If I was starting again tomorrow, I wouldn’t begin with a bigger team.
I’d begin with five jobs AI is already good at — and I’d keep humans where trust still lives.
Not “AI will replace everything.” Just the stack I’d actually use, from what I’m learning running Dapt and writing The Agentic CEO in public.
1. Lovable for our own SaaS
Ship the product surface faster than a traditional build cycle.
For something like our own platform, I’d use Lovable to get a real interface in front of customers early — then harden what sticks. Speed to learning beats speed to perfect code.
The point isn’t skipping engineering. It’s shortening the loop between idea and “does anyone care?”
2. Grok bots for lead gen and LinkedIn outreach prep — with a human still in the room
This one’s important to me.
I’d use bots to research, draft, and prep outreach. Not to pretend to be me on LinkedIn.
The human bit is the product. Trust, tone, timing, knowing when *not* to send — that’s still me or the team. AI does the heavy prep. I do the relationship.
If you automate the relationship, you don’t get leverage. You get noise with your name on it.
3. Claude Code in VS Code for Microsoft SPFx development
SharePoint Framework was one of those areas I’d stayed away from — not because I didn’t want to learn it, but because time was always the blocker.
Claude Code in VS Code changes that curve. I’m not trying to become the full-time developer. I’m trying to understand the craft well enough to lead better, experiment faster, and transfer knowledge into the team.
That’s already part of how I work — and it’s one of the clearest “agentic CEO” use cases I have: AI as a force multiplier for learning, not a replacement for ownership.
4. Copilot and agents inside the operating company
Day-to-day: meeting notes, proposal first drafts, inbox triage, reporting commentary — the unglamorous ops work that eats a founder’s week.
Same rule as the Stack page on this site: keep what earns its keep, kill what doesn’t. An agent that saves an hour but costs reputation is a bad deal. An agent that drafts well and still needs my sign-off is often a good one.
5. A weekly ledger habit — write what you tried
Not a tool so much as a system.
One experiment a week, with cost, hours back, and a verdict. That’s what The Agentic CEO is for. Without that loop, you just collect subscriptions and call it transformation.
The pattern across all five
AI for leverage. Humans for judgment. Receipts for honesty.
If you’re starting something now, don’t ask “which model is best?”
Ask: which five jobs am I going to hand over — and which ones am I keeping?
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Tried something similar, or think I got it wrong? Say so — corrections are the point.