From Zero to $42K/Month in 90 Days with AI
Starter Story
May 21, 2025
This is how CJ Zafir built an AI tool to $42,000 MRR in just 90 days.
🛠️ Want to start building with AI? Check out Starter Story Build → https://build.starterstory.com/build/ai-build-accelerator?utm_source=youtube&utm_campaign=cj
Follow CJ's Journey: https://x.com/cjzafir
🔔 Follow the Second Channel: @StarterStoryBuild
🏁 We're hiring: starterstory.com/jobs
Chapters:
0:00 - Intro
1:35 - CJ's story
2:12 - What issue does CodeGuide solve
3:00 - The opportunity in AI apps
3:47 - CJ's backstory
5:05 - How to find a successful idea
5:51 - How to validate an idea
7:17 - How to build a product
8:32 - The best way to build with AI
10:24 - CJ's marketing strategy
12:09 - Converting users into paying customers
12:40 - CJ's business model & pricing
13:27 - CJ's tech stack
14:59 - Day in the life of CJ
15:53 - CJ's experience with Starter Story
16:55 - CJ's advice to entrepreneurs
18:01 - Outro
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
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No tools listed for this business.
It
took
me
14
days
to
build
CodeGuide
dev
and
within
90
days
we've
gone
from
0
to
42k
per
month
This
is
CJ
a
longtime
member
of
StarterStory
and
a
few
weeks
ago
he
sent
me
a
DM
that
blew
me
away
In
just
49
days
he
took
his
app
from
0
to
17
000
a
month
without
spending
a
single
dollar
on
marketing
But
what's
even
crazier
is
he
didn't
even
build
the
product
until
he
it
was
validated
So
I
didn't
build
any
product
I
didn't
have
anything
I
just
had
a
glimpse
of
what
a
product
can
look
like
in
a
landing
page
and
people
were
signing
up
from
left
and
right
and
that
was
the
moment
when
I
decided
okay
now
I
need
to
take
this
and
create
like
a
proper
tool
that
solves
this
problem
Now
I
know
you're
thinking
he's
probably
got
a
huge
audience
but
that's
actually
not
true
It
all
started
when
CJ
set
out
to
build
12
startups
in
12
months
which
ultimately
led
him
to
an
idea
that
would
change
his
life
forever
I
brought
CJ
onto
the
channel
to
tell
his
story
and
he
shared
everything
including
a
full
breakdown
of
the
tweet
that
broke
his
startup
how
he
got
thousands
of
signups
before
writing
any
code
and
the
unexpected
marketing
strategy
that's
grown
his
business
to
over
500
000
in
ARR
If
you're
building
an
AI
this
is
a
must
watch
because
this
is
what
is
actually
working
right
now
So
let's
get
into
it
I'm
Pat
Walls
and
this
is
Starter
Story
All
right
CJ
thanks
for
coming
on
Who
are
you
and
what's
your
story
So
my
name
is
Sajeela
Mazzafer
and
people
on
axe
know
me
by
the
name
of
CJZ
I
am
the
founder
of
CodeGuide
an
AI
startup
that
helps
AI
developers
write
detailed
documentation
for
AI
coding
models
So
we
launched
on
24th
of
December
and
in
just
last
three
months
we've
grown
CodeGuide
to
42k
MRR
with
a
community
of
more
than
4
800
AI
developers
and
we're
projecting
to
cross
around
90k
this
month
Zero
to
42
000
MRR
in
just
a
couple
months
is
almost
unheard
of
So
tell
me
about
what
is
the
core
issue
that
your
product
solves
and
what
made
it
grow
so
fast
So
basically
CodeGuide
fixes
a
problem
in
AI
coding
which
is
AI
coding
models
are
not
ready
yet
They
hallucinate
they
assume
things
So
I
just
tried
to
say
fix
just
one
problem
which
is
AI
hallucinations
by
building
a
knowledge
base
around
the
user's
idea
Our
core
users
are
pretty
much
beginners
to
semi
developers
and
they
can
attach
this
knowledge
base
to
these
AI
coding
tools
So
you
can
say
CodeGuide
is
just
a
bridge
bridge
between
two
parties
and
that's
why
it
is
growing
really
fast
because
I'm
not
reinventing
my
own
audience
I'm
just
utilizing
the
AI
coding
tools
audience
and
we're
just
making
the
AI
coding
workflow
better
I
mean
that
growth
is
just
amazing
and
I
think
that
there's
something
there
the
opportunity
around
building
around
AI
and
building
around
AI
apps
Why
