Esc
I Failed For 700 Days Before My App Hit $10K/Month
Starter Story
Sep 2, 2026
Piotr built Visualizee, an AI rendering tool that lets architects and designers generate realistic home renders in seconds. This might sound like a success story... but Piotr was stuck at $150 per month for YEARS. Then, one single product pivot changed his entire business and grew it to $10K per month.
The AI Playbook: 50+ AI app ideas making millions: https://clickhubspot.com/qs4m
Say hi to Piotr: https://x.com/pobidowski
Check out Visualizee: https://visualizee.ai/
🔔 Follow the Second Channel: @StarterStoryBuild
🏁 We're hiring: starterstory.com/jobs
This video is an educational case study of this 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
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Transcript
Chapters
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Custom Built (link)
So
my
name
is
Piotr
and
I
built
an
AR
rendering
tool
Now
it
makes
10k
per
month
This
is
Piotr
a
developer
with
a
full
time
job
building
his
own
projects
on
the
side
But
he
had
one
little
problem
For
two
full
years
his
main
project
was
stuck
at
about
100
a
month
But
for
the
two
first
years
it
was
a
nightmare
That
was
until
he
made
one
simple
change
just
six
months
ago
that
skyrocketed
his
SaaS
from
over
150
to
over
10
000
a
month
So
I
asked
Piotr
to
come
onto
the
channel
to
break
all
this
down
And
in
this
episode
we'll
dive
into
the
simple
SaaS
that
he
built
on
nights
and
weekends
while
he
had
a
full
time
job
The
biggest
mistake
that
kept
him
from
growing
for
over
two
years
and
how
that
led
to
the
one
pivot
that
drove
him
to
10
000
a
month
fast
All
right
this
one
is
gonna
be
good
Let's
dive
in
I'm
Pat
Walls
and
this
is
Starter
Story
Piotr
welcome
to
the
channel
I'm
pumped
to
have
you
on
here
Tell
me
who
are
you
What
app
did
you
build
And
what's
your
story
So
my
name
is
Piotr
and
I
built
Visualizee
an
AR
rendering
tool
for
architects
and
interior
designers
Now
it
makes
10k
per
month
I
launched
almost
three
years
ago
But
for
the
two
first
years
it
was
a
nightmare
I
was
actually
stuck
at
100
per
month
But
now
after
pivot
six
months
ago
the
revenue
exploded
I
did
everything
solo
while
working
full
time
as
a
software
engineer
Today
I'm
excited
to
share
what
the
pivot
was
and
how
I
grew
it
Can
you
explain
what
your
app
or
your
SaaS
does
Pull
up
some
of
your
revenue
screenshots
Tell
me
what
this
is
and
who's
buying
Yeah
sure
So
Visualizee
is
basically
for
architects
and
interior
designers
Creating
realistic
visualizations
is
time
consuming
Thanks
to
the
AI
you
can
now
do
it
in
seconds
So
you
just
upload
a
sketch
or
a
model
to
my
app
ask
it
to
make
it
realistic
In
a
matter
of
seconds
now
you
can
present
to
your
clients
the
home
or
the
interior
in
different
designs
different
styles
different
colors
whatever
you
like
I'm
having
a
chat
called
Visi
So
it's
an
AI
assistant
that
helps
people
to
understand
what
they
want
so
we
don't
have
to
understand
how
the
prompt
engineering
works
And
it
will
send
it
to
AI
image
creation
services
and
it
will
bring
you
realistic
visualization
to
you
That's
awesome
Could
you
pull
up
some
of
your
revenue
dashboards
I'm
going
to
have
some
more
questions
for
you
So
here
you
have
our
current
MRR
is
8
2
But
combining
with
one
time
payments
we
are
close
to
10
000
per
month
So
as
you
can
see
we
are
trying
to
reach
to
the
architects
and
photoreal
renders
for
your
next
client
review
So
you
basically
want
to
present
the
client
what
their
new
home
will
look
like
And
here
we
have
a
simple
video
fully
created
in
the
app
So
I
can
see
from
sketch
it's
a
realistic
car
So
then
we
have
a
sketch
of
a
