⭐️ Today’s Highlights: 

• :🦸‍♂️ How to make yourself an action figure

• 🚀 Tech stacks that will 3x your output

• 🤖 Need to learn AI? There’s an academy for that now.

• 💸 Tariffs affecting your business? Find out by how much.

• 🚨 Something is about to launch. Get to the bottom to find out.

(Total read time: 8 minutes)

THE APPETIZER

Before I get into all business, I want to highlight my awesome Chief Of Staff who created an AI rendering of me as a Mattel toy. If you want one yourself just respond to this email and I will send you the ai prompt & instructions so you can have your own! 

Now for the good stuff, and as always, I hope you enjoy my sauce.

- Patrick Frank

PAT’S SNAPPLE CAP

• Tariff Simulator. Your least favorite subject just got more fun: LINK

• Never hit a paywall again: LINK

• 9 top business trends happening RIGHT NOW: LINK

• Open Ai just launched their academy: LINK

• Best article I found this week: LINK - (Warning: Will induce anxiety) 

Pat’s Take: The things you are not doing are the ones keeping you up at night. Go help yourself out and get them done to get some sleep and get on with your life. 

THE MAIN COURSE

The Founder Tech Stack: Why Most Are Doing it Wrong And How These Will 3x Your Productivity 

As the saying goes, a carpenter is only as good as their tools. The problem is, we aren’t carpenters… We are founders, or soon to be founders who are more like mad scientists than anything else. The thing about mad scientists is that they typically mix a whole bunch of shit together to get their crazy concoction that is ultimately success. 

What I am leaving out in this analogy is that those concoctions in founder-land end up costing $1,000’s in monthly SaaS tool costs and agency fees and just about anything else you can imagine that is in the expensive mix to make a startup work. 

Me…. I am guilty as can be. More guilty than probably anyone reading this newsletter. I’ve spent over $200,000+ to date on tools, softwares, and agencies across all of my businesses. I've also watched others founders obsess over shiny tools that promise to fix their chaotic mess, only to end up more overwhelmed, confused, and less productive (and profitable) than before. 

Let’s stop that. Today. Ok?.... Great. 

That’s why for today’s main course, I am dishing up the exact  stacks that the most successful founders I know use as well as my own personal tech stack that allows me to be 6 places at once at 3x my output across my businesses. 

The entire blueprint is below for you to steal and do the same! Let’s dive in…

Pat’s Stack: 

AI Assistants:

• SeoBot:($20/mo) Generates the most insane blogs I’ve ever seen with even better domain authority. Cost: $20/mo

• ChatGPT:($40/mo) Daily driver and in case deep research is needed. Grok: For real time data and a side of fun.

Team & Project Management:

• Notion:(FREE) Most dynamic CRM / Project management tool in the game. Link with Zapier and other tools to automate it once you have your foundation set.

• Slack:(FREE) If you don’t know what this is, you probably shouldn't be reading my newsletter.

• Zapier:(FREE) Automates your entire ecosystem. Is a lift to set up but will save you years of your life in the day to day trenches.

• Loom:(FREE)Because 90% of meetings can be replaced by a 2-minute video.

Self-Organization:

• Gmelius:($15/mo) Manage every inbox in one place. Transforms Gmail into your personal CRM & task manager.

• TinyURL (Extension):(FREE) I love lists, this keeps them shorter with 2 clicks. 

• Raindrop:($3/mo) The ultimate bookmarking tool. Seriously thank me later.

• TabExtend:($5/mo) I typically have 50+ tabs open. This organizes them for me.

Design, Creative & Social:

• Publer: ($15/mo) Out of all the scheduling and social analytics tools this is the best bang for your buck. 

• Canva Pro:($10/mo) Again if you aren’t using this, you should probably un-sub. Pay for it.

• Figma: ($20/mo) Canva on steroids. Typically reserved for web design & professionals:

Sales & Marketing:

• Expandi:($99/mo) Automate LinkedIn outreach without getting banned.

• Apollo.io:($49/mo) Sales intelligence platform that makes outreach painless.

• HubSpot: ($20/mo) Your all-in-one CRM for everything sales, marketing & service.

• Mailtrack:($5/mo) Know exactly when your emails are opened (creepy but effective).

