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I turned my side hustles into a 7-figure career. Here are the 14 tools that made it possible.

I turned my side hustles into a 7-figure career. Here are the 14 tools that made it possible.

Entrepreneur Andrew Yeung shares the tools he uses, including Granola, Wispr Flow, and a cloud "second computer" to scale his seven-figure career.

Andrew Yeung speaking at an event.
Entrepreneur Andrew Yeung scales his businesses with a collection of tools.
  • Andrew Yeung left Google and Meta to build multiple businesses and income streams.
  • He says 14 tools have helped him make his businesses scalable without a big team behind him.
  • From a "second computer" in the cloud to voice-writing emails, here's the exact stack he uses.

I'm an entrepreneur, creator, and investor based in New York. In a typical week, I do a lot.

I host over a hundred events a year for more than 20,000 people across New York, San Francisco, and Austin. I publish writing and video content that generates millions of impressions a month across LinkedIn, X, TikTok, and email, to an audience of more than 200,000 followers.

I've angel invested in over 20 startups. I advise companies on B2B marketing and growth strategy. I run two companies: Fibe, an events and media company, and The Shortlist NYC, a hiring events series for early-stage startups.

Most people hear that list and assume I have a big team behind me. I don't.

When I left Google and Meta to build my own thing, the income streams were mine to create, and so was the chaos. What made it manageable, and eventually scalable, wasn't hustle. It was tools. Specifically: AI, and the systems I built around it.

Here's what I use, and why.

Claude Code: my LLM operating system

I think about Claude Code the way someone else might think about a chief of staff.

Claude Code isn't just a coding assistant. It's my operating system. It knows the context of my businesses, it has access to my systems, and it can execute tasks without me setting everything up from scratch each time.

It connects to my Notion workspace through a Model Context Protocol integration, which means it can read, write, and organize my project management database automatically. It plugs into my Customer Relationship Management. It drafts content, stress-tests ideas, writes emails, builds automations, and handles the kind of thinking work that used to eat half my day.

Notion and Airtable: the database layer

Notion is where I think. Airtable is where I track.

I use Notion as the primary database for all my TikTok and LinkedIn content: scripts, drafts, calendars, and status tracking across everything that needs to ship.

Because it connects directly to Claude Code through the MCP, a lot of this is automated. Content gets categorized, scheduled, and organized without me manually updating rows.

Airtable handles contact data and forms. Any time someone registers for an event, applies to The Shortlist, or fills out a partnership inquiry, that data flows into Airtable. It's the operational layer: more structured, more relational, better for the kind of data I need to query and act on.

Zo Computer: my second computer

I have a computer I've never physically touched. It lives in the cloud, and it runs while I sleep.

Zo is a personal AI cloud computer that lets you build automations, host apps, run scripts, and connect to your tools. I use it to run background monitoring, host lightweight custom tools, and automate tasks that used to require either an assistant or significant manual overhead. It gives users their own AI-powered server that can run automations, integrate with personal data, and spin up custom software on the fly.

As Sean Thielen said, Zo is "The most evolved version of Notion."

Lovable: from idea to prototype in hours

For The Shortlist, I needed a piece of software that didn't exist. Something that could take a pool of job candidates and intelligently match them with the right CEOs and hiring companies based on role, stage, and fit. I built it in Lovable.

Lovable is a tool for prototyping and building mini-apps, and it has changed how I think about what's possible without a development team.

I'm not an engineer, but I can describe a problem, iterate on a solution, and ship something functional in hours. The matching software for The Shortlist would have taken months and a significant budget to commission. Instead, it took a weekend.

Granola: the memory layer

The biggest tax on running multiple businesses is cognitive overhead. Every conversation, every deal, every commitment you make across a hundred events and 20-plus portfolio companies: if it's not captured, it's gone.

Granola is an AI note-taking app that automatically transcribes, summarizes, and analyzes meetings, then enhances the live notes by weaving in context from the transcript. I use it across every call I take. Sponsor conversations, investor check-ins, advisory sessions, and partnership negotiations; All of it is summarized, searchable, and ready for follow-up.

The follow-up email feature is what I use most. After a meeting ends, Granola has enough context to draft an accurate, personalized follow-up in seconds.

Wispr Flow: I speak more than I type

I have a microphone on my desk. I speak to my computer more than I type. In fact, I'm speaking to my computer right now as I write this.

Wispr Flow is the voice-to-text tool that works across every application, four times as fast as typing, with AI commands and auto-edits built in. I use it to draft emails, LinkedIn posts, newsletter sections, and partnership briefs.

My first drafts are almost entirely spoken now. The friction of writing dropped dramatically once I stopped treating my keyboard as the only input.

Kondo: Superhuman for LinkedIn

Most of my business happens in two places: LinkedIn and text messages.

LinkedIn is where brand partnerships come in, where potential sponsors for Fibe reach out, where founders apply to The Shortlist, and where my content builds the relationships that turn into revenue.

Kondo is often called "Superhuman for LinkedIn." It helps professionals who rely on LinkedIn for business development, recruiting, and networking manage high volumes of messages without missing important opportunities.

I can label conversations, snooze follow-ups, use keyboard shortcuts to process messages in bulk, and keep my inbox at zero. It's the single biggest workflow upgrade I made this year.

Raycast: the command layer

When multitasking across multiple businesses and revenue streams, the cost of context-switching adds up fast. Every time I reach for my mouse, hunt for an app, or retype something I've written before, that's friction. Friction compounds.

Raycast is a keyboard-first launcher that gives users fast access to applications, text snippets, clipboard history, scripts, window management, and more, all from a single shortcut.

I use it to jump between tools without touching my mouse, insert saved text blocks for messages I send repeatedly, launch automations, and run commands across the apps I use most. There's an AI layer built in now, too, which means I can trigger Claude from anywhere on my screen without switching context.

Substack and beehiiv: the newsletter layer

I run two newsletters for two different audiences, so I use two different platforms.

Substack is my personal blog and newsletter. It's where I write about entrepreneurship, events, sobriety, and the things I'm thinking about. The writing environment is clean, the subscriber relationship is direct, and the community Substack has built around serious writers makes it the right home for work I actually care about.

Beehiiv powers The Shortlist's newsletter, the one that goes to founders, operators, and startup hiring teams. Beehiiv is built differently, more growth-oriented, better analytics, and more infrastructure for a publication that's part of a business.

The two platforms serve two different purposes, and I wouldn't swap them.

Framer: building brands, not just websites

Most of my websites are built on Framer, but it's more than a website builder.

Framer is a design-first web platform that lets you build sites that actually look the way you want them to, without compromising on performance or having to manage a developer relationship for every update.

My event pages, my company sites, my personal brand presence: all Framer. It's also fast enough that I can update a landing page for an event the night before it happens, without waiting on anyone.

Endel and Othership: the operating state

None of the tools above matter if your operating state is off.

I use Endel for deep work. It generates adaptive soundscapes calibrated to focus, sleep, and recovery. When I'm writing, building, or working through a complex problem, Endel is running in the background. It keeps me in the zone in a way that playlists and lo-fi beats simply don't.

Othership is how I wind down. It's a guided breathwork and meditation app that I've invested in and use at the end of the day to decompress.

In a work life that doesn't have clear boundaries because you're always the founder, the content creator, and the investor simultaneously, having a deliberate off-ramp is not a luxury. It's maintenance.

Andrew Yeung is a former Meta and Google employee who now produces tech events through Fibe, runs The Shortlist NYC hiring series for early-stage startups, and invests at Next Wave NYC.

Read the original article on Business Insider