AI Replaces Paid SaaS Tools by Letting You Build Your Own | Scott Knowles - Co-founder of Mello

In this episode of This New Way, Aydin chats with Scott Knowles, the co-founder of Mello, a digital process manager designed to automate human-centric workflows. Scott shares how he reentered software development after a six-year hiatus — not through online courses or bootcamps, but through ChatGPT. With AI as his co-pilot, he rebuilt his coding skills, created software from scratch, and automated complex systems like cold outreach engines and data pipelines — all for free or nearly free. The episode is a hands-on masterclass in learning, building, and automating with AI.Timestamps00:00 (youtube.com/watch?v=vN_SIhTs7dI) - Intro0:29 (youtube.com/watch?v=vN_SIhTs7dI&t=29s) – 1:12 (youtube.com/watch?v=vN_SIhTs7dI&t=72s) — Introduction: Scott’s background in computer engineering and management consulting2:00 (youtube.com/watch?v=vN_SIhTs7dI&t=120s) – 4:18 (youtube.com/watch?v=vN_SIhTs7dI&t=258s) — Founding and selling an OKR software company; early startup experience4:23 (youtube.com/watch?v=vN_SIhTs7dI&t=263s) – 5:06 (youtube.com/watch?v=vN_SIhTs7dI&t=306s) — What Mello is: a “digital process manager” that connects humans the way Zapier connects software5:36 (youtube.com/watch?v=vN_SIhTs7dI&t=336s) – 7:00 (youtube.com/watch?v=vN_SIhTs7dI&t=420s) — Returning to coding after six years thanks to ChatGPT7:42 (youtube.com/watch?v=vN_SIhTs7dI&t=462s) – 8:15 (youtube.com/watch?v=vN_SIhTs7dI&t=495s) — How ChatGPT helped him relearn code “like slang you forgot”9:03 (youtube.com/watch?v=vN_SIhTs7dI&t=543s) – 10:13 (youtube.com/watch?v=vN_SIhTs7dI&t=613s) — Learning new skills: how to ask the right questions as a beginner10:41 (youtube.com/watch?v=vN_SIhTs7dI&t=641s) – 11:27 (youtube.com/watch?v=vN_SIhTs7dI&t=687s) — Using ChatGPT to scope and plan projects instead of asking for instant results13:00 (youtube.com/watch?v=vN_SIhTs7dI&t=780s) – 14:03 (youtube.com/watch?v=vN_SIhTs7dI&t=843s) — The importance of high-level questioning before diving into code15:06 (youtube.com/watch?v=vN_SIhTs7dI&t=906s) – 16:21 (youtube.com/watch?v=vN_SIhTs7dI&t=981s) — When to stop and ask, “Is there a simpler way?” instead of getting lost in rabbit holes17:05 (youtube.com/watch?v=vN_SIhTs7dI&t=1025s) – 18:07 (youtube.com/watch?v=vN_SIhTs7dI&t=1087s) — The “three tries rule” for debugging with ChatGPT18:26 (youtube.com/watch?v=vN_SIhTs7dI&t=1106s) – 18:50 (youtube.com/watch?v=vN_SIhTs7dI&t=1130s) — Sometimes the fix is on Reddit: mixing AI and human answers22:01 (youtube.com/watch?v=vN_SIhTs7dI&t=1321s) – 27:21 (youtube.com/watch?v=vN_SIhTs7dI&t=1641s) — Demo: Scott’s TikTok “routine scraper” app built entirely with ChatGPT-generated code27:33 (youtube.com/watch?v=vN_SIhTs7dI&t=1653s) – 28:14 (youtube.com/watch?v=vN_SIhTs7dI&t=1694s) — How the scraper uses OCR, captions, and transcripts to build structured data28:58 (youtube.com/watch?v=vN_SIhTs7dI&t=1738s) – 30:06 (youtube.com/watch?v=vN_SIhTs7dI&t=1806s) — Using ChatGPT as a code generator — no manual coding required30:49 (youtube.com/watch?v=vN_SIhTs7dI&t=1849s) – 32:10 (youtube.com/watch?v=vN_SIhTs7dI&t=1930s) — Introduction to N8N: self-hosted automation for free cold outreach33:01 (youtube.com/watch?v=vN_SIhTs7dI&t=1981s) – 36:33 (youtube.com/watch?v=vN_SIhTs7dI&t=2193s) — Step-by-step breakdown of Scott’s automated email system using N8N and Google Sheets38:32 (youtube.com/watch?v=vN_SIhTs7dI&t=2312s) – 39:09 (youtube.com/watch?v=vN_SIhTs7dI&t=2349s) — Building high-quality prompts for personalized emails40:00 (youtube.com/watch?v=vN_SIhTs7dI&t=2400s) – 42:06 (youtube.com/watch?v=vN_SIhTs7dI&t=2526s) — How N8N automations replace tools like Clay and Smartlead42:33 (youtube.com/watch?v=vN_SIhTs7dI&t=2553s) – 43:09 (youtube.com/watch?v=vN_SIhTs7dI&t=2589s) — Watching the automation run in real time43:39 (youtube.com/watch?v=vN_SIhTs7dI&t=2619s) – 44:14 (youtube.com/watch?v=vN_SIhTs7dI&t=2654s) — Human-in-the-loop safety: drafts before sending46:02 (youtube.com/watch?v=vN_SIhTs7dI&t=2762s) – 47:05 (youtube.com/watch?v=vN_SIhTs7dI&t=2825s) — Scott on the future of AI and human collaboration47:17 (youtube.com/watch?v=vN_SIhTs7dI&t=2837s) – 48:31 (youtube.com/watch?v=vN_SIhTs7dI&t=2911s) — Aydin on “vibe coding” and how LLMs democratize software creation48:55 (youtube.com/watch?v=vN_SIhTs7dI&t=2935s) – 49:13 (youtube.com/watch?v=vN_SIhTs7dI&t=2953s) — Closing thoughts: start small, get quick wins, build momentumTools & Technologies MentionedChatGPT — Used as a real-time coding tutor and co-developer to build entire applications.Mello — Scott’s product; a digital process manager that automates human-to-human workflows.Zapier / N8N — Workflow automation tools; N8N is self-hostable and used in Scott’s cold outreach automation.Supabase — Open-source database used to store and serve data for the TikTok scraper app.Playwright — Browser automation library for scraping TikTok videos.VS Code + CodeX Plugin — Integrated code editing environment that connects directly to ChatGPT for automated coding.Fellow — AI meeting assistant that summarizes meetings, tracks action items, and integrates with other tools.OpenAI API — Powers many of the automation and text-cleaning features within Scott’s projects.Subscribe at⁠ thisnewway.com⁠ to get the step-by-step playbooks, tools, and workflows.