Two full-time tech employees built a Gmail unsubscribe tool on the side, used AI to keep it running while they kept their day jobs, and sold it for more than four million dollars.
This is the Genius B*tchwork lane. Most weeks I show you what my own AI did for me. This lane is different. Someone else did something genius with AI, and I am going to break down exactly what they did so you can do the same thing.
Here is the story.
Two people had full-time tech jobs. They also had a side project called Trimbox. It helped Gmail users unsubscribe from emails in bulk without opening each message one by one.
They did not quit their day jobs. They kept building on the side.
As the product got more users, it also got more customer questions. It needed UI improvements. It needed a mobile version written in React Native.
That is a lot for two employed people with limited hours.
So they used AI. For customer support. For UI work. For writing mobile code.
Then they sold the app.
According to a Business Insider profile from May 2026, the sale was for more than four million dollars.
That is the story. The link is at the bottom of this article so you can read it yourself.
What running all of that without AI would have cost
When a side app gets real users, it creates real work. Customer questions pile up. People get confused. The app needs to improve. You need to ship a mobile version or lose users.
Without AI, you have two choices. You hire people or you do it all yourself.
Hiring costs money you may not have yet. Doing it yourself costs time you definitely do not have if you are also working full time. Most side projects die right here, not because the idea was bad but because the maintenance got heavier than the builder had bandwidth for.
AI made those three jobs small enough for two employed people to handle.
That is the unlock. Not magic. Just leverage on the time they already had.
What you get in this one
The Trimbox founders used AI in three specific ways. Customer support. UI improvements. React Native code. Each one is something a non-technical builder can do.
By the end of this post you will have:
The exact way to get AI drafting customer support replies for your app.
The prompt that turns a pile of user complaints into a prioritized UI fix list.
The React Native prompt that gets working mobile code from a plain-English description.
A clear-eyed list of what AI cannot do here, so you stay honest with yourself.
You do not need to be technical. That is the whole point.
One honest note before we start
I did not build Trimbox. I did not sell it. The numbers and details in this article come from Business Insider's May 2026 profile of the founders. I have linked it at the bottom.
There is also a caveat worth saying out loud. AI was not the only reason this exit happened. The Trimbox founders already had real product sense and technical judgment. They built something people wanted. AI helped them stay lean enough to keep it running while employed full time. The judgment calls were still theirs. Do not walk into this thinking prompts alone will get you to a multi-million dollar exit.
Use AI as an extra pair of hands. Bring your own product brain.
Behind the paywall, you get the full how-to:
The step-by-step setup for AI-drafted customer support replies, from first message to send.
The exact prompt that reads 10 to 20 user complaints and spits out your top three UI fixes with specific changes.
The React Native prompt structure that works even if you have never written a line of mobile code.
What to do when AI-generated code breaks, including the one-prompt fix that works most of the time.
What AI genuinely cannot do here, so you set the right expectations.
A steal-this recap you can save right now.
Subscribing unlocks the rest of this exact post right now, not just future ones. If you have a side project you cannot keep up with because there are too many jobs for too few hours, this is the post that helps.
The full walkthrough is below the paywall.
Click the button, subscribe, and the locked section below opens right away. You get this article now.
