Difficulty: Medium · Tools: a notes app, and ChatGPT or Copilot in Word · Updated: 21 October 2026 · Who can read this: signed-in members
Overview
The public leaderboards of AI products are a bad brief for a first week. TrustMRR is a directory where founders connect a payment source and show a revenue figure. A third-party read of 10,000 of those listings, published by Crawlora on 23 August 2026, found that 58.3 percent showed $0 in current monthly recurring revenue. About 9.77 percent cleared $1,000 a month. In that same read, the AI category was the largest, 2,167 listings, and 11.5 percent of those cleared $1,000 a month, a higher share than the SaaS category in their cut. Crawlora also says the directory is people who opted in, not a random sample of businesses, and that a $0 row can be a paused project, a one-time product, or a gap between bills. It is “not currently showing recurring revenue,” not a verdict that the person failed.
Names at the top of that directory, such as Chatbase, are someone else’s company. They are not a forecast for a page you have not sold.
What the pattern is useful for: people pay for a finished job. A resume that reads clearly. A product listing a buyer can understand. A one-page brief a client can forward. The tool that helped is invisible in the invoice. This week you sell one finished page, or you get a clear no from five people. You do not start a software product.
The honest goal: by the end of the week you have either delivered one paid page and sent an invoice, or you have five replies and a rewritten offer. You do not have a new app, and you do not have someone else’s monthly revenue.
Who This Is Useful For
You can already do a small writing job by hand: a listing, a recap, a one-page brief, a set of captions from notes a client already has. You have a few hours after work. You have been told to “build an AI wrapper” and you want a week that can end in money or a clean no, not a half-built site.
What You Will Learn
What You Need
A notes app. One of ChatGPT or Copilot in Word, only as the drafting seat. Five people, or five public inboxes, who already produce the raw material: a shop owner with rough product notes, a colleague who owes someone an update, a community group that posts the same announcement badly every month. A way to send an invoice you already trust, even if it is a written note and a bank transfer. No new account, no domain, no logo.
Step 1 — Pick the page, not the product
Write one sentence of the form: “I turn your ___ into a one-page ___ you can send.” Fill both blanks with a job you have done without a model. Examples that fit this week:
Cross out any idea that needs a login to a platform you do not control, a guarantee about health or money, or more than one revision round. One page. One revision. That is the product.
Pro tip: If you cannot describe the input the client must hand you, you do not have an offer yet. “Notes, even messy, in a doc or an email” is an input. “Hop on a call so I can understand your brand” is a different business.
Step 2 — Price the hour, then write it down
Do not borrow a price from a leaderboard. Write three numbers on paper:
Say the price in the offer. “I’ll do one page for 80, with one round of your edits, this week.” Use your currency and your number. A hidden “AI fee” teaches the buyer to haggle with the tool. They are paying for the page they can send.
Pro tip: If the honest price feels too high for the people you can reach this week, shrink the page. Five listings become three. Do not shrink the price to zero to “get a testimonial.”
Step 3 — Make the sample from your own notes
You are the client. Take a real page of your own messy notes. Paste them into ChatGPT or into Copilot in Word and ask for the deliverable you just defined. Then do the part the model cannot do:
Save two versions: the raw model output, and the page you would actually send. The second one is the sample. The first one is the reminder of what you are selling, which is the edit.
Pro tip: At the top of the sample, write the input you required, in one line. Buyers need to see what they must hand you.
Step 4 — Ask five people, once each
Send five messages. Not a post thread. Not an ad. Each message has four lines:
1. The one-sentence offer.
2. The price and the “one revision, this week.”
3. The sample, or three lines from it.
4. A yes/no question. “Want me to do one page from your notes by Friday?”
Do not mention a platform, a model, or a monthly plan. Do not attach a deck. If you do not know five people, write to five shops or groups whose public posts show the messy input. One message each. Stop.
People who run directories such as TrustMRR’s AI category are allowed to inspire the shape of a job. They are not your prospect list, and their revenue is not your target.
Pro tip: Send all five before you rewrite anything. One polite no is not information. Five is.
Step 5 — Deliver the yes, or rewrite the sentence
If someone says yes, ask only for the notes. Produce the page. Mark anything you had to assume. Send it as a draft and wait for the one revision. Then invoice the price you already said. Do not add a retainer, a subscription, or a “phase two” in the same email.
If all five say no, or no one answers, change one thing only: the sentence in Step 1. The input was wrong, the page was wrong, or the person was wrong. Pick which, rewrite that, and stop for the week. Building a site is how this week goes missing.
Pro tip: Keep a line in your notes: who replied, what they objected to, and whether you delivered. That page is worth more next month than a logo.
Common Mistakes to Avoid
Quoting someone else’s monthly revenue as your plan. A directory figure is their sales, on their product, with their audience. Your week is one page.
Selling “access to AI.” The buyer cannot forward “access to AI” to their customer. They can forward a listing, a recap, or a brief.
Letting the model fill the facts. The sample step exists so you see this before a stranger pays you. Blanks and questions are part of the deliverable.
Going Further
After one paid page, do the same page for a second person before you change the offer. Two deliveries tell you the input, the time, and the objection. A website does not.
When you want to see what small software businesses list publicly, read the directory and the Crawlora notes together, including their caveats. Look for jobs, not for the largest number on the page.
Key Takeaways
A public directory of startups that connect a payment source. Look at the jobs. Leave the top-line revenue on their page.
Their 23 August 2026 counts, including the share at $0 and the share over $1,000 a month, plus the limits of that cut.
Sources: