Notes on building.
Guides on mobile apps, web platforms and AI products. Cost breakdowns, stack comparisons and how we ship.
How to Calculate ROI on AI Features: A Founder's Playbook for 2026
73% of founders cannot articulate the ROI of their AI features. The ones who can raise money faster, ship better roadmaps, and survive board scrutiny. Here is the framework for calculating it honestly.
AI & strategy · Mar 6, 2026 · 12 min read
Self-Hosted LLMs vs API: When to Deploy Llama or Mistral in 2026
Llama and Mistral have closed the gap with GPT-4. Self-hosting can cut LLM costs 70-90% at scale, but only if you can amortize the engineering work. Here is the honest decision framework.
AI & strategy · Mar 6, 2026 · 13 min read
How to Build an AI Red Team: Adversarial Testing for LLM Apps
Every public LLM app gets jailbroken within days of launch. The teams that survive have an internal red team that finds the holes first. Here is how to build one without hiring 12 security engineers.
AI & strategy · Mar 6, 2026 · 12 min read
How to Run LLM Evaluations: A Practical Guide for Founders in 2026
If you ship an LLM feature without evals, you are flying blind. Here is the practical playbook we use to measure, regress, and actually improve production AI systems.
AI & strategy · Mar 5, 2026 · 13 min read
How to Build an AI Phone Receptionist for SMBs in 2026
An opinionated 2026 guide to building an AI phone receptionist for restaurants, clinics, and home services using Vapi, Bland.ai, Retell, Twilio, Deepgram, and ElevenLabs.
AI & strategy · Mar 4, 2026 · 14 min read
How to Build an AI Video Generation Product in 2026
An opinionated, engineering-first playbook for building an AI video generation product in 2026, covering Sora, Veo, Runway, Pika, Luma, Kling, pipelines, GPU costs, and real unit economics.
AI & strategy · Mar 4, 2026 · 14 min read
AI Memory and Context Engineering for Production Agents in 2026
Prompt engineering got you a demo. Context engineering gets you a product. Here is how serious teams actually manage memory for AI agents running in production in 2026.
AI & strategy · Mar 4, 2026 · 14 min read
Build vs Buy AI: A Decision Framework for Startup Founders in 2026
Every founder I talk to in 2026 is stuck on the same question: should we build our own AI or just buy Intercom Fin and move on? Here's the framework I use to decide.
AI & strategy · Mar 4, 2026 · 13 min read
How Non-Technical Founders Can Lead AI Product Development
67% of startup founders are non-technical. AI is becoming core to every product. Here is how to lead AI development without writing a single line of code.
AI & strategy · Mar 3, 2026 · 14 min read
How to Build an AI-First Startup: Architecture and Strategy
An AI-first startup is not a regular startup with AI bolted on. The architecture, team, go-to-market, and fundraising playbook are fundamentally different. Here is what actually works.
AI & strategy · Mar 2, 2026 · 15 min read
AI-Powered Internal Tools: Automating Back-Office for Startups
Most startups bleed hours on repetitive back-office tasks that AI can handle today. Here is a practical guide to automating your internal operations, from expense categorization to HR workflows, without blowing your budget.
AI & strategy · Mar 2, 2026 · 14 min read
AI-Powered Customer Retention: How to Predict and Prevent Churn
Losing customers is expensive, but most SaaS companies only react to churn after it happens. AI-powered retention systems flip that equation by identifying at-risk accounts weeks before they cancel and triggering personalized interventions automatically.
AI & strategy · Mar 1, 2026 · 14 min read