$300K/Year with $50 and No Code: How Two Founders Built a HubSpot Alternative in 14 Days

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Business Name

My AskAI
An AI-powered customer support agent that automates ticket resolution for SaaS businesses, slashing response times from hours to seconds.

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What They Do

My AskAI replaces human agents for Tier-1 support by integrating directly into help desks. It reads documentation (PDFs, help articles), understands customer queries in plain English, and delivers instant, accurate responses – handling 60% of routine tickets without human intervention.

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Industry

B2B SaaS Automation
Targets the $22B customer support software market, riding the wave of AI-driven CX transformation (Gartner predicts 25% of customer service ops will use AI by 2025).

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Platform & Product Type

• Platform: Built atop OpenAI’s ecosystem for rapid AI deployment.
• Type: Embedded widget (integrates with Zendesk, Intercom, etc. in <5 mins).

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Target Audience

Exclusively B2B SaaS companies with:

• 1,000+ daily support tickets
• High churn due to slow response times
  Pain point solved: Saves $250K/year per client by reducing agent headcount.

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Pricing Strategy

• Price Range: $60–$99+/month (value-based pricing).
• Business Model: Freemium subscription.
• Free Plan: Yes (500 queries/month).
• Tiers:
  • Essentials: $60/month (5K queries, basic integrations).
  • Pro: $99/month (20K queries, Slack/Zapier hooks).
  • Enterprise: Custom (unlimited queries, SSO, analytics).
    Brilliance: Free tier hooks SMBs; Pro tier captures 80% of revenue from mid-market.

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Business Performance

• Annual Revenue: $300,000 (pre-launch to scale in 6 months).
• Monthly Traffic: 54,800 visits (SEO + LinkedIn-driven).
• Revenue per Visitor: $0.38 ($25K monthly revenue ÷ 54,800 traffic).
• Time to Money: Immediate – $5K pre-launch revenue from beta waitlist.

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Founding Team & Timeline

• Founders: 2 (ex-accountant + VC-backed startup veteran).
• Team: Fully remote, zero employees (automation-first).
• Launched: 2023.
• Dedication: 14 days from idea to MVP using no-code tools.

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Market Insights & Competition

• Trend: 70% of customers now prefer AI self-service over live agents (Zendesk).
• Largest Incumbent: HubSpot ($2B/year) – complex setup, weak AI accuracy.
  My AskAI’s Edge: 95% answer accuracy via multi-model architecture (OpenAI + CarbonAI).

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Origin Story: How the Idea Was Born

Mike (ex-accountant) hated manual customer queries at his tech contracting gig. After seeing GPT-3’s potential, he partnered with a VC-backed founder who knew scaling pitfalls. Their “aha!” moment: SaaS companies drown in repetitive tickets but lack simple AI tools. They validated the gap by selling $5K of non-existent “AI agents” via a landing page.

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Building the First Version

• Timeline: 14 days (no-code speedrun).
• Tech Stack:
  • Bubble.io: Frontend + backend
  • AI Stack: OpenAI → Portkey (model routing) → CarbonAI (enterprise security)
• Process:

1. Day 1-3: Figma wireframes focusing on 3 core flows.
2. Day 4-7: Bubble MVP with basic doc-upload → answer flow.
3. Day 8-14: User testing with 10 beta clients via Loom demos.
   Cost to MVP: $47 (Bubble subscription + OpenAI credits).

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Growth Channels

1. SEO: Dominated “AI customer support agent” keywords with comparison guides (vs. Intercom/Zendesk).
2. LinkedIn Social Selling: Founders DM’d 500 SaaS CTOs with personalized Loom demos (22% reply rate).
3. Reddit Alerts: Monitored r/SaaS for “support ticket overload” complaints, offering free trials.
4. Product-Led Growth: Freemium → Pro upsell via usage-based triggers (e.g., “You’ve used 450/500 queries”).

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Tech Stack & Tools

• Core Stack: Bubble (frontend/backend), OpenAI, CarbonAI, Portkey.
• Operational Tools:
• Notion: Bug tracking + feature requests.
• Typefully: LinkedIn automation.
• Loom: Personalized demo videos.
• Slack: Instant user support.

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Case Study Highlights

• Phase 1 (Pre-Launch):
  • Sold $5K of annual subscriptions via a “Coming Soon” page.
  • Secret: Used fake “AI agent” screenshots in Figma.
• Phase 2 (Post-Launch):
  • 0→$25K/month in 90 days by onboarding beta clients.
    • Reduced churn to 3% via 24-hour feature turnaround.

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Key Takeaways for Founders

1. Sell Before Building: $5K pre-launch proved demand.
2. No-Code + AI = Rocket Fuel: Bubble + GPT-3 built a $300K biz in weeks.
3. Hyper-Targeted Outreach: LinkedIn DMs beat Google Ads (CAC: $0).
4. Obsess Over Speed: 24-hour feature deployments locked enterprise clients.
5. Security First: CarbonAI integration addressed enterprise data fears.

“If your AI demo looks real, it is real. Ship the illusion, then build behind the curtain.”
— My AskAI Co-Founder

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Final Word: My AskAI proves that deep B2B pain points + no-code/AI tools can out-execute funded competitors.

100xfounders.com – Decoding how bootstrap founders outmaneuver VC-backed giants.