I Replaced My 10-Person Dev Team with AI (Here's What Actually Happened)

Let's get the clickbait out of the way: I didn't literally replace a 10-person dev team.

What I did was build what would have required a 10-person dev team—solo, using AI tools—in a fraction of the time and cost.

This is that story, with honest accounting of what worked, what didn't, and what I learned.

The Setup

I'm a technical founder. I can code, but I'm not fast. My previous startup had a dev team of 8, plus 2 contractors. Monthly engineering burn: roughly $120,000.

This time, I wanted to try something different. What if I built the entire product myself, using AI?

The product: a SaaS platform for freelancers to manage clients, projects, invoices, and time tracking. Think "Notion meets Harvest meets FreshBooks" for solo consultants.

Timeline goal: 3 months to MVP with paying customers.

Budget: $50/month for AI tools. That's it.

The Stack

Here's what I used:

Layer	Tool	Monthly Cost
Frontend	NovaKit App Builder	$19
Backend/Database	Supabase	Free tier
Auth	Supabase Auth	Included
Payments	Stripe	Transaction fees only
Email	Resend	Free tier
Hosting	Vercel	Free tier
AI Code Assistance	NovaKit Chat	Included in $19
Total		$19/month

Compared to my previous startup's $120k/month burn, this is... different.

Month 1: The Core Product

Week 1: Authentication & Dashboard

Day 1-2: Used NovaKit's App Builder to generate the dashboard shell.

My prompt:

"Create a SaaS dashboard for freelancers. Left sidebar with navigation: Dashboard, Clients, Projects, Time, Invoices, Settings. Top header with user menu and notifications. Main content area with welcome message and quick action cards."

Result: Complete dashboard layout in 20 minutes. Responsive. Dark mode support. Professional look.

Day 3-4: Added authentication.

"Add user authentication. Sign up with email, login, password reset. Protect all routes except landing page. Store user profile in the database."

The AI generated auth pages and integrated with Supabase Auth. I had to manually configure Supabase (create project, set up OAuth providers), but the code worked immediately.

Day 5: Created the client management section.

"Create a Clients page. List view with name, email, company, and status. Add client button opens a modal form. Click a client to see details with associated projects."

CRUD operations, modal forms, detail views. All generated, all working.

Week 2: Projects & Time Tracking

Projects:

"Create a Projects page linked to clients. Each project has: name, description, client, hourly rate, status (active/completed/on-hold), and budget hours. Kanban view option with drag-and-drop."

Time tracking was more complex:

"Add time tracking. Users can start/stop a timer linked to a project. Manual entry option with date, hours, and description. Weekly timesheet view. Calculate billable vs. non-billable hours."

The timer required a few iterations. First version didn't persist correctly across page refreshes. I prompted:

"The timer resets when I refresh the page. Store the active timer state in the database so it persists."

Fixed.

Week 3: Invoicing

This is where AI showed its limits.

First attempt:

"Create an invoicing system. Generate invoices from tracked time. Line items, taxes, discounts. PDF export. Send via email."

The generated invoice system was... basic. It worked for simple cases but had issues:

• Tax calculations were US-only
• No support for multiple currencies
• PDF styling was ugly
• Email sending wasn't integrated

I spent 3 days refining:

• "Add support for VAT and multiple tax rates"
• "Support EUR, GBP, CAD in addition to USD"
• "Redesign the PDF to look professional—clean lines, proper typography, company branding"
• "Connect email sending through Resend API"

By the end of week 3, invoicing worked. But it took iteration.

Week 4: Polish & Landing Page

Last week of month 1 was polish:

• Loading states everywhere
• Error handling
• Mobile responsive fixes
• Keyboard shortcuts
• Settings page (profile, company info, branding)

Then the landing page:

"Create a landing page for FreelanceFlow. Hero explaining the value prop for freelancers. Feature sections for clients, projects, time, and invoices. Pricing with Free, Pro, and Team tiers. Testimonials placeholder. FAQ section."

