How I accidentally created a generative AI tool that's made $73,000 in 2 months
Meet Louis. He's the founder of AudioPen, an AI tool to convert messy thoughts into clear text.
AudioPen launched on Product Hunt several days ago and ended up as #1, with more than 1,000 upvotes.
Since then, many people have tweeted about AudioPen. (Just look at Louis' Twitter account, where he retweets those mentions.)
All of this helped AudioPen quickly amass more than 1,000 paying users and $73,000 in revenue in its first two months.
Without further ado, here's the interview with Louis:
What’s your name, and what are you working on?
I’m Louis Pereira, a part-time Indie Hacker. I’ve built a bunch of web apps, the latest of which is AudioPen. It’s an AI-powered voice note app that listens to you talk, and then rewrites what you said in clear, logically flowing words. It’s the easiest way to go from messy thought to clear text.
What inspired you to create AudioPen?
AudioPen was an accidental invention.
I was just playing around, learning how to use OpenAI’s APIs. In the process, I built a barebones version of AudioPen as a tiny tool on my personal website. It was one among three other tiny tools I’d built that week.
The idea was simple — a voice recorder that listened to what you said, and then transcribed and summarized it in words that were easy to read and ready to share.
To my surprise (and luck), people seemed to really like AudioPen.
So I decided to build it as a standalone tool.
At what point did you decide to devote more time to AudioPen vs. getting back to your job?
During the day, I work a full time job with my family business, which operates in the offline world. Since AudioPen has taken off, I’ve sacrificed sleep.
Occasionally when things break, or in case I’m in the zone while building new features, I take the day off from my day job. Lucky for me, my family is pretty supportive.
How did you validate that there’s a need for AudioPen?
I’d been building a bunch of tiny tools on my personal website and tweeting about each one.
AudioPen stood out though. It got the most attention and positive feedback. So I decided to double down on it.
A few days after I built the mini version, I was hosting an event called Half Day Build. It’s a free hackathon that I organize every couple of months, where indie builders get together to attempt to go from idea to revenue in under 12 hours. I decided to build the full version of AudioPen during that month’s Half Day Build.
When the product was almost ready, I invited a few people to test it before I released it publicly. To my surprise, they didn’t just test it, they even paid for the premium version before I’d even released the product to the public. That’s when I figured I was on to something.
When did you start seeing traction?
AudioPen began generating revenue right from the start. However, it was followed by about a week of steady, slow sales. Nothing exciting.
Then one day I got a DM from a Twitter account with almost 200,000 followers asking me about the tool. That account then wrote a thread about it, and things took off. They haven’t slowed down since.
How did you spread the word for AudioPen in order to get more users?
I have just been building in public since day 1. Mostly on Twitter. I share my thought process around building new features on the product. I share stuff I’ve learned. I share small wins. I share progress I’m making.
I’ve also taken every opportunity to appear on a podcast or a newsletter that’s come my way. As an indie (part-time) builder with no marketing team or budget, I’m hustling as hard as I can.
Other than this, I started an affiliate program for AudioPen, but that is still in its infancy. I’m hoping to get more traction on that front soon.
I’ve also been extremely fortunate that some of the app’s early users are extremely kind. They’ve been going around spreading the word about AudioPen by themselves.
Was AudioPen the first successful AI project? Did you have any (un)successful attempts in building an API product?
Yes, AudioPen was the first large success I’ve had with an AI project. I also built another tool that uses AI called Tiny Testimonial. It’s a testimonial collection tool that makes it really easy for people to write testimonials. I wouldn’t say that its been unsuccessful, but it hasn’t exactly been successful either. It’s just sitting in some sort of middle ground.
How is AudioPen doing now in terms of revenue/paying users?
Currently, AudioPen has over 11,000 registered users, with over 1,000 paying users at varying price points.
You can learn more about Louis and his progress with AudioPen on his Twitter profile.
I know this is late, but such a wonderful product, and an inspiration. Such a good example of what chatgpt/gen AI can do when put into a simple interface for people, not just a chatbot :)
Hi
I have only one question, sorry if it sounds dumb: How do you deal with the OpenAI Payment? I mean, how do you make sure your OpenAI bill stays in limits?
Thanks
Hey! I have set soft and hard limits for my Open AI account, so I get alerted when things are spiking and can act accordingly!
Thanks for the kind reply. If you do not mind me asking, how do you figure out how much should you charge that covers the cost of OpenAI APIs too?
A bunch of back of the envelope math, and a lot of trial and error. Basically started with rock bottom prices and then increased them for future users as I understood existing user usage patterns.
Inspiring story. Both of my side hustles started as something I was "playing around with". Big believer that when you are your own customer good things follow.
Thank you!
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It's a great idea, and it's even more amazing to realize it into a product.
Cheers, Dylan!
