AI-Powered Micro SaaS Side Hustle
Key Points
- The current AI era lets anyone turn natural language into functional code, enabling rapid, low‑cost software creation that wasn’t possible just a few years ago.
- Tools like lovable.dev make it possible to build complete web pages by simply describing what you want, turning software development into a “scalpel” rather than a “hammer.”
- This shift opens micro‑niche markets—such as custom note‑taking, fantasy football, or event‑planning tools—where a single creator can become the authority and generate sustainable side revenue.
- Because the technology is ahead of mainstream adoption, early adopters have a limited‑time advantage to capture these untapped niches before the market catches up.
- The video aims to move beyond vague inspiration by sharing concrete entrepreneurial “war stories” and actionable steps for building an AI‑driven side gig.
Sections
- Building AI-Powered Side Gigs - A practical walkthrough showing why the current AI boom lets anyone quickly create niche software side projects—without deep coding skills—by leveraging tools like lovable.dev.
- Low‑Code Platform Recommendations - The speaker explains choosing Lovable.dev for its rapid, continuous feature delivery and recent Stripe integration, and recommends Outa for its all‑in‑one backend services (auth, payments, CRM, email) that seamlessly integrate with Lovable.dev.
- Distribution First in AI Ventures - In the AI era, building a successful side‑gig hinges on prioritizing deep distribution knowledge—understanding where the target community hangs out, their pain points, and earning their trust—before even selecting a product, giving a unique competitive edge over larger model makers.
- Finding Non‑AI‑Obsoleted Opportunities - The speaker advises entrepreneurs to identify enduring niche problems that AI giants won’t replace, leverage micro‑communities for distribution, and build specialized solutions beyond AI’s core consumer stack.
- AI Partner for Modern Entrepreneurship - The speaker encourages entrepreneurs to use AI as a collaborative thinking partner—leveraging prompt guides, micro‑niches, and distribution focus—while emphasizing authentic expertise and fair monetization in today’s uniquely accessible coding era.
Full Transcript
# AI-Powered Micro SaaS Side Hustle **Source:** [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8psoB8EFdc8](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8psoB8EFdc8) **Duration:** 00:17:50 ## Summary - The current AI era lets anyone turn natural language into functional code, enabling rapid, low‑cost software creation that wasn’t possible just a few years ago. - Tools like lovable.dev make it possible to build complete web pages by simply describing what you want, turning software development into a “scalpel” rather than a “hammer.” - This shift opens micro‑niche markets—such as custom note‑taking, fantasy football, or event‑planning tools—where a single creator can become the authority and generate sustainable side revenue. - Because the technology is ahead of mainstream adoption, early adopters have a limited‑time advantage to capture these untapped niches before the market catches up. - The video aims to move beyond vague inspiration by sharing concrete entrepreneurial “war stories” and actionable steps for building an AI‑driven side gig. ## Sections - [00:00:00](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8psoB8EFdc8&t=0s) **Building AI-Powered Side Gigs** - A practical walkthrough showing why the current AI boom lets anyone quickly create niche software side projects—without deep coding skills—by leveraging tools like lovable.dev. - [00:03:28](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8psoB8EFdc8&t=208s) **Low‑Code Platform Recommendations** - The speaker explains choosing Lovable.dev for its rapid, continuous feature delivery and recent Stripe integration, and recommends Outa for its all‑in‑one backend services (auth, payments, CRM, email) that seamlessly integrate with Lovable.dev. - [00:07:31](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8psoB8EFdc8&t=451s) **Distribution First in AI Ventures** - In the AI era, building a successful side‑gig hinges on prioritizing deep distribution knowledge—understanding where the target community hangs out, their pain points, and earning their trust—before even selecting a product, giving a unique competitive edge over larger model makers. - [00:11:46](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8psoB8EFdc8&t=706s) **Finding Non‑AI‑Obsoleted Opportunities** - The speaker advises entrepreneurs to identify enduring niche problems that AI giants won’t replace, leverage micro‑communities for distribution, and build specialized solutions beyond AI’s core consumer stack. - [00:15:12](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8psoB8EFdc8&t=912s) **AI Partner for Modern Entrepreneurship** - The speaker encourages entrepreneurs to use AI as a collaborative thinking partner—leveraging prompt guides, micro‑niches, and distribution focus—while emphasizing authentic expertise and fair monetization in today’s uniquely accessible coding era. ## Full Transcript
Okay, this is my video on how to build a
side gig in the age of AI. So many of
the guides out there are generic.
