Can AI really build a working business for you?
I just got an unexpected email.
“You’ve just received your first payment through Stripe.
Your first payout for this payment of US$159.00 (minus any fees) should land in your bank account soon.”
Out of nowhere, my SaaS got its first customer.
And it wasn’t even the cheapest plan; they opted for the most expensive option.
Most of you reading this probably took my course on becoming an ‘AIpreneur, where I shared most of the principles I used to build this SaaS in the first place.*
However, back then I actually hadn’t made a sale.
Today that’s changed, and I want to share exactly what got me here. Because it’s not the strategy I had planned at the beginning.
But first, let’s go back to the beginning.
February 2025.
I’m trying to revive my Medium account, especially my earnings.
Last year I had made over $1K writing on Medium, but the past month I didn’t even get a payout.
Naturally, that woke me up.
As I was looking for a solution, I realised something.
All the big writers had a plan.
They had something that gave them a clear direction and form of clarity about what to create next.
I didn’t have that.
I was just randomly throwing darts at a wall, hoping to hit a target I hadn’t even located.
That’s when I heard the term ‘writing system’ for the first time.
And I instantly got to work.
Within 48 hours, I had built the MVP for CreatiFun
It was a tool that used AI to generate very, very good writing systems.
But after that, I didn’t try to get customers.
I just left it where it was, mentioned it a few times online and never looked back. Until last month.
Because that’s when I realised this project has more potential than I initially thought it had, but none of that would show if I never got it into the hands of real people.
So, I came up with a plan: building in public.
For those who’ve never heard of it, this is a trend on 𝕏 and YouTube where people essentially just share all the steps they’re taking while building a SaaS.
Really it’s just spamming authentic posts and hoping some of them go viral.
I decided to post on 2 platforms, sharing a daily update of my journey towards my first customer and what I did that day.
Slowly but surely, people noticed.
Even though I wasn’t sharing any ‘value’ with my tweets, people found the story interesting and started to check out my projects.
I even got some new sponsorship deals from Medium just by tweeting about things related to my SaaS.
And then, out of nowhere, I got a customer.
I’ll be honest, I was sceptical at first.
When starting this project, I doubted it would actually work out.
After all, it felt like everyone was building something, and probably only a small percentage of people actually end up succeeding.
While I can’t say my SaaS has ‘made it’ after a single customer, it is great validation and motivation to keep going.
But that’s just my story.
What about you? How can you benefit from what I learnt?
Honestly, this has convinced me that anyone actually can make their first $$$ online from building a SaaS. But it’s not the easiest option in my opinion.
So unless you’re very passionate about solving a specific problem, I wouldn’t start building something too soon.
Writing might just be an easier way to make your first money online, while costing less to get started and taking less time.
I combine both because I know writing doesn’t scale. Once you approach $1K/month, the odds of actually breaking that are very small.
A SaaS has way bigger earning potential.
But it takes a lot more time to build and way more time to market.
I think most people underestimate the marketing side of things. However, if I was able to get a customer after one week of marketing, so can you.
And if you’re thinking of excuses like “But you have thousands of followers on Medium, it’s easy that way,” don’t bother.
All that matters is the traffic you bring to your SaaS. For me in the past 7 days, that comes down to 17 users and just over 100 page views.
Anyone could’ve got that traffic.
In fact, there’s very little traffic.
Whatever you choose to do, remember this.
You’re in front of a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity.
AI is changing people’s lives left and right. Why not your life next?
Whether it’s by building a little app you’ve always needed, writing your first blog posts (don’t generate them with AI!!) or creating viral videos using AI, the possibilities are endless.
What matters right now is picking something and trying. You