Four months ago I started an experiment. The goal was extreme: compress the entire lifecycle of a startup into a single sprint and use AI to guide me through everything.
Not only engineering.
Business.
Positioning.
Marketing.
Execution.
I wanted to see if AI could act as my cofounder where I lacked real experience and I would simply execute.
It did not work out that way.
But I learned more in these four months than in the previous four years.
Goals vs Reality
Planned outcomes:
• Build an automation platform and a chatbot product
• Complete a market research project
• Publish content and grow traffic
• Find customers
• Launch a clear value proposition
Actual outcomes:
• Platform built
• Market research project completed (with almost no traffic impact)
• One automation lead that did not convert
• Three beta testers for the chatbot
• Zero revenue
• Near zero traffic
And the unexpected part: I ran out of financial hope when my only serious automation client turned out not to be real.
What AI Was Good At
AI was excellent for execution:
• code
• architecture
• flows
• technical writing
• rapid prototyping
I would not have built this fast without it.
What AI Was Bad At
AI was not useful for:
• positioning
• storytelling
• messaging
• distribution
• understanding people
• sensing danger or giving critical feedback
A human advisor would have raised red flags early.
AI supported decisions that were fundamentally wrong. It reinforced flawed assumptions because it cannot feel when something is off.
The worst mistake supported by AI: believing that if I build a solid platform, write posts, and publish a site, users will appear. This model stopped working years ago, yet AI echoed it back to me as if it were still valid.
Product vs Reality
I wanted to prioritise publicity.
But my technical background pulled me back into building.
In the end the foundation had to be built anyway, so the mistake was partially inevitable. But it delayed the true bottleneck: reach.
Without an audience:
• no one sees what you build
• no one tests it
• no one trusts it
• no one buys it
Traffic is not an outcome of good work.
Traffic is its own job.
What I Learned About Myself and the Process
• AI assisted development can replace 80 to 90 percent of engineering effort if you can architect and review well.
• AI cannot replace judgment in strategy and marketing.
• The web is no longer the primary traffic source for new products.
• Market research that you do not translate into immediate action has limited value.
• Security matters immediately: your first visitors are scanners, not users.
• Extreme discipline works but burns out your social and emotional system. There is a limit.
I tried an ascetic routine: 6 AM to 10 PM work, no social life, no entertainment, strict food and sleep discipline, long-distance running, daily workouts, standing desk, meditation. It worked for two months. After that the lack of social support became a liability.
The Realisation
Everything technical was solvable.
Everything human was the bottleneck.
Attention, distribution, trust, emotion, narrative.
These are not engineering problems.
What Happens Next
The next sprint will be different.
No focus on sales.
The focus will be on reach, authority, consistent content, and building an audience.
Not chasing money.
Building momentum.
This is the pivot I needed.
Final Thoughts
Four months of intense work produced no revenue, but they revealed the essential truth. AI is great at development and execution. It is not a strategist and not a daily guide. It cannot warn you when your assumptions are wrong. It cannot tell you that your plan is unrealistic. It cannot feel the market.
I built the platform. I built the systems. I pushed AI assisted development to the limit.
But the real bottleneck was not product. It was reach.
The market does not reward effort.
It rewards attention.
This sprint gave me clarity and corrected my worldview.
Now I know exactly what must happen next.
The work continues.
Full video report: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hhBdGaUpyJI
More about Liteed: https://liteed.com
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