Building an MVP with AI in Hours

In today’s fast-moving dev landscape, getting an MVP up and running quickly is everything. I recently built a full-stack MVP in just a couple of hours—without cutting corners—and I used AI as a pair programmer every step of the way.

👉 You can check out the full source code on GitHub here: https://github.com/brayden-blackham/statement-validator

But the real trick? It’s not just about prompting ChatGPT or Copilot and hoping for the best. It’s about using AI with structure. Here’s how I turned a blank canvas into a working product using AI tools like ChatGPT and Cursor, with a system that actually works.

🧭 Step 1: Start With a Guide—Not a Prompt

Before writing a single line of code, I sat down and wrote a guide: a document outlining everything the MVP needed to do, the tools I planned to use, and the outcome I expected. You can think of it like a mini spec sheet.

This is critical because:

It gets everything out of your head and into one place.
It gives you a reference point when you’re deep in the code and things start to blur.
It prevents the classic AI dev trap of “endlessly prompting with no direction.”

Here’s an excerpt from the guide I started with:

“Build a clean MVP tool where a user can upload a PDF bank statement and extract:

Account holder’s name and address

Date of the document

All transactions

Starting and ending balance
Also validate that the transactions reconcile with the balance change.”

Once that was written down, I dropped the whole thing into ChatGPT and asked it to break it down into a step-by-step plan.

🛠️ Step 2: Break It Down With ChatGPT

Instead of jumping into the code, I let ChatGPT act as my project planner. I asked it to break down the entire guide into a list of technical steps.

The result? A clear, logical to-do list that included things like:

Scaffold a full-stack app with a TypeScript framework (Next.js or T3).
Create a PDF upload interface.
Extract text from the PDF using pdf-parse.
Use an LLM to extract structured data from the PDF text.
Validate balance reconciliation.
Display the output in a user-friendly way.

This becomes your master plan. Now you’re not guessing—you’re executing.

👨‍💻 Step 3: Build Step-by-Step in Cursor

I then started implementing the plan one step at a time, using Cursor as my AI-powered IDE.

The workflow looked like this:

Paste the step I wanted to work on into Cursor.
Let Cursor generate a scaffold or code snippet.
Test the code immediately.
Refactor, tweak and verify the AI generated code.
Commit the working version to Git.

🎯 Tip: Never move to the next step until the current one works and is clean. AI sometimes produces spaghetti logic, and it’s your job to keep it sane.

🔁 Step 4: The "Break-Fix" Loop

Sometimes AI gets weird.

It might invent variables, mix up types, or assume dependencies that don’t exist. That’s fine. But it’s not fine if you let those errors stack up.

Here’s the golden rule:
If the AI's suggestion breaks your app, and fixing it starts to spiral, just revert to your last working commit.

Version control is your safety net. AI is powerful, but it’s not perfect—and having that reset button saved me multiple times.

✅ The Result: MVP Delivered Fast, Without Chaos

In just a few hours, I had a clean MVP where users could upload a PDF bank statement and get structured data extracted and validated, powered by LLM’s. No data persistence, no bloated code, just a tight feedback loop between AI tooling and human oversight.

📌 Key Takeaways

Write your guide before you write code. Don't get stuck in the endless prompting cycle.
Use ChatGPT to structure your thinking, not just generate code.
Build incrementally and test constantly.
Don’t trust the AI blindly. Think like an engineer, not a typist.
Commit often. Revert fearlessly.

🧪 The Bigger Picture

This approach isn’t just for MVPs—it’s a repeatable system for shipping features fast. Whether you’re working solo or with a team, combining human judgment with AI acceleration lets you build faster without losing control.

If you’re using tools like ChatGPT or Cursor but still feel stuck or overwhelmed, try this method.

Thanks for reading!
If you’ve got questions about the stack I used, how I structured the prompts, or want a walkthrough of the project, feel free to reach out.

👉 I’d love to connect with other developers, builders, and curious minds—so feel free to connect with me on LinkedIn and say hi!

https://www.linkedin.com/in/braydenblackham/

Let’s build smarter, faster, and with better tools. 🚀

🚀 How I Used AI to Build an MVP in Just a Few Hours