Last Wednesday night, I stared at over 200 client records in Excel — just wanted a small tool to send automatic reminders.

What it is + who's using it

I recently noticed something interesting. Companies like Ramp (US corporate card company) and Stripe (online payments giant) — both sizable — have recently built internal platforms letting non-coder colleagues build their own tools. You describe what you want in plain language, and AI generates a working webpage. The English-speaking world calls this vibe-coding.

Concrete example: Stripe's operations specialist Linda wanted to build a "customer refund approval" mini-page on Tuesday. She typed into the platform: "Build a form where managers click approve and it auto-approves and auto-emails the customer." 40 minutes later she was using it — never wrote a line of code. Over at Ramp, marketing specialist Mike used the same method to build his own "event signup stats" tool.

A version you can replicate today

For small teams, you don't need to wait for your company to build a platform. Off-the-shelf tools exist: Cursor, Bolt.new, Lovable. Same principle — you describe the need, AI generates it.

  • Cost: Most have free tiers; paid plans around 150-350 RMB/month
  • Time: First try 2-3 hours; after that, a simple tool takes 30 min-1 hour
  • Technical barrier: If you can use WeChat, you can do this

Honest talk — I got stuck for half an hour the first time I used Bolt.new. I kept thinking "AI should just get what I mean, right?" Turns out it doesn't. You need to speak human, but speak specifically.

First step: Go to bolt.new, log in with Google, type: "Build a page listing all my clients' names, phones, emails — can add new ones, can search."

Advice by stage

If you're just starting (0-1 clients): No rush to play with this now. But spend half an hour on bolt.new to feel what "I can build tools without asking anyone" is like.

If you have 1-2 stable clients: Start noticing the repetitive weekly tasks — organizing spreadsheets, sending reminders, doing stats. These might be your first AI-built tool.

If you're a 3-5 person team scaling up: Assign one "most willing to tinker" colleague to own this. I made a mistake before — thought this had to be me. Result: dragged on for three months. Delegating actually went faster.

Last thing: this isn't for everyone. If you can handle everything on your plate right now, skipping it is fine. But the next time you think "if only someone could build me a small tool" — remember, you can now build it yourself.