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