is
AI
coding
such
a
big
opportunity
right
now
So
English
is
the
most
prominent
coding
language
right
now
and
that
was
not
possible
before
but
now
if
you
know
English
you
can
literally
code
with
AI
AI
is
writing
25
of
Google's
code
Cursor
AI
which
is
just
the
top
AI
coding
tool
that
is
one
of
the
fastest
growing
company
right
now
So
if
you
learn
how
AI
works
how
to
prompt
AI
you
can
actually
build
a
really
profitable
application
right
now
that
you
can
deploy
online
and
make
money
from
it
and
people
are
doing
that
You
don't
need
to
learn
code
you
just
learn
how
to
talk
to
this
AI
and
AI
can
execute
code
and
build
you
the
applications
What
I
think
is
it's
amazing
what
you
built
and
I
know
that
you
were
a
member
member
of
Starter
Story
for
some
time
I
love
you
could
just
briefly
break
down
your
backstory
and
how
you
got
into
building
online
I
moved
to
Canada
in
2018
and
I
did
my
first
9
5
and
that
was
like
a
horrible
experience
for
me
I
knew
like
I
can't
do
any
9
5
so
I
went
back
to
the
drawing
and
stick
to
my
basics
which
is
like
just
build
stuff
just
do
something
and
I
built
a
lot
of
agencies
built
a
lot
of
software
products
SaaS
products
you
name
it
And
then
in
2022
I
was
actually
writing
a
lot
of
tweets
about
AI
prompting
and
I
knew
that
AI
coding
is
actually
blowing
up
at
the
back
end
and
people
are
not
noticing
it
So
I
wanted
to
force
myself
to
actually
learn
build
and
code
with
AI
coding
tools
for
like
10
12
hours
per
day
and
I
just
you
know
publicly
announced
that
I'll
be
doing
12
startups
and
I
ended
up
building
11
products
of
my
own
Unfortunately
10
collapsed
they
didn't
perform
well
but
one
of
them
grew
really
fast
which
is
CodeGuide
and
then
in
the
end
you
know
it
was
just
like
an
overnight
success
after
like
all
these
seven
years
and
that's
why
I'm
super
stoked
I'm
working
9
10
hours
every
single
day
just
to
this
product
better
just
to
make
it
the
best
product
out
there
for
AI
coders
So
you
built
a
bunch
of
stuff
but
let's
talk
about
how
you
found
the
idea
that
really
kind
of
changed
your
life
right
How
did
you
actually
find
this
idea
I
was
just
trying
to
solve
my
own
problem
with
CodeGuide
actually
Like
I
said
I
was
running
an
MVP
agency
and
for
each
product
I
had
to
chat
with
ChatGPT
for
like
9
10
hours
to
create
all
these
technical
documentations
to
create
a
knowledge
base
that
I
can
attach
to
these
AI
coding
tools
So
I
turned
my
prompts
into
like
a
sequence
using
make
com
and
I
literally
saved
7
hours
out
of
those
9
hours
and
that
was
magical
for
me
And
then
I
created
a
landing
page
in
like
30
minutes
using
Bolt
and
within
two
weeks
we
got
1800
waitlist
signups
Nice
that's
great
I
would
just
love
to
hear
a
little
bit
more
about
your
process
for
validating
an
idea
How
did
you
know
CodeGuide
was
validated
Yes
so
Twitter
is
actually
a
really
great
platform
to
launch
products
All
you
need
to
do
is
just
share
your
screen
create
a
simple
screen
recording
demo
and
you
just
post
it
and
this
type
of
content
usually
goes
viral
So
in
this
tweet
I'm
just
talking
about
like
what
is
my
ideal
cursor
workflow
I
just
tweeted
that
out
and
I
was
just
mind
people
were
actually
struggling
with
hallucination
problem
with
AI
and
then
I
just
turned
this
thing
into
a
landing
page
in
like
20
minutes
the
max
using
Bolt
and
actual
validation
for
me
was
when
people
starting
to
sign
up
So
I
got
more
than
1800
waitlist
emails
in
like
two
weeks
That
was
the
first
stage
of
validation
for
me
that
people
actually
want
this
solution
And
then
I
was
just
talking
to
all
the
beta
users
I
was
trying
to
DM
them
every
single
one
that
was
commenting
just
to
asking
them
either
they
are
using
some
other
flow
to
remove
or
fix
the
AI
hallucinations
and
nobody
was
actually
tackling
in
a
better
way
than
what
we
were
trying
to
do
So
that
was
the
second
stage
of
validation
and
then
that
was
the
moment
when
I
decided
okay
