the last two years completely changed my life. i went from having zero programming income to building products across 11 different industries. here's exactly how it happened.
july 2023 - ai directory services
started with reachactory when everyone was losing their minds over chatgpt. built a service that helped ai tools get listed in directories. had no clue what i was doing but made $2.5k in six months. first time money came from code i wrote.
december 2023 - developer tools
shipped my first ai tool that converts website screenshots into code. developers could quickly turn designs into working prototypes. got my first $20 monthly customer within 12 hours of launching. couldn't sleep that night.
march 2024 - april 2024 startup/fundraising
landed contract work with a USA based pre-seed startup. built fornax ai to give feedback on pitch decks. learned how the fundraising world actually works and what investors care about. real client work felt completely different from side projects.
may 2024 - design/ui tools
launched easy ui and everything clicked. designers and developers needed high quality pre-built templates and this solved it. hit 100k+ views and 28k+ users in six months. finally built something people genuinely wanted.
august 2024 - electronics/repair
got hired by a denmark startup to build a react native app for electric device repairs. dove deep into how technicians handle warranty claims and diagnostic tools. completely different world from web development.
september 2024 - back to design tools
shipped easy ui premium. got first paid user in 24 hours again. the design community was responding well and i was starting to see patterns in what worked.
november 2024 - real revenue
easy ui crossed 50+ paid users. revenue was becoming something i could actually live off. the design tools market was working.
december 2024 - january 2025 - restaurant/hospitality
another denmark contract building a react native app for chef task prioritization. learned about kitchen operations, food prep timelines, and staff coordination. restaurant tech moves incredibly fast.
also shipped animator studio during this time - converts images and videos into mockups. back in the design/marketing space while juggling contract work.
february 2025 - mobile development
started learning swiftui and xcode. native mobile development was completely different from web work but opened up new possibilities.
april 2025 - productivity/wellness
launched my first mac app - a simple break reminder tool. targeted people with eye strain and productivity issues. native apps felt different to build and distribute.
may 2025 - social media/marketing (failure)
built an enterprise tool for creating and scheduling social media posts with ai. targeted marketing teams and agencies. it completely failed. learned hard lessons about enterprise sales and crowded markets.
june 2025 - education/reading
shipped bookshorts and got apple app store approval. targeted people wanting quick book summaries. made zero revenue but understood the education content space better.
july 2025 - productivity + healthcare
double shipped searchfast (open source raycast alternative) and medassist (doctor research and emr tool). productivity tools i understood, but healthcare was complex with medical research, patient records, and compliance requirements.
august 2025 - enterprise ai/productivity
now building chatpm - ai infrastructure for agents to manage teams + projects. targeting businesses that want ai integrated into their workflows. feels like the biggest project yet, combining everything i learned about ai, enterprise needs, and productivity.
the 11 industries i worked in last 24 months are
- ai/tech directories - reachactory
- developer tools - screenshot-to-code, searchfast
- startup/fundraising - fornax ai
- design/ui tools - easy ui, animator studio
- electronics/repair - electric device repair app
- restaurant/hospitality - chef task prioritization app
- productivity/wellness - mac break reminder app
- social media/marketing - failed enterprise scheduler
- education/reading - bookshorts
- healthcare - medassist
- enterprise ai/productivity - chatpm
what this taught me
every industry has its own weird rules, user behaviors, and regulatory requirements. restaurant kitchens operate nothing like doctor offices. electronics repair workflows are completely different from fundraising processes.
building across all these spaces taught me to adapt quickly. when potential clients see i've built everything from kitchen management systems to healthcare tools to developer productivity apps, they know i can figure out their industry too.
the technical stack evolved too. went from web to mobile to desktop to ai to enterprise. each platform taught me something new about users and distribution.
failures taught me as much as successes. that social media tool failure showed me how crowded some markets are and how hard enterprise sales can be.
what's next
still building, still learning. the diversity across industries and technical stacks is what makes each new project interesting. every industry has problems worth solving.
if you're working on something and need help building it, reach out. always interested in new challenges and different markets.
i hope this post inspires whoever is reading.
ps- if you are building softwares/ startup let's connect. hit me up here - https://x.com/kathanmehtaa
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