From the brink of unemployment to earning $5,000 a month: An Argentinian designer’s programming counterattack
Have you ever thought about what someone with no formal programming background could create in just ten days?
I'm FERNANDOPAGAL, an Argentinian product designer with a passion for programming. Just six months ago, I faced the threat of losing my job. Living in Sweden, losing my work visa meant the beginning of a nightmare. But instead of sinking, I decided to challenge myself and find a way out with the programming I love.
During the short ten-day vacation, I launched a challenge called "#BuildingPublic" and live-streamed my programming process on X and YouTube. My goal was clear: create a social media carousel generator for LinkedIn, Instagram, and TikTok to help non-designer users easily create beautiful carousels.
In these ten days, I experienced the hardship of starting from scratch, and also felt the joy that programming brings me. Whenever I put on my headphones and immerse myself in the world of code, everything around me seems to disappear. I use OXITA as a no-code tool to handle authentication, billing, and ticketing support, leveraging OpenAI's API for core functionality. Every day, I continue to improve this tool, from the basic UI and carousel functions to improving the UI, adding custom slides and color palettes, and more.
Finally, on the tenth day, I released this tool called "AI care cs". It automates many design tasks and allows users to generate beautiful carousels with simple input. What’s more, this tool also provides an AI content generator feature that can generate carousel content based on themes or custom text.
On the day of the release, I was filled with contradictions and expectations. But luckily, AI care cs got a good score on Product Hunt, ranking ninth, and received a lot of positive feedback and praise. What makes me even more excited is that I got five paying users that day. Although the income was only $50, it was a great encouragement and validation for me.
Today, the monthly income of AI care cs has reached US$5,000. In retrospect, this success was no easy feat. In the early days, I faced many challenges and difficulties, constantly needing to improve the product, handle tickets, and seek feedback. But it is these experiences that have made me more determined in my direction and goals.
For students who want to start a business, my experience may give you some inspiration: don’t be afraid to challenge yourself, even if you have no formal background or experience; use the skills you love to find opportunities and create value; the most important thing is to keep Continuously strive to improve our products to meet user needs.
Finally, thank you all for your support and attention! I hope my experience can bring you some inspiration and motivation! See you next time!
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