analytics retainers. Real money still gets spent: vertical SaaS, payment processing, website maintenance.
A real Seattle therapeutic-massage practice in our discovery interviews (1.1M revenue) tracked roughly 1,500 to 3,000 dollars a month across just booking software, scheduling, payment-processing tax, and a static website. None of it connected.
What a founder is paying today across these layers
$153 to $10,873/ month
The low end is a new business on the basic plan of whichever booking or POS software your industry uses, with free email and free everything else. The high end is the same business once it grows: a bigger plan on that industry software, someone paid monthly to keep your website fresh, someone managing your Google and Yelp reviews, and the credit-card processing fees that grow as you sell more. It looks different for a coffee shop than a clinic than a contractor.
Formation, Legal & Cap Table
In scope for CR3SCENDOIncorporation and registered agent are day-1. Outside counsel, fractional GC, Clerky paperwork, and Carta are optional at entry and stack on as the company scales.
Founders pay every line below.
| Tool / Service | What it buys | Monthly |
|---|---|---|
| LLC filing + state fees (amortized) One-time + annualalso pay | Initial filing fee for the state (DE, WA, WY, CA vary), annual report $90-$300 initial filing + $0-$300/yr report depending on state | $8 to $25/mo |
| Northwest Registered Agent Annualalso pay | Registered agent service $125/yr | $10/mo |
| Outside counsel hours (local-business pace) Hourly | Commercial lease, vendor contracts, occasional employment matter Often 0/mo; $200-$500 once a quarter when a real issue lands | $0 to $250/mo |
| Realistic monthly (all-in) | $18 to $285/mo | |
Vertical SaaS (your industry's must-have)
In scope for CR3SCENDOThe one operational SaaS every business in your vertical pays for. Booking + notes + invoicing for therapy practices, POS + ordering for restaurants, scheduling + payments for salons. Pick the one for your space.
Pick one of the options below. You do not buy all of them.
| Tool / Service | What it buys | Monthly |
|---|---|---|
| Jane App Standard | Therapy + clinic booking, clinical notes, invoicing, payment processing A real Seattle therapeutic-massage practice in our interviews pays $3,650/yr ($304/mo) | $79 to $304/mo |
| Mindbody Per seat | Scheduling + marketplace for fitness, wellness, salons Price increased significantly over time per real customer interview | $36 to $195/mo |
| Square POS Free + transaction fees | POS, payments, scheduling, basic CRM for retail / cafe Software free; processing fees 2.6 to 2.9 percent + cents per swipe | $0 to $60/mo |
| Toast POS Starter to Essentials | Restaurant POS, online ordering, kitchen display Plus hardware $799+ per terminal | $69 to $165/mo |
| GlossGenius Core | Salon + spa booking, marketing, payments Solo $24; multi-location easily $500-$1,000/mo industry-wide | $24 to $200/mo |
| Vagaro Single user to multi | Salon + spa + fitness scheduling, marketplace, payments | $30 to $105/mo |
| Housecall Pro Basic to MAX | Field-service scheduling, dispatch, invoicing for contractors and trades | $65 to $280/mo |
| Realistic monthly (pick one) | $0 to $304/mo | |
Payment processing fees
Partly in scopeThe 2.6 to 3 percent every card transaction loses. On a 1M revenue local business that is 26,000 to 30,000 dollars a year. Most software cannot differentiate HSA or debit and forces the full fee across the board. CR3SCENDO can route smarter.
Founders pay every line below.
| Tool / Service | What it buys | Monthly |
|---|---|---|
| Card-processing fees on revenue Percentage of revenue | 2.6 to 3 percent of every card transaction. HSA / FSA / debit cannot pass through. Often invisible until a real cash-flow review. Range reflects $50K to $1.1M annual revenue at 2.9 percent. A real Seattle therapy practice in our interviews loses about $2,750/mo to this on $1.1M revenue | $100 to $2,750/mo |
| Realistic monthly (all-in) | $100 to $2,750/mo | |
Bookkeeping & Accounting
In scope for CR3SCENDOSoftware ledger is day-1. Outsourced bookkeeping is optional: founders DIY in QuickBooks at the entry point and pick an outsourced bookkeeper as the books get noisy. You pick at most one outsourced service, not all of them.
Founders pay every line below.
| Tool / Service | What it buys | Monthly |
|---|---|---|
| QuickBooks Simple Startalso pay | Bookkeeping software, expense tracking, invoicing | $35/mo |
| Wave Starter (free) | Free bookkeeping software for very small businesses Free for software; Pro adds bank-import automation at $16/mo | $0 to $16/mo |
| Local independent bookkeeper Hourly / fixed monthly | Hourly or fixed-fee small-business bookkeeper found via referral Typical local rate $40 to $80/hr; 4 to 8 hours/month Skip entirely at entry; DIY in Wave or QuickBooks. | $0 to $500/mo |
| Bench Bookkeeping | Done-for-you monthly books with a dedicated bookkeeper Billed annually | $299/mo |
| Realistic monthly (all-in) | $35 to $535/mo | |
Calendaring & Scheduling
We work alongside, no overlapHow customers book time. Tech startup uses Google + Calendly free or paid. Local businesses pay for vertical-specific scheduling (often bundled inside vertical SaaS, but a marketing-facing calendar is still separate).