Generated in 15 minutes. Deployed to Vercel.

End of Month 1: Working MVP with auth, clients, projects, time tracking, invoices, and a landing page.

Month 2: The Hard Parts

Month 2 revealed what AI handles well and what it doesn't.

What AI Handled Well

Recurring invoices: "Add recurring invoices. Users set frequency (weekly, monthly, quarterly). Auto-generate on schedule. Email reminders before sending."

Worked first try. I was surprised.

Dashboard analytics: "Add a dashboard with charts. Revenue this month vs. last month. Hours tracked by project. Outstanding invoices. Upcoming deadlines."

Beautiful charts. Real-time data. Responsive.

Client portal: "Create a read-only client portal. Clients get a magic link to view their invoices, project status, and payment history. No login required, just secure token."

This was complex—multiple access patterns, security considerations—but AI generated a solid implementation.

What AI Struggled With

Complex business logic: Calculating billable amounts with different rates, discounts, taxes, and currencies across multiple invoices required manual coding. The AI-generated code had edge cases that broke.

I ended up writing calculation functions by hand. About 200 lines of TypeScript.

Third-party integrations: Connecting to Stripe wasn't just "add Stripe." It was webhooks, idempotency, error handling, subscription state management.

The AI generated skeleton code. I filled in the details.

Performance at scale: Initial queries worked fine with 10 clients. With 100, they got slow. I had to add database indexes and optimize queries manually.

Security review: The AI-generated code had some issues I caught in review:

• Missing input validation on one endpoint
• SQL injection risk in a search function (fixed with parameterized queries)
• Overly permissive CORS settings

Nothing catastrophic, but things I had to find and fix.

The Lesson

AI is excellent at generating CRUD, UI, and standard patterns. It struggles with:

• Complex business logic
• Edge cases
• Performance optimization
• Security hardening
• Third-party integration details

This isn't a criticism. It's a reality check. Know what AI is good at and what you need to do yourself.

Month 3: Launch & Users

Week 9-10: Beta Users

I launched to 20 beta users from my network. Their feedback:

What worked:

• "This is exactly what I needed. Simple but complete."
• "Invoicing is so much easier than my spreadsheet."
• "Love the time tracker—finally something that doesn't require 10 clicks."

What broke:

• "The mobile app is buggy on Android" (I hadn't tested on Android 🤦)
• "I can't figure out how to set up taxes for my country"
• "What happens if I accidentally delete an invoice?"

I spent two weeks fixing bugs and adding:

• Soft deletes (nothing permanently deleted immediately)
• Multi-country tax configuration
• Mobile browser fixes
• Export functionality (CSV, JSON)

All via AI prompts. Faster than writing by hand.

Week 11-12: Public Launch

Launched on Product Hunt. Made it to #8 of the day.

Results:

• 847 signups in the first week
• 23 upgraded to paid ($15/month)
• $345 MRR from nothing

Not life-changing money, but proof the product works.

The Real Cost Breakdown

Let's compare what this would have cost with a traditional team.

Traditional Approach (My Previous Startup)

Role	Monthly Cost
2 Senior Engineers	$40,000
3 Mid-Level Engineers	$36,000
2 Junior Engineers	$16,000
1 Designer	$12,000
2 Contractors	$16,000
Total	$120,000/month

Timeline for this scope: 4-6 months = $480,000 - $720,000

Plus office, benefits, management overhead... call it $600k-$800k fully loaded.

AI-First Approach (This Experiment)

Item	Cost
NovaKit (3 months)	$57
Supabase (stayed on free tier)	$0
Vercel (free tier)	$0
Domain	$12
My time (3 months, opportunity cost)	???
Total direct costs	$69

The "my time" part is real. I worked on this 40+ hours/week for 3 months. If I value my time at $150/hour (roughly what I'd charge as a consultant), that's $78,000 in opportunity cost.

