The AI Tools Stack I Use to Run My Company
n8n, Supabase, Resend, Twilio, Claude. Here's exactly how I use each one and what I'd switch if I were starting today.
Every “tools I use” list on the internet is either a thinly veiled affiliate roundup or a list from someone who set each tool up once and called it a day.
This is neither. These are the tools we use daily to run Nexus Found LLC and build SendJob — a production automation system for field service businesses. Some of them we’ve been using for over a year. Some we replaced something else with. I’ll tell you which is which.
The Core Stack
n8n — Workflow Automation
What it is: An open-source workflow automation platform. Think Zapier, but more powerful, self-hostable, and way more flexible for complex logic.
How we use it: n8n is the backbone of SendJob. Every automated action — sending a confirmation text, alerting a dispatcher, firing a payment link — runs through an n8n workflow. We have dozens of active workflows in production.
What I like: The visual editor makes complex logic readable. You can add custom JavaScript nodes when you need to. And because we self-host it, our data never leaves our infrastructure.
What I don’t like: The learning curve is real. If you’ve never worked with webhooks or API calls before, n8n will teach you things you didn’t know you needed to learn. That’s mostly a feature, but it can be frustrating early on.
Would I switch? No. For serious automation work, n8n is the best tool in this category.
Supabase — Database & Backend
What it is: An open-source Firebase alternative. Postgres database with a built-in API, authentication, real-time subscriptions, and storage — all accessible via a clean dashboard.
How we use it: Every job, customer record, technician profile, and notification log in SendJob lives in Supabase. n8n reads from and writes to Supabase tables constantly.
What I like: The Postgres foundation means you’re working with a real, production-grade database — not a toy. The auto-generated API is genuinely useful. And the dashboard makes it easy to inspect data without writing SQL every time.
What I don’t like: Row-level security policies take a while to get right. The documentation is good but the edge cases aren’t always covered.
Would I switch? No. Supabase is excellent and keeps getting better.
Twilio — SMS & Phone
What it is: The industry standard for programmatic SMS, voice, and phone number management.
How we use it: Every text message in SendJob goes through Twilio. Confirmation texts, enroute alerts, payment links — all of it.
What I like: Reliability. Twilio’s delivery rates are excellent and their API is well-documented.
What I don’t like: It’s expensive compared to alternatives, and the dashboard is dated. Their API is also finicky in places — Claude gets the specifics wrong occasionally because the docs have changed over time.
Would I switch? Possibly. For high-volume use cases, alternatives like Telnyx or Vonage are worth evaluating on cost. For getting started, Twilio is the right choice.
Resend — Email
What it is: A modern email API built for developers. Dead simple to set up, excellent deliverability, clean dashboard.
How we use it: Transactional emails — dispatcher alerts, internal notifications, anything that needs to go to an inbox rather than a phone.
What I like: Setup takes 15 minutes. The API is clean. The free tier is generous. And it just works.
Would I switch? No. Resend is genuinely great and I recommend it without hesitation.
Stripe — Payments
What it is: The standard for online payments. Payment links, subscriptions, invoices — all of it.
How we use it: SendJob generates Stripe payment links at job completion. The customer taps the link, pays, done.
What I like: Stripe’s payment links are dead simple to generate via API — one API call gets you a URL you can put in a text message. Their documentation is the best in the industry.
Would I switch? No. Nothing else is close for developer experience.
Claude — AI Development & Writing
What it is: Anthropic’s AI model. The most capable tool I’ve used for building software by describing what you want.
How we use it: Claude built significant portions of SendJob. We describe the workflow we want, the schema we need, or the bug we’re debugging — and iterate from the output. We also use it for drafting content for this site.
What I like: It’s better at understanding context than any other model I’ve used. It pushes back when something doesn’t make sense. It explains trade-offs. It feels like working with a senior developer who never gets frustrated.
Would I switch? Not as a primary tool. ChatGPT is useful for certain tasks, but Claude is my default.
Netlify — Hosting
What it is: Static site hosting with CI/CD built in. Push to GitHub, site deploys automatically.
How we use it: This site runs on Netlify. Zero configuration, free for static sites, deploys in under a minute.
Would I switch? Possibly to Vercel for more complex projects. For static sites, Netlify is perfect.
What I’d Do Differently Starting Today
If I were building the stack from scratch with what I know now:
- Start with n8n cloud instead of self-hosting. Self-hosting is more control, but the ops overhead early on isn’t worth it.
- Use Supabase from day one — don’t start with a simpler database and migrate later.
- Set up monitoring earlier — we use UptimeRobot and I wish we’d added it sooner.
The One Tool Not on This List
GitHub. It’s so fundamental I almost forgot to include it. Every line of code, every workflow export, every configuration file — it’s all in version control. If your automation business isn’t using Git, start there before anything else.
Building your own stack? The Resources page has direct links to everything mentioned here.