Chat GPT Built a Business for Me — Using AI to Build Businesses
I’m someone that’s always been fascinated by business — for as long as I can remember, since being a kid I have been fascinated by business and what makes businesses tick.
However the one thing that has been very difficult has been actually building products.
In order to build products, you need tech people. You need to be able to code, or you need to have a team that can code and make things happen. Coming up with the ideas for businesses has never been a problem for me. I remember a time ago where I was challenged by a business coach to come up with — I think it was — 10 or 12 business ideas. I had them done within about half a day. The problem I had was limiting it to 12.
So coming up with the ideas has never been a problem. But actually making these things happen, getting them out into the open, getting feedback from users — that’s always been a limitation because I could only build to the limit of my time and the limit of my technical abilities.
I’m not a computer science graduate. I can play with code. I am slightly technical. My background in engineering has been electrical, but possibly a bit more on the automation side, which means that I’m used to writing and communicating with machines — writing code for machines, or at least navigating that code rather than writing it. I can do it, and I have done it.
So what I’m trying to get across is — I can’t call myself non-technical, but I’m certainly not somebody that will sit there all day and write code. I’ve built websites. I think the first website I built — or the first web page — was in 1998. I was 18 and I managed to learn how to make a Word document live and accessible from the internet. And that opened my eyes.
This was the beginning, in the UK certainly, of the dot-com boom and the internet as we know it. And I should have — what I should have done at that time — was moved to California or London. But I didn’t. I stayed in Snettisham, Norfolk. I didn’t take enough of a risk.
Enter AI
Where we’re at now though is — with AI, it’s got to the point where you can actually use it.
I’ve been playing with ChatGPT and stuff for a couple of years. About a year ago, maybe a little longer, it got to the point where it was actually usable — maybe two years ago.
I used it in my engineering company. I was helping set up an engineering team in a new factory, and I used it to do a job that would have taken me probably a week. I asked it to go through a machine manual and create some maintenance schedules for the machines. And it was able to do that in about 10 minutes.
And what it gave me was good enough for a first attempt. These were usable. I could have uploaded them straight into the machine management software and they would have been good enough. That was the first time I found AI being useful and usable. Before that, it was just a gimmick.
Building Businesses With AI
Fast forward another year or 18 months, and now we’re able to build web apps and websites — and this has just opened up a whole new world.
Especially for somebody like me that has so many ideas coming on a daily basis that I can’t ever get to. Most of these just sit as a… sometimes with an idea that I’ll pursue a bit, I’ll buy a domain name and it’ll sit there. But often they just go to waste, or they sit on the back burner ready for that day when I have the time and the resources. And that day often never comes.
But now, with “vibe coding,” I can actually speak to ChatGPT when I’m walking — whenever the inspiration hits me. I’m writing this blog post as I’m driving and I’m just talking to it as I would someone on the end of the phone.
It’s dictating my words. It will then turn this into a blog post, and if I want, it will strip it out and put it in other places. It’s become a really useful tool.
So if I have a business idea now — and how I started the ideas that I’ve managed to create — in about 10 minutes ChatGPT has fleshed out a business model for me. I’ve used it to create business models. I’ve used it to create MVPs on multiple occasions. And what I need to actually do now is get some of these things to market.
The Idea Storm
When I found these vibe coding platforms, I was hit by lots of ideas and creativity. It sent my creativity radar off the charts.
I came up with about three or four ideas in a two-hour drive that I regularly do. Over the next course of another couple of days, I had two or three of these ideas fleshed out to almost MVP level. This is quite phenomenal.
One Example: The Fishing App
One of the ideas I’m working on right now is an app for fishermen. My eldest son is mad keen on fishing — always has been. I used to be into fishing when I was younger. I really should spend longer with him.
But one thing I would love to do is sea fishing. I used to do this when I was a teenager with my uncle.
One thing that’s difficult to know when you’re sea fishing is where to go, how to read the ocean — based on what fish you’re after, based on when you’re going — when should you go, what tide do you want. There’s a lot that goes into it.
And I thought — this is a good thing for AI to be able to solve.
I wanted to create an app that could tell you, “Based on me going fishing Saturday afternoon, I’ve got four hours on the Norfolk coast — where should I go?” And then the app comes back and says:
“The best time to fish is around 4:30pm, based on high tide and wind direction. Go to this beach, fish into the surf using lugworm. Reports show bass were caught here last week.”
This is just one example, I have several more in various stages of development.
This one I have realised might cost quite a bit in API calls, so for now I’m wondering what I do about that.
Maybe I adopt a freemium model, 7 day free trial.
I’m not sure as yet, however if you’re a Sea Fisherman or Woman I would love to hear from you, I need some beta testers to turn this into a decent app.
If you’re interested in Vib ecoding or using platforms such as lovable.dev or bolt.new hit me up I would love to create a community of like minded people!
Until next time!
Darren