But here's the thing: I would have spent 3 months managing a team anyway. Except I'd be managing instead of building, and burning $360k doing it.

What I Actually Learned

1. AI Amplifies Technical Founders

If you understand software architecture, AI makes you 10x faster. You know what to ask for. You can evaluate output quality. You can fix issues when they arise.

If you don't understand software, AI helps less. You can build, but you'll miss problems that need human judgment.

The best solo founders in 2026 are technical enough to evaluate AI output, even if they're not writing code daily.

2. Some Things Still Need Humans

Payment processing. Security. Legal compliance. Complex business logic.

AI can help with these, but you need judgment to review, test, and validate. Don't blindly trust AI-generated code for anything critical.

3. The 80/20 Rule Applies

AI gets you 80% of the way in 20% of the time. The last 20% (edge cases, polish, optimization) takes the other 80% of the time.

Plan for this. Don't assume AI-generated MVP is production-ready.

4. Framework Choice Matters

I used React (Vite) for the frontend because NovaKit's App Builder supports it well. The AI-generated code was clean and maintainable.

If I'd needed Next.js for SEO or Python for data processing, I could have switched. Having 8 framework options meant picking the right tool, not fighting the tool.

5. No Vendor Lock-In is Freedom

Everything I built, I can export. The code is standard React. The database is Postgres on Supabase. I could migrate to any hosting provider tomorrow.

This matters because AI tools change fast. I'm not betting my business on any single tool staying good forever.

The 6 Products You Can Build Solo

Based on this experience, here's what works well for solo AI-assisted development:

1. SaaS Tools

CRUD applications with subscription billing. Client management, project tracking, invoicing—anything with users, data, and recurring revenue.

2. Internal Tools

Company dashboards, admin panels, data visualization. Often neglected because they're "not the product." AI makes them cheap to build.

3. Landing Pages & Marketing Sites

Obvious, but worth saying. AI generates beautiful landing pages in minutes.

4. Content Platforms

Blogs, course platforms, membership sites. Content management is well-understood. AI handles it well.

5. E-commerce (Simple)

Product catalogs, checkout flows, order management. For complex inventory or multi-vendor marketplaces, you'll hit limits.

6. Productivity Apps

To-do lists, note-taking, time management. Personal tools that solve your own problem.

What's Still Hard Solo

• High-security applications (banking, healthcare)
• Real-time multiplayer systems
• Large-scale data processing
• Mobile apps (native, not web)
• Hardware integrations

These are possible, but you'll hit AI limitations faster and need deeper technical skills.

Would I Do It Again?

Absolutely.

But I'd do it differently:

1. Spend more time on prompts. Good prompts = good output. I rushed some prompts early and paid for it in debugging time.

2. Test on real users earlier. I waited until week 9 for beta users. Should have been week 4.

3. Plan for the 20%. The last 20% of work took 60% of the time. Build that into expectations.

4. Security review from day 1. I found issues late. Should have reviewed AI-generated code more carefully, earlier.

5. Pick one framework and stick with it. I experimented with Vue for one component. Waste of time. Consistency beats variety.

The Bottom Line

Can you replace a dev team with AI? Yes and no.

You can build what a dev team would build, in less time, at lower cost. But you can't remove the need for technical judgment, quality review, and human problem-solving.

AI makes one competent person as productive as a small team used to be. It doesn't make zero competent people productive.

If you're a founder who can evaluate software decisions—even if you're not writing code daily—AI tools are a force multiplier.

If you're completely non-technical, AI helps, but you'll still need someone technical reviewing and guiding.

The future isn't "AI replaces developers." It's "one developer with AI does what five did before."

And that's a big deal.

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Ready to build your own product? NovaKit's App Builder gives you 8 frameworks, AI code generation, and one-click deployment. Start with an idea, ship with confidence. No team required—just you and good prompts.