Example stacks
Six worked examples: the layers that matter, the order to add them in, and what's safe to skip. Your own stack depends on your stage, team and budget — the builder works that out in about a minute.
AI startup
AI companies overbuy infrastructure and underbuy distribution. At pre-revenue the model is rarely the bottleneck — explaining it and finding the first ten users is. This is the order most AI teams get value in.
SaaS startup
Early SaaS stacks fail in one of two directions: too thin to sell repeatably, or a full go-to-market suite bought before there is anything to take to market. The useful middle is four or five tools.
Solo founder
As one person your constraint is attention, not capability. Every tool you add is something to maintain, log into and pay for. Three is usually right; five is already a stretch.
Agency
Agencies don't scale on tooling, they scale on repeatability. The stack that matters is the one that lets a new hire do the work the same way you would.
Lead generation
Outbound fails on list quality far more often than on sequence copy. Build the research layer before the sending layer and the same effort produces several times the replies.
Ecommerce
Ecommerce stacks get crowded fast because every category has a plausible app. The four layers below cover almost everything a store under seven figures actually needs.