now
I
need
to
take
this
and
you
know
put
all
my
effort
into
it
and
create
like
a
proper
tool
that
solves
this
problem
I
want
to
change
the
subject
a
little
bit
to
building
I
want
to
know
how
you
actually
built
this
so
could
you
walk
through
your
step
by
step
process
for
how
you
went
from
idea
to
actual
launched
app
Sure
so
when
I
tweeted
that
and
we
got
like
400
retweets
and
I
got
like
300
signups
that
was
a
different
feeling
for
me
and
I
knew
like
okay
I
am
up
to
something
so
what
I
did
was
I
just
sat
for
next
you
know
10
to
12
hours
just
documenting
what
can
be
the
best
UI
and
how
I
can
take
this
thing
to
the
production
stage
and
then
spent
like
next
three
days
just
to
design
the
proper
front
end
so
I
can
visualize
it
Once
I
did
that
I
realized
I
can't
do
it
myself
because
I
have
to
launch
it
fast
so
I
just
reached
out
to
my
friend
and
I
said
hey
I'll
take
care
of
the
front
end
and
the
marketing
side
can
you
do
the
back
end
and
just
the
customer
service
and
he
was
very
stoked
about
this
idea
because
we
were
coding
with
AI
for
all
these
months
So
now
he
takes
care
of
the
back
end
still
we're
just
a
team
of
two
and
I
take
care
of
the
front
end
so
it
took
us
just
two
weeks
to
actually
from
that's
just
our
raw
UI
to
have
a
proper
responsive
web
app
launched
for
our
users
and
we
got
100
users
the
first
day
of
launch
that
was
on
24th
of
December
2024
I
just
love
CJ's
story
because
it's
proof
that
sometimes
it's
just
about
being
in
the
right
space
at
the
right
time
You
got
to
try
a
lot
of
things
but
when
you
finally
find
something
that
works
you're
ready
and
I
really
think
that
space
right
now
is
building
in
AI
Look
these
AI
coding
tools
are
powerful
but
they're
still
not
magic
yet
It's
still
really
early
days
and
the
space
can
feel
overwhelming
if
you
don't
have
the
right
system
or
framework
to
follow
So
shameless
plug
here
but
we've
been
working
on
something
for
a
while
it's
called
Starter
Story
Build
our
platform
for
learning
everything
AI
tools
in
vibe
coding
Our
flagship
program
is
the
AI
app
accelerator
where
in
about
two
weeks
without
knowing
how
to
code
you'll
ideate
build
and
launch
a
real
life
production
app
using
all
AI
tools
just
like
CJ
We've
been
running
this
program
for
a
while
behind
the
scenes
and
every
day
I'm
blown
away
by
the
stuff
being
built
in
there
and
just
how
fast
things
are
moving
But
this
is
way
more
than
something
you
could
get
into
course
because
you
walk
away
with
a
real
world
app
completely
built
with
AI
plus
skills
that
might
just
change
your
life
Not
only
will
you
learn
how
to
use
these
tools
and
to
build
stuff
you
never
thought
possible
but
the
program
will
also
give
you
structure
accountability
and
push
you
to
actually
take
action
get
it
done
and
ship
it
What's
even
cooler
is
that
we
have
office
hours
with
AI
coding
experts
to
help
you
when
you
get
stuck
and
a
whole
cohort
of
other
people
building
alongside
you
So
if
you're
curious
about
building
an
app
like
CJ
and
you
want
to
surround
yourself
with
other
builders
in
AI
then
head
to
the
first
link
in
the
description
to
see
if
the
AI
app
accelerator
might
be
worth
it
for
you
But
we're
keeping
it
small
right
now
because
we're
focused
on
quality
so
please
make
sure
to
head
to
that
first
link
put
your
email
in
if
you
want
to
save
your
spot
Now
let's
get
back
to
CJ
Okay
so
you
launched
it
this
kind
of
tweet
thread
blew
up
let's
go
deeper
into
the
marketing
what's
been
working
for
you
to
market
your
SaaS
and
grow
the
SaaS
since
If
I
have
to
go
all
over
again
I
would
do
this
playbook
which
is
content
audience
fit
approach
You
need
to
talk
to
users
what
is
the
core
problem
and
how
you
can
fix
it
I
would
literally
go
push
content
for
next
14
days
warm
up
my
audience
and
then
from
there
I
pick
up
what
are
their
main
core
pain
points
and
for
those
pain
points
what
is
the
major
one
and
then
I
just
build
a
product
that
