John Rush

I run the most automated org on earth,
thx to the agents I built myself or third parties.

I just saw YC betting it all on "replace humans with AI" ideas.

24 AI agents to automate the entire org:

1. SEObot - automated entire blog SEO.
- figures out my topics, keywords, knowledge tree, and more
- pitches me article ideas daily over an email
- generates them &amp; syncs with my CMS
- does all internal and external linking... -&gt; @seobotai



2. SoftGen - AI Agent for coding.

I build small projects just by talking to it. No coding at all. I don't even read the code. So it basically works for non-coders.

In the old days, I'd give these projects to junior devs &amp; wait for months.
Real demo:



3. Replit AI Agent - replaced dev mates.

I use it as my team member when I build advanced projects.
It fits well for coders who wanna save time. Basically me+replit feels like me+5junior developers. I screen recorded the process:



4. @listingbott - works 24/7 to find all relevant directories &amp; websites where it can list my product.
- it brings me more backlinks
- direct click traffic
- I'm placed on new directories &amp; if one blows up, I'm already listed there &amp; I get a solid upside


5. AI Agent for outreach
- analyze your product
- search social media
- find the related influencers
- write &amp; send DMs


6. Browser Use - AI agents that can do anything in the browser.
- can fill out forms
- sign up for things
- send emails
- and pretty much anything else that can be done in the browser and is repetative


7. Email Outreach with an agent.
- Connects to hubspot
- Creates &amp; manages your contacts &amp; deals
- Gets insights from all data &amp; sends outreach emails
--&gt; http://dub.composio.dev/mI6L8HA https://dub.composio.dev/mI6L8HA



8. Galileo AI - a UI generation platform for design ideation.

Takes just minutes to convert natural language to UI designs and prototypes.



9. AI builds my landing pages ( @unicornplatform  )



11. AI agent to transform ideas into a user interface with one prompt.



12. AI Agent for customer support.

The team (  @TakoTreba &amp; @yasser_elsaid_ ) built a chatbot (chatbase) that lets you build things like Customer Support agents and a lot more.



13. AI automation for accounting with @puzzlefin works really well.



14. AI agents from @hcompany_ai can act as your cofounders
- do research, buy the domain, make payments, build sites and more.



15. Nova is my PM. I'd say it's almost my Co-CEO.

https://x.com/johnrushx/status/1882445020462289205

I've tried all (24) AI coding agents &amp; IDEs 😵‍💫

[Cursor, Softgen, Windsurf, Wrapifai, Copilot, Lovable, Bolt, v0, Replit, MarsX, Claude, AmazonQ, Pear, Devin, Github Spark, IDX, Webdraw, Tempo, Cline, Continue, Databutton, Base44, Qodo, Aider]

The Vibe Coding giga-thread:

1/24. @SoftgenAI
- works well for both coders and non coders
- can fix its own bugs
- can host the web apps

It worked really well for my little project (Vacation calendar manager)



2. Cursor
- a fork of a VC code
- raised loads of funding turning into a unicorn
- founders went on a Lex Fridman pod
- turns coders into 10x devs. Not the best fit for non-coders.



3. Wrapifai
- perfect for mini tools (lead magnets or tools to drive SEO traffic)
- mostly produces functioning app right away with one prompt
- doesn't handle serious apps
- unlimited apps (instead of per token..)



4. Windsurf (works well for advanced apps. my top 3)
- acts as a true agent
- offers deepseek
- can use the web search
- has a memory.



5. GitHub Copilot ( the OG of this game, started back in 2020 )
- can generate code
- handles large codebases
- can merge PRs, fix bugs, search code



6. Lovable
- fastest-growing EU based startup today ($10M ARR)
- has native supabase integration
- has the best AI+NoCode mix on the market



7. Bolt
- started as a side project of stackblitz and went huge raising $105M
- works similar to softgen, lovable &amp; windsurf

I built several lead magnets using bolt



8. v0
- best for making well-designed web pages or UIs
- doesn't work well for fullstack apps
- can use figma as a starting point
- lets you edit elements one by one



9. Replit
- most advanced AI Agent for coding imho
- has two modes: Agent or Assistant
- true full stack app generator. Has its own server, db, hosting...

