I built a $100K/month AI app
Starter Story
Oct 11, 2025
Dustin Stout realized that AI would change the world 3 years ago, and built a $100K/month app on top of the AI opportunity. But the craziest thing is that he did it with no-code.
🚀 Turn a few sentences into a full-stack app → https://go.starterstory.com/dustin
🛠️ Want to build your own app with AI? Check out Starter Story Build → https://build.starterstory.com/build/ai-build-accelerator?utm_source=youtube&utm_campaign=dustin
Dustin's app: https://magai.co/
Follow Dustin: https://x.com/dustinwstout
🔔 Follow the Second Channel: @StarterStoryBuild
🏁 We're hiring: starterstory.com/jobs
0:00 - Intro
0:55 - Who is Dustin
1:13 - Dustin’s backstory
2:19 - Idea for Magai
3:27 - Building Magai
4:24 - Magai marketing strategy
6:52 - How Magai works
8:09 - Tech stack
8:55 - Magai monetization model
9:39 - Don’t let your failures define you
10:30 - The final word
This video is an educational case study of one founder’s experience. It is not financial advice and does not guarantee any income or results. Every business is different and your results may vary.
Chapters
Stack
Transcript
Chapters
Stack
No tools listed for this business.
I
built
an
AI
platform
that
makes
almost
100
000
a
month
This
is
Dustin
and
just
two
years
ago
he
came
across
an
idea
that
changed
his
life
I
saw
very
quickly
where
the
world
was
headed
and
almost
like
a
revelation
saw
what
the
next
three
years
would
look
like
So
he
did
something
crazy
With
no
money
and
no
coding
experience
he
taught
himself
how
to
build
apps
and
he
built
an
MVP
I
made
3
000
in
that
first
month
Two
months
later
he
made
10
000
a
month
and
a
year
later
he
was
making
30
000
a
month
month
I
brought
Dustin
onto
the
channel
to
break
down
exactly
how
he
did
it
and
in
this
video
we'll
dive
into
the
not
so
obvious
problem
his
app
solves
and
why
it's
so
successful
his
eight
week
no
code
build
process
from
idea
to
launch
and
why
he
thinks
everyone
should
be
building
an
AI
right
now
All
right
let's
get
into
it
I'm
Pat
Walls
and
this
is
Starter
Story
All
right
Dustin
welcome
to
the
channel
Tell
me
about
who
you
are
what
you
built
and
what's
your
story
My
name's
Dustin
I
built
a
little
tool
called
Magi
I
built
the
app
in
eight
weeks
and
had
my
first
customers
on
the
first
day
that
I
released
it
So
two
and
a
half
years
later
we're
doing
well
over
a
million
dollars
in
revenue
over
almost
100
000
a
month
All
right
well
before
we
get
into
the
idea
and
the
app
that
you
actually
built
I
just
want
to
get
a
little
bit
of
background
on
you
how
you
get
to
this
point
I
grew
up
in
small
town
Pennsylvania
Mom
and
my
stepdad
always
worked
hard
to
try
and
provide
a
good
life
for
us
I
wanted
to
be
an
actor
so
I
moved
out
to
California
to
pursue
acting
Hated
waiting
tables
so
ended
up
starting
a
business
instead
Found
that
I
had
a
knack
for
social
media
and
technology
and
so
I
taught
myself
web
design
taught
myself
marketing
and
starting
an
agency
Very
quickly
though
I
learned
that
I'm
a
bit
of
a
perfectionist
and
that
didn't
scale
very
well
for
me
So
I
found
that
if
I
focused
all
that
perfectionism
into
building
digital
products
I
could
help
hundreds
of
thousands
of
people
rather
than
one
client
at
a
time
And
so
I
started
building
digital
products
My
first
digital
product
was
in
2014
Started
a
WordPress
plugin
company
with
a
couple
of
partners
We
kind
of
grew
apart
as
partners
partners
and
I
made
my
exit
to
start
a
couple
other
products
that
failed
miserably
and
then
found
myself
in
a
place
where
I
was
not
sure
if
I
had
anything
left
to
give
but
kept
moving
forward
anyways
And
then
the
idea
for
Magi
is
what
started
this
whole
new
season
of
life
All
right
well
let's
dive
into
that
How
do
you
come
up
with
the
idea
for
Magi
this
business
that's
now
making
over
100
000
a
month
Where
do
you
even
get
this
idea
You
know
having
been
through
several
different
technology
booms
I
saw
the
writing
on
the
wall
I
saw
that
the
whole
world
was
about
to
change
And
so
as
I
started
using
ChatGPT
I
realized
that
there
were
some
things
missing
There
were
some
features
that
I
wish
were
there
You
know
at
the
beginning
you
couldn't
search
your
chats
You
couldn't
put
things
into
folders
All
these
little
quality
of
life
things
started
piling
up
I
knew
that
I
could
make
something
better
and
I
can
improve
it
And
thanks
to
you
know
the
journey
that
I
had
been
on
I
had
kind
of
