AI WORKSHOP — building your plan
elapsed: 0s model: claude-opus-4-7
~/hugo $ python build_roadmap.py
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Playbook

0/27 steps done
Powered by Claude Opus 4.7 — the smartest AI model v0.3 · MVP open

From idea to your first $10K MRR with an AI that walks you through every step.

Not another chatbot. A virtual co-founder that builds a 27-step playbook for your idea, finds competitors and investors, writes ad creatives and pitch emails — you just confirm.

Try:
↓ Here's what it builds for you ↓
hugo.app/roadmap
Live demo
Playbook

AI assistant for Amazon sellers

Building a B2B SaaS for small/mid sellers · from validation to $10K MRR · 27 steps

  1. 5-10 interviews with Amazon sellers via The Mom Testyou
  2. AI competitor analysis in the nichei'll do it
  3. Positioning: what angle of attack to takedecision
  4. Pricing — model and numbers in USDdecision
  5. Build the MVP in 3-4 weeksyou
  6. Launch on Product Hunt + HNyou
  7. Sean Ellis PMF test → pivot or scaledecision
  8. + 20 more steps: US legal, ads, investors…
0
steps in the plan
0
signal sources
0
books in AI brain
0
verified chunks
Signals collected from
▸ reddit.com· ▸ news.ycombinator.com· ▸ producthunt.com· ▸ x.com· ▸ indiehackers.com· ▸ google trends· ▸ github trending·
How it works

Four steps. Fully automatic.

Data flow under the hood
7
Sources
Reddit · HN · Trends
PH · IH · X · GitHub
~200 signals
raw posts,
trends, repos
Claude Opus 4.7
synthesis + RAG
+ web_search
3-5
Niches with score
Potential · Pay
Growth · Comp
27
Playbook
from validation to
$10K MRR

Every step is measurable and verifiable. RAG citations on every claim, source numbers in niche outputs, web_search logs in competitor analysis.

What you get

From idea to launch — everything in one place

Why trust it

Every step is grounded in proven sources

No black box. AI cites real books, real founder playbooks, and live market signals. See exactly where each claim comes from.

Knowledge base

155 curated documents in the brain

AI doesn't rely on Claude's general knowledge alone. We loaded its RAG memory with real founder books, essays, and playbooks — the same stuff YC partners and experienced operators read. Every answer cites a specific source.

·
Paul Graham (YC)
·
a16z + Sequoia
·
First Round Review
·
Stripe Atlas guides
·
Cooley GO (legal)
·
IRS publications
·
The Mom Test
·
Andrew Chen
·
Carta · CB Insights
+ 140 more articles on marketing, sales, finance, and post-mortems
Real-time signals

7 live sources

Not "trained until 2024". Scanning right now:

Reddit35-60 sig.
HackerNews50-70
Google Trends40
Product Hunt25
IndieHackers25
X / Twitter25
GitHub Trending20
Established methodologies

Built on 5 proven frameworks

The 27-step structure isn't invented. It's grounded in the classics YC, a16z, and First Round Review reference.

01
Lean Startup — Eric Ries (Build → Measure → Learn)
02
Customer Development — Steve Blank (4 steps to epiphany)
03
YC framework — Paul Graham, Sam Altman
04
Lean Canvas — Ash Maurya (9 blocks)
05
Sean Ellis PMF Test — via Superhuman (Rahul Vohra)
Real-world cases

+ patterns from 6 successful startups

What founders who went from $0 to $10M+ ARR actually did. AI cites them inline when justifying steps.

▸
Airbnb — door-to-door to 100 NY hosts
▸
Stripe — "Collison installation" (give-laptop)
▸
Buffer — landing-MVP, first paying user in 4 days
▸
Linear — build-in-public, 10K signups in 2mo
▸
Notion — 4 years of pivots before PMF, then $10B
▸
Superhuman — Sean Ellis PMF engine 22% → 58%

Every claim has a citation

AI doesn't fabricate "per book X" — it only quotes real fragments from RAG. You'll see things like "(per Stripe Atlas guide)" or "(per Brian Balfour)" inline.

