How I Built It: $10K/Month AI Image Generator
Starter Story
Oct 15, 2024
This is how Pauline built an AI home staging app to $100,000/year.
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That's
when
I
started
AI
Crea
which
is
at
8
000
MRR
currently
I
was
still
an
employee
at
IBM
How
did
this
girl
build
a
100
000
per
year
AI
app
while
working
a
full
time
job
Well
it's
because
of
how
she's
growing
it
To
find
customers
online
you
have
to
think
about
where
your
clients
are
Pauline
spent
her
first
few
years
as
a
part
time
indie
hacker
building
side
projects
but
not
seeing
much
success
after
several
failures
she
found
a
winning
idea
in
one
of
the
hottest
yet
most
saturated
industries
right
now
AI
apps
But
it
turns
out
there's
still
plenty
more
opportunity
than
you
might
think
I
think
the
biggest
opportunity
might
be
to
I
spent
over
an
hour
talking
to
Pauline
about
her
AI
business
and
what
I
really
tried
to
figure
figure
out
was
how
she
was
able
to
succeed
in
such
a
crowded
market
The
good
news
is
she
shares
everything
How
to
find
good
ideas
her
framework
for
marketing
an
AI
tool
and
some
unique
ways
to
reduce
churn
for
your
users
Alright
let's
get
into
it
I'm
Pat
Walls
and
this
is
Starter
Story
Welcome
Pauline
Thank
you
for
coming
on
It's
great
to
have
you
Tell
me
about
who
you
are
and
the
business
you
built
Hi
I'm
Pauline
and
I
built
AI
Crea
It's
a
service
to
renovate
homes
in
seconds
thanks
to
AI
You
just
upload
a
picture
to
the
service
you
select
a
style
and
a
few
seconds
later
you
see
your
kitchen
in
a
very
modern
or
Scandinavian
way
AI
Crea
has
more
than
8
000
users
right
now
It
makes
around
8
000
euros
every
month
On
the
business
model
when
someone
signs
up
to
the
SaaS
they
have
three
trials
and
then
they
are
required
to
pay
to
continue
to
use
the
service
Pricing
models
is
a
one
time
payment
with
a
certain
number
of
photos
and
you
also
have
a
monthly
payment
with
some
extra
features
So
you
built
this
100
000
per
year
app
while
you
had
a
full
time
job
Tell
me
more
about
that
I
learned
to
code
in
engineering
school
After
college
I
joined
IBM
and
after
this
I
kind
of
switched
and
I
said
data
science
is
not
what
I
want
to
do
all
my
life
What
I
want
to
do
all
my
life
is
entrepreneurship
But
I
wasn't
ready
to
make
a
big
jump
of
becoming
an
indie
hacker
because
I
needed
money
as
well
When
I
worked
at
IBM
I
had
only
the
night
and
weekends
I
stopped
IBM
in
June
two
months
ago
I
think
it's
really
different
when
you
are
working
on
a
day
job
or
you
are
indie
hacking
full
time
Wow
that's
amazing
Your
side
project
allowed
you
to
quit
your
9
to
5
and
now
you're
a
full
time
founder
What
I
want
to
know
is
how
do
you
come
up
with
ideas
I
think
I
usually
find
ideas
when
I
encounter
some
problem
Either
me
or
friends
When
it's
friends
like
for
a
career
I
ask
questions
a
lot
of
questions
Really
You
have
this
problem
But
when
how
frequently
do
you
have
this
problem
I
really
think
am
I
able
to
do
better
Am
I
able
to
build
something
around
it
Am
I
able
to
monetize
it
and
to
find
clients
That's
a
really
important
question
And
if
the
answer
is
yes
to
everything
I
start
working
on
it
Okay
cool
So
we
talked
about
ideas
we
talked
about
problems
My
question
is
once
you
find
that
idea
how
do
you
validate
that
it's
an
idea
worth
building
and
that
it
can
make
money
I
start
some
marketing
or
I
start
to
communicate
on
my
product