They're not actually practical. We're
going to get super practical and I'm
going to explain to you why this moment
matters and then how you actually go
about building a side gig in the age of
AI. So buckle in. Number one, this is a
unique moment and it won't last forever.
We have an opening and I want to explain
why it works in the market right now.
LMS are making it very very easy to go
from natural language to code. You just
talk and you can get what you want. One
of the tools I'll mention later in this
video is lovable.dev. It's super easy
just to type in what you want and get a
working web page. That is something that
as much as you may already know about it
because you're an AI enthusiast
listening to this video, most people
don't yet. That is going to change. And
during this moment, you have a chance to
build software that would not be
possible to build two years ago, one
year ago. And what I mean by that is
that software has been a hammer instead
of a scalpel for a long, long time. It
cost a lot of money. It cost teams and
teams of developers. You had to go to
Silicon Valley and you had to raise
money to build any kind of software for
most of my career. That is no longer
true. You don't have to do that. You can
build software in nights and weekends
even if you've never coded before. And
that means that you can build custom
software for a specific tiny audience.
If your audience loves to take notes and
they have a particular way of taking
notes and you've always had a
note-taking system and you wanted to
share it with the world, well, you can
do that now. If you wanted to build a
fantasy football software that you have
never been able to find before, you can
do that now. If you wanted to build some
kind of special event planning software
that you would never have been able to
get in the market, well, you can do that
now. You get the idea. These micro
markets exist, but no one has been
building software for them because
software is such a blunt instrument
because it was so expensive. By moving
from natural language to code, we now
have the ability to treat software like
a scalpel. And so we can carve out these
micro niches and build really
sustainable side businesses where we are
the authority on that particular tiny
corner of the universe for that
particular kind of customized software.
It has never been possible before and it
won't last forever. It won't last
forever because this moment is a moment
when the technology is ahead of the
adoption curve. And so you listening to
this video, you're an early adopter. you
have the chance to go out there and look
at a niche that you know well and go
after it. And my goal with this video is
not just to sort of inspire you and give
you generic ideas is to give you war
stories from my experience as an
entrepreneur and also to give you a
sense of how it actually works out there
through my conversation with founders
and others. So if you're starting a
business in 2025, let's assume you get
it, you get the leverage, this is the
moment, etc. What are your tool sets,
right? What do you have to work with
that you didn't have before? Well, I'm
going to name five tools for you, and I
think that you're going to find them
incredibly easy to work with in
combination, and I want to list what
each of them does. This is the absolute
simplest tool set I've been able to come
up with, and I want to explain what each
does and explain why they're in the
stack. Each one earns its keep. Number
one, I mentioned it already,
lovable.dev.
It's no code, it's low code. I want to
give you the straight reason why I
picked this one. this team ships. There
are lots and lots and lots of vibe
coding pieces of software. I could have
recommended Bolt. I could have
recommended Replet. There are lots of
other choices to choose from. I picked
lovable.dev because the team ships fast
and because they are dedicated to making
the product meaningfully better in a in
a cadence of weeks. Like in two weeks,
the product will be better than it is
today. And that's been true for months
and months and months and months. you
can bet on that trajectory. And so,
Lovable.dev offers you a chance to
actually build a functioning site. They
recently launched Stripe integrations.
They have a back-end integration that
works. You can publish to a custom URL.
