Show HN: I made a tool to ditch paying $20/month LLM subscriptions
Published in 2024, this chronicle by @marclelamy details the mechanics of building a profitable, self-funded business without venture backing. Key verified financial milestone: $20/month.
Core Principles for Independent Builders:
Charging customers from day one acts as the ultimate filter for building software that solves genuine, high-urgency problems.
Keeping fixed overhead low and leveraging lean infrastructure allows founders to stay alive until market tailwinds kick in.
Small, repetitive improvements in customer retention and conversion rates yield massive returns over multi-year horizons.
Community Debate Themes:
The community focused on B2B customer acquisition channels, cold email vs SEO distribution, and balancing full-time employment with side-project development.
CATEGORY Bootstrapping & MRR →
HISTORICAL ERA Post-ZIRP & AI (2023–2026)
COMMUNITY SCORE 7 points
TOTAL DISCUSSIONS 6 comments
I what you're working on as a start! Reminds me a little of ofhttps://github.com/socketteer/loom ↗. Composing multiple models in a guided / visually programable node flow of inputs and responses is a logical next step on from linear chatbots. The UI is feels a little raw at the moment -- zooming and scrolling / panning the canvas is necessary to keep track, which shouldn't change the visibility or zoom the lefthand pane as it currently does.
Would be nice to see a statement regarding user data security and privacy and how that's technically implemented.
As a prospective customer (just canceled ChatGPT Plus because I didn't think I was actually using $20 worth), could you have an explanation on the page as to what a certain level of credits gets you?
Note - requires a Google account to sign up.
Odd thing - the only language option for English is American, no standard/international English option?
See also, typingmind.com
I guess we are stuck with this UI interface now, left tab, center chat.. blah blah blah.
Cool idea! I have subscriptions for these things that sometimes I don't use very often.