Here is the real app I built using it https://seobotai.com/broken-link-checker-free/



10. MarsX (my own product)
- a mix of AI, NoCode and High Code
- I built @seobotai, @indexrusher and all my other products using marsx
- it basically takes the whole coding world to the next level since it isn't a website builder, but "SaaS builder"



11. Claude
- it can write and run code
- super easy to get started (free)
- works for basic cases. e.g. building components or learning coding



12. Amazon Q
- very few people use it
- totally lagging behind the top players



13. Pear AI
- entered into YC
- had a huge drama around forking a github repo
- had a mentor call with them, two very talented guys taking an alternative path on competing with cursor



14. Devin
- super expensive
- targets corporate world
- acts as a junior dev in a dev team

very good review:


15. Github Spark
- works well for small or demo apps
- still behind the "waitlist"



16. IDX
- free alternative to cursor
- can build mobile apps
- uses gemini



17. Webdraw
- best for people with zero coding experience
- totally genius UX
- free
- turns sketches into web apps



18. Tempo Labs
- Generates full-stack apps using a text or image prompt
- It starts by making an architecture and diagrams
- I think they have the best AI Coding UX, wow



19. Cline
- VC code plugin
- works for large codebases
- supports any LLM
- runtime awareness



20. Continue dot Dev.
- an open source alternative to Cursor



21. Databutton
- from Norway
- backed by VCs who backed one of my startups
- has very unique approach, different from most of the players
- works great for true nocoders



22. Base44
- for noncoders
- all in one
- creates dashboard-like apps pretty well



23. Qodo
- for coders
- can write tests, refactor and generate code
- supports all llms(including deepseek)



24. Caffeine AI
- new player
- too early to say anything. for now just putting them into the list to come back to them later when they launch



25. Aider
- a terminal app for generating web apps out of prompts



26. That's it.

I built lots of AI tools using AI. Some of my projects:
↳ http://unicornplatform.com
↳ http://listingbott.com
↳ http://seobotai.com
↳ http://indexrusher.com More here: http://johnrush.me https://x.com/johnrushx/status/1886610954257097109/photo/1

Today, I gave the Replit AI Agent a Real test.

I built an Employee Vacation tracker app.
100% AI prompting, no code.

I hated the process until I mastered it.
The app I built is so cool that I bought a domain to let you all use it for free.

Every step, with great details 🧵: 

1. I described my app in a prompt.

The more detailed the prompt, the better. 
- asking for ReactJs and Shadcn helps to make things look pretty
- asking for data persistence helps to output a real fullstack app connected to a database instead of just a demo
- cover big picture 

2. Instead of asking it to build the final app right away, it turns out it's better to iterate with versions.

Whenever I asked for too many things, it failed to deliver. So after my initial generation, I started prompting it by grouping similar tasks. 

3. It produced the UI that looked good, but I wanted to change it. I tried asking it for a visual change and it messed up the whole thing.

I tried it few more times and gave up and rolled back all the UI changes.

At this point I was about to give up, but then I tried smth new 

4. I sketched a quick mockup of what I wanted and attached it to my prompt.

It saved my experiment. Suddenly, the whole UI changed to what I wanted.

@amasad, maybe you need some native UI sketching tool inside the agent. It'd solve a lot of the problems. 

5. As I was prompting it more and more, the app became pretty complex and replit started failing at fixing the bugs.

It went into an annoying loop 😠

e.g. it couldn't fix the issue of adding a new vacation.
Then I came up with a pretty smart idea that I'm proud of :) 

6. I asked to log more info into console, so it's easier to understand the error.

From that moment, I started asking it to log literally anything i could log and the whole endless never bug fixing loops stopped and it fixed all the bugs right in the next try 😵‍💫😍 

7. My next steps were repetitive:
&gt; I'd ask for few new features
&gt; test them, report bugs
&gt; then get them fixed
&gt; then ask for more features....