fix
just
one
problem
and
then
I
push
that
product
to
that
core
group
that
gave
me
my
initial
users
and
from
there
onwards
I
would
just
double
down
on
the
content
that
works
and
I
will
find
more
people
like
the
core
audience
and
that's
how
you
can
grow
and
I
coined
this
term
called
tutorial
marketing
and
what
I
do
every
single
day
is
I
just
write
a
tutorial
in
the
form
of
thread
or
long
just
pick
one
topic
write
a
draft
and
then
the
next
day
I
just
edit
that
draft
with
clear
mind
then
I
design
assets
using
Canva
and
Figma
so
in
this
tutorial
same
playbook
in
the
hook
you
actually
talk
about
the
problem
and
then
you
show
them
the
exact
blueprint
what's
the
ideal
solution
and
then
you
position
your
SaaS
in
between
just
a
part
of
the
solution
That
type
of
content
actually
performs
really
well
because
that's
bookmarkable
content
and
shareable
content
if
your
content
is
bookmarked
algorithm
is
in
your
side
and
people
love
that
and
you
build
credibility
and
trust
so
that's
how
my
churn
rate
is
super
low
right
now
and
we're
growing
at
massive
pace
Nice
you're
posting
on
Twitter
you're
getting
lots
of
attention
but
how
do
you
actually
convert
that
into
users
and
then
to
paying
customers
Sure
my
funnel
is
super
simple
you
just
write
content
every
single
day
and
push
that
audience
or
traffic
to
your
waitlist
landing
page
and
you
collect
those
emails
because
from
those
emails
you
will
get
your
first
hundred
customers
because
they
already
know
that
this
is
the
pain
that
they
want
to
solve
and
they
also
trust
you
and
that's
why
they
gave
you
your
email
address
Cool
okay
so
can
you
just
explain
your
business
model
and
your
pricing
pricing
Sure
so
our
business
model
is
pretty
straightforward
we're
not
doing
any
trials
because
we're
using
top
of
the
line
AI
models
and
AI
models
right
now
are
not
cheap
so
we're
using
a
mixture
of
models
to
create
these
well
structured
documentation
Users
can
literally
go
to
our
landing
page
they
can
sign
up
either
for
a
monthly
membership
which
is
right
now
at
29
that
will
be
39
to
49
in
next
six
months
and
we're
also
doing
a
heavy
40
discount
on
yearly
membership
which
also
comes
with
different
perks
like
we
have
official
partnership
with
Cursor
AI
Winserve
Bolt
Lovable
and
all
the
top
AI
coding
tools
Cool
okay
tell
me
about
the
tools
languages
and
everything
you
use
to
build
and
run
this
business
So
for
a
code
guide
I
use
those
tech
stacks
that
are
basically
favored
by
AI
coding
models
so
for
the
front
end
we're
using
Next
js
and
for
Cloud
we
use
it
to
design
our
UI
components
using
3
7
model
and
that
costs
at
20
For
Cursor
basically
this
is
our
main
IDE
where
we
code
all
our
stuff
that
costs
us
20
Winserve
is
another
AI
IDE
that
we
use
15
a
month
Superbase
all
our
back
end
is
PostgreSQL
Superbase
so
25
a
month
and
that
covers
our
database
and
storage
Wercel
is
where
we
deploy
all
our
apps
so
48
a
month
Hatchner
is
basically
our
cloud
storage
server
it
costs
us
25
The
biggest
bill
is
OpenAI
API
which
is
2
800
Then
we
also
use
Cloud
API
and
that
costs
us
300
plus
Yamana
Flash
API
is
free
right
now
Cleric
Dev
is
for
user
authentication
that's
a
very
good
tool
Then
we
use
ConvertKit
to
send
emails
to
our
users
that
costs
us
45
a
month
so
all
in
all
cost
is
around
like
3
500
per
month
And
obviously
we're
not
doing
any
paid
marketing
yet
we're
doing
everything
organically
from
user
acquisition
to
converting
them
into
a
paid
user
everything
is
organic
all
my
traffic
is
coming
from
X
so
that's
why
the
margins
are
higher
Let's
move
on
to
a
little
bit
of
personal
stuff
so
you
live
in
Vancouver
you
mentioned
and
now
you
got
the
successful
startup
tell
me
what
a
day
in
the
life
is
like
for
CJ
Sure
so
I
wake
up
super
early
like
5
a
m
and
I
just
take
a
shower
go
for
prayer
and
start
my
two
hours
of
deep
work
session
just
like
you
then
I
just
go
for
a
walk
and
start
my
second