If
I
have
some
client
kind
of
quickly
then
I
say
okay
maybe
there
is
something
that
I
could
do
around
it
Like
for
AI
Crew
I
build
an
MVP
and
then
I
show
it
to
a
few
real
estate
agents
that
I
found
online
or
in
personal
network
For
people
that
say
that's
awesome
I
want
to
buy
it
now
And
they
actually
paid
for
this
So
that
was
the
validation
Okay
so
get
your
MVP
out
there
see
if
people
are
interested
That
is
the
way
to
build
But
can
you
tell
me
a
little
bit
more
about
what
it
looks
like
to
actually
create
that
In
my
opinion
the
sooner
you
ship
the
better
Because
sometimes
you
imagine
your
client
wants
this
but
what
they
actually
want
is
this
So
it's
really
hard
to
imagine
what
your
clients
want
if
you
don't
have
clients
When
you
start
don't
expect
everything
to
be
perfect
AI
Crea
for
instance
MVP
was
a
simple
feature
bad
quality
It
was
done
maybe
in
a
month
but
then
it's
a
year
of
work
to
improve
it
Pauline
is
the
perfect
example
of
how
one
person
can
turn
a
simple
idea
into
thousands
of
dollars
even
while
working
a
full
time
job
And
her
blueprint
was
simple
She
found
an
idea
she
built
a
really
simple
MVP
and
then
she
validated
that
it
could
actually
make
money
by
getting
it
in
front
of
her
actual
customers
That
final
step
is
where
almost
everyone
goes
wrong
And
this
is
why
we
built
the
Starter
Story
Academy
It's
a
five
week
program
where
you'll
come
up
with
an
idea
you'll
build
something
simple
and
then
you'll
spend
all
your
time
focused
on
validation
and
if
this
thing
can
actually
make
money
Inside
the
academy
is
a
clear
and
actionable
track
you
can
follow
with
milestones
deadlines
and
it's
all
gamified
to
get
you
to
take
action
and
work
on
the
things
that
matter
This
is
not
just
another
course
This
is
the
turning
point
in
your
journey
Imagine
what
you
could
accomplish
in
five
weeks
if
you
simply
worked
on
the
right
things
What's
even
cooler
is
that
you'll
do
it
inside
our
community
of
thousands
of
successful
founders
working
on
similar
problems
and
building
online
businesses
that
will
change
their
lives
So
if
you're
serious
about
actually
doing
this
thing
and
you're
ready
to
take
action
I'm
going
to
leave
a
link
in
the
description
where
you
can
learn
more
Okay
so
we
build
the
MVP
How
do
we
go
and
actually
find
customers
To
find
customers
online
you
have
to
think
about
where
your
clients
are
You
have
many
social
media
like
for
instance
Facebook
or
LinkedIn
or
Reddit
Go
through
them
and
just
type
in
the
search
bar
like
you
are
looking
for
a
real
estate
agent
type
it
in
LinkedIn
Let's
see
if
you
can
find
some
communities
on
it
For
instance
AICrea
my
best
marketing
channel
is
probably
Facebook
and
physical
events
Maybe
because
real
estate
agents
it's
really
an
activity
of
humans
But
for
Next
js
directory
my
main
marketing
channel
is
Twitter
because
I
have
a
big
audience
there
and
my
audience
is
mainly
developers
or
people
who
want
to
do
handy
hacking
So
this
product
really
is
a
fit
with
them
Okay
so
the
best
places
to
market
our
products
are
where
our
customers
hang
out
right
But
what
if
we
want
to
accelerate
that
growth
at
the
very
beginning
What
are
specifically
some
good
places
to
launch
apps
as
a
solopreneur
Now
I
prefer
to
launch
on
Productant
in
order
to
get
a
backlink
for
SEO
because
it's
a
very
good
backlink
but
the
visibility
is
less
good
than
it
used
to
be
So
I'm
launching
on
Productant
and
