I automated my entire side project with Claude for $2/month — here's the uncomfortable truth

#ai #sideprojects #indiehacker #webdev

Three months ago I handed the keys of my side project to an AI and walked away.

Here's what the dashboard looks like right now:

Users:     13
Paid:       3
MRR:       $4
AI cost:   $2/month
Profit:    $2/month

I am, technically, profitable.

What I actually built

SimplyLouie.com is a tool I made for myself first. I kept it running because three strangers on the internet decided it was worth paying for, and that felt more validating than any job performance review I've ever received.

The problem: I have a full-time job. I have a kid. I have maybe 4 hours a week where my brain works properly.

So I automated everything I could with Claude via the API.

The actual brain logs (this is embarrassing)

Here's a real prompt I wrote at 11pm on a Tuesday:

You are the support agent, changelog writer, 
and social media manager for a small SaaS. 
Here is this week's user feedback: [paste]
Do three things:
1. Draft replies to each piece of feedback
2. Write a 2-sentence changelog entry
3. Write one honest tweet about building in public
Do not make it sound corporate. I'm one person.

Claude output was 80% usable. I edited for 12 minutes. Done.

That replaced about 2 hours of context-switching I don't have.

What the $2/month actually buys

Weekly digest of user behavior patterns written in plain English
First drafts of every email I send
Feature prioritization based on support threads
Me not quitting

That last one is real. Small projects die from neglect, not competition. The AI keeps the lights on when I can't.

What it doesn't fix

Thirteen users is thirteen users. Claude can't manufacture word of mouth. It can't make the product meaningfully better without me thinking hard about what "better" means. It can't care.

The automation gave me leverage on the hours I have. It didn't give me more hours.

The uncomfortable math

$4 MRR after three months is not a success story by any metric anyone would publish in a "I made $10k MRR in 90 days" thread.

But I shipped something real. Three humans pay for it monthly without being asked twice. I haven't burned out. The thing still works at 2am when I'm asleep.

For where I am in life, that's the whole game.

If you're building something small and trying to keep it alive with limited time, the AI-as-cofounder approach isn't magic — but it's real, and it's cheap, and it might be the only reason SimplyLouie.com still has a pulse.

What are you automating on your side projects? Drop it below.