Pre-launch founder here. Plënka is a stock photo marketplace where photographers keep 75% of the revenue — the industry standard is 15–40%. I live in Armenia, I've been here 8 years, and I work alone. Technically alone. In practice, a factory of AI assistants writes the entire backend, in C++23.
People ask what that looks like day to day, so here is the honest version.
The agents draft, review and rewrite each other's code. My actual job is direction and rejection: deciding what gets built, and throwing away what isn't good enough. The bottleneck isn't typing speed, it's judgment. Most days I write zero lines of code and make dozens of small decisions instead.
What surprised me: the hardest part isn't the code at all. It's knowing which 20% of a feature actually matters to a photographer waiting for a fair payout, and cutting the rest. An agent will happily build all 100% if you let it. Saying "no" faster is the whole skill.
The other surprise: C++ was a strange choice on paper and a good one in practice. I wanted the cost structure of a platform that can afford to pay 75% out — and that starts with not carrying a payroll, and with infrastructure that stays cheap and fast.
Status: pre-launch, no investors, everything documented as I go. If the "one solo founder + AI agents" model fascinates or horrifies you, I'm happy to answer questions in the comments.
And one honest note at the end: the project is funded by early supporters — voluntary contributions from $50, no equity, no returns, nothing in return but a fairer marketplace existing. If that resonates, the Ko-fi link is in my profile. If not, reading this far is already support.
Disclosure: this post was drafted with AI assistance and published by the founder — the same setup the post describes.
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