also
on
Twitter
because
I
have
a
big
audience
there
Probably
I
will
use
my
newsletter
as
well
I
didn't
launch
Next
js
directory
on
Facebook
but
I
launched
AICrea
on
Facebook
All
right
so
now
you
got
people
interested
in
the
product
The
next
thing
I
go
to
is
how
to
monetize
it
How
do
you
determine
plans
and
overall
pricing
strategy
for
an
app
like
yours
If
you
sell
for
a
low
price
you
have
an
image
of
being
low
cost
You
don't
have
the
same
client
by
selling
low
cost
to
high
cost
And
also
by
selling
higher
price
you
might
have
less
clients
but
it's
less
support
as
well
So
you
have
to
also
think
about
how
do
you
want
to
be
perceived
and
how
much
support
are
you
able
to
deliver
as
well
Okay
let's
talk
about
business
models
Do
you
prefer
a
recurring
subscription
or
one
time
payment
I'd
love
to
hear
your
thoughts
on
this
I
like
to
offer
both
subscription
and
one
time
payment
because
some
people
really
don't
like
subscription
I
had
a
few
subscriptions
in
many
services
and
it
was
a
nightmare
to
cancel
I
don't
like
this
kind
of
retention
My
button
is
very
clear
When
you
subscribe
you
have
it
canceled
and
it's
really
easy
I
think
it's
really
important
to
earn
trust
from
your
customer
as
All
right
I
love
it
Besides
building
trust
with
customers
are
there
any
other
hacks
to
reduce
churn
or
just
increase
revenue
in
general
Last
year
I
had
a
high
churn
and
I
really
reduced
it
like
drastically
by
adding
yearly
plan
It
sounds
stupid
but
now
they
are
engaged
for
a
year
year
They
will
use
the
service
better
The
second
one
is
I
did
a
free
trial
So
now
people
can
try
before
subscribing
They
are
able
to
see
if
the
service
fits
their
needs
And
the
third
point
is
I
really
improved
the
service
The
quality
is
much
better
than
last
year
It
feels
really
like
a
photo
Okay
and
what's
the
tech
stack
you
use
How
do
you
stay
up
to
date
with
AI
and
run
your
business
profitably
I
use
Discord
every
day
to
talk
with
my
co
founder
and
people
working
with
us
I
use
Crisp
for
the
support
clients
so
they
can
chat
with
us
through
the
chat
window
I
use
Twitter
a
lot
to
share
my
journey
to
share
what's
new
on
AI
Crea
LinkedIn
as
well
I'm
starting
to
use
it
I
use
also
Buffer
to
schedule
my
tweets
Behive
to
send
my
newsletters
But
I'm
still
on
the
free
trial
on
this
Brevo
for
the
marketing
automation
of
emails
The
database
authentication
is
super
based
but
this
is
more
like
a
technical
tool
I
guess
I
mainly
use
Next
js
as
a
language
but
for
AI
models
I
use
Python
I
think
my
business
costs
around
three
or
four
thousand
euros
to
run
each
month
but
it
includes
the
servers
servers
It
includes
some
marketing
like
we
run
ads
sometimes
Also
it
could
be
the
cost
of
a
freelancer
and
going
to
personal
events
I
could
cut
some
costs
but
for
the
moment
I'm
not
trying
to
save
the
most
money
I'm
trying
to
invest
in
order
to
grow
the
business
Okay
tell
me
about
the
biggest
opportunities
in
the
AI
space
right
now
I
think
the
biggest
opportunities
might
be
to
insert
AI
in
existing
products
You
receive
emails
every
day
What
if
you
have
an
AI
that
can
help
you
to
answer
to
your
email
This
is
a
service
plugged
in
another
one
and
that's
something
that
could
do
because
the
biggest
opportunity
I
think
is
service
Got
it
Okay
another
question
for
you
Since
this
space
is
heavily
dominated
by
dudes
how
does
it
feel
for
you
to
be
a
successful
girl
indie
hacker
Yeah
I
don't
