How to use Claude to start a business

 

You can start an entire business from your laptop using Claude.

No agency or developers needed.

This is your guide:

AI has all but removed the barrier to entry for new founders.
And Claude can legitimately help you kick it off.

With the monthly subscription and a few connectors,
You can basically build a business for the cost of a gym membership.

Here's the step-by-step breakdown to build a business with Claude:
(Save this sheet so you can follow the process later)

1️⃣ Validate your idea before you build anything
↳ Use Claude Chat to test your idea before you spend a penny.

Prompt: "Play devil's advocate. What are the five biggest reasons this business fails? What would you need to see to believe it works?"

2️⃣ Create your two core files
↳ Build about-me .md and brand-voice .md once.

Cover your business, ICP, goals, tone, rules, and phrases to never use.

3️⃣ Build a Project for each function
↳ Upload core files once, and that Project will pick up where you left off.

Create one Project for strategy, one for content, and one for operations.

4️⃣ Use Artifacts to build your first business assets
↳ Artifacts are live, editable outputs you can use and share immediately.

Build pitch deck structures, financial models, landing page copy, brand positioning docs, content calendars, and pricing pages.

5️⃣ Write your sales scripts and outreach
↳ Claude can write your cold outreach, DM sequence, and sales call frameworks.

Prompt: "Write a LinkedIn DM to a [job title] at a [company type]. I help them with [problem]. Lead with value and don't mention my product until they reply."

6️⃣ Connect your tools with Connectors
↳ Link 50+ tools so Claude can search them without you uploading anything.

Think Settings, Connectors, Browse, and Add. Claude becomes the operating layer across tools you already use.

7️⃣ Graduate to Cowork to produce useful documents
↳ Cowork reads your actual files and creates incredible documents.

Create client proposals, financial models, weekly reports, SOPs, and onboarding docs.

8️⃣ Use Claude Code to build your product
↳ Claude Code reads your codebase, writes code, runs tests, and ships changes.

Non-technical founders: hire one technical person and set them up with Code from day one.

9️⃣ Set up a daily business brief
↳ Automate a morning context file so Claude knows your daily priorities.

Prompt: "Read my priorities file and CRM notes. Write me a 5-bullet morning brief: top 3 priorities, most urgent follow-up, and one thing I'm probably forgetting."

It's never been easier or more accessible to start a business.

You simply need the right tools, applied well.

Save this sheet to return to it as needed !

Have you used Claude to help build your business?
Leave a comment below with your thoughts.

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The 4 types of ‘Why’: What is the driving force behind your product?

 

Catherine (Kit) Ulrich

I recently wrote about a framework I created called the Ladder of Needs, a simple tool for product people to create a compelling vision. It combines the best of Simon Sinek’s ideas from Start with Why and Clay Christensen’s classic framework of ‘jobs to be done’.

So, how do you determine the ‘Why’ behind your product?

Start by considering this gem from Jeff Bezos:

“People often ask what will be different in the world in 10 years, the more important question is what will be the same” — Jeff Bezos

So true, because the fundamentals of what people want and need are exactly that…fundamental truths. In my time as a product leader, I have found 4 models that apply to almost all consumer experiences and products. These are not mutually exclusive — they are ideas that overlap in many ways, but one will likely call to you more than the others.

What is your customer’s scarcest resource? It tends to be either money, time, energy.

You may have seen this meme on Twitter or Instagram before (I’d love to know whom to credit with it’s creation). It’s a great framework for products.

This is why Bezos’ answer to his own question, ‘what will be the same in the world in 10 years’, was that Amazon customers would always want lower prices (money) and faster shipping (time). Amazon’s strategy was built by focusing on these core customer needs.

This is also why Uber isn’t in the business of selling rides, it is in the business of selling time.

I have found that Tony Robbins is a bit of a lightning rod figure. When I mention his name people generally respond in one of two camps: ‘I love him, he is awesome’ or ‘he is a cult leader’. No matter what your personal perspective is, his framework on the 6 core human needs is still a classic.

Tony advocates that there are 6 core human needs that drive our behaviors:

• Certainty: The need for safety, stability, predictability, comfort
• Uncertainty/Variety: The need for surprise, excitement, novelty, change
• Love & Connection: The need for social attachment, approval. To feel connected and loved
• Significance: The need to have meaning, pride. To feel special and wanted
• Growth: The need for constant development, intellectually, emotionally, spiritually
• Contribution: The need to give to others. To protect, care for, serve

Even more fascinating, is that Tony believes any experience, product, or action is addictive if it serves 3 of these needs.

For example, Facebook solves for (1) love & connection…by feeling connected with your friends, (2) significance…by receiving feedback/prominence from what you post and (3) variety….you never know what will appear in your feed.

Taking a slightly more negative spin, many products also solve for one of the seven deadly sins:

• Pride
• Greed
• Lust
• Envy
• Gluttony
• Sloth
• Wrath

Targeting one of these seven deadly sins often makes a product addictive. In this framework, Facebook solves for pride. Uber and Amazon solve for sloth and greed.

Last but not least, several psychologists have offered up frameworks for the purpose of life:

• For Freud, it was the search for pleasure
• For Nietzsche, it was the search for power
• For Frankl, it was the search for meaning

One key principle behind behavior change and our cognitive biases is that we seek pleasure and avoid pain. This has always been a great insight to use as you design your product experiences.

We are seeing the rise of products and services that focus on customers’ search for meaning. For example, the rise of mindfulness and meditation products. Or, products such as Toms and Feed which give back to the world.

https://tinyurl.com/3j5b8cnd

40 reasons you should build a start-up in 2026

I'm 35 and I've been building businesses for 15+ years.

Hands down, 2026 is the best time ever to build a start-up.

I say that with confidence.

The market conditions for startups are perfect right now.

I've put together 40 reasons why this is true in the carousel for you below.
The advancement of technology is utterly crazy.

Claude Code lets one person build what used to require a 5-person dev team, and cloud infrastructure makes building cheap.

But that's only one element of it.

Buyers want what startups offer.

They want flexibility and real solutions to actual problems.
They want partners who move fast and care about outcomes.
And from a hiring perspective, employees are attracted to startup culture.

Because the best talent are sick of legacy companies and no progression.

I've built and sold businesses in multiple cycles.

The combination of technology, market demand, talent availability, and capital conditions has never aligned like this.

- When I built Verb Brands, I bootstrapped for 10 years before exiting.
- When I built Lottie, we scaled to 100+ people and got to a 9-figure valuation.
- When I built Searchable, we went from idea to beta customers in 100 DAYS.

Each cycle got faster because the conditions improved.

2026 is the best environment I've seen for starting a business.
If you've been waiting for the right time, this is it.

The opportunity is here, the timing is now, and the window is wide open (for now).

What's one prediction you have for building businesses in 2026?
Let me know in the comments.

If prediction #1 comes true, and I believe it will,
Your business needs to be visible in AI search.

That's why we built Searchable.

It optimises your content everywhere your customers might be.
Not just Google, but ChatGPT, Perplexity, and Claude as well.

Click here to start your 14-day free trial:
https://lnkd.in/epgXyFmi

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