• LeadPost:($99/mo) Convert anonymous website visitors into tangible leads.
  PressPulse:($25/mo) Turn PR into actual sales, not just vanity metrics. 

• Biosite:(FREE) One link to rule all your links. Optimize social bios for maximum clicks.

Analytics & Tracking:

• Clarity:(FREE) Real-time user interaction heatmaps and insights, without paying thousands.

• Bitly:(FREE) Track and optimize link clicks with detailed analytics.

Web Development:

• Wix:($20/mo) Fast, no-code site creation for founders who hate waiting.
  Webflow:($20/mo) Design beautiful, high-performance sites without dev teams.
  Unicorn Platform:($8/mo) Launch stunning landing pages at startup speed.

Email & Retention: 

• Klayvio: ($20-$100+/mo) Biased due to e-commerce but easy enough for anyone to use and dynamic in their reporting.

FREEBIE FOR YOU SAUCERS: Tech Stacks By Founder Type

This is not one size fits all. Though the stack above is comprehensive enough to work for most businesses types, you can still dial your own stack based on what you are doing. This workbook takes the tools of the top founders in each of these verticals and gives em to you to do what you please. 

🔥 Stop Using The Wrong Tools: The Founder Stack Breakdown. (FREE GUIDE BELOW)

Here's the catch: Your tech stack should evolve as your business grows. But 95% of founders don't get this. They choose tools based on popularity or trends, not their actual stage.

That’s why I created a comprehensive guide that breaks down the ultimate tech stacks for every type of founder based off the best such as Alex Lieberman (Morning Brew) Justin Welsh (The Soloprenuer) and many others!

✅Newsletter Founders
✅Enterprise SaaS Founders
✅DTC SaaS Founders
✅MicroSaaS & Indie Hackers
✅Side Hustle Founders
✅B2B SaaS Founders
✅E-commerce Founders
✅Creator Economy Founders
✅Marketplace Founders
✅AI Startup Founders

For access all you need to do is respond to this email with: TECH STACK and I will send it straight to your inbox! 

One last Patty PSA:
Stop chasing shiny objects and start using tools that actually matter. Your stack is your productivity, growth, and sanity lifeline. Treat it that way.

Choose wisely.

DOMAIN DADDY

🚨 Domain Daddy: ThisIsNotAI.ai 🚨

🚨Tagline: "Because authenticity can't be generated."

Everyday it is getting harder and harder to tell the difference between what is human and what is created by ai. Think art, think video, think all creative design. It’s happening now and happening fast….

Enter: ThisIsNotAI.ai. the marketplace for everything built the good ol’ fashioned human way.

Think about this like the new “American Made” in the coming digital age.

Here's the concept:

Humans Only. AI Not Allowed.

• Art made with actual brushes and canvases (Remember those?).

• Film & Video shot and edited without ChatGPT writing the scripts or Midjourney storyboarding and Sora generating every scene.

• Books: Written by actual people and not just prompted by a code monkey with no writing abilities. 

• Photos: Taken in real life of real things in real time. Not perfectly manicured renderings. 

Why Now?

• People will ALWAYS crave authenticity. The more AI saturates everything, the higher human-made value climbs. "Made without AI" is becoming the new “organic” label for creativity.

The Market:

• 🎨 Artists & Creatives tired of competing with AI-generated knockoffs.

• 🎥 Filmmakers & Storytellers who actually write their scripts (the horror!).

• 👩‍💻 Developers & Designers whose craft isn't just pressing "generate."

• 🛍️ Consumers & Collectors who want to buy genuine, human-made work.

Final Pitch:
If you're tired of algorithms dominating creativity, this marketplace celebrates raw, messy, human creativity exactly how it should be. AI might be the future, but authenticity will always be priceless.

Want this business/domain?
📩 Hit me up and let’s chat: [email protected]

🚨SOMETHING IS ABOUT TO LAUNCH: 

For those rare souls who actually finish newsletters (you’re my people), I’m launching something special: a course to take your idea from zero to live in 30 days flat. Want free, early access before anyone else?

💥^{_{Just reply back to me to let me know you want it and I will send you the link!}}💥

That’s a wrap everyone. See you in 2 weeks, and as always. 

Hope You Enjoyed My Sauce. 

- Patrick Frank