beautiful
home
Then
you
have
a
very
realistic
render
Boom
the
car
is
there
Currently
you
can
start
trial
for
seven
days
for
free
And
after
that
you
have
35
per
month
or
80
per
month
depending
on
how
much
you
want
to
render
Currently
I
have
around
300
active
subscribers
When
it
comes
to
daily
stats
now
it's
over
300
daily
on
the
landing
page
Around
5
to
10
new
trials
daily
with
25
converting
to
paid
Okay
cool
Let's
talk
about
your
background
How
do
you
get
here
Well
I'm
a
software
developer
with
over
20
years
of
experience
I'm
based
in
Poland
and
I'm
currently
working
full
time
as
a
tech
lead
at
Polish
Software
House
I've
spent
over
two
decades
working
for
others
and
I've
decided
to
change
something
and
work
for
myself
Nice
How'd
you
come
up
with
this
idea
and
know
that
hey
this
had
potential
that
it
could
potentially
make
money
This
idea
actually
came
to
me
like
three
years
ago
right
when
AI
image
generation
first
started
making
waves
So
I
saw
the
potential
but
I
didn't
want
to
create
another
generic
AI
toy
I
just
wanted
to
find
a
specific
niche
that
I
can
cover
with
So
I
decided
to
you
know
build
it
and
here
we
are
Nice
Tell
me
about
the
build
process
How
long
did
it
take
you
to
build
this
to
get
this
to
launch
Tell
me
about
that
build
timeline
The
first
version
took
approximately
five
months
after
hours
obviously
And
V1
like
we
probably
know
was
a
node
based
system
similar
to
Comfy
UI
I
had
a
direct
feedback
from
people
Okay
it's
too
hard
to
understand
for
us
So
I
decided
to
pivot
and
to
simplify
the
product
to
chart
based
solution
with
the
AI
prompt
assistant
because
I
know
that
people
have
troubles
with
prompt
engineering
So
I
decided
to
create
a
layer
of
the
AI
that
will
help
people
first
understand
what
they
want
ask
follow
up
questions
and
then
build
a
perfect
prompt
for
them
It
helped
me
go
from
150
per
month
to
nearly
10
000
per
month
What
I
think
is
so
cool
about
Piotr's
story
is
that
actually
simplifying
his
product
down
to
essentially
a
chat
GBT
wrapper
is
what
actually
created
the
growth
A
lot
of
developers
watching
this
are
wondering
okay
how
can
I
add
more
features
to
my
product
How
can
I
make
it
more
technical
and
more
complicated
When
this
story
right
here
is
an
example
of
when
keeping
it
simple
actually
creates
growth
So
if
this
idea
is
interesting
to
you
well
I've
got
something
for
you
We've
put
together
our
free
database
over
50
plus
AI
wrapper
businesses
that
are
making
money
right
now
These
are
not
complex
over
complicated
apps
These
are
just
apps
that
are
built
on
top
of
tools
like
chat
GBT
and
Cloud
and
similar
to
what
Piotr
built
today
and
what's
clearly
working
If
you
download
this
database
you're
going
to
get
real
businesses
with
real
revenue
numbers
pricing
and
breakdowns
of
how
they
actually
grew
If
you
are
ready
to
build
something
that
can
make
money
just
head
to
the
first
link
in
the
description
to
get
inspired
and
see
what
is
actually
working
I
promise
you
won't
regret
it
All
right
let's
get
back
to
the
episode
Okay
well
let's
talk
about
that
This
is
the
thing
that
I
think
is
actually
the
most
interesting
thing
about
your
business
that
you
built
And
the
story
behind
it
is
this
idea
of
the
product
pivot
You
didn't
necessarily
pivot
the
audience
You
didn't
necessarily
pivot
the
idea
completely
You
just
pivoted
the
way
the
product
is
presented
Can
you
show
off
this
pivot
potentially
the
before
and
the
after
and
explain
what
made
your
revenue
go
like
this
The
node
system
was
really
complicated
First
you
need
to
upload
some
image
that
creates
one
node
Then
you
have
to
connect
to
another
node
write
something
down
then
click
generate
You
have
a
lot
