Decision intelligence for founders going 0 to 1.
You're a non-technical founder facing technical decisions — prototype or not, agency or first hire, does this idea need AI. Each guide here walks you through one decision: the questions that determine it, the paths with their honest costs, and what I'd recommend in your position.
The decisions
Is this idea worth building — and how do you find out before you spend real money?
Start here: Do you need to build anything yet?Agency, freelancer, technical co-founder, or AI tools — who should build your product?
Start here: Agency vs. freelancer vs. first hireWhat should the first version include, what should it cost, and how do you keep the build honest?
Start here: How small should your v1 be?Stack, build-vs-buy, AI, security — the technical calls that are yours whether you like it or not.
Start here: Does your v1 actually need AI?When do you need your own engineers, and how do you take the product back from whoever built it?
Start here: Taking your product back from an agencyHow this works
- 1Read the decision guide — The questions that determine your answer, the paths, honest costs, my recommendation and its limits.
- 2Take it to your AI — Download the decision file and paste it into ChatGPT or Claude; it walks you through the decision for your specific situation.
- 3Still stuck? That's what I'm here for — Some decisions need a second brain, not another article. Here's how I work with founders →
Who's behind this
I'm Selva Ganapathy. I've sat on your side of the table.
- Founded and ran a SaaS company for 5 years (0 → 45 people, 0 → ₹6 crore ARR)
- 18 years of engineering across four technology waves; currently running production AI systems at 50M tokens/minute
- LinkedIn Top AI Voice (2024)
- “Success, for me, is you no longer needing me.” How I work with founders →
One technical decision, decoded, every week.
New decision guides land in the newsletter first, with the reasoning behind them.