Laid-off developer built 6 AI tools in 30 days, one gained real users

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A software developer who was laid off in March 2026 challenged himself to build as many projects as possible using AI tools before his severance pay ran out. He imposed a strict seven-day deadline on each project, completing six builds over the course of a month. The projects ranged from a Chrome extension with 15 active users and a 4.2 rating to personal utilities like an email reply drafter and an automated weekly work report generator. While some tools became part of his daily workflow, others attracted zero users and were never reopened after launch. The experiment highlighted both the speed AI enables for solo developers and its limitations, including buggy code generation and outputs that required significant human correction.

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