From YouTube to startup: built this over break
Two months ago, I started watching a bunch of YouTube videos on how people were getting rich building startups.
SaaS in 30 days. Indie hacker this, bootstrapped that. I watched it all.
Last weekend, I finally stopped watching and actually built something.
I’m 19, in college, no budget, no real background — just a lot of time spent thinking about starting a business and finally deciding to go for it.
So I built CartPilotAI — a GPT-powered assistant for small ecommerce stores. It helps shoppers figure out what products are right for them, kind of like that one super helpful guy at the shoe store who actually knows what he’s talking about.
The product’s early. The landing page is new. The idea is still taking shape.
But I’d love feedback — UX, copy, clarity, vibes.
If something feels off, confusing, or useless, I’d genuinely love to hear it.
Here’s the page:
https://cartpilotai.vercel.app
Still early, but this is my first real shot.
Appreciate any thoughts 🙏
May I ask how did you build the landing page? Which front end stack did you use? I like it because it's sleek specifically.
Yes @Oscar Carrasco is exactly right!
I love using v0.dev to create stuff like this because you can preview the code and make changes to it before deploying - it's also completely free!
Pro tip: Use chatgpt to write your prompt for your -> then paste into v0
Using this process, and then manually changing the copy until it was accurate, total time was ~1 hr
Wish I had more details for you on the styling, but that was all AI. If you like the specific look of a different website though, I know you can take a screenshot and then ask v0 to copy the style. I've done that before with good results.
Let me know if you have other questions!
Just checked the sources, this was created using v0 (dot) dev, the FE stack is React(Next.js) with Tailwind v3 + shadcn.
Which is a cool choice for starting out, it really helps getting your offer out there rapidly.
Lol, really not hard to tell how I built it when the url ends with ".vercel.app"
Can't exactly hide that one ;)
Props for taking the leap and building something, especially while in school. Your concept is solid, everyone’s trying to make stores smarter, but this sounds personal and helpful, not robotic.
Landing page is clean. Maybe add a short example or interaction to show it in action? Could help people “get it” quicker.
I’m working on a bootstrapped platform too. If you’re ever down to share notes, I’d be up for it. Keep going.
Thank you so much for the feedback!
Honestly blows my mind that people even respond to stuff like this! I will try to add a demo once I have the MVP working (estimating 1-2 more weeks to get that running, especially with finals).
I'd love to hear about your idea - do you have an mvp demo or a landing page I could check out, or do you just want to pitch it to me in a reply to this comment? Whatever works, I'm down
Happy to talk! I just joined your waitlist :)
Yeah, my site is Yakuraapp.com - we are hoping to be a great marketing/sales platform for SaaS webapps and software. We're on the waitlist phase right now, getting all that banana's all set up now. Your landing page is sweet, I'm going to draw inspiration from it. Feel free to reach out anytime! I would love to chat.
Thank you so much for joining!
Love the idea of allowing SaaS products to get more visibility - there's a reason we all post in obscure threads like this just to get attention. I think it would be cool if you could also allow people to put their products in there to get early feedback from other creators (or at least your team) as I could see that being valuable for people creating SaaS projects for the first time. Best of luck with your project!
Tiny cost‑saving side note (ignore if not relevant): my team has a spare GitHub Enterprise Cloud 1‑year license for 20 users we’re off‑loading at cost (85 % under list) plus a small MongoDB credit. If reducing dev‑tool spend helps extend your runway, DM me and I’ll share the escrow link.
Thank you for the offer!
I'm not quite ready for anything like that yet. Still trying to finish my MVP and get my first customers. I'll let you know if anything changes
Congratulations - this is awesome! What exactly does "and fully integrated by the founder" mean? Would make sure the tagline is extremely clear as that's your primary hook
yeah so that's basically my attempt to turn my inexperience into a feature. Because I haven't set this up as a smooth, automated process yet, I'll end up doing a lot of the technical work manually. If I'm going to be spending the time to set it up for them, then I might as well customize it at the same time. I want to emphasize that it's not just a plug and play solution. I'll consider changing that to make it more clear.
Thank you for your feedback!
Awesome work turning your idea into a startup! If you're looking to create a logo or brand identity that stands out, I’d love to help out!
I appreciate the offer, but my budget on this project is literally $0. So unless you're willing to help a friend out for free I'm sorry :)
Great product. Are you looking to get funding for it?
Actually no, I'm trying really hard to keep costs down cause this is my first project (and therefore very likely to fail). I actually haven't spend any money so far, utilizing the heck out of free trials and working around the kinks and paywalls in free tiers of various software products (Qdrant DB, Cursor, Vercel, Render, etc.). At some point I will probably have to spend money on this, but I'm trying to get a confirmed customer before I pull the trigger so I can ensure a profit.
Okay. Speaking of AI I'm building AI tools o help with workflows. Here's a sample
BetterCode
Tell me what you think
Congrats! You didn't ask for it, but with years of failing on my end, I advise you read The Lean Startup by Eric Ries.
But don't just read it, comb through it. Make notes. It's easy to miss what is actually being recommended.
I'll definitely check that out! I have some friends who are also into this entrepreneurship stuff and I think they might have it.
Hey, it’s great that you decided to start putting in work. Hope it goes well for you. I wanted to ask does the app have a browser extension or are you planning to add it at some point?
I didn't think about going in that direction. Maybe I would turn it into a full stack app, but for now I'll just be manually adding a complex react component to my client's websites. I have a long way to go on the technical side before I can create anything that impressive, so I decided that my value prop is going to be working closely with my partners to tailor my solution to their needs (cause I'd be doing the work manually anyway)
It’s great for beginning. You can think of it as a feature in future releases. Good luck!