Curtis Vellekoop

For running payroll, Gusto is perfect. Where it gets weaker is the HR add-ons. The performance management and goal tracking tools feel very basic compared to dedicated HR platforms. We use it for payroll and benefits, but we use a different system for our performance reviews.

Pinecone was the only game in town for a while. It's still the easiest to use. But with pgvector (Postgres) and Chroma becoming so good, it's hard to justify a separate specialized database sometimes. We are considering moving to pgvector just to keep our stack simpler.

What sets Artbreeder apart is the community. Being able to take someone else's creation and 'remix' it gives you a massive head start. I love the Director mode for fine-tuning expressions. It feels more like a creative playground than a cold tech tool. The pricing is very fair for the amount of experimentation you can do.

Technically, Ably is superb. It handles connection drops and resuming sessions better than competitors like Pusher. However, we got hit with a surprisingly high bill because we didn't fully understand how 'peak connections' were calculated. Their pricing model is fair but complex. Make sure you really estimate your concurrent connections accurately before committing.

I love Figma, but as a solo designer, the jump from free to paid is steep if you need more projects and access to libraries. Clients often expect you to absorb that cost. I still pay because nothing matches it, but I wish there were a more affordable tier for individual professionals.

Instead of scheduling a 30-minute meeting to give feedback on a design, I just record a 5-minute Loom video. It's faster, and the person can watch it on their own time. The asynchronous communication has been a huge productivity boost for our remote team. The AI features that auto-generate a title and summary are also surprisingly good.

I used to love SketchUp when you could buy a perpetual license. The move to a mandatory subscription is frustrating. The core software hasn't changed that much, but the price has gone way up. For a hobbyist woodworker, it's hard to justify the annual cost. I'm exploring open-source alternatives like Blender.

I pay for Plus mainly for GPT-4 (and now the new models). It's like having a smart intern. It helps me debug code, brainstorm blog posts, and summarize long PDFs. The 'Memory' feature is great because it remembers my preferences across chats. The Voice mode is also surprisingly conversational and useful for brainstorming while walking.