At the latest Takeoff Tuesday at Aker Tech House, Ali Aljumaili shared how small teams can compete with larger players by embedding AI into every part of their workflow. His session was highly practical, packed with live demos of tools that his own four-person startup uses daily.
Here’s a breakdown of the tools he introduced, and how they map to development, productivity, research, and sales.
“AI is no longer optional. Adopt it early, or risk being left behind.”
— Ali’s central message
🚀 Development & Prototyping
- V0: A no-code/low-code platform where you “chat” your way to apps and dashboards. Ali demonstrated building a complete CMO dashboard in about an hour, something that would normally take weeks. The key benefit: anyone, even non-technical staff, can spin up working tools quickly.
- Cursor: An AI-powered code editor that writes, edits, and explains code directly in your repo. Ali showed how simple fixes, like translating a blog element or updating layouts, can be handled instantly.
- SuperWhisper: A voice-to-code tool that lets you describe changes verbally, and have them applied directly in a prompt. This helps speed up minor bug fixes and feature requests.
- Qodo: An AI code reviewer integrated with GitHub. It automatically checks every pull request, flags security or logic issues, and suggests fixes, acting like a 24/7 senior engineer.
- Devin: An “AI software engineer” that can document and test large codebases. Ali used it to generate full documentation for three years of code in under half an hour.
- Chef by Convex: A powerful AI backend builder for generating complex infrastructure quickly.
Takeaway: Tools like V0 and Cursor make prototyping accessible to anyone, while Qodo and Devin bring enterprise-grade engineering practices to even the smallest teams.
⚡ Productivity & Workflow Automation
- Slack + Unblock – AI agents embedded in Slack that answer technical and non-technical questions, debug issues, and even push fixes, without developers needing to be interrupted.
- Linear + AI Agents – Linear (an issue tracker like Jira) enhanced with AI that investigates bugs, explains why issues occur, and proposes fixes, shrinking weeks of debugging into minutes. Tech Hub members at RunwayFBU get 6 months of free access.
- N8N – An open-source automation platform with thousands of integrations. Ali’s team uses it to monitor market events (like funding rounds) and trigger automated outreach or alerts.
Takeaway: These tools reduce bottlenecks and free developers from repetitive tasks, allowing teams to move faster with fewer handoffs.
🔍 Competitive Intelligence
Competitive research that once took days or weeks can now be done in near real-time, helping startups become more agile.
- Perplexity AI – A deep research assistant that delivers structured, cited insights in minutes. Ali uses it to analyze competitors and strengthen funding applications. He contrasted it with the days or weeks it would take using manual Google searches.
Takeaway: Competitive research that once slowed down founders can now be done in near real-time—making startups more agile in pitching, product positioning, and fundraising.
🎯 Sales & Marketing
- Clay – A data platform for finding and enriching leads. It pulls information like roles, company changes, and recent activities to enable hyper-personalized outreach.
- Instantly – An outreach automation tool that sends thousands of personalized emails per week, complete with automated follow-ups. Ali’s team scaled from 200 emails/week to 2,500, closing deals worth hundreds of thousands of kroner.
- HeyGen + ElevenLabs – Used together to create personalized video and voice messages at scale. Ali demonstrated how his team clones his voice and avatar to send tailored video pitches to prospects.
Takeaway: AI makes outreach more scalable and more personal. Instead of generic blasts, teams can send thousands of messages that feel one-to-one.
“You can either ignore AI and risk being outpaced, or you can embrace it as your copilot”
— Ali wrapped up with a choice for the audience
💡 Closing Thought
From prototyping to sales, his toolkit demonstrated how a lean team can outpace much larger organizations, provided they embrace AI as part of their daily workflow.