8. It all took me 2 hours.
I got exactly what I wanted.
It would have taken a week with a human developer to build, iterate, develop UI/UX, test, improve and get exactly what I got here.

Use it 100% free: https://trackvacations.com/
Reply with feedback, I'll pass it to the agent 

9. That's it. 
I plan to try all other AI Agents & Ai Developers.

I'll build a micro product with each and share my findings. The next in line are Windsurf, Cursor and 14 more.
Besides being excited about AI in coding, I'm also building these startups:
↳ https://unicornplatform.com
↳ https://listingbott.com
↳ https://seobotai.com
↳ https://devhunt.org

↳ see the rest on http://johnrush.me

I acquired Unicorn Platform for almost $1M.

Since then, it went from 25k to 551k users.

I've literally tried every growth method I've heard of.
All my marketing failures &amp; successes:



1. Partnerships with incubators.

I contacted all famous startup incubators and signed deals with most to place unicorn as a "perk" there.

I thought it'd become a passive stream of users, but I don't think I got even one paying user out of this. I canceled all these deals.

2. Paid ads.

I wasted lots of cash on google/meta/x/tt/reddit ads. No results at all for my 2-3 fig/mo budgets. Mostly clicks from bots &amp; non relevant countries.

Now i run my ads on using my own TinyAdz. It works well, I plan to spend 5% of my profit on ads from now on.

3. SEO (one of two best channels).

I didn't touch it until April 2023; it was my biggest mistake.
Today, I do a mix of AI-generated blogs (using @seobotai ), mini tools with @wrapifai. I manually improve winning tools and articles. 

4. Cross promo with partners.

I put lots of effort into this, but it turns out founders aren't that good at collaborating. I guess we all are high on EGO.

The only successful collab is with HuntedSpace(by @d4m1n ).

I'm still open to more collabs &amp; cross-promos, just DM me.

5. Social media marketing.

I hired a marketer &amp; put tons of time &amp; money into building up her brand, but then she was headhunted by my competitor.

I had no choice but to try to do it myself, starting from 0.
Apparently, it worked out well. If you're a founder: tweet daily.

6. Influencer marketing.

I tried paying influencers. Overall, it's not bad. But 90% of influencers are fake, and their followers are fake.
As long as the influencer is real, the ROI was pretty good.

It costs anywhere between $100 to $1000 per tweet.

7. My own podcast.

I spent around $40k on it. Ended up closing down cuz it drained my energy.

If you love video calls, running a pod isn't a bad idea, but be original with the topic.

8. Conferences and speaking.

I joined many programs as a mentor and promoted the unicorn platform.

It brought some users, one by one. Since it wasn't scalable, I stopped completely. I do join big confs sometimes if they accept online speaking.

9. Sponsoring.

I sponsored hackatons, teachers and web directories.

All 3 worked out pretty well. Easy to scale. I plan to do a lot more it moving forward. I think it works way better than paid ads on google/socials.

10. Newsletter ads &amp; Banner ads

I tried Product Hunt, Indie Hackers, and many others.
All failed. I paid a lot but got no results.

I also tried a banner ad on Product Hunt; lost the money.

11. Internal cross promo.

At least 10% of all my users came from my other products. So, having multiple side projects isn't a bad idea. Even free projects(e.g. directories).

Now, the more projects I have, the more cross traffic I get. Crazy hack.

12. Guest posting.

I wrote many blog articles on popular platforms(hackernoon, devto &amp; the rest).

It brought traffic when the article went viral. So it only works if it's viral. Do it if you got the viral content skill.

13. Reddit.

It brought huge traffic. I didn't place any links in the articles. People just went on my profile and found them.

Reddit bangers bring more traffic than anything else. Even more than twitter bangers. However, reddit users had the higher churn.

14. Linkedin.

I ignored it for a while but started using it a year ago. It's such a boring place where everyone behaves like AI bot, but it drives really good traffic and has the best conversion among all channels.

Be there if you're not there (in b2b).

15. Youtube.

I put decent effort into it and got nothing out of it.

Video production is really hard. Huge respect to Nico and Marc for making viral vids. I feel like video isn't my thing. I enjoy writing, but hate recording.

