September 21st - It's been a while since I posted, but man, what a month this has been.
I need to be real with you about what's happening in the freelancing world right now, and honestly, in my own life. This month has been a complete 180 from what I'm used to, and I think it's a story that a lot of developers can relate to.
The Numbers Don't Lie
Usually, I'd have 7-9 clients rolling through each month. Small projects, MVPs, Discord bots, single-page websites for local businesses - you know the drill. Easy money, quick turnarounds, and it kept the lights on while I worked on bigger things.
This month? Two clients. Just two.
At my peak, I was pulling in $8,000 a month doing full-stack development - frontend, backend, mobile apps, the whole spectrum. Not bad for a solo freelancer, right? But those days feel like a lifetime ago now.
AI Ate My Lunch (The Small Portions, Anyway)
Let's call it what it is: AI has completely disrupted the small project market. Those simple websites and basic scripts that used to be easy wins? They're gone. Clients just fire up ChatGPT or Claude and build it themselves.
I started noticing this shift around the middle of this year. People who used to come to me for a quick web script or a simple landing page just... stopped calling. Instead, I'm getting a different type of work now - clients showing up with AI-generated code asking me to fix it. The pay isn't as good as building from scratch, but it's something.
The interesting part? The complex projects are still there. The ones that require real architecture, scalability thinking, and domain expertise - AI isn't replacing those. Yet.
Going All In: My Fourth Startup Rodeo
Here's where things get wild. While my freelancing income is tanking, I'm burning through money faster than I ever made it. We're talking about the kind of cash that took me a whole year to earn in my early freelancing days, and I'm spending it in less than a month.
Why? Because I'm all-in on startup number four.
My first two startups focused on specific niches - one in SaaS, one targeting developers. Both failed because we couldn't handle the financial pressure of bootstrapping everything from our own pockets. The third one though? We managed to exit with a decent sum. Not life-changing money, but enough to give me a real shot at doing this right.
And that's exactly what I'm doing. Every penny from that exit, plus liquidated assets from my portfolio - it's all going into this new venture. This is my "up or down the hill" moment.
The Reality of Burning Cash
I didn't plan to hire a team of six people. It just happened organically - I needed someone for this, someone for that, and before I knew it, I had two developers, a UI/UX designer, a backend specialist, and two others on payroll. The burn rate is insane, but the progress we're making is equally insane.
We started with a single line of code, and now the project has grown beyond what I could have imagined. The timeline is clear: if nothing goes catastrophically wrong, we launch in 2-3 months. I've got roughly five months of runway after launch, and I'm not fundraising - this is all self-funded from my previous exit.
The Emotional Rollercoaster
Do I question this decision? Absolutely. When I see my bank balance shrinking daily, there's definitely a voice in my head asking, "What if this fails?"
But then I look at the progress. I see what we've built. I see the problem we're solving (can't share details yet - you'll have to wait for launch). And honestly, the fact that I'm getting fewer small freelancing clients means I have more time to focus on building something bigger.
The two big projects I did land this month? They paid well and reminded me that there's still room for skilled developers in this AI-driven world.
Advice for Fellow Freelancers
If you're a freelancer watching AI eat into your smaller projects, here's my take: don't fight it, adapt to it.
Use this transition to level up your skills. Focus on the complex problems that AI can't solve yet. When clients come to you with broken AI-generated code, see it as an opportunity to learn how AI thinks and where it falls short.
Small projects might be disappearing, but that just means you need to position yourself for the bigger ones. The era of AI isn't just disrupting our industry - it's creating entirely new opportunities for those willing to evolve.
Living in the Future
Here's the thing that keeps me motivated: we're living through one of the most exciting technological shifts in human history. Yes, it's disrupting traditional freelancing. Yes, it's scary to bet everything on a startup while watching your safety net disappear.
But it's also incredible to be here, right now, building in this space. AI isn't just changing how we work - it's expanding what's possible. And for entrepreneurs willing to embrace that change rather than resist it, the opportunities are endless.
What's Next?
I'm documenting this journey not because I know how it ends, but because I think the story matters. Whether this startup succeeds or fails, the lessons from navigating this transition from AI-disrupted freelancer to all-in founder are worth sharing.
In 2-3 months, we launch. In 5 months, I'll know if I made the right bet. Until then, I'm heads down, building something I believe in, with a team that's as committed as I am.
The freelancing landscape is changing. The startup world is as brutal as ever. But damn, what a time to be alive and building.