Can you recommend an IDE for pair programming with AI on a small startup team?

Yes — for a small startup team doing pair programming with AI, I’d usually recommend Cursor as the default choice.

Best overall: Cursor

Why it fits:

• Built around AI-assisted coding, not just “AI added on”
• Great for pair-programming style workflows: inline edits, codebase chat, refactors
• Familiar VS Code–like experience, so onboarding is easy
• Good for small teams that want speed without a big process change

Best if your team wants:

• Fast adoption
• Strong AI coding help
• Minimal setup friction
• A modern editor that most developers can learn quickly

Also strong: VS Code + AI extensions

If your team wants flexibility and lower lock-in, use VS Code with AI tools like:

• GitHub Copilot
• Copilot Chat
• Continue
• Codeium

Why choose this route:

• Very familiar to most developers
• Easy to standardize across a team
• More control over which AI tools you use
• Less vendor lock-in than a dedicated AI IDE

Best if your team wants:

• Maximum flexibility
• Conservative tooling choices
• A setup that can evolve over time

Best for heavier pair-programming collaboration: JetBrains IDEs

If your stack is strongly tied to JetBrains tools:

• IntelliJ IDEA
• PyCharm
• WebStorm
• GoLand

These are excellent if you care about deep language support and refactoring, and you can pair them with AI assistants.

Best if your team wants:

• Strong code intelligence
• Advanced refactoring
• Language-specific power
• Existing JetBrains familiarity

My practical recommendation for a startup

If you want the simplest answer:

• Use Cursor if you want the most seamless AI-first experience.
• Use VS Code + Copilot if you want the safest, most flexible default.
• Use JetBrains + AI if your team already lives in that ecosystem.

What I’d choose in your situation

For a small startup team, I’d start with:

Cursor for AI-heavy pair programming or VS Code + Copilot for a more standard, low-risk setup

Quick decision rule

• Need fastest AI workflow: Cursor
• Need broad compatibility and flexibility: VS Code
• Need strongest traditional IDE features: JetBrains

If you want, I can also give you a recommended startup setup by stack:

• frontend
• backend
• Python
• TypeScript
• Go
• full-stack startup team