How Fernando Built aiCarousels to $5K MRR in 10 Days with AI and No Formal Coding

In the heart of the vibrant and often unpredictable economy of Argentina, Fernando, a passionate product designer based in Sweden, embarked on a journey that many aspiring tech entrepreneurs dream about but few achieve. With no formal coding training and amidst career uncertainty, he leveraged a bold challenge and the power of AI to create aiCarousels.com, a tool transforming how social media carousels are built on platforms like LinkedIn, Instagram, and TikTok.

Background: The Spark that Ignited a New Venture

Fernando’s story begins with a twist of fate. Preparing for a vacation, he learned about the looming possibility of losing his job. Confronted with sudden uncertainty in a foreign land, he cancelled his holiday plans and committed himself to a 10-day #buildinpublic challenge hosted on Twitter and YouTube. His goal was straightforward yet ambitious: develop a product that could generate stable cash flow.

Although Fernando loved programming, he was candid about his limited skills, joking that his code might even cause laughter or discomfort. Yet, his passion and determination propelled him into action.

Identifying the Product Opportunity: Solving Time-Consuming Design Challenges

Fernando believed that effective design tools should prioritize saving users' time, not merely improving aesthetics. He noticed the widespread popularity of carousel posts on LinkedIn, a format highly favored for engagement but inherently time-consuming to craft, even for skilled designers.

This insight led him to the concept of aiCarousels — an AI-powered solution enabling users, regardless of design expertise, to quickly create attractive carousel posts. This approach positioned his product uniquely by addressing both utility and simplicity.

The 10-Day Build: Building Lean and User-Centric Features

Fernando’s challenge was constrained by time. To maximize productivity and deliver a minimum viable product (MVP), he avoided complex frameworks and focused on essential functionalities with OpenAI's API for AI capabilities and Outseta for payment processing.

• Day 1-2: Developed core UI, navigation, slide editing, and download features, forming the fundamental image creation workflow.
• Day 3: Added a sidebar for managing settings like carousel type, color palettes, text options, and brand customization.
• Day 4-5: Introduced save/load, background design, visual effects, and varied slide types (text, image-only, text plus image).
• Day 6: Integrated AI-driven content generation based on slide count and user-chosen themes.
• Day 7: Finalized pricing and subscription with Outseta integration.
• Day 8-10: Designed branding elements and landing pages, prepared for launch, and successfully released the product.

Notably, aiCarousels evolved from only generating content based on themes to handling arbitrary text, URLs, or YouTube video inputs, producing compelling carousel graphics in seconds.

Launching and Gaining Traction: The Power of Product Hunt and Community

Despite stiff competition in design tools, Fernando’s Product Hunt launch was a significant early success. Ranking 9th on launch day with numerous positive comments and initial paying customers validated the product-market fit. Feedback highlighted how aiCarousels outperformed freelancers and enhanced efficiency even for design-savvy users.

Early users appreciated Fernando’s responsiveness to bugs and inquiries, which helped build trust and foster deeper community connections. His authentic, personal engagement—following users on LinkedIn, liking posts, and openly sharing his founder journey—cemented a loyal user base.

Growth Strategies: From Organic Reach to Strategic Outreach

aiCarousels capitalized on first-mover advantage as one of the earliest AI carousel generators, benefiting from strong SEO, quality backlinks, and natural traffic. Fernando also nurtured his modest but active LinkedIn and Twitter presence by sharing build-in-public stories, which not only attracted users but also amplified word-of-mouth among indie developers and social media content creators.

Expanding efforts include affiliate marketing, content marketing through blogs and videos, and developing free related AI tools to funnel users towards paid services, indicating a strategic approach to sustainable growth.

Current Status and Vision: Building a Sustainable SaaS Business

aiCarousels surpassed Fernando’s initial projections with a $5,000 monthly recurring revenue (MRR) within six months, showcasing impressive margins and ongoing growth potential. Despite managing multiple projects, Fernando is aligned on focusing his energies for maximum impact—actively considering options like selling some assets to hone focus.

Looking ahead, Fernando plans to deepen the product’s functionality in niche use-cases related to personal branding on LinkedIn and broader social media engagement, complementing this with richer user experience enhancements and content creation.

Reflections on Entrepreneurship: Lessons in Rapid Iteration and Persistence

Fernando’s experience underscores the value of shipping quickly and embracing imperfections. Quick MVP launches enable real user feedback, fostering a virtuous cycle of improvement and direct engagement. His story challenges the myth that one must be a perfect coder to build a successful tech product, illustrating how passion, user focus, and smart tool usage can create impactful software.

Essential Tools and Resources

• Outseta: Streamlines user authentication, subscription billing, and integrates seamlessly with Stripe, enabling solo founders to manage business operations efficiently.
• Arvid Kahl’s "The Bootstrapped Founder": Offers practical insights for solo founders.
• Books like "Shoe Dog" and "Creativity, Inc." provide inspiration and lessons from legendary entrepreneurs and creative leaders.

For Aspiring Entrepreneurs

Fernando’s journey proves that with today’s no-code tools and AI APIs, building a SaaS business is more accessible than ever. Regardless of coding skills, commitment and creative problem-solving are key. If you have an idea, start building, learn fast from your audience, and embrace the growth that comes with consistent effort.

As you reflect on Fernando’s path, consider which small steps you might take today to move your ideas forward. Remember, the journey of thousands begins with one bold flag planted—with Build in Public as a powerful tactic to keep yourself accountable and connected.