By Kerry Kingham the CEO of The Chooze Shop
As a start-up founder, every day feels like a balancing act. On one side, there’s the need to innovate, scale and deliver like a big business. On the other, there’s the harsh reality of being cash poor, with a small team stretched to their limits. It’s enough to make anybody sweat and it’s the reason I, like so many other business leaders, lean heavily on AI.
Unless you’ve been living under a rock you will no doubt have heard of ChatGPT. This impressive GenAI tool has been a game changer for me and my business—The Chooze Shop. Over the last twelve months, it has worn many hats, transforming into everything I needed it to be. It has been an extra pair of hands, a brainstorm buddy and a fractional team rolled into one. When I crunched the numbers, I can confidently say that ChatGPT has delivered upwards of $300,000 in value if I had to hire people to cover its workload. Don’t believe me? Let me break it down.
A Dream Team, On Demand
Hiring a team of part-time experts isn’t feasible for most startups. Yet, over the past year, I’ve used ChatGPT to fill those gaps without breaking the bank. I’ve leaned on the tool to stand in for writers, marketers, analysts and strategists and have been blown away by what this tool can do.
I have used it for drafting content creation, generating blogs, social media calendars and LinkedIn articles saving me weeks of back-and-forth with writers or agencies. I have used it for creative brainstorming and to create entire marketing campaigns and strategies. I even used it to craft a pitch deck where I ran market analyses, refined my value proposition and polished my slides in record time.
I’ve used it for operational documentation, such as drafting policies, workflow guides and checklists, as well as financial summaries, conducting budgets and forecasts. If I had to hire a team of fractional experts or freelancers for all of this, it would have cost around $150,000–$200,000 annually (and that’s just for part-time help).
No More Lost Time
Time is the one thing startups can’t afford to waste, and in my role as a founder, every minute matters. Tasks that previously dragged on for weeks, like drafting a detailed policy document or brainstorming a campaign, are now completed in a matter of hours with ChatGPT. It also saves us enduring back-and-forth emails and endless meetings.
It’s completely changed the way I operate, saving me about 10–15 hours a week and allowing me to focus on growth, partnerships, and strategic decision-making. Assigning a modest $50/hour value to leadership time, that’s an extra $30,000–$40,000 annually back in my pocket.
Experimentation Without Breaking the Bank
For startups, innovation is essential for survival and growth, but it often comes with hefty price tags. Consultants, design agencies or full-time strategists can quickly deplete limited budgets. I see ChatGPT is a great democratiser of innovation, allowing business leaders to enjoy experimentation as part of the everyday rhythm of work, rather than an inaccessible luxury. I can brainstorm freely without the cost of hiring a consultant and test new ideas and campaigns before committing any budget. This allows me to be more strategic, more often—without waiting for an annual offsite.
The Intangible Edge
One of the most surprising advantages of working with ChatGPT was the emotional and creative freedom it provided. As a founder, there’s often a pressure to have all the answers, all the ideas, and all the strategies—constantly. With AI, I have a teammate who never gets tired of brainstorming, refining, or improving ideas. Better yet, I can work without fear of judgment—because AI doesn’t care how “messy” your first draft is. In the early years as a startup, you constantly feel the need to punch above your weight, so this kind of support is priceless.
AI Isn’t Replacing Teams. It’s Empowering Them.
Now, I’m not saying AI replaces people. It doesn’t. But for cash-poor startups, tools like ChatGPT are empowering us to deliver at a level that feels big, agile and capable. When you are part of a smaller team trying to deliver everything, you run the risk of creative burnout, or of settling for an approach that is easy rather than innovative. Instead of spending hours on repetitive tasks or the mental gymnastics of starting from scratch, teams can build on the strong foundations created by AI, reducing the mental load for both creatives and founders.
That said, using AI effectively does require effort. You can’t just blindly copy and paste its responses into a document, deck or spreadsheet and call it a day. You need to take the time to revise its output and give ChatGPT detailed insights about things like preferential language and brand voice to build quality content. Upload industry sector reports and insights to provide solid building blocks. If you work in a regulated sector like I do, upload legislation. If you’re using AI without editing, tweaking and adding your own additional insights, it’s always going to sound like AI!
You should always use discretion about inputting proprietary information, or using real names for both your business and team members. Remember, LLMs like ChatGPT learn by processing and gathering vast amounts of data and information from many sources. Take the time to learn about how to use GenAI tools and be intentional with your prompts. If you use sh*t prompts, you’ll get sh*t results.
If you’re a founder, leader or small business owner, I’d encourage you to rethink what’s possible with tools like this. It’s not just about “getting stuff done”—it’s about freeing up time and capacity to transform how you do business. And the best part? There’s no judgment when you want to brainstorm ideas for your team’s internal gingerbread house competition.
