You are a solopreneur. Each month, something goes wrong. You pick how to handle it, and which tool, if any, you reach for. The right stack saves you. The wrong stack costs you cash, time, and MRR. Pick a business to start.
Six months. Six events. Each event has three choices. Pick wisely.
Cash in the bank, monthly recurring revenue, and the tools in your stack.
Every tool referenced is a real recommendation. The lessons are too.
About the game
Stack Builder is a free decision game built for solo founders, freelancers, and creators. The core question is whether you can run a one-person business for six months without burning out. Each turn drops a real-world incident in front of you (a refund spike, a viral post, a paid traffic shutdown) and asks which tool you reach for. The right pick saves cash and earns MRR. The wrong pick costs you both. Six rounds, one stack, your score.
If you run a service business, a digital product, a SaaS, a newsletter, or a creator brand on your own, this is built for you. The events are pulled from real incidents that real solopreneurs hit, scrubbed of names and sharpened into single-decision moments.
You don't need to know any of the tools by name. The game teaches the categories. The links below this section take you to the full review of each tool we cover, so you can decide which one belongs in your actual stack.
Every category in Stack Builder maps to a category we review. Clicking through gets you the full breakdown: real pricing, who it fits, who it doesn't.
The hub where the work actually lives. Notion runs the whole business for a lot of solos; Linear is overkill for one person until you're shipping software.
How the money lands. Stripe is the default, but for digital products Lemon Squeezy or Gumroad handle tax compliance you'd otherwise need an accountant for.
Broadcasts go through Kit or beehiiv; receipts and password resets go through Resend. Mixing them up is one of the most expensive solo mistakes.
Privacy-friendly traffic numbers (Plausible, Fathom) versus product-event analytics (PostHog). Most solos pay for both. Most should pick one.
Where bookings and discovery forms live. Cal.com self-hosts free; Calendly is plug-and-play paid; Tally handles the form side better than either.
Reviews
Honest reviews of the 45+ tools we've used inside one-person businesses.
Personalised
Answer six questions; get a stack picked for your business, not a list of everything.
Field notes
Real stacks from real solopreneurs. The tools, the cuts, the rhythm behind them.