The AI Tools Founders Are Actually Using

Every week at BSTC events, we hear from founders who are building with AI. Not theorising about it — building revenue-generating products and workflows with it. After dozens of "How I Build with AI" conversations, a clear pattern has emerged.

Here's what the builders in our community are actually using, and why.

Code & Development

Cursor

What it is: AI-native code editor built on VS Code. Why founders love it: It's not an AI assistant bolted onto an editor — the entire editing experience is built around AI pair programming. Founders tell us it cuts development time by 40-60%.

Common use case: "I describe what I want in natural language, Cursor writes the implementation, I review and ship." — Multiple BSTC members

Claude (Anthropic)

What it is: Large language model with strong reasoning and long context windows. Why founders love it: The 200K context window means you can paste entire codebases, documents, or data sets and get coherent analysis. Founders use it for everything from code review to business strategy.

Common use case: Complex analysis, document processing, content generation, and code architecture decisions. Several founders in our community use Claude as their primary "thinking partner."

ChatGPT (OpenAI)

What it is: The most widely-known LLM, with strong general capabilities. Why founders love it: Broad capability, strong at creative tasks, and the custom GPT feature lets founders build specialised tools for their team.

Common use case: Quick research, brainstorming, customer support drafts, and image generation via DALL-E.

Automation & Workflows

n8n

What it is: Open-source workflow automation platform. Why founders love it: Self-hosted, no per-execution pricing, and deeply customisable. Founders building AI-powered workflows choose n8n because they need fine-grained control over data flow.

Common use case: "We built our entire lead qualification pipeline in n8n — it pulls from Apollo, enriches with Claude, scores with custom logic, and routes to Slack." — BSTC founder

Make (formerly Integromat)

What it is: Visual automation platform. Why founders love it: Lower learning curve than n8n, good for non-technical founders who need to connect APIs without code.

Sales & GTM

Apollo.io

What it is: Sales intelligence and engagement platform. Why founders love it: Prospecting, enrichment, and outreach in one tool. When combined with AI (Claude for personalisation, n8n for automation), it becomes a self-running outreach engine.

Clay

What it is: Data enrichment and outreach tool with AI capabilities. Why founders love it: The waterfall enrichment approach (try multiple data sources, keep the best result) produces higher-quality prospect data than any single tool.

Design & Content

DALL-E / Midjourney

What it is: AI image generation. Why founders love it: Event graphics, social media assets, product mockups — generated in minutes instead of hours. BSTC uses DALL-E for our GTA-style event cover art.

Descript

What it is: AI-powered audio/video editor. Why founders love it: Edit audio by editing a transcript. Remove filler words automatically. Generate show notes. Essential for founders launching podcasts.

The Pattern: Build Stacks, Not Point Solutions

The founders who are getting the most value from AI aren't using one tool — they're building stacks. A typical high-performing AI stack looks like:

1. Thinking: Claude or ChatGPT for strategy, analysis, writing
2. Building: Cursor for development
3. Automating: n8n or Make for workflow orchestration
4. Selling: Apollo + Clay for prospecting, AI for personalisation
5. Creating: DALL-E for visuals, Descript for audio/video

The key insight: AI tools are most powerful when they're connected to each other and to your specific business context. A standalone AI chatbot is interesting. An AI-powered pipeline that prospects, qualifies, personalises, and follows up automatically is a revenue engine.

What's Next

The AI tool landscape is evolving weekly. New tools ship, existing tools add AI features, and the cost of intelligence keeps dropping. What doesn't change is the principle: the founders who win are the ones who build systems, not the ones who experiment with tools.

If you want to see how founders are actually building these stacks, join us at the next "How I Build with AI" session. Every edition features a different builder showing their real workflow — live, unscripted, with no pitch.

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