It is kind of like a web presence in a
box. It's really, really easy. There are
a few other tools though that you may
find useful along the journey. Number
two is uh Outa. Why do I recommend them?
They're not very wellnown actually. I
recommend them because there is one
stack there for everything you need from
a back-end office perspective. So you
can get user authentication that way.
You can get subscription payments that
way. You can get a basic CRM or contact
relationship management database that
way. You can get basic email that way.
It's all under one umbrella which makes
it really really easy if you're starting
out. And it integrates with Love and you
can pull stuff into lovable that way. So
they kind of work together. Now, if
you're getting to a point where you need
to deploy and you don't want to deploy
with Lovable, this is optional, by the
way, because if you're just getting
started, you can kind of just start with
Lovable. But if you want to go a little
farther, you can do continuous builds of
your software system and easy hosting
with a tool called Versel, which is used
all over the world by developers. It's
very, very famous. It's easy to use as
long as you're willing to work with Chat
GPT a little bit on the documentation
side. I want to mention two other tools
here. Again, both of them are optional.
In my view, the only absolutely required
tool if you really want to strip it down
is lovable.dev. And then out is like the
second one if you really want to add
some backend office. And then everything
else is depending on what you want to
build. And if you want to build
something more technical, you add more
technical tooling and so on. Two other
tools to be aware of. Framer offers drag
and drop landing pages and Gemini offers
instant AI analysis for free. That's
right. You can make calls to the Gemini
API for free up to a reasonable weight
rate limit for a tiny business to get AI
analysis and generation. So you can
actually incorporate a free LLM into
your product, which is kind of handy. So
that's my basic tool set. It's super
flexible. It's like a Swiss Army knife.
You can do almost anything with it. And
I want to spend some time talking about
the philosophy of picking a problem now
because in my view everyone is asking me
for the tools. So I gave you the tools.
But the really interesting thing is why
you pick the problem you pick and how
you build on that problem to solve a
customer painoint. This is where sort of
entrepreneur Nate puts on his hat. The
craft of entrepreneurship
actually has changed in important ways
in the age of AI. And so we talk about
the strategic moment. We talk about the
tool set. The tool set that we have as
entrepreneurs, our skill set, the things
that this moment demands from us, that's
also different. First, we need to think
about distribution much much more as
builders than we used to. So before you
would put the product first and you
would make sure the product really
solved the customer problem and then you
would work through established
distribution channels. So if you were in
the consumer space, you would figure out
how to get into stores and so on. Well,
not anymore. Now you have to assume that
someone around you is building something
that is sort of like what you have and
your goal is to get distribution with
the micro niche that you already know
well. And that is why at the top of this
video I recommended that you use a micro
niche that you know well because if
you're already a member of that
community, connecting with them, talking
with them is going to feel natural.
You're going to understand their needs.
You're going to understand their pain
points. You're going to be able to solve
their problems. And you are also going
to have a sense of where they hang out
and how you can reach them. And that's
called distribution. That's distribution
knowhow. And that is an edge. That is an
edge that no major model maker has. And
so part of how you know you can compete
with the likes of open AI and anthropic
is because you have that distribution
knowledge. So the first principle, the
first skill set you need to think about
if you're in the age of AI and you're
building something, you want to build a
side gig, think about your distribution
first. What is your distribution
advantage? What do you know that other
people don't know about your market and
where they hang out and what they like
and what they don't like and what their
pain points are? And are you a member of
that community in such a way that they
trust you and you're respected and you
won't look like you're just scamming
people if you talk about a product that
you built? That is really, really
important. In fact, it's so important
that people building side gigs now pick
the product after they pick the
distribution channel. And that is
completely the reverse of what I was
taught when I got started building and
building companies, building product,
etc.
That's that's really different. Second
thing that's different in the age of AI,
the second principle of entre
entrepreneurship that has changed, we
need to have the skill to know when to
stop building the product. And that is
new because AI will tell you over and
over and over and over again, you can
build more. You can add a database. You
can add a customer relationship
management. You can add a new product.
