Startup of the Week: How OKRs Tool Is Helping Founders Reach $1M ARR Faster

This week’s featured startup is OKRs Tool — a lightweight OKR management platform built specifically for startups. We sat down with founder Steven Macdonald to talk about the journey, the product, and what’s next.

Q: Steven, tell us about OKRs Tool in one sentence.

Steven: OKRs Tool is the fastest way for startups to set clear goals, stay aligned, and actually hit them—without the complexity or costs of enterprise OKR platforms.

That’s the elevator pitch, but the bigger vision is helping small, ambitious teams move fast without losing focus. Startups live in chaos by default, and we want to be the tool that turns that chaos into clarity.

Q: Where did the idea come from?

Steven: Like most founders, it came from frustration. I was running OKRs in a project management tool, then in spreadsheets. At first it was fine, but as our team grew, things got messy. Updates went stale, alignment slipped, and progress became impossible to track.

That’s when I realized: the problem wasn’t the framework—it was the lack of software built for startups. Everything out there felt like it was designed for massive enterprises, not scrappy 10-person teams. So instead of waiting for someone else to solve it, I built OKRs Tool.

Q: What problem are you solving for startups?

Steven: Startups don’t fail because of lack of effort. They fail because of lack of focus. Everyone’s sprinting, shipping, iterating—but if there’s no shared clarity on what really matters, all that motion becomes noise.

OKRs Tool solves that by giving founders and teams a repeatable rhythm for setting and tracking goals. It makes alignment visible, progress measurable, and accountability clear—without burying teams in admin work. It’s not about slowing down; it’s about making sure you’re running fast in the right direction.

Q: How is OKRs Tool different from other OKR software?

Steven: Simplicity and pricing. We’ve kept the product focused on what startups actually need: clean dashboards, weekly check-ins, Slack integration, and visual tracking. No bells and whistles you’ll never use.

Most OKR platforms are overbuilt and priced for Fortune 500 budgets. Startups don’t need “strategy maps” or five layers of reporting—they need a system their teams will actually use. And because we use team-based pricing, founders don’t get punished for adding people as they grow. That’s a big deal for small teams.

Q: Who’s using OKRs Tool today?

Steven: Mostly early-stage startups—teams of 5 to 50 people. These are founders who’ve tried spreadsheets or Notion and realized they need something more structured. They don’t have time for clunky onboarding—they want to be up and running the same day.

We also see bootstrapped teams coming to us because of affordability. Enterprise tools cost thousands per year; with OKRs Tool, you can start free and grow affordably. That lowers the barrier and makes OKRs accessible to the kinds of teams that need them most.

Q: What has the traction been like so far?

Steven: Really encouraging. In just eight months, hundreds of teams have signed up. Of those, 90% have already launched their first OKR cycle, which shows how easy the tool is to adopt. 

But what excites me most is the feedback. Founders tell us they’re finally running productive weekly check-ins, that their teams actually know what matters, and that they’re hitting milestones faster. For me, that’s proof that we’re solving a real problem.

Q: What’s been your biggest challenge as a founder?

Steven: Resisting the temptation to build for everyone. You get constant requests: “Can you add this feature?” or “We need this integration.” The hardest thing is saying no and staying laser-focused on startups.

There’s always a risk of drifting into “enterprise mode,” where you end up bloating the product with features most of your customers don’t need. For us, the discipline is keeping it simple—even if that means disappointing a few feature requests along the way. That’s how we protect the product from complexity.

Q: What’s next for OKRs Tool?

Steven: Two big things we’re working on right now: a template library and hierarchical OKRs.

The template library is designed to help founders hit the ground running. Instead of staring at a blank screen, you’ll be able to pick from proven OKR templates for sales, marketing, product, and growth. For first-time users especially, this makes adoption much smoother—you get a playbook, not just a tool.

The second is hierarchical OKRs. Startups often struggle to connect company-level goals with what individual teams are working on. Hierarchical OKRs make that link crystal clear—you can see exactly how a marketing or product goal ladders up to the bigger picture. That visibility helps teams stay aligned without micromanagement.

Together, these features are about lowering friction and boosting clarity, so teams can spend less time setting goals and more time hitting them.

Q: Any advice for founders thinking about OKRs?

Steven: Don’t overcomplicate it. Start small, keep it visible, and make it a habit. You don’t need five objectives and ten key results—one or two is enough to build momentum.

And start earlier than you think. In our study of 200 startups, 68% said OKRs helped them reach $1M ARR faster, and nearly 90% wished they’d started sooner. If you’re 4–10 people, that’s the sweet spot. The earlier you build alignment into your culture, the less chaos you’ll have to untangle later.

At the end of the day, OKRs won’t do the work for you. But they’ll make sure your effort is focused on the right work—the stuff that actually drives growth.

Why We Picked OKRs Tool as Our Startup of the Week

OKRs Tool stood out for its laser focus on startups, offering the clarity of OKRs without the baggage of enterprise platforms. With founder-led design, customer-first pricing, and user-centric features on the horizon, it’s a startup solving a real problem for other startups—a recipe we love to see.