What I Learned Studying 3 Indie Hackers Who Built AI Empires (Without The Usual Playbook)

Hey IH family! 👋
Let me start with a confession: I'm obsessed with founder stories. Like, stay-up-until-3-AM-reading-about-them obsessed. And running Alternative AI's newsletter (https://newsletter.alternativeai.io/) has given me the perfect excuse to dive deep into some of the most fascinating ones in our community.

Over the last few months, I've been quietly studying some of IH's most interesting AI success stories. You might know these founders from their epic Show IH posts or their products that regularly top the charts here, app sumo or Starter stories (you get the drift here...).

What caught my attention wasn't just their success – it was how they completely ignored the usual "AI startup playbook." No massive funding rounds. No expensive AI teams. Just smart, scrappy building.
Here are three stories that intrigued me the most (in a good way):

The New Dad who made the most of plain ol boring excel !
First up is James ( @bresslertweets you might remember his legendary you tube post)
I spent weeks piecing together his journey through his posts, comments, and our recent feature story. Here's what fascinated me: While on paternity leave, between diaper changes and Excel frustrations, he built an AI tool that now does $220K/month.

But here's the part I love: He didn't write a single line of marketing copy. Instead:

Ranted about Excel in Reddit communities (relatable!)
Shared daily builds here on IH
Let angry Excel users basically build his product for him

Fast forward to story#2

The McDonald's reject who ha the last laugh!!
Then there's Guillaume (@GuillaumeMbh) . His story IH post about being rejected from McDonald's is stuff of legends here.
What hooked me was how he looked at the "red ocean" of CRM tools and thought, "Yeah, let's swim there!" While everyone else was chasing the next AI breakthrough, he:

Built on Instagram (for B2B! In 2025!)
Ignored VCs (used their pitch meetings for product feedback instead)
Turned every customer into a case study

and the 'Gold' of all ...

The 17-Year-Old Who Made Us All Feel Lazy

And finally, Zach(@zach_yadegari). I remember choking on my coffee when I saw his first Show IH post: "17yo built an AI app doing $1.1M/month."
After diving into his journey (and checking if I had accomplished anything at 17 besides finding new ways to procrastinate), I was amazed by his approach:

Solved the simplest problem he could find
Sent 500 DMs to influencers (got 495 rejections)
Kept his pricing so simple a teenager could understand it (his words!)

What I Learned studying these founders (and was hoping to pass on my 2 cents of wisdon)
Look, I'm as guilty as anyone of overcomplicating things. But these stories taught me something:

The best AI products solve human problems, not technical ones
Community beats capital every time
There's no such thing as a "saturated" market, just lazy thinking

Why I'm sharing this
Running Alternative AI's (AI directory) and the newsletter has given me a front-row seat to hundreds of AI tools and founder stories. But these three stood out because they're so... IH.
They're not about raising millions or building the next ChatGPT. They're about solving real problems, building in public, and growing through community.
What's Next?
Two things:

If you're building something cool in AI, I'd love to study your journey too. Drop your story in the comments or submit your tool here: https://alternativeai.io/
I write about founders like these in our newsletter (12K+ readers, subs are mostly Aussie). Happy to feature IH builders looking to reach new markets.

Your Turn

Let's chat in the comments!
P.S. To James, Guillaume, and Zach – thanks for keeping this insomniac entertained with your incredible journeys. 🙌

About me: Just a founder who loves good stories, runs Alternative AI, and spends way too much time studying successful builders.