Hi! I’m Alireza Bashiri, and I help early-stage startups build products with AI as the centerpiece.

What I Do

• We build MVPs that users pay for: AstroMVP.com
• We create ads that convert with AI: Adworthy.ai
• 32+ founders read my insights → al3rez.substack.com

I also documented my journey...

15-episode series: Building a startup MVP with Ruby on Rails + Hotwire

My Journey

I quit my job around 2019 during COVID and became a freelancer on Upwork. I saved 6 months of salary, learned to write proposals, and began working with clients. I became top-rated plus and made about $150k, the first Iranian earning this much on the platform.

Around 2022-2023, Upwork added paid bidding which rigged the system. Agencies started bidding, jobs became scarce, and hiring freezes affected the freelancing market. I quit Upwork and started building my personal brand on X. I started with 100 followers and now have about 5,000.

I made a small AI wrapper for writing and sold it as my first successful SaaS, and built a few others that weren’t as successful. Now I’ve pivoted to building MVPs for founders and agencies, which is working well. We get about 2,000-4,000 visitors monthly and 10-20 leads per month since October 2024, which is pretty good.