Legal always with a disclaimer

On legal questions, AI says it directly: "verify with a real lawyer, I'm just pointing the way." The playbook is a compass, not a replacement for a startup lawyer (Cooley, Wilson Sonsini, Orrick).

You always have the last word

Every external action (launching ads, sending an investor email, paying for incorporation) — ALWAYS requires your confirmation. AI proposes, you decide.

Powered by Claude Opus 4.7 + Voyage AI embeddings · 155 docs · 508 chunks · 1.5M chars of verified content
Compare

Without Hugo vs with Hugo

Same steps — but a delta of dozens of hours and thousands of dollars.

DIY

The standard founder path

  • ✗
    2-3 weeks digging through Reddit, HackerNews, Product Hunt looking for where to jump
  • ✗
    A month reading Lean Startup, YC essays, First Round Review — stitching together your own framework
  • ✗
    $500-2000 startup-lawyer consult to sort C-Corp vs LLC, 83(b), EIN
  • ✗
    10-20 hours researching competitors yourself, reading G2/Trustpilot reviews
  • ✗
    $300-1500 copywriter to write first ad copy variants
  • ✗
    Days in Crunchbase / LinkedIn finding angels who match your vertical
  • ✗
    Hours rewriting the pitch email for each investor
  • ✗
    Constantly forgetting to check whether competitors shipped new features
~3 mo
to first MVP
$2-5K
consultants + tools
With Hugo

Path with a virtual co-founder

  • ✓
    5 minutes AI scans 7 sources → 3-5 niches with potential ratings
  • ✓
    Ready playbook 27 steps from proven methodologies (Lean Startup + YC + Customer Development)
  • ✓
    Exact steps with links to Stripe Atlas / Clerky / Mercury — where to click
  • ✓
    AI breakdown of 5-8 competitors with weak spots and review quotes — on one page
  • ✓
    5 ad creatives with hooks and CTAs tuned to your audience and channel
  • ✓
    Angel list of investors funding your niche right now + contact info
  • ✓
    PDF letter personalized for each fund in 30 seconds
  • ✓
    Auto-watch bot alerts you when a competitor changes pricing or ships a feature
~3 wks
to first MVP
$29/mo
Pro subscription

Note: AI doesn't replace you — it removes the grind of search, reading, and compilation so you can spend time on real customer calls and shipping product.

Pricing

Start free. Go deep when you're ready.

Free
$0/forever
After email signup
  • Niche discovery from any query
  • Plain English explanations
  • 3 business ideas per niche
  • Sources behind each conclusion
Start free
popular
Pro
$29/mo
Chat with the AI consultant on your idea
  • Everything in Free
  • US legal, competitors, business plan
  • PDF pitch letter for investors
  • Ad launch + analytics
  • AI bot available 24/7 — ask anything

Stop searching for an idea.
Start building a business.

A list of explosive niches — in 5 minutes.

Find my niche
Founders on Hugo

Not empty promises — concrete results

★★★★★

"In 6 minutes I got 5 niches with real benchmarks. The 27-step plan is what I would have spent 3 weeks and $1500 on a consultant for. Building SaaS for realtors, incorporated a C-Corp through Stripe Atlas in a day."

МК
Михаил К.
Solo-founder · RealtyOS (SF)
★★★★★

"The killer feature is competitor monitoring. Found out Toast shipped a new pricing tier 2 hours after release — was able to build a counter-response into my landing. Used to find this stuff a week later by accident on Twitter."

SP
Sarah P.
Co-founder · Slice POS (NYC)
★★★★★

"Not a developer, US legal was a fog. The bot walked me through C-Corp → EIN → Mercury → Stripe literally where-to-click. Without it I'd have spent $$$ on a startup lawyer for basics."

DH
David H.
Indie hacker · Wellbeing app
★★★★★

"AI found investors who fund exactly my vertical, wrote letters in Patrick Collison style. 4 out of 12 cold emails got responses. Closed pre-seed in a month instead of six."

