What is the "AAA stack" everyone in the community talks about?

AAA stands for AI Automation Agency, the business model popularized by Liam Ottley and taught in communities like his 309,000-member Skool group and Caleb Casas' programs. The "AAA stack" is the set of tools a new agency owner duct-tapes together to deliver AI voice services: a voice API like Vapi or Retell, GoHighLevel for CRM, Zapier for automation, Twilio for phone numbers, Stripe for billing, and usually a spreadsheet holding it all together. There is no single official stack, which is exactly the problem. Every creator recommends a slightly different combination, and beginners burn their first month comparing tools instead of talking to prospects. This picker cuts through that by matching a stack to your actual capital, time, and technical comfort.

Can I really start an AI voice agency with $0?

Yes, but not the way most people imagine. With $0 you cannot afford any monthly platform, so your stack is sweat equity: free trial credits from voice AI providers for demos, a free Cal.com link for booking, and relentless daily outreach to local businesses. Your product in week one is not an AI agent, it is a missed-call audit you deliver manually. The goal is to collect a deposit on a $1,500 to $3,000 per month retainer before you spend a dollar on tooling. That deposit funds your real stack the same day it clears. What you cannot do with $0 is skip the selling. Trial credits expire, and no free tier lets you run a white-labeled client production workload.

Why does the picker recommend Hermes Starter over raw Vapi or Retell?

Because for a first client, speed and presentation beat per-minute price. Vapi and Retell are excellent engines with rates from $0.13 to $0.33 per minute, but they are APIs. You still need a CRM, campaign logic, billing, a client dashboard, and a developer or weeks of your own evenings to glue it together, and the result still is not under your brand. Hermes Starter is $149 per month for 3 client workspaces and 300 included minutes ($0.24 per minute after), with CRM, campaigns, and white-label built in. Your first demo looks like an established agency from day one. If you are a strong developer with 15+ hours a week and enjoy infrastructure, the raw API route is legitimate, and the picker will tell you so.

How many hours per week do I actually need?

Plan on 10 to 15 focused hours per week minimum for your first 90 days. Here is the honest breakdown: tooling is the smallest slice. On a platform like Hermes your first agent is live in about 72 hours of part-time work. The real hours go into outreach and demos, which is where almost everyone underinvests. Fifteen touches a day, five days a week, is roughly 75 conversations started per week, and at typical local-business close rates that produces your first one or two clients inside 30 to 45 days. If you can only commit under 5 hours a week, the picker will warn you: no stack compensates for missing outreach hours. Better to wait a month and start properly than to burn trial credits with no pipeline.

Do I need to know how to code to run an AI voice agency?

No. The agency model is a sales and service business, not a software business. On a managed platform, building an agent means writing a prompt, picking a voice, connecting a phone number, and testing calls, all of which is configuration, not code. Where coding genuinely helps is the raw API route: if you build on Vapi or Retell directly, you will write webhook handlers, glue integrations, and debug them at 11pm when a client call fails. That is why the picker only ranks the raw API stack highly when you rate your technical comfort as high AND commit 15 or more hours per week. If you rate yourself low or medium, choose boring, managed infrastructure and spend your hours selling.

What should my first vertical be?

Pick one niche where missed calls have an obvious dollar cost and owners answer their own phones. Dental practices, home services (plumbing, HVAC, electrical), med spas, and real estate teams are the classic starters because a single recovered patient or job pays for the service many times over. The picker nudges you to commit to one vertical for 90 days because generalist agencies die in the follow-up: your scripts, your demo agent, and your case study all compound only when they target the same buyer. If you truly cannot choose, start with home services. The pain is visceral (a missed call is a lost $400+ job), decision cycles are short, and there are thousands of them in every metro area.

free tool

AAA student day-1 stack picker.

Just finished the videos and ready to start your AI voice agency? Answer four questions and get a ranked, honest starter stack plus a 30-day plan. No email gate.

/ capital available

/ hours per week you can commit

/ technical comfort

/ target vertical

/ your ranked day-1 stack

Hermes Starter stack

$149/mo (3 workspaces, 300 min included, $0.24/min after)

First branded, client-ready agent live in about 72 hours

One platform instead of 5 to 7 tools. Voice agents, CRM, campaigns, and billing under your own brand, so your first demo already looks like an agency, not a hobby.

Caveat: Costs real money from day 1. If you cannot cover month one, close a deposit first.

#2

$0 sweat-equity stack

$0 until your first deposit (free trial credits + manual demos)

1 to 3 weeks to a signed first client if you prospect daily

Sell first, build second. Book meetings with local businesses, demo with trial credits, and collect a deposit before you pay for anything.

Caveat: Trial credits expire and nothing runs under your brand yet. This is a bridge, not a home.

#3

Raw API stack (Vapi or Retell + glue)

$130 to $250/mo spread across 5 to 6 tools (voice API + GHL + Zapier + Twilio)

2 to 6 weeks of evenings before anything is client-ready

Cheapest per-minute rate and total control if you genuinely enjoy building infrastructure.

Caveat: No white-label, no native CRM, no client billing. You are the integration layer, forever.

/ your first 30 days

Pick ONE vertical this week (dental and home services close fastest) and ignore everything else.
Days 1 to 3: stand up your branded platform, build one inbound receptionist agent for your niche, record a 3-minute demo.
Days 4 to 30: 15 outreach touches per day using the demo. Goal: 2 clients at $1,500 to $3,000/mo. That is $3K+ MRR on a $149 stack.

Want this stack live before your first outreach call? Book a 20-min walkthrough and we will set it up with you on the call. Free, no card.

Book a 20-min walkthrough

Want the full breakdown for your agency? Same link, book 20 min.

Your answers are encoded in the URL. Send it to an accountability partner and they see the same stack.

how it works

How the picker ranks your stack.

Every week, thousands of people finish an AI Automation Agency course or YouTube series and hit the same wall: which tools do I actually buy on day 1? The honest answer depends on three constraints nobody's tool list accounts for: your capital, your available hours, and whether you can code. This picker weighs all three and ranks the three realistic starter stacks against each other instead of pretending one answer fits everyone.

The logic is simple and transparent. If you have $0, no monthly platform makes sense yet, so the sweat-equity stack ranks first: free trial credits, manual demos, and daily outreach until a deposit clears. If you have even a few hundred dollars, a managed platform ranks first because time-to-first-demo beats per-minute pricing when you have zero clients. Hermes Starter is $149 per month for 3 client workspaces and 300 included minutes, with CRM, campaign orchestration, and white-label built in, which is why it is the default day-1 recommendation for funded beginners. And if you rate your technical comfort high and can commit 15+ hours a week, the raw Vapi or Retell route gets ranked honestly too, caveats included.

Whatever the picker recommends, the output also includes a 30-day plan keyed to your capital tier and vertical, because the stack is never the real bottleneck. Outreach is. Your answers are encoded in the URL, so you can share your result with an accountability partner or drop it in your community and compare.

frequently asked

Common questions.

next step

Run your agency on Hermes.

One platform. Your brand. From $149/month. First agent live in 72 hours.

Book a 20-min walkthrough See pricing