The Dog That Changed Everything
In 2023, I adopted a rescue dog named Louie from a kill shelter in the Philippines.
He had 48 hours left.
Something shifted in me that day. When I got home and opened my laptop, I looked at my $20/month ChatGPT subscription differently. I thought about the veterinary clinic workers who had cared for Louie — making ₱400/day, roughly $7. ChatGPT costs them three days of wages per month.
That felt wrong.
The Math That Broke Me
I spent a weekend doing the math across the countries where AI could matter most:
| Country | ChatGPT Plus | % of avg daily wage |
|---|---|---|
| Nigeria | ₦32,000/month | 8 days of wages |
| Philippines | ₱1,120/month | 3 days of wages |
| Kenya | KSh2,600/month | 4 days of wages |
| Ghana | GH₵250/month | 5 days of wages |
| Indonesia | Rp320,000/month | 3 days of wages |
| India | ₹1,600/month | 2-3 days of wages |
| Pakistan | PKR5,600/month | 5 days of wages |
| Brazil | R$100/month | 2 days of wages |
For a developer in Lagos or Nairobi, $20/month AI isn't a subscription. It's a luxury item.
And yet these are exactly the developers who could benefit most — building in markets where AI tools could leapfrog entire infrastructure gaps.
What I Built Instead
I built SimplyLouie — named after the dog.
The pricing is ✌️2/month. That's it. Two dollars. Not $19.99. Not "starting at $8 with annual plan." Two dollars.
Here's why that number:
- ₦3,200 in Nigeria (vs ₦32,000 for ChatGPT)
- ₱112 in the Philippines (vs ₱1,120)
- KSh260 in Kenya (vs KSh2,600)
- Rs165 in India (vs Rs1,600)
- Rp32,000 in Indonesia (vs Rp320,000)
- R$10 in Brazil (vs R$100)
- MX$35 in Mexico (vs MX$350)
The price is literally 10% of ChatGPT in every market.
The Developer API
Because developers asked, I added an API tier:
curl https://api.simplylouie.com/v1/chat \
-H "Authorization: Bearer YOUR_API_KEY" \
-H "Content-Type: application/json" \
-d '{
"model": "claude-3-5-sonnet",
"messages": [{"role": "user", "content": "Hello from Lagos"}]
}'
Same $2/month. No per-token billing surprises. No usage tiers. Just a flat rate.
For a developer in Karachi or Accra, this means:
- Build a Telegram bot for your community
- Automate your freelance proposal writing
- Add AI to your startup's MVP
- Run Claude in your GitHub Actions pipeline
...all for the cost of one cup of coffee.
50% Goes to Animal Rescue
This is non-negotiable and written into how I operate: 50% of revenue goes to animal rescue organizations — specifically ones working in the same countries where our users live.
When a developer in Nairobi pays ₦3,200/month for SimplyLouie, half of that goes toward organizations like the ones that saved Louie.
The product is the mission. The mission is the product.
The Honest Numbers
I'm a solo builder. This is early. But the thesis is real:
- 3 paid users so far, from 3 different countries
- 30+ articles written about what I'm building
- 0 VC funding — this stays indie
- $2/month forever — I'm not raising prices when growth comes
Try It
If you're a developer in Nigeria, Philippines, Kenya, Ghana, Indonesia, India, Pakistan, or Brazil — there's a country-specific page for you:
- 🇮🇳 simplylouie.com/in/ — Rs165/month
- 🇳🇬 simplylouie.com/ng/ — ₦3,200/month
- 🇵🇭 simplylouie.com/ph/ — ₱112/month
- 🇰🇪 simplylouie.com/ke/ — KSh260/month
- 🇬🇭 simplylouie.com/gh/ — GH₵25/month
- 🇮🇩 simplylouie.com/id/ — Rp32,000/month
- 🇧🇷 simplylouie.com/br/ — R$10/month
- 🇲🇽 simplylouie.com/mx/ — MX$35/month
Or just go to simplylouie.com and try the 7-day free trial.
Louie is still alive. He's sleeping next to me as I write this.
He doesn't know he inspired all of this. But the developers in 8 countries who can now afford AI might.
Built by a solo developer. ✌️2/month forever. 50% to animal rescue.
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