AI for Startups — Skip the Team, Use These Tools

I bootstrapped a SaaS product as a solo founder. Before AI tools, I would have needed to hire a designer, a content writer, and possibly a junior developer. Instead, I used AI and launched with zero employees. Here's the honest breakdown.

What AI actually replaced

Junior developer tasks. Boilerplate code, CRUD operations, unit tests, documentation. Cursor handles these at 80% of a junior developer's quality and 10x the speed. I still write all the architecture, business logic, and complex features myself.

Graphic designer (basic). Canva with AI generates social media graphics, pitch deck slides, and marketing materials that look professional. Not award-winning design, but good enough for a startup that needs to ship fast.

Copywriter (first drafts). Claude drafts landing page copy, email sequences, and blog posts. I rewrite about 60% of it, but starting from a draft is 3x faster than starting from blank.

Research assistant. Perplexity handles competitive analysis, market research, and technical research that would take an intern days of Googling.

What AI could NOT replace

Product decisions. No AI can tell you what to build, what features to prioritize, or when to pivot. This is the founder's job and it requires human judgment, customer conversations, and intuition.

Sales. I tried AI for cold outreach. It generated emails that sounded like every other AI email. Real sales conversations require understanding pain points, handling objections, and building trust. AI can write the template; you need to be the voice.

Design taste. AI can generate designs, but choosing what looks good, what communicates your brand, and what will resonate with users — that's still a human skill. I use AI for execution but all design decisions are mine.

Customer empathy. Support tickets need human reading. AI can draft responses, but understanding the frustration behind "this doesn't work" and knowing the right tone requires a person.

My startup AI stack

• Development: Cursor ($20/mo), Claude Code (included with Pro)
• Design: Canva Pro ($13/mo), Midjourney ($10/mo for marketing images)
• Content: Claude Pro ($20/mo), Grammarly (free)
• Research: Perplexity (free), Ahrefs ($99/mo for SEO)
• Operations: Notion (free), Todoist (free)

Total: $162/mo. That's replacing what would cost $8,000-12,000/mo in salaries for a small team. The trade-off: it requires more of my time than delegating would, and the output quality is "good enough" rather than "excellent." For a pre-revenue startup, that trade-off is obvious.

Once you have revenue and need to level up quality, hire humans for the things AI can't do well — design, sales, and customer success. Use AI to amplify what they do, not replace what you can't afford.