of
different
parameters
around
So
as
you
can
see
it
looks
like
chat
GBT
But
we
can
just
upload
some
image
and
just
ask
create
realist
image
Now
we
have
a
plan
So
you
can
select
what
you
want
Some
materials
So
let's
say
raw
concrete
and
blue
hour
All
right
and
let's
hit
generate
As
you
can
see
it's
done
right
Wow
that
is
cool
You
can
also
produce
videos
So
this
is
the
video
Oh
my
gosh
Okay
I
see
So
now
it's
something
you
can
send
to
your
clients
and
land
the
deal
Yeah
no
that's
amazing
Before
we
get
to
some
of
the
results
of
it
what's
like
your
big
takeaway
from
this
pivot
for
anyone
that's
watching
this
who's
also
building
products
and
wondering
okay
why
don't
I
have
you
know
why
am
I
not
seeing
traction
I
think
I
stick
too
long
that
my
idea
was
great
And
that
was
hard
for
me
to
pivot
earlier
So
I've
used
simplicity
of
chat
GBT
and
just
apply
to
my
app
That's
amazing
What
did
things
start
to
look
like
once
you
made
this
change
and
how
you
knew
things
were
actually
working
I
looked
at
the
data
right
The
data
always
said
it
true
Before
I
had
like
only
a
couple
of
signups
but
after
this
change
people
started
rendering
So
it
made
very
easy
for
them
With
that
pivot
I
also
decided
to
test
one
thing
One
time
payments
are
not
bringing
repeated
revenue
So
we
need
to
change
the
monthly
recurring
payments
And
that
works
That's
awesome
Looking
back
on
this
multi
year
experience
and
finally
figuring
out
the
unlock
what
would
be
your
like
big
lessons
and
takeaways
next
time
you
go
and
build
a
product
product
Or
if
you're
going
to
give
advice
to
another
founder
what
are
your
big
lessons
here
Yeah
sure
So
friction
in
your
product
is
killing
your
conversion
For
two
years
I
blamed
slow
growth
and
marketing
when
the
real
problem
was
that
my
product
was
too
hard
to
use
The
fix
was
removing
the
thing
standing
between
a
visitor
and
their
first
success
And
the
second
lesson
is
charge
subscriptions
from
day
one
Subscriptions
are
the
thing
that
drive
the
growth
You
need
to
start
charging
from
day
one
and
don't
be
afraid
that
someone
will
not
pay
If
the
product
is
valuable
then
they
will
pay
What
kept
you
going
with
this
idea
specifically
How
did
you
know
that
it
might
work
out
two
years
later
One
this
is
my
first
product
ever
released
So
it
was
really
hard
for
me
you
know
just
remove
it
from
the
internet
And
the
second
one
was
I
was
looking
at
the
competition
They've
worked
So
the
competition
is
working
right
There
is
a
lot
of
solutions
They
have
a
lot
of
customers
I
thought
to
myself
it
has
to
work
Why
it's
not
working
I
have
to
find
why
it's
not
working
for
me
And
after
two
years
and
this
pivot
it
actually
works
also
for
me
Let's
change
topics
slightly
What's
like
the
tech
stack
and
tools
behind
a
solo
product
side
project
like
yours
is
doing
10
000
MRR
So
I'm
using
cursor
and
recently
also
cloud
code
So
those
are
the
two
major
ones
that
I
actually
built
products
Then
there
is
a
full
AI
It's
actually
the
third
party
service
that
provides
a
GPU
There
is
Ahrefs
going
to
my
SEO
Mailerite
for
sending
emails
email
automation
Superbase
for
database
authentication
and
storage
Verso
for
hosting
and
obviously
Stripe
for
payments
payments
I'm
using
Next
js
and
Posthug
for
monitor
Google
Analytics
and
Sentry
for
error
tracking
All
right
Well
thank
you
for
sharing
that
Last
question
that
we
ask
all
founders
to
come
on
Starter
Story
What
would
be
your
advice
to
younger
Piotr
Or
for
anyone
watching
this
that
maybe
is
a
little
bit
like
you
developer
building
stuff
maybe
overthinking
things
a
little
bit
What
would
be
your
advice
Don't
build
the
most
powerful
product
you
can
Build
the
simplest
product
your
customer
