The Story
CJ built Code Guide from $0 to $42K MRR in just 90 days. The tool helps AI developers write detailed documentation for AI coding models, solving the hallucination problem. He launched on December 24, 2024, and is projecting $90K MRR.
As CJ explains: "My name is Sajila Mazafir and people on X know me by the name of CJZ. I'm the founder of Code Guide, an AI startup that helps AI developers write detailed documentation for AI coding models. So we launched on 24th of December and in just last 3 months we've grown Code Guide to 42K MRR with a community of more than 4,800 AI developers and we're projecting to cross around 90K this month."
The Problem Code Guide Solves
"Basically Code Guide fixes a core problem in AI coding which is AI coding models are not ready yet. They hallucinate, they assume things. So I just tried to fix just one problem which is AI hallucinations by building a knowledge base around the user's idea."
"Our core users are pretty much beginners to semi-developers and they can attach this knowledge base to these AI coding tools. So you can say Code Guide is just a bridge between two parties and that's why it is growing really fast because I'm not reinventing my own audience. I'm just utilizing the AI coding tools audience and we're just making the AI coding workflow better."
The Origin Story
"I moved to Canada in 2018 and I did my first 9 to 5 and that was like a horrible experience for me. I knew like I can't do any 9 to 5. So I went back to the drawing board and stick to my basics which is like just build stuff, just do something."
"In 2022, I was actually writing a lot of tweets about AI prompting and I knew that AI coding is actually blowing up at the back end and people are not noticing it. So I wanted to force myself to actually learn the craft, build and code with AI coding tools for like 10 to 12 hours per day."
12 Startups in 12 Months
"I publicly announced that I'll be doing 12 startups. And I ended up building 11 products of my own. Unfortunately, 10 collapsed. They didn't perform well, but one of them grew really fast, which is Code Guide. And then in the end, you know, it was just like an overnight success after like all these seven years."
Finding the Idea
"I was just trying to solve my own problem with Code Guide. I was running an MVP agency and for each project, I had to chat with ChatGPT for like 9 to 10 hours to create all these technical documentations to create a knowledge base that I can attach to these AI coding tools."
"So, I turned my prompts into like a sequence using make.com and I literally saved seven hours out of those nine hours and that was magical for me."
Validation Before Building
"Twitter is actually a really great platform to launch products. All you need to do is just share your screen, create a simple screen recording demo, and you just post it and this type of content usually goes viral."
"In this tweet, I'm just talking about like what is my ideal Cursor workflow. I just tweeted that out and I was just mind blown that how many people were actually struggling with hallucination problem with AI."
The Landing Page Test
"I just turned this thing into a landing page in like 20 minutes max using Bolt and actual validation for me was when people starting to sign up. So I got more than 1,800 waitlist emails in like two weeks. That was the first stage of validation for me that people actually want this solution."
"I was just talking to all the beta users. I was trying to DM every single one that was commenting me just to asking them either they are using some other flow to remove or fix the AI hallucinations and nobody was actually tackling in a better way than what we were trying to do."
"So I didn't build any product. I didn't have anything. I just had a glimpse of what a product can look like in a landing page and people were signing up from left and right. And that was the moment when I decided, okay, now I need to take this and create like a proper tool that solves this problem."
Building the Product
"When I tweeted that and we got like 400 retweets and I got like 300 signups, that was a different feeling for me and I knew like okay I am up to something. So what I did was I just sat for next 10 to 12 hours just documenting what can be the best UI and how I can take this thing to the production stage."
"I realized I can't do it myself because I have to launch it fast. So I just reached out to my friend and I said, 'Hey, I'll take care of the front end and the marketing side, can you do the back end and just the customer service?' And he was very stoked about this idea."
"So now he takes care of the back end, still we're just team of two and I take care of the front end. So it took us just two weeks to actually from that raw UI to have a proper responsive web app launched for our users and we got 100 users the first day of launch."
Tutorial Marketing Strategy
"I coined this term called tutorial marketing. And what I do every single day is I just write a tutorial in the form of thread or long form tweet. And what I do is I write four threads per week and three long form posts."
"I just pick one topic, write a draft and then the next day I just edit that draft with clear mind. Then I design assets using Canva and Figma."
"In the hook you actually talk about the problem and then you show them the exact blueprint, what's the ideal solution, and then you position your SaaS in between just a part of the solution. That type of content actually performs really well because that's bookmarkable content and shareable content. If your content is bookmarked, algorithm is in your side and people love that and you build credibility and trust."
Content Audience Fit
"If I have to go all over again, I would do this playbook which is content audience fit approach. You need to talk to users. What is the core problem and how you can fix it?"
"I would literally go push content for next 14 days, warm up my audience and then from there I pick up what are their main core pain points and for those pain points what is the major one and then I just build a product that fixes just one problem."
"Then I push that product to that core group that gave me my initial users and from their own words I would just double down on the content that works and I will find more people like the core audience and that's how you can grow."
Business Numbers
- •$42K MRR in 90 days
- •4,800+ AI developers in community
- •100 users on launch day
- •1,800 waitlist signups before building
- •Projecting $90K MRR
- •Team of 2 (CJ + backend co-founder)
Tech Stack
- •Next.js (frontend)
- •Claude 3.7 for UI design ($20)
- •Cursor ($20/month)
- •Windsurf ($15/month)
- •Supabase ($25/month)
- •Vercel ($48/month)
- •OpenAI API ($2,800/month)
- •Claude API ($300+/month)
- •Clerk Dev (authentication)
- •ConvertKit ($45/month)
- •Total costs: ~$3,500/month
Day in the Life
"I wake up super early, like 5:00 a.m. and I just take a shower, go for prayer, and start my 2 hours of deep work session. Then I just go for a walk and start my second session which involves research, coding, writing content."
"Then I take networking calls in the afternoon and then in the evening I listen to my favorite podcast, read a book for 10 minutes and then write my schedule for the next day. Super simple, no fancy routines, but I'm sticking with this routine for the last one year now."
Key Advice
"We are living in the best time to build software or any sort of product online. All you need to do is just make yourself AI native. The first step can be just go on ChatGPT and have a chat with this AI and you will know like how amazing this thing is."
"English is the hottest programming language right now. So all you need to do is use AI for research about the market, then write code, then write content, and then distribute the product. So every single thing or every piece of the puzzle is just right there for you. All you need to do is create your own canvas."
Resources
- •Code Guide: https://codeguide.dev/
- •Follow CJ on Twitter