We keep hearing that the only winners in AI will be giant platforms. I don’t buy it. After watching Kipp Bodnar and Kieran Flanagan on Marketing Against the Grain, I’m convinced the smart money is in building small, useful GPT apps for real businesses. That’s not theory. It’s the play.
As someone who’s built software and online businesses for decades, I’ve seen this movie before. Flashy tools grab the headlines. Quiet operators grab the revenue. This is a classic services-to-subscription path. It’s practical. It scales. And it works right now.
The Point They Drove Home
Kipp and Kieran made the case with blunt clarity: there is demand, and it’s not just at the top of the market. They spoke about client appetite at the enterprise level and hinted at a bigger opening for smaller firms. Their message: developers should ship simple GPT tools that solve daily problems, then price them like SaaS.
“Another way to make a million dollars with GPT apps is you build GPT apps for companies.”
“We’re building GPT apps for Fortune 500s. There’s infinite demand.”
“Start building these little apps and charge a couple thousand or even better $50 or $100 a month and build a portfolio.”
That’s the playbook. Start with paid projects. Turn repeat requests into reusable products. Stack those subscriptions. You don’t need a viral hit. You need consistent value and a growing roster of paying customers.
Why This Works Now
The gap between what AI can do and what businesses know how to deploy is huge. Most teams don’t need a grand strategy. They need a tool that saves an hour a day, cuts support tickets by 20%, or drafts sales emails in their voice. Small wins stack fast.
I’ve watched web designers, SEO pros, and social media managers follow this path for years. The same pattern applies here with GPT apps. Start local. Ship fast. Charge monthly. Iterate with feedback. The compounding effect is real.
My Playbook For Builders
If you’re a developer or product-minded marketer, take this simple plan and run with it.
- Pick a niche you understand: e-commerce ops, insurance claims, real estate listings, medical intake, or B2B sales enablement.
- Ship a tiny win: one workflow, one department, one measurable outcome.
- Price simple: $50–$300 per month per team. Offer annual for a discount.
- Package delivery: a one-page setup, one-click prompts, a weekly usage report.
- Retention by results: show time saved, tasks completed, or revenue touched.
This is not spray and pray. It’s focused, repeatable, and tied to business outcomes.
What About Big-Company Competition?
The obvious pushback is that large vendors will crush small tools. I’ve heard that same fear since the early web. It rarely plays out. Big suites move slow. They serve averages. Specialized GPTs can win on speed, fit, and support. Your advantage is responsiveness and price fairness, not bloat.
And if a platform ships your feature? Good. You already have paying users, real feedback, and a process. You can pivot to the next pain point faster than a PM can draft a roadmap.
What To Build First
You don’t need a novel idea. You need a clear outcome.
- Automated intake: structure messy emails or forms into clean records.
- Sales support: generate first-draft replies from recent call notes.
- Customer service: summarize tickets and propose responses from a knowledge base.
- Content ops: turn briefs into outlines, then into drafts with brand style.
- Internal QA: flag risky phrasing, missing fields, or non-compliant claims.
Each of these can start as a simple GPT workflow with a light UI. Keep scope tight. Sell the benefit, not the model.
The Bigger Lesson
Kipp and Kieran’s take cuts through the noise. They’re not selling dreams. They’re pointing at a basic truth: cash flow comes from solved problems. If you build for real teams with real pains, you don’t need a massive audience. You need ten customers, then twenty, then one hundred.
I’ve built businesses on that math. You can too.
Final Word
Stop chasing viral AI demos. Start selling simple GPTs that make work easier. Pick a niche, ship a tiny win, and charge every month. The compounding will surprise you.
Ready to move? This week, talk to three local businesses. Ask for their most annoying task. Build a small GPT app that removes it. Price it fairly. Then repeat. That’s how you go from side project to serious income, one solved problem at a time.
