A room full of San Diego business owners figuring out AI in public. We name the tool, we name the price, we show the prompt. Nobody here is selling you a course.
Free group. Paid build nights, in person, about once a month.
Not "top 10 AI tools of 2026." An honest tier list for a business with five people and a real job to do. Every price pulled from the vendor's own page this month, re-checked quarterly. No affiliate links.
See the B and C tiers, and the three real monthly budgets 🔓
Including the mistake that costs most small businesses about $60 a month, and the one data rule that matters more than any subscription you will ever buy.Predictable beats brilliant. You can plan around this.
One sentence. Somebody here has already solved it, usually for free.
What it costs, what it actually does, and one honest limitation. Always the limitation.
Post your business. Once a week, in one place, so the rest of the week stays useful.
What AI actually saved you. Minutes, dollars, or a headache. Receipts encouraged.
About fifteen of us in a room somewhere in San Diego. Somebody brings an actual problem from an actual business, and we build the fix live, start to finish, including the parts that go wrong. You do not take notes.
Free. Tell us what tools you use, even if it is one, and you get the full San Diego stack list back every month.
You are on the list. The tool list is on its way. ✅
No spam, no daily newsletter, no course upsell. The monthly list and the Guild Night invite, that is it.
Not a theory about what AI might do. A system that exists, that runs every day, and that we will open up and show you at a Guild Night. Here is what it actually is.
| The job | A nine person team | One person with the system |
|---|---|---|
| A blog post | 2 to 3 days | 20 minutes |
| A landing page | 1 week | Same day |
| A full campaign | 3 weeks | One afternoon |
| Getting someone up to speed | 3 to 6 months | Zero days |
That gap is the entire reason this Guild exists. Not because AI is exciting, but because the distance between a small operator and a full department got small enough to cross. One person did it. We would rather teach you than keep it.
Nothing to buy, no modules, no certificate. The group is free and stays free.
We do not care what AI will do in 2030. We care what it does for your business on Tuesday.
Nobody pays us to recommend them. When a tool is not worth it, we say so by name.
Everything we claim, we will show you running. That is the whole format.
Every AI group in San Diego is either engineers talking to engineers, or somebody selling a course. Both of those are fine. Neither one helps the person who runs a real business here and just needs the thing to work on Monday morning.
So we made the room we wanted to be in. Local. Free. Vendor neutral. Honest about prices, honest about what does not work, and allergic to the word "unlock."
Build things that move. If a vendor doubles their price tomorrow, you should be able to leave in a week, not a year.
Every tool we mention comes with a real number. The industry is oddly quiet about what things cost.
Name the tool, name the prompt, say what it cost. "AI changed my business" helps nobody.
A national group cannot meet you for coffee in Kearny Mesa. That is the whole advantage and we intend to use it.
The group is free and always will be. Guild Nights cost $25, which covers the room. That is not a business model, it is a filter, and the honest reason is that paid seats show up and free ones do not.
Some people in the room will eventually want somebody to just build the thing for them. When that happens we are happy to talk, and we will say so plainly rather than pretending the group is charity. Everything we teach, you can do yourself with the free group and a $20 subscription.
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