know
why
but
girls
are
not
visible
They
are
not
doing
much
indie
hacking
So
please
don't
retain
yourself
if
you
are
a
girl
to
think
oh
but
there
is
only
men
It's
not
for
me
No
it's
for
you
as
well
If
you
enjoy
coding
if
you
enjoy
SaaS
please
do
it
I
think
it's
really
important
also
if
you
are
a
girl
to
be
visible
because
you
will
inspire
others
to
do
the
same
Don't
hide
yourself
or
return
yourself
from
building
if
it's
something
that
you
want
to
try
All
right
last
question
that
we
always
ask
all
founders
when
we
interview
them
If
you
could
stand
on
a
younger
Pauline's
shoulder
and
give
her
some
advice
maybe
when
you
were
just
starting
out
what
would
you
tell
her
Okay
so
if
you
want
to
start
indie
hacking
please
don't
wait
for
the
perfect
product
to
launch
Just
start
to
do
something
because
it's
highly
likely
that
your
first
product
will
fail
I
don't
know
any
entrepreneur
who
achieved
success
at
the
first
time
So
you
will
learn
a
lot
during
the
journey
So
please
chip
very
fast
Launch
when
you
have
an
MVP
and
ask
for
a
lot
of
feedback
and
be
consistent
And
also
I
think
make
connection
with
people
who
are
doing
indie
hacking
We
exchange
best
practices
We
exchange
tips
We
exchange
some
things
that
didn't
work
in
order
to
improve
us
And
my
biggest
lesson
was
I
think
it
was
to
invest
in
yourself
You
are
the
common
point
of
every
project
that
you
build
And
think
about
how
you
can
reach
your
customers
Don't
think
like
oh
I
could
do
some
Reddit
message
or
Discord
message
or
DM
people
I
mean
think
about
really
how
you
could
build
genuine
connection
to
your
customers
Thank
you
for
coming
on
the
Starter
Story
channel
sharing
everything
you
know
and
inspiring
millions
of
people
to
start
their
own
business
See
ya
Yo
guys
I
really
hope
you
enjoyed
the
video
and
got
some
good
nuggets
with
Pauline
I
think
the
business
that
she
built
is
really
impressive
And
I
really
like
the
way
that
she
went
about
building
it
talking
to
customers
and
actually
building
something
that
people
needed
But
I
want
to
say
something
real
quick
At
the
end
of
the
day
the
purpose
of
this
video
is
to
show
you
that
regular
people
like
Pauline
change
their
lives
by
building
a
business
But
watching
this
video
is
not
going
to
magically
give
you
a
business
that
changes
your
life
You
need
to
go
find
an
idea
you
need
to
take
action
and
you
need
to
work
relentlessly
to
validate
it
and
see
if
it's
something
that
can
actually
work
While
learning
is
important
action
is
the
thing
that's
actually
going
to
get
you
your
dream
outcome
So
if
you
feel
like
you're
still
struggling
on
this
maybe
some
analysis
paralysis
not
exactly
sure
what
to
work
on
then
I
highly
recommend
checking
out
the
Starter
Story
Academy
Again
it's
not
for
everyone
It's
only
if
you're
really
serious
about
actually
doing
this
thing
actually
building
a
business
while
you
have
a
full
time
job
that
could
change
your
life
Inside
the
academy
you'll
get
an
actionable
blueprint
to
follow
every
day
It
will
give
you
the
right
habits
but
most
importantly
it
will
put
you
on
the
path
on
how
to
find
an
idea
how
to
validate
it's
an
idea
that
can
actually
make
money
and
how
to
actually
build
that
idea
and
bring
it
to
life
Just
head
to
the
first
link
in
the
description
if
you
want
to
learn
more
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Peace
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