16. Insta, Tiktok, FB.

These 3 were a waste of time. I guess their audience doesnt overlap with b2b nocode builder. I had random influencers driving traffic to me that had almost zero conversion to paying clients.

17. Cold emails.

Hired a pro, spent money and time, no results at all.

I know someone gonna come and say "skill issue". Then when I ask "show me the proof" they will say "I can't, i had nda with my client".

I think it's similar to ads. Need to hide the product behind freebies

18. Directories.
One of the best channels I have.
They bring traffic on autopilot. It's easy to drive traffic to your directory than driving it to your main product(in most cases)

P.S. my guide on ideating, building &amp; growing web directories
http://johnrush.me/directory-guide/

19. Listings on other directories.

Another passive channel that keeps bringing traffic on autopilot.

I keep listing on new directories every day
I even built a tool that does it for me: @listingbott 

20. Affiliate partners.

Works pretty well for the effort I put into implementing it. Takes less than a day to implement.

I started with 15% and had no interest.
Changed to 33% and it picked up. Lesson learned.
I use @ToltHQ for this

21. Free tools

Perhaps the best marketing method for devs. You have fun creating free tools, share them on reddit and social media, often it's easier to get traffic since the tools are free and as a side effect you get traffic to your main tool. e.g.  uigenerator . org

22. Course

I launched a directory guide where I use unicorn platform to teach students how to build web directories. Most directory guide buyers probably ended up using unicorn platform, so it's a win win for all 3 parties: me, unicorn, them.

22. Campaigns.

I tried giveaways (my own and in partnership with others). Didn't work at all. LTDs on app sumo brough the craziest rude &amp; unhappy users.
Black Friday coupon sales worked really well. I'll maybe do bundle campaigns.

23. That's it.

Give it a try to build a saas landing page, waitlist, web directory, jobboard, launchpad, personal page...
-&gt; http://unicornplatform.com

My other 20+ projects -&gt; http://johnrush.me 

I've tried all (46 😵‍💫) AI Coding Agents &amp; IDEs

[Factory, Cursor, Heyboss, Windsurf, Emergent, Wrapifai, Copilot, Lovable, Bolt, v0, Replit, MarsX, Canva, Devin, Github Spark, IDX, Stitch &amp; more]

The most complete list ever made (with demos &amp; notes):

1. @FactoryAI

An advanced AI coding tool: generates complex apps, docs, works well with large existing projects, has access to web search, MCPs, can run code on my local machine + UX is 🤌 . best for coders.

I'm building "Inbox agent" using this tool, gonna report back soon 

2. @heybossAI

I'd say the most creative AI Coding tool on the market (.
Can build production grade apps, with backend and database.

I'm building my inbox agent here too, so far, I really love the design output.
Works great for non-coders. 

3. @EmergentLabsHQ

Agentic Vibe coding tool. Handle entire apps with frontend &amp; backend.

Works pretty fast and feels like a CTO or a tech cofounder.
The multi agent thing(coding agent, testing agent...) are cool too. I think it might turn into smth big. 

4. http://Wrapifai.com
- best for form based apps(calculators, ai generators, etc)
- I use it to build mini tools for SEO or lead magnets
- 100% nocode. Super easy to use

I built this little app today https://listingbott.com/domain-authority-checker/ with 1 prompt and 1min.



5. @create_xyz
- it can clone a product when you drop the link to it
- has connections to things like the movie db, hackernews and more
- auth with one prompt

Good if you wanna create functioning products with just a few prompts.



6. http://a0.dev
- perhaps the best for generating mobile apps from your phone
- also it's mobile-first iteself, basically "generate mobile app from your mobile"
- produces React Native apps (not just web wrappers)
- uses Claude 3.7 Sonnet



7. http://Cursor.com
- the best
- works best for coders and not such a good fit for nocoders
- can assist, autocomplete, refactor and even build entire modules/projects
Here its been asked to migrate from Tailwind v3 to v4

https://x.com/ericzakariasson/status/1894102743775924683

8. @boltdotnew
- started as a side project of stackblitz and went huge raising $105M
- works for everyone(coders, nocoders, marketers...)
- has out of the box integration with supabase for data, auth..