Excellent product. I am trying to develop an AI product and bring it to market. This is great to highlight some of the ways that you "won" on the way.
Thanks!
First at all, This is great Congrats ! Assuming you are using the gpt API under the hood. I am kind of curious how are you balancing the price for user if say they use the service a lot, even more than expected. Is this a fixed priced subscription or are you charging as per the use ? Reason I ask is because I know gpt will charge you based on the amount of prompts/token lenght of your queries, so I was wondering how do you balance that out with the user's requests.
Hey Nathan! Thank!
Regarding pricing, it's a fixed price per user irrespective of usage. I started with an extremely low price, and then gradually increased it once I found out what the average costs looked like.
I like the minimal interface - and it's great to hear more context!
What an incredible and truly inspiring story! I deeply understand the immense value of having supportive early users who not only appreciate your product but also enthusiastically spread the word. It is during these moments that the sleepless nights and tireless efforts truly prove their worth.
So grateful for folks that took a chance on the product early on :)
Always special!
Such an incredible and inspiring story, well done Louis and thanks for doing this interview!
It really goes to show that you don't have to be an AI expert to build AI products.
Thank you!
congrats！
thanks!
This is awesome. So happy to see an Indie hacker's success.
Two questions: when you built in public, how did you get so much traction; I have 2 digit followers, and when I post stuff in public, nobody notices. Is there a trick, did you make posts as comments, or used some hashtag?
Second question, what stacks did you use to build the core functionality, the payment system, and the UI?
Hey! Thank you!
I've been building stuff in public for a few years now, and my early days were similar to yours. I joined a cohort based course early on and that helped me find a bunch of folks who would engage with my early tweets. Even though that did not result in sales, it helped me continue building in public until i had an audience that extended beyond that initial group
👍 thanks. Do you remember which course helped you? Connecting with you on LI
This is great. I have a hard time understanding how there could be a market for a paid voice note tool like this, but amazing to see this has taken off!
Hey Santiago! Thank you! It took me by (pleasant) surprise as well :)
It is a very inspiring story!
Cheers!
How do you feel about AudioPen's evolution now that ChatGPT on iOS is out and OpenAI has made it more clear that they intend to continue to push on the consumer-facing surface of their business? Is this something you worry much about, or view it as a non-threat or even possible benefit?
This is something I'm really curious across the board for Indie Hackers doing amazing things building delightful little self-contained AI-powered products. Do you think the market will keep growing for tools like these, and OpenAI entering the consumer space more broadly only helps?
Or are you worried about the challenge of competing with the free offering of OpenAI's more open-ended general-purpose mobile app(s) and the likes from larger established companies?
Love the UX and simplicity of AudioPen, think you nailed it!
Honest answer is that I have no clue.
I'm just going to focus on what is in my control, and try and give users of the app more than their money's worth :)
Thank you for sharing this useful interview, it's always lovely to hear that it's possible to achieve these results building in public.
Cheers!
This is amazing dude. It really highlights the power of building in public.
:)
There are no mistakes, only happy little accidents. I think Ross didn't have stuff like this in mind, haha. Awesome job!
Thanks!
Wow this is super cool. It's interesting how life works I was working on a similar idea to audio pen! The target audience is different but the underline idea is the same. I was struggle to complete it but now this has given me the motivation to continue. Thanks!
Cheers!
I don't get it... It's two API calls
Congrats though.
Thanks :)
What a waste
Easily one of the worst AI tools of the year.
Shows me there are a ton of self aggrandizing losers out there.
I’m glad he made the money. But for everyone to hype this so hard is odd.
You don’t know what you think? You listen to yourself talk for 15 minutes straight? Multiple times per day?
What’s wrong with everyone?
Only thing that barely makes sense is everyone secretly hates him and wants him to go broke via the unlimited lifetime plan on a paid api.
Please tell me how this tool is useful?
This is awesome
This use case is really interesting because I found myself doing this a lot with ChatGPT.
Thank you for sharing the journey. Congratulations!
Thank you!
Congratulations! AI is also my domain and it really is an exciting time to be working on these sorts of projects! Great work.
Thanks Johnny!
That's great man!
Cheers Tanveer!
How I wish to accidentally create an app. Congratulations!
Thanks! Keep at it, from what I've learned – repeated experiments are the easiest way to ensure that beautiful accidents happen.
Congrats! Building in public works :)
Thank you! It sure does :)
Such a great story and congrats to the team!
Thank you!
this is awesome!
Cheers!
Thank you for sharing my story :)
It's been a wild ride and I hope to keep going!
You got this, Louis!
Good luck with your journey!
thank you!
This is really cool history! thanks for sharing!
Cheers :)
Really cool!!
Thanks Evan!
Thank you for the interview, Louis!
Thank you for featuring it!
Nice interview!
Cheers!