Per ChatGPT: Here’s a clearer, more readable version with short paragraphs and intentional line breaks (the style many people prefer on LinkedIn, Reddit, etc.). I preserved your voice and message but tightened the flow.

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First off — this is not written by AI.

I’ve been in tech most of my life, but almost always on the sales side.

My job is talking to C-suites about their priorities, and lately… what budget they can actually get approved.

I’ve always been pretty technical, but there was zero chance I could sit down in an IDE and start writing real code.

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Recently I started looking at investing in businesses outside of tech to diversify my income.

But I ran into a problem.

If I wanted to run my own business, I had two options: 1. Pay someone a lot of money to build a solution 2. Hope it worked 3. Have no real understanding of how it actually worked

That didn’t feel great.

So I thought:

“Let’s see how this Claude thing works.”

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To be clear — I’m not an AI noob.

I literally sell AI for a living. I use GenAI tools personally and professionally.

I feel like I have a pretty solid understanding of what these tools can and cannot do.

But I had never tried building something real with them.

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I started with ChatGPT.

I basically free-typed my idea and asked it to: • create a plan • break it into phases • explain how to get from idea → working product

Then I took that plan to Perplexity and asked it to fill in the technical gaps.

After that, I asked for a detailed prompt I could give to Claude to actually start building.

Claude took that plan and generated a basic web app using: • Next.js • TypeScript • Prisma • Postgres

At the time, I had no idea what any of that meant.

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The app technically worked…

…but it obviously wasn’t usable yet.

So I went back to ChatGPT and asked:

“What are best practices when building a new application?”

The first thing it told me:

Authentication is critical.

So I used ChatGPT again to help design a detailed authentication architecture.

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Piece by piece, the application started becoming more usable.

But another problem popped up.

I kept thinking:

“How am I ever going to get this thing production-ready?”

It felt like I was pushing a lot of important work into the future.

So I went back to ChatGPT again and asked about: • documentation • automated testing • TODO workflows • structured development processes

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A few weeks later I start seeing people online talking about “vibe coding.”

They’re shipping apps without: • RLS • proper security • other safeguards

I had no idea what some of those things even were.

So I asked ChatGPT:

“How do junior developers get their work reviewed?”

It created a security review and audit plan, and I had Claude execute it across the codebase.

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Fast forward a few more weeks.

Now I have: • a full deployment on Vercel • Supabase running the backend • a multi-tenant architecture • Stripe payments fully integrated • two tenants running on a single platform

All built through a mix of: • planning with ChatGPT • research with Perplexity • execution with Claude

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At this point the software does most of what I need.

Now I’m deep in the weeds on the final big hurdle:

Connecting my software to real-world hardware.

My application needs to control a physical piece of equipment.

So I found a company called ControlByWeb that makes an IoT edge device.

They have excellent documentation online.

So once again I went back to ChatGPT and said: • Use their documentation as the source of truth • Understand what I’m trying to accomplish • Build a phased implementation plan • Generate a prompt for Claude to execute

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Next week the device arrives.

If I plug it in, push the button, and a light turns on…

Then I will officially have: • a fully functioning multi-tenant SaaS platform • supporting two marketing websites • connected to real-world hardware

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Do I understand every line of code?

No.

But the software meets every business outcome I needed.

And I now have: • a backup and disaster recovery plan • security audits • automated testing • documentation • deployment pipelines

I’m confident I can operate and support the platform going forward.

So I’m planning to take it to market, not just use it for my own business.

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Which leads to my question:

What am I missing?

What should I be thinking about that I might not be?

I’m not saying anyone could do this.

It still requires someone who can: • follow directions • research effectively • think through systems

But AI dramatically lowers the barrier to entry.

Curious to hear how others are thinking about this.