I built several lead magnets using bolt

https://x.com/johnrushx/status/1886610720881827976

9. @lovable_dev
- fastest-growing EU based startup today ($10M ARR)
- native supabase integration
- the best AI+NoCode mix on the market (the wysiwyg part)
- takes in screenshots as an input and can produce full web apps

I use it instead of Figma 😃



10. @windsurf_ai (works well for advanced apps. my top 3)
- acts as a true agent
- can use the web search
- has a memory.
- best for lazy coders



11. Stitch from Google

- best for prototyping
- can be used by founders, designers, nocoders
- much faster than all the others



12. Grok Studio from X AI

My favorite way of playing with code. I think people could use it to learn coding (I strongly suggest all vibe coders to learn coding)



13. Canva Code

Perfect for lead magnets for founders, nocoders and marketers.



14. @augmentcode

- works in vs code and jetbrains
- built for coders
- can execute code, run terminal, find issues and analyze the code

Find performance optimization ideas in prod:



15. @buildwithmocha

- for non coders
- builds full stack apps from prompts
- 100% complete(auth, db, hosting, emails...)
- perfect for non tech people, e.g. for your grandma



16. @rork_app

text to app AI agent
- builds mobile apps
- publishing directly on TestFlight
- perfect for building mobile apps for noncoders



17. Clark

- ai agent to build internal enterprise apps
- can build an app from jira tickets
- a mix of prompting, figma like editing and coding



18. GitHub Copilot ( the OG of this game, started back in 2020 )
- can generate code
- handles large codebases
- can merge PRs, fix bugs, search code
- supports agent mode now and also it's open sourced



19. @Replit AI
- most advanced AI Agent for coding imho
- has two modes: Agent or Assistant
- true full stack app generator. Has its own server, db, hosting...

Here is the real app I built using it https://seobotai.com/broken-link-checker-free/



20. v0 from Vercel
- best for making well-designed web pages or UIs
- doesn't work well for fullstack apps
- can use figma as a starting point
- lets you edit elements one by one



21. MarsX (my own product)
- a mix of AI, NoCode and High Code
- I built
@seobotai, @listingbott and @indexrusher using marsx
- it takes the whole coding world to the next level since it isn't a website builder, but "SaaS builder"



22. Devin
- not expensive anymore
- targets the corporate world
- acts as a junior dev in a dev team
- sends pull requests, works alongside you or your team. Doesnt work as well for me yet, idk why, feels like it works well for good repos. Mine is a mess



23. Webdraw
- best for people with zero coding experience
- totally genius UX
- free
- turns sketches into web apps



24. Tempo Labs
- Generates full-stack apps using a text or image prompt
- It starts by making an architecture and diagrams
- I think they have the best AI Coding UX, wow



25. Trae
- goes all the way from 0 to 1 via prompting
- free
- from Bytedance
- can do fullstack web apps
- for coders



26. Cline
- VC code plugin
- works for large codebases
- supports any LLM
- runtime awareness



27. Databutton
- from my friends from Norway
- backed by VCs who backed one of my startups
- has very unique approach, different from most of the players
- works great for true nocoders



28. Continue dot Dev.
- an open source alternative to Cursor
- great for those who wanna build their own AI IDE (like maker from Pear AI who forked it)



29. Base44
- for noncoders
- all in one
- creates dashboard-like apps pretty well



30. Qodo
- for coders
- can write tests, refactor and generate code
- supports all llms(including deepseek)



Let's get the first 100 users for a startup,

21 methods I've personally tried multiple times for my SaaS, Directories and AI Agents: 

1. Cold emails:

- go for quality, not quantity
send to 20 people; if no reply, change email and resend. repeat until 2 replies.
- share the outcome E.g. for @listingbott I'd send this "100 backlinks from relevant directories in one click"

2. Social media DMs (Li, X, IG, FB, RD, etc)
- send 15 sec loom with an audit of their biz/site/profile...where the preview makes it obvious it's personalized.
- impress them with your quick effort
- e.g. for @seobotai it'd be: "SEO audit of their website"

