30-year-old founder launches an AI product and goes from broke to financial freedom with $190k MRR

Jozef Gherman grew up comfortably in a conservative household with parents who did their best to show him the power of the dollar.

At 29 years old, though, he was working paycheck to paycheck with nothing in the bank, lingering credit card debt from college, and a string of failed products.

Then, he launched an AI product and, a little over a year later, he's making good on his parents' efforts — StealthGPT is bringing in over $190k/mo.

Here's a peek at his finances.

Building four AI products

Jozef's main product is StealthGPT, an undetectable AI service. It is subscription-based with tiered pricing that offers varying levels of access. Each plan offers an increasing number of “Stealth Word” limits.

He also created three new products this year.

• AIBypass: An undetectable AI solution with different use cases than StealthGPT

• RapidResume: An AI resume creator

• AIDetect: An AI detection solution

These small products are how he validates demand for new features within StealGPT. And they bring in some additional revenue as well.

From broke to financial freedom

It all started a little over a year ago. Jozef was broke, working freelance jobs to pay the bills while building a string of failed products.

He invested $250 into what would become StealthGPT and built a prototype in the evenings with NextJS/React, Vercel, Tailwind, Planetscale, Resend (Notifications), and Clerk (auth).

It took about six months before he was making enough money to pay himself. Now, he's making $190,170 per month.

AI product revenue

Here's the breakdown of what he's bringing in:

• StealthGPT revenue: $186k/mo

• AIBypass revenue: $3.2k/mo

• RapidResume revenue: $570/mo

• AIDetect revenue: $400/mo

• Funding: 400k

• Founder pay: $9k/mo

• Personal account: $50k

• Business account: $220k

He says he made the mistake of making his free tier too generous at first. It helped with initial adoption, but it quickly became clear that it was killing their revenue.

So he A/B tested it and eliminated the free tier altogether. This resulted in a 50% revenue spike that month, as well as reduced the number of support emails.

The importance of liquidity

You may have noticed that $220k chunk of change in his business account. He needs that kind of liquid cash in order to pay his expenses, which are very high.

As for his personal account, he says having money in his account is a “relatively new concept” for him, as he’s used to living paycheck to paycheck. And it feels important for his sense of financial security.

Of course, he could invest it and let his money work for him, but he’s not into that — yet. He says he wants to secure his present before he secures his future.

You never know when it’s all going to come crashing down. I’d rather have a rainy day fund. Once I save about $100k, I will start seriously considering investment opportunities.

Investing in artificial intelligence

Despite having a stellar MRR and solid savings, Jozef has only invested a total of $600. It's up about 40% to $860 now, which is great. But a great return on a small amount is still small.

His investments are solely focused on AI companies: Microsoft and Nvidia.

I invested in Microsoft and Nvidia because they represent the cutting edge and forefront of AI technology. I firmly believe AI will take over the internet and, soon, the physical world.

He's also interested in Amazon, Apple, and Meta because he believes in their leadership and thinks they'll become leaders in the AI scene.

He doesn’t care to diversify his portfolio with ETFs and mutual funds. And don't get him started on crypto. He's all in on AI stocks and plans to keep it that way.

Crypto is a ponzi scheme

Jozef is no stranger to crypto. He’s been following it for nearly a decade. But he doesn't invest in it. He says 99% of it is “BS” at best, and a scam at worst.

Do not buy the hype. Improve yourself and invest in things you are confident will succeed. You know when something is real or BS — trust your gut.

He says crypto is the “easiest scam instrument in the world” because people are able to essentially handle their own bank accounts without intermediaries. And while that seemed interesting at first, he says people have demonstrated that they are “not capable of handling that responsibility." Because of this, he says most altcoins, and even “established” coins, are Ponzi schemes.

The only possible exceptions, in his opinion, are Bitcoin and Ethereum. Everything else is noise.

AI product expenses

Remember all that cash that he's keeping liquid in his business account? That's necessary when your expenses are $175,308.33 per month. Here's the breakdown:

• Payroll: $43,508.33

• Google ads: $110k

• Facebook ads: $10k

• X ads: $5k

• Vercel: $850

• Supabase: $750

• Bookkeeping: $1.2k

• Consultant: $1k

• SaaS tools: $1k

• Misc one-off expenses: $500-$2k

Personal expenses

Here are Jozef's monthly personal expenses:

• Rent: $2,800

• Utilities: $300

• Groceries: $600

• Subscriptions: $150

• Entertainment/Dining: $300

He’s happy to pay a premium for rent because he’s a homebody. He doesn’t like leaving his house and he needs room to pace while he works. He needs a house that's over 2,000 square feet.

But he saves money elsewhere. One of his biggest saving hacks is drinking instant coffee. He buys a $10 jar of it from the supermarket and it lasts him a month. He’s a big coffee drinker — he was on his fourth cup during his interview — and before switching to instant coffee, his jugs of premade iced coffee were costing him $300 per month. And that's not even counting the time spent going to the supermarket to pick it up.

Rocket Money also saves him a few bucks and he highly recommends it. It prevents him from forgetting about subscriptions that he’s paying for.

Be careful with debt

Spend only what you can afford.

Jozef tries his best to live by the common-sense motto, "Spend only what you can afford." But he deviates from it here and there. He says it’s okay to take on debt from time to time as long as you are quick to pay it off.

And he's speaking from experience. He wasn’t quick about it in the past, and it piled up — he's still paying off credit card debt from college. For too many years, he was just making the minimum payment. But now, he finally understands the importance of building — and rebuilding — credit, and he's actively paying off.

But he's almost done, with only $3.5k left.

Get funded but avoid VCs

Jozef did seek investment for StealthGPT, but not from VCs. He got $400k from angel investors and small family investment offices in exchange for 8% of his company.

If you're going to raise money, he recommends doing the same: Go for a small amount and avoid VCs. Because VCs are “out of their minds” and he says the system is so dysfunctional that it’s “no wonder why 99% of VC companies go belly up.”

Be picky about your investors!

Angel investors and family offices, however, tend to have more leniency in their processes and their time horizon for investments to mature is longer.

Plus, they're very hands off, which is nice. They help when asked, but they aren’t “putting their hands in the cookie jar.”

So far, he has spent about $300k of the investment.

Don't miss this opportunity to get financially free

You do not need funding to start a company. He took investment, but only to scale it. He started his company with $250 of his hard-earned cash.

Now, more than ever, there are huge opportunities for online businesses. Development tools and tutorials are free, social media is free, and hosting is free in the beginning thanks to Vercel's free tier.

He says you just need to buy a domain, which is cheap. Then launch your product and connect it to the right audiences. If it fails, either the product or market didn't fit, and you should adjust accordingly.

There has never been easier to build a multi-million dollar business. The opportunities are endless, and the cost is hilariously low. Do not miss this opportunity!

You can find Jozef X, LinkedIn, and his personal site. And check out StealthGPT.

Please note that the above are opinions. This is meant for informational purposes only. It is not intended to be financial advice.

And if you'd like to be featured as a guest in a future interview for this series, let me know in the comments!