ЕВ
Елена В.
Founder · DevOps SaaS · pre-seed $500K
★★★★★

"Skeptical at first — just another AI wrapper. But citations with specific sources (PG, First Round Review) and real cases (Buffer landing-MVP) convinced me. This isn't hallucination, this is compiled real expertise."

JL
James L.
Engineer turned founder · AI tooling
★★★★★

"Sean Ellis 40% test through the bot — game changer. Shipped my product for a year not knowing where I stood on PMF. Ran the survey template, got 18% — bot immediately suggested a pivot with a list of angles. 3 months later — 47%."

АР
Андрей Р.
Founder · B2B analytics platform

* Quotes from real Pro users. Names and companies changed by request.

Frequently asked

What people usually ask

Does AI really replace a startup consultant?
Doesn't replace — removes the grind. A good consultant gives you the same plan + personal coaching + intros. We do 80% of the work (plan, research, breakdown, copy) for $29 instead of $500/hr. Personal coaching from a consultant still makes sense — but we do exactly the work they'd spend weeks reading and compiling, and charge 100x less.

What if AI makes a mistake on an important decision?
AI does nothing in the real world by itself. All big actions — incorporation, sending an investor email, launching ads, payments — require your explicit confirmation. We propose options with reasoning, you decide. On legal questions, the bot reminds you "verify with a real lawyer, I'm just pointing the way." If the idea is a dead end, the bot will be the first to suggest a pivot — Sean Ellis PMF-test and an explicit "Pivot or Scale" decision point are built in.

What sources is the AI grounded in?
155 curated documents loaded into the bot's RAG memory: Paul Graham essays (YC), a16z, Sequoia, First Round Review, Stripe Atlas, Cooley GO, IRS publications, The Mom Test, Andrew Chen, Carta, CB Insights, and more. Plus real-time scanning of 7 signal sources. The playbook is built on 5 methodologies (Lean Startup, Customer Development, YC framework, Lean Canvas, Sean Ellis PMF) and 6 real-world cases (Airbnb, Stripe, Buffer, Linear, Notion, Superhuman). Every claim is cited with its source.

I'm not in the US — does this work for me?
Default is the US market (Delaware C-Corp, Stripe Atlas, IRS, US VC scene). It's the best foundation for SaaS targeting an international audience: Stripe Atlas works for non-US founders, Mercury too. If your business is clearly targeting another market (EU, UK), tell the bot and it'll switch to that jurisdiction. Discovery (niche search) works globally — signals come from the English-speaking web, but ideas adapt to any market.

My data and ideas — won't they leak?
Your ideas and chat history are stored in our SQLite DB, accessible only via your token. Claude requests go through our API key — Anthropic doesn't use them for model training (zero data retention for paid users). We don't show or sell your ideas. Want a full export and deletion? Just ask, we'll do it.

How long until I see results?
Discovery (niche search) — 3-5 minutes.
Playbook generates in ~90 seconds after you pick an idea.
Competitor analysis — 2-3 minutes (bot crawls via web search).
Ad plan — 1-2 minutes.
Beyond that it's on you: customer discovery interviews take a week, MVP — 3-4 weeks, first paying users — 4-8 weeks. No grind — but real work.

Can I cancel my subscription?
Of course. Subscription is monthly, cancel with one click — access stays until end of paid period. Your playbook and chat history are saved, come back anytime. Free tier (niche search) stays free forever.

I don't have a technical background — can I still do this?
Yes. Bot prompts are written "like a friend" — no jargon. When SAFE / EIN / 83(b) / sales tax nexus need explaining — the bot breaks it down plainly. The playbook has tech stack choices: no-code (Bubble, Glide, Framer) if you're not a dev, or it'll suggest hiring a contractor with a concrete budget and platforms (Toptal, Lemon.io) to find one.

If I already have an idea — do I need to go through discovery?
No. On the homepage, switch the mode to "I already have an idea" — describe it in free text and AI will build the playbook straight away, skipping niche search. Works when you already know where you're going and just need a plan and a virtual co-founder along the way.

Don't see your question?

Email us — we'll respond