← Back to Get Started guide  ·  YES Bremen 2026  ·  Dr. Karlo Lukic

Reference Library

Tools, channels, and resources for building your startup's MVP with AI

Information as of February 2026. Prices and features may change.

Tool Comparison

For Non-Technical Founders (No Setup Required)

Tool Best For Free Tier
Cowork Claude's desktop app with a task mode that builds things for you (runs in virtual containers by default) Included with Pro ($20/mo)
Lovable Describe an app in English, get a working web app Free 5 daily credits
Bolt.new Full-stack in browser, instant preview Free ~150K-300K tokens/day
Firebase Studio Google Cloud integration, one-click deploy Free 2 workspaces
Replit Browser IDE with AI agent, instant deploy Free starter plan
v0 (Vercel) AI-generated UI components and pages Free limited generations

* Firebase Studio and Codex (desktop app) lean more technical. For the easiest no-code experience, Cowork, Lovable, or Bolt.new are closest.

Where to start? Zero coding experience → Cowork, Lovable, or Bolt.new. Want to learn → Gemini CLI (free) or Claude Code (best). See the step-by-step guide for installation instructions.

For Technical Founders

Tool Type Best For Free Tier
Claude Code Terminal Full-stack dev, most agentic. Used in today's demo. $20/mo (Pro). Free tier very limited.
Gemini CLI Terminal Best free option. 1M token context. Free 1,000 req/day
Codex CLI Terminal OpenAI ecosystem Free (promotion) · Plus $20/mo
Cursor IDE Visual coding, IDE comfort Free Hobby plan, limited credits
Windsurf IDE Free AI IDE with deploy Free 25 credits/mo
GitHub Copilot IDE plugin Most widely adopted Free 50 chat + 2K completions/mo

EU/Local Model Options: Ollama

Why Run AI Locally?

Setup

Quickest way: Download Ollama, then run:

ollama launch claude

This gives you a Claude Code-like terminal experience with free models. See Ollama + Claude Code docs.

Or run models locally:

ollama pull mistral && ollama run mistral # Optional: try larger models (16GB+ RAM needed)
ollama pull mistral-small     # ~8GB, stronger reasoning
ollama pull codestral         # Mistral's dedicated coding model

Limitations

Skills and MCP Servers

Skills are reusable prompt templates that extend what AI tools can do. Saved recipes for common tasks. MCP Servers (Model Context Protocol) are integrations that connect AI to external tools and services, giving it real-time context.

Recommended Skills

Skill What It Does
SuperPowers (Obra) Agentic development framework: brainstorm → plan → implement. 15 skills including TDD, debugging, code review, parallel agents.
Elements of Style (Obra) Writing guidance based on Strunk's Elements of Style. Clearer documentation, commit messages, and prose.
Claude in PowerPoint (Anthropic) Create and edit presentation slides directly from conversation.
Claude in Chrome (Anthropic, beta) Browser automation: test web apps, debug UI, verify designs, record GIFs.

Recommended MCP Servers

MCP Server What It Does Why Founders Care
Context7 (Upstash) Pulls up-to-date library docs into your prompt Prevents outdated/hallucinated code examples
Playwright (Microsoft) Browser automation via accessibility snapshots Test your web app automatically
Chrome DevTools Chrome debugging, network, console access Debug CSS/JS issues while building
Mobile MCP iOS + Android automation on emulators/real devices Build and test mobile apps with AI
Notion MCP Search/create/update Notion pages AI reads your product specs for context

Setup: MCP servers are configured in Claude Code settings. See the official MCP docs.

Recommended YouTube Channels

For Non-Technical Founders

CHANNEL FOCUS
Matt Wolfe AI tools news, demos, Future Tools database
Skill Leap AI Quick tool tutorials, get-to-the-point style
AI Foundations AI for entrepreneurs, vibe coding, building products
The AI Advantage ChatGPT/Midjourney workflows, AI productivity

For Technical Founders

CHANNEL FOCUS
Anthropic Official Claude Code content
Matt Maher AI development content
Sean Kochel Claude Code + Agent SDK
Kenny Liao Claude Code + agentic tools

Voice Input

Curated Collections

Community-maintained directories of skills, MCP servers, and tools: