Four founders. One laptop. That's a stall, not a company.
Two parts, 50 minutes: the kanban board that splits the work, then a free Vercel account that puts your product at a real URL. At 10:05 both are real: board up, deploy, build.
ISB AI FoundersDAY 2
Why teams stall
One driver. Three watchers. That's the stall.
What it looks like
One person typing prompts into Kimi Code. Three people watching, occasionally saying "try this instead."
What it isn't
It isn't rude to grab the laptop. It isn't lazy to watch. Nobody did anything wrong, and the product still isn't moving.
The fix isn't politeness. It's ownership: every person walks in today with one thing that is theirs.
The fix, part 1
Three lanes. One owner each.
Build
CTO
→
Design
CPO
→
Users
CEO
Everyone still opens Kimi Code today. Lanes decide who has the final call in their zone, not who is allowed to touch the keyboard. Real startups run parallel, not in a single-file line.
The fix, part 2 · kanban, in ninety seconds
Invented on Toyota's factory floor. Runs almost every startup you know.
Kanban means "signboard" in Japanese. One board, every piece of work on it, moving left to right. Three ideas make it work:
1 · See it all
Every task lives on the board, not in someone's head. If it isn't on the board, it doesn't exist, and nobody is secretly stuck on it.
2 · Limit doing
One card per person in DOING. Finishing beats starting: three half-done features is zero features live.
3 · Pull, don't push
Finished your card? Move it to DONE and pull the next one from TO DO yourself. No manager, no waiting to be told.
A card is three things: a name, a task, a done-by time. "Wei · menu card layout · by 10:30"
The kanban board · a real morning, LunchRush
The kanban board: to do, doing, done.
One name and a done-by time per card. A card with two names has zero owners. One card per person in DOING.
To do
Mia · pickup code screen · by 10:30
Leo · 3 more parent interviews · by 11:00
Doing
Wei · menu card layout
Done
Anna · order button, one tap
Sticky notes, on the table wall. Not in a doc nobody opens.
Where do cards come from? Your build order: one sticky per feature. A feature too big for one work block gets split into two stickies. Cards move left to right, never backwards.
You first · I'm calling on someone
The 3-line sync: did, doing, stuck. Ten seconds each.
Stand up. One team runs it right now on yesterday's work, out loud, one line each: what I did, what I'm doing, where I'm stuck.
Tap to see what "stuck" is actually for →
"Stuck" isn't a confession, it's a request. Say it out loud and someone at the table can unblock you in five seconds instead of you sitting on it for twenty minutes.
Copy this prompt · run it now
Split the work so nobody waits.
"Here is our product and our team: [names and roles]. Today we have these work blocks: [times]. Split the next features, the design pass, and interview prep into tasks, one owner each, so nobody is ever waiting on someone else. Flag the riskiest task."
Run this in Claude or ChatGPT. This is planning, not building, save Kimi Code for the actual features.
Exercise · team
OFFLINE · screens closed
Board it, now.
1Stickies out. Every real task today: one name, one done-by time.
2Board it on the table wall: TODAY / DOING / DONE. One task, one name. Two names, split it.
3Stand up, run one practiced 3-line sync round: did, doing, stuck.
5:00
Board on the table + one sync round
Part 2 · ship it live
The board says who. Now the internet sees what.
Why it matters
A URL beats a screenshot, every time.
A screenshot
Lives on one laptop. Needs you standing next to it, explaining what it would do if you could click it.
A URL
Opens on a stranger's phone, a parent's laptop, a judge's tablet on Friday. Nobody needs you there.
Friday's gauntlet runs on real strangers, on their own phones. If it's not live at a link, it doesn't exist for them.
Follow along
FOLLOW ALONG · laptops open
Make your team's Vercel account.
1Go to vercel.com, click Sign Up.
2Use your TEAM email, not a personal one. Everyone needs to log back into this later.
3Choose the free Hobby plan. One account per team, not per person.
Deploy, the drag-and-drop way
Open vercel.com/new. Drag your whole folder in.
vercel.com/new
Drop your project folder here
needs index.html at the top level
→
lunchrush.vercel.app
your real, live URL
Copy this prompt · run it now
Make sure the folder can deploy.
"My project folder needs to be a simple static site I can deploy by dragging it into Vercel. Check my files: is there an index.html at the top level? If not, restructure it so there is, without changing what the app does."
Run this in Kimi Code, then go back and drag the folder.
The redeploy habit
Change something. Drag again. Same link, newest version.
Every build block from now on ends with a redeploy. Not sometimes. Every time.
Same link. Always the newest version.
Exercise · team
FOLLOW ALONG · laptops open
Deploy now.
1Drag your folder into vercel.com/new. Wait for the build.
2Copy the URL, write it on the class board.
3The phone test: open the URL on two different phones at your table, at the same time.
8:00
URL on the board, passes the phone test
Exit ticket · 10:05 build block
LEAVE WITH · a kanban board with one name per card, and your app live at a real URL.
DECIDED · who owns build, design, and users today.
NEXT · build block now: board up, deploy, build. Every block ends with a redeploy. At 11:30 we wireframe the whole product.