As AI tools become increasingly integrated into development workflows, startup founders who build these technologies are also implementing them in their daily work. Three AI startup CEOs in San Francisco shared with Business Insider how they personally use AI tools for coding, diagnostics, and proposal writing, revealing their personal preferences and strategies for team implementation.
Daniel Yanisse, cofounder and CEO of Checkr, which uses AI for background checks, approaches AI from an engineer’s perspective. “It’s incredible because I vibe code, and I’m an engineer. So until you do it, you don’t really know its power,” Yanisse explained. His tool progression follows a logical path: Lovable for beginners who have never coded before, graduating to Replit as users gain technical confidence, with Cursor as his current favorite for engineers. He’s also evaluating ClaudeCode as an additional layer to their current stack, demonstrating how tool selection evolves with team maturity and project complexity.
The implementation strategy at these startups highlights an important pattern: while some engineers can directly leverage AI coding assistants, others benefit from designated support roles. Yanisse specifically mentioned having “AI solutions engineers” to help nontechnical staff when their code hits roadblocks or applications break. This hybrid approach acknowledges that while AI tools can democratize coding, effective implementation still requires human oversight and support structures, particularly in mixed-technical environments where team members have varying levels of coding experience.