Pick one of the options below. You do not buy all of them.
| Tool / Service | What it buys | Monthly |
|---|---|---|
| Calendly Standard | Customer-facing scheduling links and team availability Free tier handles a single-event-type scheduler. | $0 to $16/mo |
| Acuity Scheduling Emerging | Vertical-friendly scheduling with intake forms | $16 to $49/mo |
| Realistic monthly (pick one) | $0 to $49/mo | |
Website creation & maintenance
In scope for CR3SCENDOBuilt once by a local agency and untouched for years, OR a monthly retainer for refresh and updates. Many local businesses start at $0 (use a template) and add a retainer only when the site genuinely needs help.
Founders pay every line below.
| Tool / Service | What it buys | Monthly |
|---|---|---|
| Static website (one-time, amortized 3yr) One-time, amortized | Built once by a local agency, then untouched for years. The Align360 pattern. $1,500 to $6,000 typical simple refresh; spread over 3 years | $40 to $165/mo |
| Website monthly retainer Retainer | Update content, fix bugs, add seasonal pages, refresh photos Many local-business agencies pitch this; quality and frequency vary wildly | $200 to $800/mo |
| Realistic monthly (all-in) | $0 to $800/mo | |
Local SEO / AEO retainer
In scope for CR3SCENDOWhere the snake oil lives. Agencies pitch local SEO, weekly content, AI-compatibility audits, GBP optimization, citation building. Most local businesses skip this at entry and get pitched constantly. Range from $0 (skip) to one competitive retainer.
Founders pay every line below.
| Tool / Service | What it buys | Monthly |
|---|---|---|
| Local SEO retainer (entry) Retainer (budget) | Google Business Profile optimization, citation building, monthly content Pitched constantly; quality varies wildly | $300 to $800/mo |
| Local SEO retainer (standard) Retainer (standard) | Above plus link building, monthly reporting, on-page audit Single-location service businesses (plumbers, dentists, contractors) typically here | $800 to $1,800/mo |
| Local SEO retainer (competitive) Retainer (competitive) | Multi-location, aggressive content, paid review-generation, AI-compatibility audits Often where the snake oil lives | $2,500 to $5,000/mo |
| Realistic monthly (all-in) | $0 to $5,000/mo | |
Review & reputation management
In scope for CR3SCENDOInbound review prompts after every visit, response automation, Google + Yelp + Apple Maps signal pushing. Optional. Most local businesses skip at entry and only add a service after a bad-review incident.
Founders pay every line below.
| Tool / Service | What it buys | Monthly |
|---|---|---|
| Review automation (entry) Software-only | Automated review prompts, basic response templates Birdeye, Podium, NiceJob entry tiers | $50 to $150/mo |
| Review + reputation retainer Retainer | Above plus response writing, sentiment monitoring, Google + Yelp signal pushing | $200 to $600/mo |
| Realistic monthly (all-in) | $0 to $600/mo | |
Hiring & Recruiting
In scope for CR3SCENDOATS subscription + sourcing ads. Entry-point founders hire zero or one person and rarely carry an ATS. Tech startups graduate to JazzHR or Workable as headcount climbs. Local businesses run Craigslist or word-of-mouth most months and pay Indeed only when they need a hire.
Founders pay every line below.
| Tool / Service | What it buys | Monthly |
|---|---|---|
| Indeed sponsored job Pay-as-you-go | Pay-per-click job listings for local hiring $0.10 to $5 per click; depends on role and city Pay only when running an active sponsored job. | $0 to $400/mo |
| ZipRecruiter (Standard) Standard | Distribution to 100+ job boards, AI matching Pay only in active hiring months. | $0 to $599/mo |
| Realistic monthly (all-in) | $0 to $599/mo | |
Productivity & Collaboration
We work alongside, no overlapEmail, chat, internal wiki. Personal preference. We do not overlap.
Founders pay every line below.
| Tool / Service | What it buys | Monthly |
|---|---|---|
| Google Workspace Business Starter | Custom-domain email, Drive, Docs, Sheets, Calendar | $7/mo |
| Realistic monthly (all-in) | $7/mo | |
Design
Your stack, we do not touch thisYour craft, your tools. We do not touch this. Both Figma and Canva have free tiers most founders never outgrow.
Founders pay every line below.
| Tool / Service | What it buys | Monthly |
|---|---|---|
| Canva Pro | Templates, marketing graphics, social-ready images for non-designers Many local businesses run on the free tier | $0 to $15/mo |
| Realistic monthly (all-in) | $0 to $15/mo | |
Wherever you land
CR3SCENDO AI’s Nexus is less than what you spend on coffee a month.
Same platform across kinds of founder. Same coffee-a-month price. Open a tile to see exactly which layers fall inside CR3SCENDO AI’s scope for your shape of business and which stay on your stack. Once we have customers running on the platform we will publish savings backed by their data; until then, the numbers above reflect what founders pay today, not our claim of substitution.
We are not another tool to learn. We are designed for the business of running a business, not the work only you can do.
Prices reflect each vendor’s public pricing page on . Click any tool name to verify. Outsourced retainers (local SEO, growth marketing, website refresh) are aggregated from real founder solicitations and intentionally un-named; the ranges shown reflect what is actively pitched today. A real Seattle therapeutic-massage practice in our discovery interviews paid roughly $1,500 to $3,000/mo on a much smaller and simpler stack, with most of the spend showing up as a 3 percent card-processing tax.