Episode 809 | What I Learned Diving into A.I. for 100 Days (with Craig Hewitt)

Startups For the Rest of Us

Rob Walling

Entrepreneurship, Management, Business, Marketing

4.9 • 819 Ratings

🗓️ 2 December 2025

⏱️ 40 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

What are the can't-miss AI tools for SaaS founders? In this episode, Rob Walling sits down with Craig Hewitt, founder of Castos, to dive deep into Craig’s “100 Days of AI” YouTube series. They discuss the lessons learned from exploring the latest AI tools for founders, why ChatGPT might not be the best option for SaaS entrepreneurs, and which AI platforms are actually moving the needle. Rob and Craig also chat about the realities of AI agents, the challenges of building a second product after hitting a growth plateau, and Craig’s approach to evaluating new opportunities as he looks to expand beyond podcast hosting. Episode Sponsor: AI is transforming how people discover brands and Ahrefs is helping SaaS companies stay ahead. They’ve just launched Brand Radar, a new tool that lets you track your visibility in AI platforms like ChatGPT, Perplexity, and Google’s AI Overviews. See how you stack up against competitors, monitor reputation, and build authority across search, social, and AI. No more cobbling together tools. Ahrefs brings it all into one powerful SaaS marketing platform, backed by 15+ years of real-world web data and marketing-savvy AI. Try it free at ahrefs.com/awt. Topics we cover: (03:28) – 100 Days of AI YouTube series, biggest surprises and key takeaways (08:20) – Claude Code, ChatGPT, and Manus: Which AI tools work best for founders (13:00) – Practical AI workflows in content production and automation (18:35) – AI agent cuts customer support in half (21:27) – Burnout and breakthroughs from publishing 100 videos in 100 days (25:43) – Craig’s new AI projects and what’s next (30:14) – Three new product ideas under evaluation (33:09) – The pros, cons, and emotions behind launching a second product Links from the Show: MicroConf US 2026- April 12-14, 2026 · Portland US TinySeed’s SaaS Institute Claude Code (by Anthropic) Manus Creator Hooks Cursor HelpScout DocsBot LinkBerry.ai – Craig’s new tool for LinkedIn content creation Castos Craig Hewitt | YouTube Craig Hewitt | LinkedIn Craig Hewitt (@TheCraigHewitt) | X If you have questions about starting or scaling a software business that you’d like for us to cover, please submit your question for an upcoming episode. We’d love to hear from you! Subscribe & Review: iTunes | Spotify

Transcript

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0:00.0	AI is completely changing how people discover brands and content online, and H.RFs has built a full-blown
0:06.4	SaaS marketing platform to help you stay ahead. With over 15 years of real-world web data, an AI that
0:12.9	actually understands marketing, HRFs helps you measure your brand presence, build authority,
0:17.9	and monitor reputation across search, social, and AI platforms like
0:22.7	chat GPT, Google AI overviews, perplexity, and more. You can also dig into what's driving
0:28.6	your competitor's visibility and spot market gaps before they do, helping you create content
0:33.9	that ranks and drive new traffic to your business. There's no need to juggle a
0:38.1	bunch of disconnected tools. Get Ahrefs all-in-one platform to make your brand unmissable in a fast-moving
0:44.2	world. Try it free at a-hrefs.com slash AWT. That's the letter A, h-R-E-F-S dot com slash A-W-T.
0:57.4	This is startup for the rest of us.
0:59.6	I'm your host, Rob Walling.
1:01.1	In this episode, I sit down with Craig Hewitt, the founder of Castos, many time guests on this podcast,
1:08.0	and we dig in to his 100 Days of AI series that he did on YouTube.
1:15.2	So we talked through the things he learned from that series as he dove into all the tools
1:20.4	that you hear people talking about. And frankly, I wanted to find out from him which tools
1:25.5	I should consider using. And by the time we get halfway
1:28.8	through the episode, he kind of blew my mind and basically says, yeah, no one in our space should
1:33.9	really be using chat GPT. There is a much better tool that can do all that and more. And I'm going to
1:41.0	make you listen to the episode to find out which tool he recommends.
1:45.3	Before we dive into the episode, MicroConfUS.
1:48.6	Our next flagship event is April 12th through the 14th, 2026.
1:53.1	It's in Portland, Oregon.
	...

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