Push past the ceiling of your own hours
AI Automation at $3,000 a month. Senior engineer, OpenAI and Claude, monthly retainer, cancel anytime. The leverage that turns one person into a team.
Who this is for
Solo founder running a lifestyle or bootstrapped business, doing everything.
The pain today
- The ceiling is my own hours. Without leverage the business stops at one person.
- Every hour on admin is an hour not on customer acquisition or product.
- Zapier flows I built in 2023 break every time a tool updates.
- Every vendor pitch is $200 a month and does not fit my workflow.
The outcome you get
- Automations that return 10-20 hours a week to the founder.
- Vendor-neutral engineering (no resold AI).
- Monthly retainer I can cancel when cash tightens.
- A codebase I own under Work Made for Hire.
The solo operator's AI ROI math
A solo founder's hourly rate (measured by revenue divided by hours) is typically $100-$400. The retainer at $3,000 a month replaces 8-30 hours a week of recovered time. At the low end ($100/hr, 8 hours a week recovered), the retainer returns $3,200 a month. At the high end ($400/hr, 20+ hours), the retainer returns $32,000 a month. Even the worst case pays for itself. The best case is transformational: a solo founder suddenly has a real team in effective terms.
The first automation: usually inbox or lead follow-up
Most solo founders start with inbox triage or lead follow-up. Inbox: Claude reads incoming email, labels by urgency, drafts responses. Lead follow-up: new sign-ups or inquiries get a personalized follow-up drafted by Claude on the founder's voice. Both recover 5-10 hours a week for a typical solo founder. I train the system on the founder's existing email and voice, so drafts read as the founder wrote them. The founder reviews and sends, or full-automates once confidence builds.
Vendor stack for solo founders
Solo founders run lean stacks. Google Workspace, Stripe, one CRM (Attio, HubSpot, or Pipedrive), one email tool (ConvertKit, Beehiiv, Loops), one analytics tool, one scheduling tool. I integrate AI into this stack without adding vendors. No new $200/mo SaaS. Claude or OpenAI API direct. The integration layer is code, not a subscription. When a vendor raises prices, the integration adapts. The solo founder stays lean and in control.
Rollback and data hygiene
Solo founders cannot afford an AI mistake that breaks customer trust. I build every automation with explicit rollback: a log of every AI-triggered action, a one-click undo for the last 7 days, and a confidence threshold below which the AI defers to human review. Data hygiene: no customer data leaves the walled garden without explicit audit. For sensitive data (payments, legal), I use local models or redaction pipelines. The solo founder sleeps at night.
Recent proof
A comparable engagement, delivered and documented.
A prompt library that works with every AI tool
A home for your best AI prompts. Save them once, then use them in Claude, Cursor, or any AI tool you work with. No more copy-paste.
Frequently asked questions
The questions prospects ask before they book.
- Do I have enough volume to justify AI automation?
- If you have 10+ inbound emails a day or 20+ manual tasks a week, yes. Below that, the retainer may not pay back fast enough.
- Can I train the AI on my voice?
- Yes. I feed 20-50 of your existing emails or docs into a prompt context so drafts read as yours. Most founders cannot tell the difference after a week.
- What if I want to cancel in month 2?
- Cancel end of month, no penalty. The code is yours. The automations keep running on your accounts.
- Can you work across my existing no-code flows?
- Yes. I usually replace fragile Zapier flows with real API code, not parallel to them. The result is more reliable and cheaper to run.
- What about the OpenAI or Claude bill?
- Your API account, your bill. Most solo founders see $20-$200 a month in API costs on top of the retainer, far less than what manual time would cost.
Ready to start?
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