Edition v2026.Q3 · refreshed quarterly

Everything your startup is made of.

There are 47,000 AI tools. You need about 20 elements. This is the living periodic table of the AI-led startup — every tool element a one-person-to-ten-person company runs on, curated, versioned, and refreshed every quarter.

Build your stack → Explore the table ↓ Read the manifesto

The Table

Elements — 58

58 elements seat exactly onto the classical table, hydrogen through cerium — read by number, left to right, top to bottom. The ✻ row sits apart: the human block. ● = essential · dashed = undiscovered · position is permanent; filtering dims, never reflows.

Element Index

01 — 58

01 · Intelligence

  1. 1Fm — Frontier Model ● · The reasoning core of everything. · holds it: Claude
  2. 2Ow — Open Weights · Your model, your terms. · holds it: DeepSeek (V4 Pro / Flash)
  3. 3Sm — Small / Local Model · Intelligence that fits in your pocket. · holds it: Ollama
  4. 4Rt — Model Router · One key. Every model. · holds it: OpenRouter

02 · Build

  1. 5Ca — Coding Agent ● · Your first ten engineers. · holds it: Claude Code
  2. 6Vb — Vibe Builder ● · App from a paragraph. · holds it: Lovable
  3. 7Cq — Code Review · A second pair of tireless eyes. · holds it: CodeRabbit
  4. 8Dp — Deploy ● · From laptop to the world. · holds it: Vercel

03 · Agents & Automation

  1. 9Ag — Agent Framework · Give your model hands. · holds it: LangGraph
  2. 10Wf — Workflow Automation ● · The duct tape of the AI company. · holds it: n8n
  3. 11Bu — Browser Agent · Hands for the open web. · holds it: Claude in Chrome
  4. 12Mc — MCP Connectors ● · The USB-C of AI tools. · holds it: MCP Registry
  5. 13Or — Orchestration · Who does what, when. · holds it: Temporal

04 · Knowledge & Memory

  1. 14Vd — Vector Store · Memory your agents can search. · holds it: pgvector
  2. 15Kw — Knowledge Wiki ● · The company's shared brain. · holds it: Notion
  3. 16Mm — Memory Layer · Agents that remember Tuesday. · holds it: Mem0
  4. 17Mt — Meeting Capture ● · Every call, remembered. · holds it: Granola
  5. 18Re — Research Engine ● · The web, pre-digested. · holds it: Perplexity

05 · Creative & Design

  1. 19Im — Image ● · A studio in a text box. · holds it: gpt-image-2
  2. 20Vi — Video · Motion pictures from prose. · holds it: Veo (3.1 / Flow)
  3. 21Av — Avatar Presenter · A face for the camera-shy. · holds it: HeyGen
  4. 22Vo — Voice · Sound like anyone. Ethically, you. · holds it: ElevenLabs
  5. 23De — Design ● · Where the product gets its face. · holds it: Figma
  6. 24Dk — Decks · The pitch, assembled. · holds it: Gamma

06 · Distribution & Growth

  1. 25Ge — Answer Engines (GEO) ● · Be the answer, not the ad. · holds it: Structured content
  2. 26Ce — Content Engine ● · Publish like a media company. · holds it: Claude
  3. 27So — Social · Show up every day. · holds it: Typefully
  4. 28Pd — Paid Ads · Buy attention, carefully. · holds it: Meta Advantage+
  5. 29Em — Email & Lifecycle ● · The channel you own. · holds it: beehiiv
  6. 30La — Launch Channels · Moments that mark time. · holds it: Hacker News (Show HN)

07 · Sales & Revenue

  1. 31En — Enrichment ● · Know who you're talking to. · holds it: Clay
  2. 32Sd — AI SDR · Outreach while you sleep. · holds it: Artisan (Ava)
  3. 33Cr — CRM ● · One truth about every deal. · holds it: Attio
  4. 34Pa — Payments ● · The revenue element. · holds it: Stripe

08 · Support & Success

  1. 35Sa — Support Agent ● · Answers at 3 a.m. · holds it: Fin
  2. 36Dc — Docs & Help ● · Let the product explain itself. · holds it: Mintlify
  3. 37Vs — Voice Support · Phone support without the queue. · holds it: Vapi

09 · Back-office

  1. 38In — Incorporation ● · Become a company in a day. · holds it: Stripe Atlas
  2. 39Bk — Banking ● · Where the money lives. · holds it: Mercury
  3. 40Ac — Accounting ● · Books that close themselves. · holds it: Digits
  4. 41Hr — Hiring & EOR · Employ anyone, anywhere. · holds it: Deel
  5. 42Lg — Legal · Contracts without the counsel bill. · holds it: Common Paper
  6. 43Eq — Equity · Who owns what, forever. · holds it: Carta

10 · Data & Analytics

  1. 44An — Analytics ● · Know what's actually happening. · holds it: PostHog
  2. 45Wh — Warehouse & Notebooks · Where questions meet data. · holds it: Hex
  3. 46Bi — BI Copilot · Ask your data in English. · holds it: Omni

11 · Trust & Compliance

  1. 47Ev — Evals & Observability ● · Prove the machine works. · holds it: Langfuse
  2. 48Cm — Compliance ● · SOC 2 without the year of pain. · holds it: Vanta
  3. 49Ai — AI-Act Readiness · Europe has rules now. · holds it: EU AI Act Checker
  4. 50Sp — Spend Management · Stop the subscription bleed. · holds it: Ramp
  5. 51Gd — Guardrails · The seatbelt for agents. · holds it: Promptfoo

12 · Human Elements

  1. 52Fx — Fractional Executives · Senior judgment, rented. · holds it: Warm referral network
  2. 53Mn — Mentors & Advisors · Scar tissue on demand. · holds it: Accelerator & alumni network
  3. 54Co — Community ● · The people who get it. · holds it: Indie Hackers
  4. 55Sk — Verified Skill · Proof you can do the thing. · holds it: Public portfolio + receipts
  5. 56Cp — Capital · Fuel, when you want it. · holds it: Customers
  6. 57Ts — Taste ● · The element machines can't hold. · holds it: Study a named canon
  7. 58Fh — Founder Health ● · The load-bearing element. · holds it: Sleep · exercise · boundaries

5 questions · your stack

The table shows everything; you need a fraction of it. The stack builder turns your stage, budget, and focus into a personal element stack — no email required. Or start from a field guide: one question, one verdict, one table.

12 groups · 58 elements · 28 essential

Elements are permanent. The tools that hold them change. "Support Agent" will outlive whichever vendor holds it this quarter — that's the point. Tools change weekly. Elements don't.

Most of a company has already been automated. The knowing-what-to-run part hasn't. elems exists to change that.

Read the manifesto →