From broke to $100k MRR in four years

Dustin Stout was broke after two failed products, but then ChatGPT dropped. He saw the opportunity immediately and started building with no-code tools. Four years later, Magai is bringing in nearly $100k MRR.

Here's Dustin on how he did it. 👇

From failed actor to founder

I was supposed to be an actor. Small-town Pennsylvania kid moves to Hollywood, chases the dream, learns the craft. But Hollywood had other plans for me.

After auditions dried up, I found myself as a youth director at a non-profit, then designing t-shirts at a Christian print shop. Not exactly the red carpet. But here's the thing — that print shop is where I taught myself web design. And that's when I discovered something that felt like a superpower: social media.

As an extrovert with a lifelong obsession with technology, it clicked immediately. I learned from Michael Hyatt about building a platform through blogging and social media. I started writing about what I was learning, and before long, people were paying me for advice. In 2014, I went full-time as a marketing consultant.

But client work has a ceiling, especially for a perfectionist. I realized I could pour that perfectionism into digital products and help tens of thousands of people instead of one client at a time. So, I built my first product in 2014 with a couple of partners.

Then came 2020. I left that company after years of stagnation and differing visions. What followed was brutal: two failed products, depleted savings, and probably the lowest point of my professional life. Rock bottom is a powerful motivator.

And then ChatGPT dropped.

Finding the idea

I saw it immediately — where this was all going over the next decade. I started using ChatGPT obsessively and kept running into the same frustrations. Why doesn't it do this? Why can't I access that model? Why is the interface so clunky?

So I built the solution myself. That's Magai: the all-in-one AI platform that gives you access to the world's best AI models — text, image, video, and soon audio — all in one place, for one price. No juggling subscriptions. No managing API keys. Just the best of AI, simplified.

We're right on the cusp of hitting $100k MRR.

Duct tape and determination

I built Magai before vibe coding was even possible. The initial product was built entirely with no-code tools, some digital duct tape, and sheer determination.

I'm not a developer, but I refused to let that stop me. I pieced together the first prototype of Magai using Bubble, webhooks, Zapier, and every automation tool I could get my hands on. It was scrappy — held together by willpower more than elegant code.

The name came from a simple idea: This AI revolution felt almost magical. I wanted to capture that. Magic + AI = Magai.

I built it to solve my own problems first, so every feature in that first version existed because I personally needed it.

No funding. No team. Just me, working nights and weekends, figuring it out as I went. The first version was somewhat pretty, and it worked well enough. And sometimes that's all you need to prove an idea has legs.

Outgrowing no-code

Our biggest challenge was building on a foundation that couldn't scale.

As we grew, we hit Bubble's ceiling, but we kept pushing. My team — some of the best engineers I've ever worked with — got creative. Custom Python and Node.js proxy servers. Workarounds that pushed no-code further than it was designed to go. It worked until — it didn't.

Eventually, we had no choice but to rebuild the entire application from scratch on a custom codebase. That transition consumed enormous time and resources.

Version 3 is a complete rebuild: Node.js, Supabase, and a modern stack optimized for Vercel. Stripe handles payments. ConvertKit manages our email marketing.

Internally, ClickUp keeps us organized, and Slack keeps us connected. That's the core. Everything else is negotiable, but those tools are non-negotiable.

If I had to start over, I'd make the same choice to launch with no-code — it let me validate the idea fast with zero technical resources. But I'd plan for the migration sooner. I'd build with the assumption that success would require a complete rebuild, and I'd start laying that groundwork earlier.

Building while broke

Another big challenge was more personal: building while broke. Every decision carried weight because failure meant losing my home.

That pressure was both crushing and clarifying. There was no room for distraction or vanity metrics. Every feature had to matter. Every dollar had to count.

Looking back, I wouldn't trade that pressure. It forced discipline that still shapes how we operate today.

A foundation of trust

I grew Magai through word of mouth, built on a foundation of trust. That's it. No paid ads. No growth hacks. No shortcuts. Just a decade of showing up.

Before Magai existed, I had spent years building an audience through blogging and social media. I learned early from Michael Hyatt that you could build a platform by consistently providing value and being transparent about your journey. So that's what I did.

By the time I launched Magai, I had an email list of nearly 100,000 subscribers and genuine relationships with domain experts and influencers in the digital space. When I shared what I was building, they didn't just pay attention — they helped spread the word.

I shared everything as I built: the good, the bad, the messy middle. No polished marketing. Just raw, honest progress. That transparency built trust.

And building in public meant my early users weren't just customers. They were invested in the journey. They became evangelists because they felt like part of the story.

The product also solved a real, felt need. People were drowning in AI subscriptions and scattered tools. Magaisimplified everything into one platform. When you solve a genuine problem, your users do your marketing for you.

Here's what most people miss: relationships compound. The connections you invest in today become your unfair advantage tomorrow. You can't manufacture that overnight.

Transparency is the language of trust. Speak it consistently, and people will show up when it matters.

A radically simple business model

Our business model is radically simple: one subscription, everything included.

You pay a monthly fee and get access to all the AI models, all the tools, all the features. No tiered feature gates. No confusing pricing matrices. The only difference between plans is usage volume.

We pay the AI providers based on what our users consume. We handle the complexity—the API management, the billing relationships, the infrastructure—so our users don't have to.

We've also focused on retention over acquisition. A simple, valuable product that people actually use creates long-term customers. We'd rather have loyal users who stick around for years than a flood of signups who churn in a month.

Sustainable growth beats vanity metrics every time.

Three pieces of advice

Lead with value

Lead with value. Always.

If you're building a company just to make money, you might succeed — but you probably won't survive the hard parts. When the revenue dries up, when the product fails, when everything falls apart, money isn't enough motivation to keep going.

But if you're solving a real problem for real people — people who aren't just "customers" or "users" but actual humans whose lives you want to improve — that purpose becomes fuel. It carries you through the seasons that require pure grit.

You need a clear reason why you're doing this. Not a mission statement for your website. A real, visceral reason that gets you out of bed when everything is broken.

Build in public

Build in public. Relentlessly.

Transparency is the language of trust. In a world full of faceless companies and polished marketing, being genuinely open about your journey — the wins AND the failures — is a competitive advantage. People don't just buy products. They buy into people they trust.

Start now

Start before you're ready. Launch before it's perfect. Your first version will be embarrassing — ship it anyway. You'll learn more from real users in a week than from planning in isolation for a year.

Decide to be an unstoppable force. Then prove it by showing your work.

What's next?

Magai will be a billion-dollar company serving one million customers within the next three years. But the revenue is just a byproduct of the real mission: democratizing AI access for everyone.

We're not building for Silicon Valley. We're not building for developers and data scientists. We're building for everyday people doing everyday work — the everyday office worker, the electrician, the plumber, the coach, the consultant, the marketer, the admin assistant, the side-hustling mom, the founder who's balancing all the plates at once.

AI shouldn't require a technical background to use effectively. It shouldn't require juggling ten subscriptions and managing API keys. The most powerful technology in a generation should be accessible to anyone willing to use it.

That's what we're building. One platform. All the best AI. For everyone.

The future belongs to the people who embrace these tools — and we're going to make sure that future isn't gatekept by complexity or cost.

Head to magai.co to explore everything we're building. For the journey behind it — the lessons, the failures, and the occasional win — follow me on X and Instagram.