needs
So
that's
why
I
will
tell
my
younger
one
skip
the
complicated
node
system
launch
the
simplest
possible
version
with
subscriptions
and
hear
and
listen
to
user's
feedback
Great
feedback
Congrats
Good
luck
on
your
journey
of
quitting
your
full
time
job
and
going
all
in
on
this
And
thanks
for
coming
on
and
sharing
everything
Thanks
Pat
Pat
Gus
producer
what
do
you
think
of
Piotr
and
Bizzy
What
do
I
think
When
he
showed
us
the
tool
I
thought
man
this
is
really
awesome
Like
I
think
right
now
it's
at
10
000
a
month
Like
you
said
in
the
interview
I
could
see
this
really
growing
because
it
kind
of
solves
a
real
problem
and
it's
really
easy
to
use
I
was
really
impressed
by
the
fact
that
he
stayed
at
it
for
multiple
years
I
don't
know
why
that's
sticking
with
me
right
now
but
I
was
like
man
two
years
at
100
a
month
That
was
something
I
was
thinking
about
throughout
the
interview
I
was
like
man
that's
crazy
that
he
did
that
for
so
long
So
that's
just
one
thought
Yeah
no
we
didn't
talk
about
this
in
the
interview
but
I
think
it
came
off
very
obviously
that
he
was
passionate
about
the
idea
and
the
problem
being
solved
And
that's
not
something
you
can
fake
but
it's
something
that
you
can
take
away
from
this
video
is
that
like
yeah
nobody
would
stick
out
an
idea
for
two
years
that
he
didn't
care
about
He
clearly
cared
about
this
idea
Once
we
saw
his
product
it
was
very
obvious
that
he
put
a
lot
of
time
effort
blood
sweat
and
tears
into
this
thing
This
isn't
like
AI
slop
This
is
like
being
passionate
about
a
space
and
a
problem
that's
being
solved
Yeah
I
think
it
kind
of
relates
to
the
pivot
because
I
feel
like
because
he
kept
doing
it
he
was
able
to
like
kind
of
maneuver
his
way
to
the
version
of
the
product
that
actually
worked
Speaking
from
my
own
experience
you
know
know
I've
given
up
on
a
lot
of
things
really
early
And
I
look
back
a
year
later
and
thought
man
if
I
would
have
just
kept
at
that
I
could
have
maybe
figured
that
out
Right
A
lesson
I'm
getting
is
like
because
he
sort
of
stayed
in
it
he
was
able
to
like
slowly
pivot
his
way
to
the
right
path
Yeah
no
I
don't
think
that
he
would
have
gotten
to
the
pivot
pivot
without
his
passion
for
the
space
because
his
passion
for
the
space
led
to
him
talking
to
customers
and
empathizing
with
customers
customers
That
probably
comes
down
more
to
like
motivation
and
excitement
about
the
problem
rather
than
just
pure
willpower
to
stay
Right
I
don't
think
willpower
will
ever
work
So
as
long
as
you
pick
something
that
you're
a
problem
that
you're
excited
about
building
eventually
you'll
probably
get
to
this
point
where
you
realize
that
hey
this
is
about
the
problem
being
solved
Let
me
simplify
the
product
Let
me
just
solve
this
one
little
problem
for
these
architects
or
interior
designers
which
led
to
that
So
that's
something
you're
going
to
notice
with
this
database
that
we've
linked
down
to
in
the
description
right
here
which
is
over
50
Claude
wrappers
that
are
making
over
10
000
a
month
Look
chat
GBT
and
Claude
they
have
billions
of
users
They
love
this
chat
interface
And
clearly
the
lesson
here
was
keep
it
simple
In
that
description
down
there
you're
going
to
see
50
ideas
where
they
kept
it
simple
They
built
a
simple
AI
wrapper
and
that
got
them
hundreds
of
customers
and
thousands
of
dollars
in
revenue
You
can
see
those
real
examples
right
down
there
in
the
description
download
them
check
them
out
Maybe
it
will
inspire
you
to
build
a
product
product
around
a
problem
you're
passionate
about
Check
that
down
there
in
the
description
Otherwise
we'll
see
you
guys
in
the
next
one
Peace
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