Hustle Meter

Inspiration

Students and first-time sellers often say yes to jobs without counting the hidden time: messages, changes, packing, fixing mistakes. A $6 article that takes 85 minutes pays under $4 an hour, and most people never notice.

What it does

Hustle Meter shows your real hourly pay from a few simple numbers: price, costs, fees, and the minutes each sale really takes. It compares that to the hourly pay you want and shows a green, amber or red verdict. Fastest Fix then gives the smallest change that reaches your target: raise the price, cut your time, or do both. A growth chart shows your total profit week by week, now and with the fix, and you can set it to any number of weeks.

How we built it

One web page in plain JavaScript, with no server and no sign-in. It works offline and saves your numbers on your own device. The math is transparent: hourly pay is profit per sale divided by real hours, and Fastest Fix solves the same equation backwards. The chart is drawn as live SVG. Built with AI assistance (Claude).

Challenges we ran into

Our first idea was a tool that scores startup ideas from real customer conversations. We dropped it because it depended on answers from real people that we couldn't collect in time. Hustle Meter works from the first number you type. We built and tested everything on a phone, so we kept the app small, in a single file, and checked it on a real screen. Our early versions had too much explanation, so we cut them down to one hourly number, one verdict and three fixes. We also tested the odd cases, such as a price that loses money, an empty target, and very long charts, so the page never shows nonsense.

Accomplishments that we're proud of

We're proud of the growth chart. We drew it ourselves as a live SVG, with no chart library, and it compares your profit now with your profit after the Fastest Fix. You can change it to any number of weeks, from 1 up to 520, and it redraws instantly. We're also proud of Fastest Fix. Instead of just showing you a bad number, it solves the maths backwards and tells you the exact price, or the exact time per sale, that reaches your hourly target. The whole app is a single web page. It needs no server and no sign-in, it works offline, and your numbers stay on your own device. We built, tested and shipped it in under two days, entirely on a phone.

What we learned

Most of the lost pay is hidden time. In our example, messaging and changes took 45 of the 85 minutes. A number alone doesn't help people, they need a next step, which is why we built Fastest Fix. Simple, open maths builds more trust than a complicated score. And a tool with no sign-up and no setup is far easier to try.

What's next for Hustle Meter

Hustle Meter is free for one hustle. A Pro plan (planned, around $3 a month) would add unlimited hustles, income history, and shareable reports. The free version has no server cost, so it can grow cheaply. Marketplaces and student programs could offer it to their sellers as a second revenue stream. Next, we plan to add a built-in timer to measure real hours, cloud sync across devices, and more languages and currencies.

Built With

• css3
• githubpage
• html5
• javascript
• svg