Which Automate tier fits one person selling alone?

Count the hours between paying and your first send, because that gap is the cost that actually bites. A solo founder who sells before there is a team cannot lose a week to configuration. Automate answers this with one connection screen for the apps you already pay for, so the setup work happens once rather than per tool.

The second figure is how much of the work lands back in your own accounts. Because the AI acts inside accounts you already control, research, writing, sending and logging leave a trail you can inspect rather than a separate inbox to reconcile. That matters when there is nobody else to check whether a message went out.

The third figure is the number of people you reach in a week against the volume each tier allows. Twenty right people is a small target, and the entry lifetime tier is built for exactly that kind of narrow, deliberate outreach rather than bulk sending. Measure your real weekly count before assuming you need more.

Three lifetime levels are published: Starter, Growth and BYOK unlimited. Each one is a single payment rather than a subscription, which suits a founder who wants the tool cost settled before the first month of selling. The difference between them comes down to volume and to whose model key carries the work.

Starter and Growth differ by how much the platform will run for you. If your week is twenty considered messages plus the research behind them, the lower level is the honest place to begin. Growth exists for the point where that count climbs and you would otherwise be rationing requests.

BYOK unlimited changes the arrangement rather than simply adding capacity. You bring your own model key, so the platform stops metering model use and your provider bills you for it. For a founder already paying for a model key elsewhere, that can line the costs up more cleanly than buying volume inside the tier.

Beneath the tier comparison sits a simpler question: will this replace the assistant you have not hired yet, or will it become another job? A solo founder's real objection is setup time, not price. Guided setup and an activity log are the features that answer it, because you can see what ran and correct it without rebuilding from scratch.

Ask what you would hand over first. Research and drafting are low risk and easy to check. Sending and updating records touch other people and stored data, so those steps need your confirmation before they run. Knowing which of your tasks fall on each side tells you how much of the week you can genuinely delegate.

Then ask what your connected accounts already permit. The platform can only act where your own access allows, so an app or mailbox you cannot reach stays out of reach. Checking permissions before you pay is more useful than comparing request counts, because a limit you hit in week one is the one that decides whether the tier was right.

Moving up a level buys headroom, not new capability. The connection screen, the work inside your accounts and the activity log stay the same. What changes is how much the platform will run before you meet the ceiling, which only matters once your actual weekly outreach presses against it. Until then, the higher tier is a guess.

The BYOK unlimited level buys a different kind of certainty. Because your own model key carries the requests, there is no volume ceiling set by the platform, and your provider bills you directly for what you use. That arrangement rewards a founder who already holds a model key and prefers one bill for model use.

Before upgrading, run the lower tier for a few real weeks and watch the activity log. If you are consistently near the limit and the log shows work you would otherwise have done yourself, the next level earns its place. If you are not, stay put and put the difference into reaching more of the right people.