Indie Hackers is where people who built a business alone, or with one or two others, write up how they did it. Plenty of those write-ups are about AI.
Reading the posts is not enough, because the author wrote them. So we opened every product URL written in the post body and looked.
What we found when we opened them
Checked 2026-08-15.
| What | Still live? | Published price | One person? |
|---|---|---|---|
| Visualizee.ai — AI rendering for architects and designers | ✅ Live | From $15/month | ❌ has a careers page |
| GetWebsite.Report — AI website audit | ✅ Live | From $29/month (4 audits) | Author says solo |
| The "shipped in 30 days" tool | ❌ domain does not resolve | — | — |
The third row is the most important line in this article. We are not naming it — what you learn here is that this happens, not who it happened to. The two above you can click and check yourself right now.
⚠️ All three posts state revenue figures. We are not printing them. They are numbers the authors reported about themselves, with no way to check. What we printed instead is the published price, because anyone can open those pages right now and see it.
The order that showed up in all of them
Overlay the two that are still live with the Korean cases we verified earlier and the sequence is the same.
- 1
1. Pick one group of people
Not “everyone.” Architects. People selling cosmetics online. Teachers. Narrow enough that you can name what makes their week hard.
- 2
2. Find something they already pay for
Do not look for something new. Look for money already leaving their pocket. Architects pay for renderings; online sellers pay for photography.
- 3
3. Do that job by hand a few times
Before building anything. The founder of the website audit tool wrote that he closed a few deals by doing the work as a service first, then turned that workflow into the product.
- 4
4. Hand only the repeating part to AI
Not all of it. Only the part that is identical every time. Deciding what to build, what to charge, and how people find you — AI does none of that.
- 5
5. Change “paid once” into “paid monthly”
The founder of the rendering tool wrote that moving from one-time payments to a subscription was the turning point. Paid once means next month starts at zero again.
- 6
6. Count what is left
Not what came in. What is left after tools, platform fees and tax. That is the part you actually earned.
The same steps in plainer words
Step 1. Steps 1–2, plainly
Start from “who is paying right now,” not “what should I build.” Going where money already flows is easier than digging a new channel.
Step 2. Step 3, plainly
You cannot see which part repeats until you have done the job by hand. Build without doing it and you build something nobody uses.
Step 3. Step 4, plainly
AI is a machine that builds faster. It is not a machine that decides what to build. Confusing those two costs months.
Step 4. Steps 5–6, plainly
Make it arrive monthly, then subtract what goes out. Skip these two and you get busy without keeping anything.
Words you may not know
- Subscription
- Charged every month automatically instead of once, the way a streaming service works.
- No-code
- Building software by assembling it on screen instead of writing code. The website audit founder wrote that he started this way.
- Platform fee
- The cut a marketplace or payment company takes. It comes out before anything reaches you.
- Self-reported
- A number the person stated about themselves. Nobody else confirmed it.
What happens if you run the order backwards
✓ In this order
- Confirm who is already paying
- Do the job by hand and find the repeating part
- Hand only that part to AI
- Make the money arrive monthly
✕ Backwards
- Build first, then look for buyers
- Automate a job you have never done
- Expect AI to decide what to build
- Only ever get paid once
The common mistake is running it backwards. Building is the fun part, so people start there. Then the thing is finished and the search for buyers begins — several months later than it needed to.
What to check before you can take money
| Item | Selling domestically only | Selling abroad too |
|---|---|---|
| Who can buy | Individuals and businesses in your country | Anyone with a card |
| How you get paid | Local transfer or local payment provider | You need a provider that handles cross-border |
| Tax | Income reporting is yours | Sales tax differs by country; some providers handle it for you |
| To start | Identity verification; business buyers usually need an invoice | Providers usually require business registration |
This table is not tax or legal advice and does not replace it. It is a list of questions for an accountant, not answers. Cross-border payment and tax are covered in more detail in our first playbook.
Do this today
One at a time. You do not have to do all four today.
Step 1. 1. Name one group
Write down one group of people you already know something about. Not “coworkers” — something narrow, like “people reselling used clothes.”
Step 2. 2. Find where money leaves
Write three things that group already pays for. Ads, freelancers, software — anything.
Step 3. 3. Do one of them by hand
Pick one and actually do it once. Write down how long it took.
Step 4. 4. Mark the repeating part
While doing it, mark every step that felt identical to the last time. That is what goes to AI.
Once you finish step 4, put your numbers into the break-even calculator and see whether anything is left over.
What we do not know
- We do not know what this order earns. It is the sequence the three posts had in common. It is not a promise about outcomes
- We do not know how long it takes. We have no sample
- We do not know whether the stated figures are true. All self-reported, which is why we left them out
- We do not know whether the two live ones will be live next year. One of the three is already gone
Read that last line again. It was the most surprising part of writing this. We opened three and one was missing. When you read a success story, spend the ten seconds it takes to click the link and check whether it is still there.