5 AI Tools I Use Every Day as a Startup Founder

Jonas Scholz

3 min

You’ve heard the hype: AI will replace developers, automate your job, and take over your startup. Cool. But I’m not here to sell you GPT-4 or pitch some overpriced SaaS with a .ai domain.

I run a cloud hosting company (Sliplane), and these are the five actually useful AI tools I use every single day, to ship faster, automate boring work, and avoid burning cash on things I can self-host :)

1. n8n — My Automation Sidekick

n8n

Forget Zapier. n8n is an open-source automation tool that connects APIs, databases, and even human-in-the-loop logic. I use it to run internal ops and marketing workflows.

Why I love it:

Way cheaper than Zapier/Make (I self-host it for ~€9/mo on Sliplane)
More flexible: you can write JS, run cron jobs, call webhooks
Great for async workflows and internal tooling

➡️ I wrote a post about how to self-host n8n in less than 5 minutes! ➡️ I wrote a post about how I use n8n and AI agents to scale my startup if you want to steal some.

2. OpenWebUI — ChatGPT Without the Price Tag

Chat Interface

OpenWebUI is like ChatGPT, but self-hosted. You plug in your own models (e.g. Mistral, OpenAI, etc.), and boom. A private chatbot with no fixed costs (you will still pay for API usage).

I use it for:

Summarizing docs and meeting notes
Brainstorming content and blog posts
Debugging or CLI command generation

It saves me hundreds per year! And it's actually pretty good.

➡️ Here's how I set up OpenWebUI

3. Cursor — The AI-Powered VSCode I Didn't Know I Needed

Cursor is a drop-in VSCode alternative with AI superpowers. I mostly use it when I’m building CRUD things (like the API). What it does well:

Code suggestions that understand your context
Inline refactors
Can generate entire files or fix bugs

Not self-hosted, but it earns its spot by saving me a bunch of time. I still switch to Zed for more complex things where AI doesnt help that much!

If you're a student you can get it for free!

4. RunPod + a Self-Hosted Mistral Model

I use RunPod’s serverless GPU runtime to host a small Mistral model that powers parts of our backend abuse detection. Why? Because privacy matters and running it yourself is cheaper than you think!

Some cool perks:

Pay-per-second pricing
No vendor lock-in (OpenAI compatible API)

Also: it’s surprisingly fun to build your own AI infra.

5. OpenRouter — One API, All the Models

OpenRouter is like the Swiss army knife of LLM APIs. It lets me switch between models like Claude, Mixtral, GPT-4, and Gemini; all behind a single interface. Perfect for routing based on cost, speed, or latency.

Why I use it:

Model fallback if one goes down
Benchmarking different LLMs with zero code changes
Great pricing transparency

OpenRouter is a great tool to have in your arsenal!

Wrap-Up

I don’t use AI because it’s trendy, I use it because it buys me time. These five tools help me move faster, build smarter, and stay lean. Most are open-source. Most are dirt cheap. And all of them actually work :)

If you’re building a startup, try replacing the AI hype with something useful!

Cheers,

Jonas, Co-Founder of Sliplane