Solo founders: get help without hiring — as AI-skilled students gain practical experience
Most early-stage founders don’t need employees.
They need support — without the cost, risk, or complexity of hiring.
We’re piloting a program that connects solo founders with AI-skilled student contributors through StartNation.
Typical setup:
• 5–10 hrs/week
• remote
• global
• no hiring required
Contributors support startups while gaining real startup experience using AI tools on real projects, through a compliant, unpaid internship model.
They can help with:
• product testing, feedback & QA
• user research & competitor analysis
• AI-assisted content & growth experiments
• lead generation & outreach
• data collection & workflow testing
• documentation & knowledge base setup
This is not traditional hiring — contributors are not employees or contractors of your company.
Contributors take part in a compliant internship designed to be:
• lightweight for founders
• focused on real-world experience
For founders, this means:
• forward progress without hiring
• fresh perspective
• support without operational overhead
If you’re building solo and could use extra help without taking on hires,
feel free to DM me or reach out:
andrewgstanton@gmail.com
I'm about to graduate with my Master's in Information Systems in one month and could use some PT experience. I wasn't able to get a traditional internship, so let me know if you're taking on more interns and what the expectations are.
Hi Jadeygrey,
Thank you for your interest!
Please reach out to me directly at andrewgstanton@gmail.com so we can up a meeting and share more details about the program.
Sincerely,
Andrew G. Stanton
Hey Andrew, this is exactly the kind of support model that makes sense for where I am right now. I'm building EquiCore Technologies, a clinical infrastructure SaaS platform for equine-assisted services practitioners, and I'm doing it as a solo founder while simultaneously running a 501(c)(3) nonprofit. There's no shortage of meaningful work to be done across research, content, outreach, and documentation — I just don't have the bandwidth to take on traditional hires at this stage.
The StartNation model sounds like a genuinely smart approach for both sides. I'd love to learn more about how the contributor matching works and what a typical engagement looks like in practice.
Feel free to reach out directly. Looking forward to the conversation.
Hi EquineCEO,
Thank you for your interest!
Please reach out to me directly at andrewgstanton@gmail.com so we can up a meeting and share more details about the program.
Sincerely,
Andrew G. Stanton
What an absolutely fantastic idea. I love it. I can definitely use the help. Ive built one fairly complex saas which involves agentic ai. The other one isn't as complex - its more a focused web app but the sales funnel is set up for agentic ai as well.
Hi Validator,
Thank you for your interest!
Please reach out to me directly at andrewgstanton@gmail.com so we can up a meeting and share more details about the program.
Sincerely,
Andrew G. Stanton
love this. I'm in the thick of it right now, which is why I'm here! I'm here to learn anything and everything I can. Building as a solo dev (without dev exp) is wild work right now. I would be grateful to have an opportunity to contribute what I do know, and also learn as much as I can!
Hi humorharp,
Thank you for your interest!
Please reach out to me directly at andrewgstanton@gmail.com so we can up a meeting and share more details about the program.
Sincerely,
Andrew G. Stanton
shipping something real puts you ahead of 90% of people who just talk about ideas. the next challenge is getting it in front of the right people. what distribution are you trying first?
Hi vemtrclabs,
Thank you for your interest!
Please reach out to me directly at andrewgstanton@gmail.com so we can up a meeting and share more details about the program.
Sincerely,
Andrew G. Stanton
the zero to one problem is universal. i have 45 IH posts and /usr/bin/bash revenue. what finally cracked it for you was persistence or a specific channel?