The $500 AI System I'd Build for Any Small Business
From Stage Zero Studio with Wil Waldon by Stage Zero Studio
May 20, 2026 · 9 min
About this episode
Wil Waldon discusses how to create a simple AI system for small businesses using three specific tools.
Today I want to walk through how to put together a simple AI system for a small business using three tools. Claude, Make, and a form builder like Typeform or Tally. By the end of this you'll know how to set things up so new customer inquiries get answered automatically, leads who go quiet get followed up with, and a two-minute voice memo turns into a week of social media posts. Before any of that makes sense I should probably explain what these tools actually are. Claude is an AI assistant. Same general category as ChatGPT, made by a different company called Anthropic. You can use it free at claude dot ai. People who use AI for real work tend to prefer it because it writes in a more natural voice and handles bigger documents better. Make is an automation platform. The way to think about it is that it connects apps to each other so they can pass information back and forth without you copying and pasting. You build little flows where one thing triggers another. If you've heard of Zapier, it's the same idea. Make is usually cheaper and gives you more room to do interesting stuff. Typeform and Tally are form builders. Drag and drop, no coding, you put a form together in maybe ten…
People in this episode
Host: Wil Waldon
Topics covered
- AI systems
- small business
- automation
- customer inquiries
- social media
- tools
Keywords
- AI system
- small business
- Claude
- Make
- Typeform
- automation
- social media posts
Mentioned in this episode
Organizations: Anthropic, Stage Zero Studio
Products: Claude, Make, Typeform, Tally
More episodes of Stage Zero Studio with Wil Waldon
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- The Podcaster's Claude Workflow That Turns One Episode Into Ten Pieces of Content · May 27, 2026 · 9 min
- Why Most AI Chatbots Make Your Business Look Worse · May 25, 2026 · 11 min
- ChatGPT vs Claude for Business Owners · May 24, 2026 · 14 min
- How a Roofing Company Can Book More Jobs with AI · May 23, 2026 · 9 min
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