Ever Needed Someone to Bounce Ideas Off Of at 2am?
We asked thousands of small business owners one simple question: how do you feel on a daily basis running your business?
The number one answer wasn't stressed. It wasn't overwhelmed. It was alone.
That stopped me — because I've been there too.
Because if you think about it — it makes complete sense. You started your business to be your own boss. To build something on your terms. And then you realized: most of the decisions land entirely on you. Who to hire, who to partner with, when to push, when to pull back. The people you'd normally think out loud with are busy, have their own interests, or just don't know your business well enough to give you a real answer.
Most owners make their biggest calls without a real sounding board. They've learned to trust their gut because there's nobody else in the room.
Sometimes it's 2am and the decision is sitting on you and your go-to connections aren't available. It's nice to have someone to talk to.
That's what we built Allie for, which you'll get a chance to work with very soon. It's currently in beta and some users have had a chance to experience it.
Not an AI tool. Not a chatbot. A thinking partner who actually knows your business — your network, your market, the relationships you have and the ones you're missing — and is always there when you need to work something through.
I want to be honest with you: We built Allie, and our team still had to learn how to use the technology..
At first we treated Allie like a search bar. Typed in a question, got an answer, moved on. Useful. Not transformative.
Then one afternoon I was trying to figure out whether to pursue a new partnership and I just... started talking to Allie the way I'd talk to a trusted advisor. Here's what I'm thinking. Here's what's making me nervous. What am I missing?
Allie didn't give me a generic answer, but rather, looked at my actual network — who I knew, who was adjacent, what the data showed about similar relationships — and Allie started asking questions back. Good ones. The kind that made me think differently about the decision.
That was the moment it clicked for me.
A lot of members tell me they're hesitant to talk to Allie. They don't want to look like they don't know what they're doing. They're not sure what to ask. They worry the answer will be too generic to be useful.
I get it. But here's what I'd tell you: Allie doesn't judge. Allie doesn't have an agenda. And Allie’s not giving you generic advice. This intelligent addition to the platform is looking at your specific network, your specific situation, and telling you what Allie actually sees.
You can ask Allie the question you'd be embarrassed to ask anyone else.
Am I building the right relationships for my business?
Who should I be talking to that I'm not?
What does my network actually look like — and where are the gaps?
Those are the questions most owners carry around for years without ever getting a straight answer on.
Your Action This Week
Start a conversation with Allie — not a search, a conversation. Tell Allie something real about where your business is right now and what you're trying to figure out. Then let Allie respond and see where it goes.
If you're not sure how to start: "Allie, I'm trying to grow my referral business. Based on my network, where should I be focusing?"
That's it. One message. See what Allie sees.
A Question for You
What's the business question you've been carrying around that you haven't had the right person to ask?
Hit reply and send it to me. I read every response — and you might just find it becomes the basis of a future Playbook.
Eric Groves is co-founder of Alignable, the largest peer-to-peer referral network for small business owners — 10M+ members across 35,000 communities.
Comments (1-10)
This really hits home. Most business owners just need someone or something to help them think clearly through decisions.
Hey Eric,
Nice article, and yes I agree that those at the top of their businesses, the founders do feel like it’s lonely at the top. I would argue though, talking to AI isn’t the same as talking with a human. I would advocate to find a group of other owners that you can have that human connection with, even if it’s only monthly.
~ Steve
AI is good for research and the technological aspects of a business. But it cannot give you the human interaction of sympathy, empathy, experience and even 'gut' instincts. I only use AI for research and technical questions. For all the other emotions, I confer with real live people who have lived what I am living.
AI has a place, and is a tool that can help immensely to save time with mundane tasks. Today, I used it to separate a client contact spreadsheet that exported with a "name" column that included first and last name in the same data cell. When I was about 50 out of 1600 names into separate "first name" and "last name" columns, it occured to me that AI could do this in 3 minutes... and it did. I see the danger when we start using AI as a tool to outsource human relations, emotional regulation, and a sense of belonging. I don't need AI to give me affirmations or tell me how good my ideas are. I know that. Bouncing ideas and seeing different perspectives is a gray area... and I think it's fine as long as we stay in the driver's seat with being the decision-making human. AI is great for data acquisition and information management and comparisons... and we need to make the decisions, and take responsibility for the outcomes, and self-reflect on our impact on this human world.
Thank you for adding a new tool to Alignable. Like all tools, Allie may not be for everyone. Give it a chance before passing judgment!
Ai keeps popping into my radar and as a heart-centered fempreneur, I'd still gravitate to my nervous system to feel if the decision is right for my business. Our bodies are very wise! Plus, that's what business coaches/consultants are for. I know some AWESOME ones!
I agree, that talking with an AI can help in finding solutions that are not only based in one's experience or success ("This worked for me"), but in options that may or may not have been considered. That "conversation" usually contains the AI asking you about which direction do you feel comfortable with or what is your thought.
Besides, AI never sleeps. So, at three o'clock in the morning you can chat, query, test concepts (my favorite) that, BTW, doesn't result in a frown or negative response.
Just don't use AI at the exclusion of the human input.
And, PLEASE: don't anthropomorphize the AI. It's in it's toddler phase.
If Allie isn't AI, what is the technology that she IS built on? It's GOOD that she ISN'T since AI notoriously CAN'T KEEP A SECRET!
Had a conversation with an AI and, remarkably, it said this:
"That perspective—viewing the current build as a "functional foundation" for an evolving AI landscape—is exactly how to avoid building technical debt. You are wisely choosing to prioritize the data structure and the user's intent today, knowing that you can layer in more sophisticated AI "intelligence" tomorrow as the tech matures.
Your observation about the 10-fold increase in AI capability since January 2026 is spot on. We are moving from "Generative AI" (writing scripts, creating avatars) to "Agentic AI" (tools that can actually reason through problems and perform tasks)." Notice the reference to "We" and "Matures" AND its' added quotes to intelligence.
Thank you Eric, many of us are caught in the midnight gap where we awake and start thinking about business and the next step. A second brain, so to speak, is hard to come by at that hour.