How a rescue dog named Louie inspired me to build $2/month AI for the world

His name was Louie. He was a scruffy terrier mix who had spent two years in a shelter nobody visited.

When I adopted him, the rescue organization told me he'd been returned twice. Too anxious. Too much work. Not what people expected.

I knew exactly how he felt.

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The problem with AI pricing

I'm a developer. I use AI every day — for code review, debugging, writing documentation, brainstorming architecture.

But I live in a country where $20/month is a week's salary for many people I know. ChatGPT Pro at $20/month felt designed for people in San Francisco, not for the majority of the world's developers.

So I built something different.

What I built

SimplyLouie is a Claude-powered AI assistant that costs ✌️ $2/month — named after my rescue dog.

Here's the thing: the rescue organizations that saved Louie run on donations. Every dog in a shelter costs money to feed, vaccinate, and rehome. I made a promise when I named this product after him: 50% of all revenue goes to animal rescue organizations.

Not as a marketing gimmick. As a structural commitment baked into how the business works.

Who it's actually for

I built this for developers who:

• Can't justify $20/month when rent already takes 80% of income
• Need AI for real work (not just casual chatting)
• Want direct API access without rate limits eating their workflow
• Live in markets where global SaaS pricing is completely disconnected from local salaries

Here's what $20/month means in different markets:

Country	ChatGPT Plus	SimplyLouie	Days of average salary (ChatGPT)
India	₹1,600+/month	₹165/month	~3 days
Nigeria	₦32,000+/month	₦3,200/month	~5 days
Philippines	₱1,120+/month	₱112/month	~2 days
Kenya	KSh2,600+/month	KSh260/month	~3 days
Ghana	GH₵250+/month	GH₵25/month	~4 days
Indonesia	Rp320,000+/month	Rp32,000/month	~3 days
Brazil	R$100+/month	R$10/month	~2 days
Mexico	MX$350+/month	MX$35/month	~2 days

For developers in Lagos, Nairobi, Manila, Jakarta, or Mumbai — $20/month for an AI tool is not an impulse purchase. It's a real budget decision.

$2/month (or local equivalent) is not.

The developer API

For developers who want to integrate Claude into their own tools, there's a direct API tier:

curl -X POST https://simplylouie.com/api/chat \
  -H "Authorization: Bearer YOUR_API_KEY" \
  -H "Content-Type: application/json" \
  -d '{
    "message": "Review this Python function for edge cases",
    "context": "You are a senior Python developer doing code review"
  }'

Response:

{
  "response": "I see a few edge cases to consider: ...",
  "model": "claude-3-5-sonnet",
  "tokensUsed": 847
}

Same $2/month. No separate API pricing tier. No per-token billing surprises.

Full documentation at simplylouie.com/developers.

What Louie taught me

Louie was returned twice because he didn't fit the mold of what a "perfect dog" looked like.

A lot of the world's developers don't fit the mold of who AI companies build for either. They're not in San Francisco. They're not on a US salary. They're brilliant, motivated engineers who happen to live somewhere that SaaS pricing treats as an afterthought.

SimplyLouie is for them.

50% of all revenue funds animal rescue. $2/month. No limits on what you can ask.

Try it free for 7 days: simplylouie.com

If you're in India: simplylouie.com/in — ₹165/month

If you're in Nigeria: simplylouie.com/ng — ₦3,200/month

If you're in the Philippines: simplylouie.com/ph — ₱112/month

If you're in Kenya: simplylouie.com/ke — KSh260/month

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Louie is 4 years old now. He still gets anxious around strangers. He's still the best dog I've ever had.

He has no idea he's funding animal rescue organizations. But he does seem to know when I'm having a bad debugging session — he puts his head on my keyboard until I take a break.