Expand. Expand. Expand. Expand. You need
to be able to say no. Before, because
software was so expensive, you had to
cut just to sort of find a way to make
it work. Now software is so cheap. It's
very tempting to add an ad and add an
and add. You are the one that has to
develop the skill to say no. You have to
say this is a night and weekend project.
This is the only thing I need to build
to show that I can solve the problem.
That discipline is something that was
imposed by external cost controls
before, not anymore. Now it's on you
now. It's a skill you have to have. Know
when to say no. That is really, really
important. The third major skill that
entrepreneurs bring to the table or must
bring to the table now that they didn't
have to bring before. You need to know
in a very fine grained way where value
lies in your product. You know how I
said software was a blunt hammer before?
Like when you buy Salesforce, Salesforce
might be really crappy in a lot of
different spots, but because it has
existing distribution relationships with
a lot of big companies, the buyer
doesn't really care and so it doesn't
get better. It's different in the micro
niches I'm talking about for side gig
Builders. Your people are not loyal to
you. They will not necessarily buy your
product unless it's good and it really
solves the problem. And so you have to
develop an extraordinary eye for how
monetization and price points and what
people will pay tracks to specific
features in the product. For
entrepreneurs before they could build
the whole product and they might not
know which thing really worked because
the distribution advantage was so blunt
like you you send it off to Target and
like we'll see and like I guess it
works. It sold. Well, now you can tell
where on the page people abandoned and
also you hear from people in Reddit and
Discord chats exactly what they'd like
or dislike about your product and
they're very very specific and you can
see the impact as soon as you change a
feature because suddenly the conversion
rate changes. Now, in theory, that was
all possible before as long as you were
building in software and digital
funnels. But now, it matters more
because people are less loyal and the
market is more fragmented and more
people are building. And so, people are
like very very disloyal when it comes to
customer purchases and what they are
willing to buy and what they're willing
to invest in. Which means you have to be
extremely good at explaining exactly how
your product solves their problem to
earn their trust and loyalty. Now the
good news is if you can do that, if you
can explain why you are passionate about
that micro niche, how your product
really solves a problem they care about,
why the monetization feels fair, like a
square deal to them, you will eventually
earn their trust, and that's where the
distribution advantage starts to become
rock solid in your favor. and it feels
like a tailwind pushing you forward.
You'd love that. You earn that by
building into that distribution wedge
with your micro community and actually
delivering a product that really solves
a problem. And that brings me to the
fourth skill. One of the hardest skills
in the age of AI is finding a problem
that you can be confident AI is not
going to make obsolete. And I want to
spend some time talking about this
because this one is a little bit scary
for people. People often ask, well,
yeah, it's easy to vibe code now, but
why would I build because OpenAI is just
going to take all of the ideas? I don't
think they will. If you think about it,
their strategy very clearly is to drive
a consumer stack. They want you to spend
time as a consumer in OpenAI thinking
and doing your day, but they're not the
best in the world at some of these
peripheral things. Like, they launched a
a meeting noteaker. It's okay. The
meeting note-taker is not going to
compete with the dedicated meeting
notetakers. It never is. That's not
where their focus is. Claude is trying
to eat a lot of the work primitives.
They're trying to eat Excel. They're
trying to eat, you know, claude code.
They're trying to go after PowerPoint.
They want you to spend their day there.
Microsoft should be a little bit worried
about value disintermediation, but as a
as a small builder, you're not that
worried about it. They provide
intelligence for you. That's fine. And
so, you should instead be thinking about
the kinds of pain points that persist
regardless of the intelligence of the
model. What are the things that people
struggle with where a smarter model
wouldn't fix it? So, as an example, if
you are solving a painoint for someone
and it's a coordination problem between
multiple strands of software or multiple
parts of their day or physical and
digital, that is not something that more
intelligence necessarily makes go away.