3. Free pilot.
- Offer people free early adopter deal
- They get free yearly plan for trying &amp; give you feedback
- Often people find it cool to be approached this way, but make sure to start by explaining why you picked them to be your early adopter

4. Podcasts.
- reach out to relevant podcast hosts and offer yourself as a speaker. If you go for smaller pods, they are short on guests, so there is high chance to get in.
- while being on the pod, demo your tool as a part of the talk, viewers actually love demos

5. Webinars.
- Clickbat title (e.g. for @unicornplatform I'd go for "Master Landing Pages: Boost Conversions to 31% in Just 30 Minutes!"
- Create it as an event on Linkedin, invite your network and find one relevant influencer who would invite their network too, if u have none

6. ROI case study
- if u had at least 1 customer, create case study, where you convince the readers
- if u had no customers, be ur own customer. e.g., I was the first one to build a successful directory ( @allgpts_ ) using @unicornplatform . And it solved the distribution for me

7. Communities on Slack &amp; Discord
- find relevant communities
- join them and introduce yourself and the product in the Intro channel
- do it super short, like a tweet, so that people actually read
- when u attach the URL, remove the preview banner

8. Sponsor micro-newsletters
- find relevant newsletters below 10k subscribers
- it'll cost you a few hundreds dollars only
- the ROI from small newsletters is far better than from large ones

9. Launch on @ProductHunt , @devhunt_ and other launchpads
- make sure you market your launch
- few weeks before launch, upvote other launches and DM them saying "cool product, I upvoted.."
- on your own launch day, DM them again just telling them you've launched too now 

10. List on web directories, forums and marketplaces
- find your competitors, check their backlinks using ahrefs/semrush/ubersuggest
- see what web directories they are listed on
- list on the same and find more places to list by asking @grok
- (or @listingbott can do it for u)

11. Launch free tools
- free chrome extenssion
- free AI generator
- free web directory
- free calculator
- use @wrapifai to build such tools using prompts if you dont wanna code them

12. Cross promo
- find someone small(10-100 users)
- do a cross promo(newsletters, place links to each other, or in social media)
- since you and they both are struggling with growth, it'll be a win-win or at least won't make it worse

13. Lifetime deals
- you'll have to give them huge discount
- the platforms take a huge cut
- the users who buy LTDs aren't super nice
- but you still move forward by doing this, so it's not bad 

14. Reddit/Quora
- find relevant topics
- reply with your solution(dont use the link)
- people will ask for a link
- then place the link, or better just name the tool, so that they google it and find it there (high chance to be banned from reddit for links)

15. Find bad comments about the competitor
- enter the comments to share your solution to those problems
- dont do it to fellow bootstrappers, only do it to corporations and well funded startups (we must not hurt each other, we fight against the big guys)

16. Guest posts &amp; Blogging
- hackernoon
- dev to
- medium
- hashnode
- and many other blogging platforms can be used to share your story. Try to go for smaller blogs, that tend to have fewer authors

17. Sponsor hackatons or small events
- find those with relevant audience
- pay around $500 to sponsor them
- ideally they should use your tool during the hackaton
- find them on social media, the small players usually respond

18. Paid ads
- TinyAdz . com (my own ad network, for b2b). It works pretty well, it's in beta, give it a try
- I've tried ads on FB/Google/X and it never worked. Most likely I'm not good at making those banners, so make sure to hire someone who is great at banners if u go for it

19. Introduce your product in social media every day until it goes viral.

See other viral product launch posts, copy their templates. Do it 100 days in a row and one day you’ll go viral (if you copy the viral templates).

Here is the prompt for grok: 

20. Run an AI SEO agent that generates articles for you every day on autopilot ( e.g. @seobotai ) or build those articles yourself using grok deep research and post them manually one by one (50 articles is a good start). Also make sure to grow your domain rating to at least 15.

21. Buy a tiny free app that already had some users and channel those users into your product.
- gonna cost you around $1k-$10k
- works best if the audience totally overlaps