Episode 04|06/15/26
Alana Goyal
Not Your Typical Investor
The best product research is being the actual user. Automate the parts that aren't human so you can spend more time on the parts that are.
The Guest
Alana GoyalFounder & Managing Partner, basecase capital
Founder & Managing Partner at basecase capital. A technical investor whose best due diligence is being the user — and whose stack is, quite literally, the portfolio.
The Stack Monitor — 13 tools
Hover for notesThe Daily Setup
2
Alana OS
7
cmuxMade for the ADHD brain. Built on Ghostty — it's fast.— Alana
CodexI got Codex-pilled. It thinks for a long time, so I fire it off and go do something else.— Alana
CursorMorning test bed — maybe Cursor has something cool, maybe a new model, maybe a new IDE.— Alana
VercelInfra I will never change. If something looks funky I just text Guillermo.— Alana
PaperMy Figma files are screenshots I need to unbackground. Paper is the infinite canvas I actually use.— Alana
SupabaseThe personal site runs on a dozen portfolio companies. Supabase is one I'll never swap.— Alana
BraintrustIn the site — and when they launch, Browserbase pulls the post for the LP letter.— Alana
Automating basecase
3
BrowserbaseGoes to the launch post, summarizes it, saves the Open Graph image. I used to scroll Twitter for 20 minutes trying to remember who launched.— Alana
ResendPortfolio company in the site. I automate the admin, not the outreach.— Alana
AirtableThe structured dump: events, investments, launches. I still write every intro note myself.— Alana
Coding Principles
1
ChatGPTI dictate unstructured thoughts. I don't want to get dumber — I still write the human parts.— Alana
In Their Words
“People sort of make jokes about the GitHub green squares and it's like, yes, I actually do code every day.”
“There's not a lot of value in using AI to come between me and people — whether that's automated outreach or an agent in your email sending calendar invites.”
“The best engineers I know are the ones who are almost engineering their setup. That is sort of the new thing to obsess over.”