Today I’m going to tell you a story about a founder who started with $400 bucks and turned it into a $4.5 million a year business.
He’s following the same playbook many others I interviewed are using.
Jon Cheney had an idea:
What if there was a site that let him see where in the world his friends traveled?
He wanted to check with his friends before traveling to Iceland/Sydney/Austin/etc, so he could get local tips and maybe even introductions to people.
He asked a dev shop for a quote.
Their price?
$105,000!
He previously raised money for a startup and sold it. He didn’t want to go back to the insane demands that came with it.
So he tried Replit, one of the ai-builders that let you build by chatting with it.
(Side note: Have you tried these vibe code apps yet?)
He didn’t just build that travel idea.
He built 20 ideas!
And he couldn’t stop talking about it.
But talking doesn’t build a business. (Unless you’re a podcaster, like me.)
So he challenged himself to make money.
He talked with ChatGPT to figure out what business to build.
ChatGPT interviewed him about what he knew, what he wanted to do, what he’d be good at, etc.
He had his idea: teach AI.
(Wait! Don’t click away. He didn’t end up being an infomarketer. That idea was a bust.)
He vibe coded a site. He bought some Facebook ads. He got clicks.
No one bought.
Turns out Jon, a newbie vibe coder, screwed up his connection to Stripe. $0 ended up in his account.
So he challenged himself to make money in 48 hours.
He started DM’ing people on LinkedIn. He got on calls. He poked around for ideas.
AND HE GOT A SALE!
$15,000 by a CEO he was loosely connected to who wanted to bring AI to his company.
Jon could do that.
He could help the CEO strategize. He could teach the team how to think about AI. He could help them implement AI tools.
Jon posts daily on LinkedIn. He never misses a day…even if it means posting about his ducks. So he started posting about the work he was doing.
More clients came.
He’s a good promoter, so he contacted a local news show. He said, "I built a business in a weekend. Did a million dollars." They featured him.
He built his site on a .org domain, which gave him credibility with governments and businesses.
He told Replit to copy SEO and GEO practices of the top firms. It worked. He started getting traffic from Google, ChatGPT, and the gang.
(Side note: Seriously, if you haven’t tried these builders, lfg.)
A client asked him if he could provide any ongoing support. He said “yes!” and invented a new service on the spot.
His firm is now offering "Fractional Chief AI Officer” services.
You’ve seen how popular OpenClaw is, right?
But it’s also scary. His clients didn’t want to risk it on their computers or in their businesses.
When NVIDIA launched NemoClaw, “the safer” version OpenClaw, it changed his business again.
He took it and customized it for his customers. Now he’s selling them software plus services.
It reduces churn, increases value, and gives him consistent revenue.
When I started interviewing AI founders, I thought the big earners would be vibe coders who created SaaS.
Turns out service providers who help businesses use AI are seeing the early/easy wins in AI.
There are lots of others running this same playbook. I made a list of them, here.
It’s not what I expected.
But it’s exciting to see.
And it’s totally doable.
Jon says the opportunity is there for anyone to copy him.
It’s the time in my email to plug my YouTube channel. Today I have 2 videos.
Andrew Warner
Founder and Storyteller
PS I actually read every comment on YouTube. I’m new to yt so still nervous about it, which makes responses like this so good:
