After building an AI Startup in 2025 Anyone who says AI is “the magic bullet is lying” AI isn’t the reason for success. The reality is, you have to run a great business, design incredible product, have a razor focus on product led growth, run highly personalised marketing and sales, create funnels and customer funnels for acquisition and retention. AI will allow you to do it fastest, more efficiently, with a smaller team, at greater scale for less cost than it used to. Take it from me, I have built and sold or exited three large businesses before from 2011 - 2024. If I wanted to go from nothing to $1m ARR as fast as humanly possible... These are the tools I'd use: (And the purpose they serve) 1. Lovable The best tool for product prototyping. This is your breeding ground for an MVP. 2. Searchable Shameless plug, but this is your go-to Autonomous SEO/AEO/GEO Growth Engineer. It is now low-level analytics. It is deep analytics for AI Search that you can implement. 3. Cursor Cursor will accelerate the speed and efficiency of your engineering team by 10x. 4. Zapier Use Zapier for connectivity for CRM, as well as automated retention and upsell campaigns. 5. ChatGPT or Claude Use these specifically for custom training for all team members, but also as your day-to-day brainstorming partners. 6. Clay To enrich contact details at scale, give you the power to stitch together social media activity, marketing activity and intent. Therefore you can market far more accurately and efficiently. 7. Claude Code You can use Claude Code to plug into all operations of your business to spot trends, analyse churn, create automated communication, reporting and insight on how your customers are using your business. You don’t need every AI tool. The tool isn’t the answer. Good strategy is and the tools enable speed, efficiency and scale. Happy building folks. Which tools are you and aren't you using? Curious to know in the comments. And let me know if I missed any in the comments as well. ♻️ Repost to give your network the right tools to build. And follow Chris Donnelly for more AI startup tips.
AI is an amplifier. Not a foundation.
AI is a multiplier, not a substitute. Success still comes from clarity in strategy, product-market fit, and disciplined execution. Tools accelerate, but they don’t replace the fundamentals.
Exactly, strategy drives success, AI just accelerates it Chris Donnelly
People forget this part. Tools only help if the foundation is strong. Strategy, product, and execution still decide the outcome.
Chris Donnelly Great list. We don't need every tool; we need tools that can help in our workflow.
AI supports the work, but real progress comes from clear steps, good product choices, and steady customer care that keeps everything running well over time, Chris Donnelly
100% Chris AI isn’t the business, it’s the amplifier. The founders who win are the ones who pair great fundamentals with AI acceleration, not the ones who expect AI to save a broken strategy.
The winning edge isn’t more tools; it’s integrating them around a clear growth engine that compounds daily.
Every startup I’ve seen fail didn’t lack AI — they lacked clarity. Bad strategy with great tools is still bad strategy.Chris Donnelly
Chris building anything real still comes down to solid fundamentals. I’ve learned flashy tools never save a messy strategy. The right stack simply helps you move with sharper momentum.