Inspiration
I’ve always been someone who likes to build things — in the kitchen, in life, and now, in tech. I’m a chef by profession, but for the longest time, I’ve wanted to bring one of my own ideas to life in the digital world. I’ve never written a line of code, but I’ve had countless ideas. This time, I decided to stop waiting for the “perfect moment” and just go for it.
The idea for Velocify came from watching indie app developers struggle with pricing. I’ve seen brilliant products get underpriced, undervalued, and overlooked. I thought — what if there was an AI revenue strategist for solo founders like me? Something that could take the guesswork out of monetization?
That’s what sparked Velocify. Not just a project, but my first real attempt to break into tech as a builder.
What it does
Velocify is a lightweight AI-powered app that helps founders and indie developers understand how to improve their revenue model.
It has two main features:
AI Revenue Audit — Just enter your app’s name, current MRR, user count, and pricing model, and it generates a GPT-powered audit showing missed revenue opportunities and what you could be doing better.
Smart Pricing Engine — Enter your app category, features, and your competition's pricing. Velocify suggests optimized pricing tiers and projects potential revenue outcomes.
It also includes:
- A floating chatbot assistant called Velo, trained to act like a monetization coach
- Stripe integration so users can upgrade to paid plans seamlessly
- Supabase auth for secure access to the dashboard
All packed into a clean, responsive UI that I designed myself.
How i built it
This was my first ever full-stack build, and I did it solo.
I used Bolt.new as my base and built the frontend in Next.js with Tailwind CSS and Shadcn components. I integrated OpenAI’s GPT-4 API for the audit and pricing features. Supabase handled authentication, and Stripe handled payments via payment links. The chatbot was custom-built and floats on every screen, styled and positioned manually until it felt just right.
Most of the work happened between 1am and 6am — real "build while the world sleeps" energy. I kept things simple where it mattered and obsessively polished the areas that needed to feel alive.
Challenges i ran into
Being a first-timer meant everything was a challenge. Figuring out how Supabase verification worked, getting OpenAI to return useful prompts, styling components without breaking layouts, learning how Stripe Payment Links work — all of it was new to me.
Bolt helped, but like any tool, it has quirks. Sometimes my UI broke for no reason. Sometimes things vanished. I’d fix one thing and something else would snap. But I kept going — tweaking, testing, redoing.
I didn’t have a team. I didn’t have a mentor. Just Google, documentation, and a stubborn desire to see it through.
Accomplishments that i'm proud of
I didn’t just submit a project — I built and launched a functional SaaS product.
I got OpenAI working in a real revenue context. I integrated Stripe and Supabase without breaking anything. I shipped a fully responsive, branded product with working features, custom UI polish, and a live chatbot assistant — as a solo founder, with no tech background.
Most of all, I proved to myself that I can do this. And if I can, maybe more people like me will believe they can too.
What i learned
I learned how powerful no-code and AI tools have become. I learned how to keep things simple while still making them useful. I learned how to troubleshoot, adapt, and build momentum — even when I had no idea what I was doing.
I also learned that sometimes, the only thing between you and a finished product is the decision to start. That’s the biggest thing I’m taking away from this.
What's next for Velocify
After the hackathon, I want to build out:
- A proper recommendations dashboard to store audit history
- Stripe/RevenueCat data import for deeper AI-driven insights
- A monthly revenue coaching feature inside the chatbot
- A lightweight public launch to test it with real indie founders
I also want to document the whole journey — to show other non-tech people what’s possible when you stop waiting and start building.
Velocify is more than an app to me. It’s proof that your background doesn’t matter — what matters is your willingness to build. This hackathon was my crash course, my battleground, and now, hopefully, my launchpad.
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