From Problem to Product: How I Launched an AI Image Tool as a Solo Founder
picsman
Building your own product is one of the most frustrating and rewarding things you'll ever do.
Earlier this year, I got tired of wasting time on repetitive image editing tasks — background removal, retouching, enhancing low-res assets. I’m not a designer, but I deal with a lot of visual content.
Instead of paying for yet another expensive SaaS tool, I decided to build my own.
That’s how Picsman.ai was born — a browser-based AI image tool designed to help people like me save hours every week.
🚧 Week 1–2: From Frustration to Wireframes
The first step was writing down what actually annoyed me. I wasn’t trying to build the “next Canva.” I just wanted to:
Remove backgrounds
Enhance blurry images
Try clothes on different photos
Generate fast headshots
Once I had that list, I built quick mockups using Figma and mapped out a lean MVP.
⚙️ Week 3–5: Choosing the Stack
I went with a very lightweight tech stack:
React + Tailwind CSS for the frontend
Replicate API / Stability for image AI models
Netlify for deployment
Cloudflare for edge routing and caching
No backend server initially — everything went through serverless functions or direct API calls.
I didn’t want to over-engineer. Just ship.
🧪 Week 6: First Users, First Mistakes
I posted a few links in small Discord groups and AI forums. The feedback was helpful… and brutal.
“Why can’t I download the result?”
“Does this work on mobile?”
“It crashed on my 3MB PNG!”
I fixed what I could in 48 hours and added a few fail states + download support.
🧠 Week 8+: Marketing without Spamming
I’m not a marketing expert, but I wanted to avoid the “build and pray” trap. Here’s what worked:
Published a few useful articles (like this one)
Joined discussions on Hacker News and Reddit
Submitted to niche AI directories
Wrote SEO-friendly tool pages (one per feature)
All slow, but sustainable. I avoided spammy backlinks and focused on value.
🧾 What I Learned
Your MVP doesn’t need to be perfect — but it needs to work
Expect things to break, and prepare your ego
People won’t care unless you show them why it helps
Free tools can go far if they solve real problems
🎁 Try the Tool
If you’re curious what came out of this journey, feel free to try the live version:
It’s completely free, doesn’t require login, and I’m still improving it week by week.
🙌 Thanks for Reading
If you’re working on your own product or experimenting with AI, drop a link or story in the comments. I’d love to learn what others are building — and happy to share more behind-the-scenes notes too.
Subscribe to my newsletter
Read articles from picsman directly inside your inbox. Subscribe to the newsletter, and don't miss out.
Written by