session
which
involves
research
coding
writing
content
then
I
take
networking
calls
in
the
afternoon
afternoon
and
then
in
the
evening
I
listen
to
my
favorite
podcast
read
a
book
for
10
minutes
and
then
write
schedule
for
the
next
day
so
super
simple
no
fancy
routines
but
that
I'm
sticking
with
this
routine
for
last
one
year
now
One
thing
I
think
is
cool
is
that
the
reason
why
we're
talking
right
now
is
that
you
actually
sent
me
a
message
inside
the
starter
story
community
you've
been
a
member
member
of
starter
story
for
some
time
and
when
I
saw
your
message
I
was
just
like
so
impressed
with
what
you
built
but
I'd
just
love
to
hear
about
your
experience
joining
starter
story
and
how
it
helped
you
get
to
this
place
where
you
now
have
this
successful
startup
Sure
and
I'm
not
promoting
starter
story
I
actually
got
really
good
value
out
of
starter
story
there's
a
lot
of
valuable
case
studies
which
I
used
actually
to
learn
a
lot
about
marketing
myself
like
how
this
guy
actually
created
this
idea
what
was
his
flow
and
then
how
he
ended
up
you
know
got
like
paying
users
so
I
read
like
more
than
100
plus
you
know
case
studies
there
so
starter
story
is
like
a
huge
asset
for
me
personally
and
then
when
I
reached
somewhere
you
were
the
first
guy
that
I
reached
out
to
on
on
slack
that
this
is
what
I
built
this
is
what
we're
trying
to
do
just
asking
for
different
suggestions
or
advice
from
you
and
yeah
here
we
are
right
now
Cool
man
that's
awesome
well
really
the
last
question
that
I
want
to
ask
you
is
you
know
AI
right
now
is
really
overwhelming
you
know
things
are
changing
so
fast
you
managed
to
find
a
way
to
make
it
work
and
you're
already
thinking
ahead
about
the
next
thing
what
advice
would
you
have
for
someone
watching
this
who
wants
to
get
into
AI
and
building
ideas
and
shipping
ideas
in
the
crazy
world
of
AI
Sure
I
think
we
are
living
in
the
best
time
to
build
software
or
any
sort
of
product
online
all
you
need
to
do
is
just
make
yourself
AI
native
the
first
step
can
be
just
go
and
chat
GPT
and
have
a
chat
with
this
AI
and
you
will
know
like
how
amazing
this
thing
is
next
step
can
be
you
can
literally
go
have
a
voice
conversation
just
brainstorm
just
improve
a
skill
set
with
that
so
you
understand
like
okay
this
is
not
a
bubble
this
is
not
a
trend
this
is
actually
a
lot
bigger
than
that
and
from
there
onwards
you
can
just
start
coding
English
is
the
hottest
programming
language
right
now
so
all
you
need
to
do
is
use
AI
for
research
about
the
market
then
write
code
then
write
content
and
then
distribute
the
product
so
every
single
thing
or
every
piece
of
the
puzzle
is
just
right
there
for
all
you
need
to
do
is
create
your
own
canvas
All
right
well
that's
the
best
advice
I've
heard
all
month
thanks
for
coming
on
CJ
it
was
it
was
just
so
cool
to
see
and
enjoyed
having
you
Thanks
Pat
thanks
for
having
me
loved
the
conversation
So
I
want
to
thank
CJ
for
coming
on
and
when
I
look
at
his
story
I
want
to
say
that
CJ
had
some
formula
for
success
but
I
just
don't
think
that's
the
case
he
just
got
started
shipped
a
bunch
of
stuff
and
while
doing
that
he
eventually
kind
of
stumbled
stumbled
into
an
idea
that
changed
his
life
I
see
a
lot
of
people
waiting
waiting
for
the
right
time
to
start
and
sitting
on
the
sidelines
and
then
I
see
others
who
are
just
getting
started
playing
around
with
these
tools
and
shipping
stuff
every
week
If
you
got
started
today
imagine
where
you'd
be
in
two
weeks
What's
crazy
about
these
AI
tools
is
basically
you
can
build
anything
you
want
without
having
to
be
an
engineer
or
knowing
how
to
code
Yes
it's
early
and
not
everything
is
perfect
but
the
early
bird
gets
the
bag
So
if
you're
serious
about
building
something
just
click
the
first
link
in
the
description
and
let's
build
All
right
I'll
see
you
guys
in
the
next
one
Peace
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