taught
myself
enough
about
how
to
develop
working
apps
using
no
code
tools
and
having
some
experience
with
customers
in
the
subscription
SaaS
space
I
knew
that
people
were
completely
burnt
out
on
subscriptions
And
seeing
all
these
different
AI
companies
pop
up
I
went
to
myself
people
are
going
to
need
like
five
or
six
different
subscriptions
just
to
get
the
best
of
the
best
AI
things
What
if
I
could
solve
that
one
problem
for
them
And
then
on
top
of
that
all
these
quality
of
life
things
that
I'm
having
with
ChatGPT
So
that
was
really
the
genesis
of
the
idea
I
want
to
now
get
into
how
you
actually
built
this
thing
That's
something
that
we
really
try
to
dig
into
as
Starter
Story
You
didn't
have
a
technical
or
big
time
developer
background
but
you
built
this
amazing
SaaS
software
tool
Take
me
through
the
actual
build
and
launch
of
Madge
AI
How
did
you
do
it
How
did
you
go
from
zero
to
really
great
product
Yeah
so
you're
spot
on
I'm
not
a
developer
So
when
I
was
at
the
point
in
my
life
where
I
was
broke
no
ability
to
hire
developers
to
help
me
when
I
had
this
idea
I
had
to
find
a
way
to
build
it
myself
without
spending
any
money
And
so
I
actually
found
a
really
great
online
course
and
I
just
started
learning
as
much
as
I
could
as
fast
as
I
could
Within
eight
weeks
I
had
a
full
MVP
built
on
a
combination
of
bubble
and
a
handful
of
code
that
I
understood
how
to
build
myself
I
launched
it
thinking
nobody
would
buy
it
But
to
my
surprise
in
the
first
month
we
made
3
000
Second
month
4
000
Third
month
we
were
at
10
000
a
month
And
then
after
one
full
year
we
were
doing
30
000
a
month
in
revenue
Okay
well
on
that
note
I
think
a
lot
of
people
watching
are
wondering
okay
once
you
actually
launch
it
get
those
first
users
how
did
you
then
scale
it
or
grow
it
to
100
000
a
month
What
were
the
growth
tactics
or
the
marketing
strategies
you
employed
The
most
important
marketing
strategy
that
I
could
say
that
I
utilized
at
the
beginning
was
having
built
a
personal
brand
for
the
last
10
years
You
need
to
be
building
in
public
People
want
to
see
the
journey
even
if
it's
not
pretty
if
it's
not
Instagram
polished
people
want
to
see
So
for
the
last
10
years
I
had
a
personal
blog
that
had
over
10
years
accumulated
over
100
000
email
subscribers
So
when
I
launched
a
product
I
had
a
built
in
audience
And
so
that
carried
me
doing
no
advertising
doing
no
real
marketing
aside
from
just
building
in
public
I
will
also
say
that
I
think
a
big
contributor
to
the
initial
momentum
that
we
had
was
right
away
I
built
an
affiliate
program
into
the
product
And
it
was
a
very
generous
one
It
was
an
affiliate
program
that
was
built
on
recurring
revenue
So
it's
not
just
a
one
time
commission
If
they
were
for
a
customer
that
pays
us
12
times
they
get
paid
12
times
And
apart
from
that
I'm
very
grateful
to
have
some
really
great
friends
in
the
industry
some
really
great
marketers
who
are
friends
of
mine
I
built
relationships
in
the
industry
I
genuinely
care
about
people
I'm
an
extrovert
So
like
I
really
do
love
people
So
those
were
really
the
three
biggest
keys
to
growing
Magi
from
zero
to
100
000
a
month
in
revenue
One
of
the
reasons
I
love
Dustin's
story
is
because
he
built
his
idea
fast
He
didn't
spend
months
learning
to
code
and
spend
a
bunch
of
money
on
hiring
developers
And
I
wanted
to
mention
this
because
I
see
a
lot
of
people
getting
stuck
in
the
build
phase
for
months
Well
that's
where
rocket
new
comes
in
Rocket
helps
you
go
from
just
a
few
sentences
to
a
full
stack
app
No
coding
required
Just
describe
your
vision
once
and
get
a
complete
functional
app
with
backend
integrations
and
production
ready
code
You
can
even
import
designs
from
Figma
add
integrations
like
Stripe
and
Superbase
and
download
an
actual
mobile
APK
to
test
on
your
phone
instantly
And
the
best
part
you
own
all
the
code
forever
Over
400
000
users
in
over
180
countries
are
already
building
with
Rocket
because
it
turns
ideas
into
apps
in
minutes
not
months
If
you're
ready
to
build
your
AI
app
idea
without
months
of
development
check
out
rocket
new
at
the
first
link
in
the
description
Thank
you
to
Rocket
for
sponsoring
this
video
I
love
what
you
guys
are
building
All
right
right
Now
back
to
the
story
All
right
Well
now
I
mean
I
would
love
to
see
what
you
built
Can
you
give
us
a
quick
demo
of
Magi
what
it
does
how
it
works
works
Give
me
the
breakdown
of
the
app
I'd
love
to
see
