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In focus
- The lowdown on what drives the AI tech stack war
- Tin Men Capital’s sound investments
- OpenAI enters the AI-powered browser arena
Hello reader,
Cursor or Claude Code?
There’s so much hype around AI coding tools, but which ones are startups actually using to build their products?
My colleague Duc Tran decided to ask startup leaders to find out which tools they’re embedding into their engineering workflows. Today’s featured story focuses on the results of that survey.
While ChatGPT leads for general-purpose tasks like writing and research, Cursor stood out as the most popular option for developers. Claude Code, however, is not that far behind.
For instance, Khanh Phan of Vietnam-based fintech platform Simplize, prefers Cursor’s services.
For the founder and CEO, the choice was simple: Cursor allows Simplize’s tech team to switch between different models such as GPT, Claude Sonnet, and Gemini Pro.
Ultimately, the choice often comes down to cost-effectiveness and flexibility rather than the raw performance of these coding tools.
Our respondents also shared detailed perspectives about their pick, which you can find in the article. Are you an AI builder? You can participate in this survey.
Meanwhile, Tin Men Capital seems to be winning a different kind of battle, as our second premium story shows. Amid a six-year funding slump in Southeast Asia, the Singapore-based VC is quietly delivering strong returns, proof that disciplined bets can still pay off, even in a cautious market.
Miguel Cordon, journalist
Top Stories
1️⃣ Cursor beats Claude Code in survey of 51 startups
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