About Lede

Claire Lin

Lede was made by Claire Lin.

I’ve spent eight years as a magazine editor. I studied at the University of Warwick and the University of Central Lancashire. I wrote for Vogue Business China. I wrote a science fiction novel. For over a year I ran a BookTube channel reviewing books on YouTube. I have spent my entire career thinking about narrative — what makes a story land, what makes a person memorable, what gets remembered and what gets forgotten.

In March 2026 I downloaded Claude and built an iOS app entirely solo — code, design, backend, App Store submission. No CS degree. No coding background. Just an idea I’d been sitting on for years and a decision to finally try.

That app is called Safe the Date — a safety check-in tool for women who go out alone.

Building it taught me something I didn’t expect: the hardest part wasn’t the code. It was knowing what my story actually was. I started sharing what I learned on Reddit — a framework for using AI not just to build, but to understand your own narrative. Hundreds of founders said they felt the same thing. The tools exist. The ideas exist. But the story is unclear.

The most painful problem solo founders face isn’t building the product. It isn’t finding users. It’s not knowing how to tell their own story.

Lede is what eight years of editorial work, one iOS app, and one Reddit thread all pointed toward. It doesn’t generate your content. It helps you understand what your content should actually be about — then gives you a file that makes any AI dramatically better at helping you tell it.

Paste it into any AI. Get weeks of content that actually sounds like you.