Another example, if you are solving a
painoint for someone and it bridges the
uh physical world and the digital world.
So you're providing a physical service
mediated digitally or ordered digitally.
That's not necessarily something that
more intelligence makes goes it doesn't
more intelligence doesn't fix that.
Another example, if you are focused on
providing a digital service, but the
digital service is predicated on your
user feeling like they got stuck in a
way that isn't tied to immediate
answers. That is a very powerful place
to solve for. An example of that, let's
say you have to complete a workflow and
you're trying to go through and get all
the steps in your workflow done at work
and maybe it's a a building a product
requirements document. You have to go
through each of those stages and build
it out. You have to get approvals and
then you have to go back and talk to
engineers. That is something that is not
really changing. Now you may have AI
help you do it faster, but the workflow
itself is pretty stable. I want to
suggest to you that one of the things
that is a key for an entrepreneur is to
look at the world in those kinds of
terms. Look at the parts that swap out
when you add more intelligence and look
at the parts that stay steady. In this
case, the workflow stays kind of steady.
You're still going to have senior PMs
wrestling with requirements, wrestling
with engineering on technical
requirements, wrestling with business
stakeholders and trying to figure it out
and trying to make the workflow go
together. I know this because I've lived
it. Well, in that world, the workflow is
a painoint that additional intelligence
doesn't actually solve. In fact, it's a
it's a mega painoint. It yields a bunch
of downstream pain points. Whole
companies are built around that
painoint. find those kinds of pain
points, the workflow pain points, the
physical digital pain points, the pain
points that are not solved by just
adding more intelligence. That requires
some real thinking on your part, right?
You have to you have to use your brain a
little bit and that's okay. You
actually, well, one of the things that's
never been easier is to stretch your
brain because you have a thinking
partner in AI. I'm not suggesting that
you do this by throwing pencils at the
wall the oldfashioned way, the way I
used to. I'm suggesting you use AI as a
partner. And that's why I did a whole
writeup with all of the prompts because
I want you to be able to understand how
to use AI as a thinking partner in this
exercise. And I want you to feel like
the tools that you have, the prompts
that you have can be combined with a
philosophy of entrepreneurship in the AI
age that actually sticks. And so just to
just to recap so you don't forget if
you're starting, one, this is a unique
moment. Code is easier to create than
ever. It won't last forever. Micro
niches are a big part of that. Software
was a blunt hammer before. Three,
please, please remember to go for
distribution. Make sure that you put
distribution at the heart of your
strategy or else you're going to regret
it. Now, when it comes to the skills
that entrepreneurs need to have, you
need to remember, think in terms of
problem spaces that more intelligence
won't solve. You remember, you need to
remember to think in terms of your own
niche expertise and what is authentic to
you. You need to remember to think in
terms of a fair and square deal on
monetization. So you understand the
exact levers that your product offers
and how monetization feels like a square
deal and feels honest and that's how you
build those trusted relationships over
time. You need to think in terms of
bets. Think in terms of a simple MVP
product where you had the discipline to
cut it down to the bones. you can see
that it solves a problem and you're able
to launch it in good time and see if it
works. This micro niche window is not
going to last forever. Your next weekend
project can get something out the door
that actually earns you money. And I'm
not going to pretend that your next
weekend project is going to earn you a
billion dollars, but I think it's fair
if you actually discipline yourself and
start building on nights and weekends to
get to a point where you can build a
little piece of software that gets you
into the hundreds and thousands of
dollars a month. That is totally doable.
I know lots of people who have done
that. I know people who have scaled past
that into five figures a month. You can
do it. You just have to make sure that
you understand how entrepreneurship
actually works today, what the
principles are, where the opportunities
are, and what the toolkit actually looks
like. I hope that this has been helpful.
The full write up with all the links is
on the Substack. And yeah, I hope you
have a good time. I love building. It
has never been a better time to build.
And good luck out there. Good luck
building. I hope you come back and let
me know what you are working on.