it
in
action
Yeah
So
just
like
any
other
chat
app
you've
used
Chatty
Petit
Claude
et
cetera
you
open
up
Magi
and
you
get
a
input
place
where
you
can
start
typing
to
the
AI
You
could
say
hello
to
the
default
model
Now
the
difference
with
Magi
is
unlike
the
other
apps
you
don't
just
get
to
access
the
one
company's
AI
model
We
give
you
access
to
all
of
them
So
if
you
look
in
the
top
left
corner
of
the
app
you
can
open
up
the
full
list
where
all
the
top
models
in
the
world
are
accessible
So
if
you
wanted
to
chat
with
GPT
5
you
just
select
GPT
5
And
then
all
of
a
sudden
you're
now
chatting
with
GPT
5
So
you
started
the
conversation
with
Claude
and
then
you
brought
GPT
5
into
the
conversation
So
yeah
it
gives
you
access
to
all
of
the
best
AI
models
in
one
subscription
one
dashboard
The
other
great
thing
is
you're
not
limited
to
just
large
language
models
We
also
have
image
and
video
models
as
well
So
we
have
Dolly
Flux
GPT
image
We
have
Ideogram
All
of
the
top
image
and
video
models
as
well
So
if
you
wanted
to
flip
over
and
create
a
photo
of
a
cat
playing
cards
you
can
do
that
with
Flux
right
inside
that
same
chat
conversation
So
most
of
what
you're
seeing
on
the
front
end
is
built
with
Bubble
On
top
of
that
we're
using
Stripe
as
our
payment
processor
ConvertKit
is
our
default
email
marketing
system
OpenRouter
is
sort
of
our
central
access
point
for
all
these
AI
models
They've
created
a
unified
technology
platform
that
allows
you
to
access
all
the
different
LLMs
with
one
API
call
format
And
Fowl
ai
is
also
similar
They
put
all
of
the
image
and
video
and
audio
models
in
one
place
Now
some
of
the
models
I
do
have
direct
API
connections
to
In
fact
with
OpenAI
I
have
the
highest
tier
And
then
on
top
of
that
it's
just
your
standard
Google
Analytics
to
track
how
users
are
using
the
app
I
use
Ahrefs
as
our
SEO
platform
to
kind
of
monitor
our
keyword
ranking
and
how
we're
doing
from
an
SEO
standpoint
Thanks
for
showing
that
The
other
question
I
have
is
how
do
you
monetize
this
Are
you
on
a
subscription
model
Is
there
freemium
free
trial
What's
worked
for
you
Yeah
so
we
have
strictly
a
paid
model
We
don't
have
any
freemium
We
have
a
20
a
month
plan
for
solo
users
and
it
gets
you
the
average
amount
of
usage
that
you
might
need
in
a
given
month
So
if
you
want
to
blast
through
that
we
give
you
the
option
to
add
more
usage
as
you
go
if
you
need
it
We
have
a
team
plan
that's
40
a
month
month
It
gives
you
up
to
five
users
You
all
share
There's
three
times
as
much
usage
And
again
you
can
purchase
more
You
can
also
add
team
members
for
20
per
team
member
per
month
if
you
need
more
users
And
so
that's
great
for
enterprises
who
need
to
scale
up
to
1
000
or
more
users
You
can
do
that
easily
right
from
within
the
app
Well
thanks
for
sharing
that
The
last
question
that
I
have
for
you
is
if
you
could
go
back
in
time
stand
on
Dustin's
shoulder
or
share
any
advice
with
anyone
who's
watching
this
channel
who
wants
to
do
something
amazing
like
you've
done
built
a
million
dollar
AI
SaaS
product
what
would
be
your
advice
I
think
the
biggest
problem
that
founders
face
is
letting
their
past
failures
define
them
I
had
a
lot
of
confidence
when
I
launched
my
first
software
company
and
by
the
grace
of
God
it
was
successful
out
of
the
gate
with
very
little
effort
But
then
I
left
that
business
and
I
had
two
more
ideas
that
completely
failed
to
launch
and
crashed
and
burned
And
so
my
confidence
was
shot
and
those
failures
were
so
heavy
on
me
that
I
lacked
the
confidence
that
I
should
have
had
People
rejected
the
products
They
didn't
reject
you
Cool
Thanks
for
coming
on
the
channel
Dustin
Amazing
story
Hope
to
have
you
back
on
sometime
Thanks
for
sharing
everything
My
pleasure
All
right
Thank
you
Dustin
for
coming
onto
the
channel
I
think
one
of
the
most
powerful
feelings
in
the
world
is
taking
an
idea
from
up
here
in
your
head
and
bringing
it
to
life
just
like
Dustin
did
with
Match
ai
And
this
is
exactly
why
we
have
Starter
Story
Build
It's
our
program
where
we
will
show
you
how
to
build
fast
using
the
latest
AI
coding
tools
and
in
just
a
few
days
you'll
go
from
a
simple
idea
to
a
real
working
app
If
you're
interested
in
this
we'll
head
to
the
link
in
the
description
and
check
out
Starter
Story
Build
All
right
that's
it
for
this
episode
Thank
you
guys
for
watching
We'll
see
you
in
the
next
one
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