For AI Startups · Solo + Claude · Ships in weeks

Ship your AI product
like you ship code.

You shipped your MVP with v0, Cursor, Lovable. Users came. They aren't sticking. 92% of AI-built products have no empty states. 78% no error states. All have generic spinners. That's where retention dies — and that's what I fix. I shipped Lumen solo with Claude, run Vigilo in production across 191 countries, and turn AI-generated prototypes into products people actually keep using.

Book a 20-min call → Try the proof ↗
191
countries · Vigilo live
3-4w
MVP to launch
$12-25k
flat, no hourly
8y
design + ship
The pattern

Vibe-coded products ship fast. Then they quietly bleed users.

Every AI-built MVP follows the same trajectory. v0/Cursor/Lovable get you to launch in days. By month 3, retention is broken — and the founder can't pinpoint why. The data is depressingly consistent.

92%

No empty states

NN/g audit of 50 AI-built dashboards. New users open the app, see "no data" or a blank table, leave. Adding three states alone lifted retention by 12% in their tests.

78%

No error states

API fails, user sees generic error or blank screen. No retry, no explanation. Each error is a churn event you don't see in analytics.

100%

Generic UI

v0, Lovable, Bolt — all trained on the same shadcn/Tailwind/Vercel templates. Indigo accent, left sidebar, rounded cards. Investors and users can't tell you apart from 50 other AI tools.

Onboarding loses 60%

AI generates components, not flows. There's a sign-up screen and a main screen — nothing connecting them. By the time users figure out what to do, most have left.

The Proof · Live demo

I built this in a week. Solo. With Claude.

Lumen is a fully clickable AI video editor prototype — 21 screens, working onboarding, simulated AI generation, deployed on Vercel. No mockups. Real React, real interactions. Click around. This is what I ship.

lumen-studio-xi.vercel.app

Click "Get started" — explore Generate, Edit, Color, Sound, Deliver. Everything works.

Why solo + AI beats agencies

Same outcome. 10× the velocity.

Traditional agency

  • 2-week discovery phase before any pixels
  • 5 people on Zoom every Tuesday
  • $80-150k retainer minimum
  • Figma handoff → 4 weeks of "implementation"
  • Designs don't match what gets built
  • You manage the agency, not your product

Stepikin Studio

  • 30-min discovery call, day 1 we start
  • One person. Direct DMs. No PMs.
  • $12-25k flat. Fixed scope, fixed price.
  • I ship the code. Live URL day 7.
  • What you see is what ships, because I build it
  • You ship the product. I'm invisible.
Pick your entry point

Five packages. Start small, prove value, then scale.

Start with a 2-day audit and see what's broken. If we agree on scope, slide into a sprint. No retainers, no surprises.

For: post-launch reality check

Production Audit

$2k flat
2-3 days
  • Heuristic audit of your AI-built UI
  • Top-10 design debt issues ranked by impact
  • Empty/error/loading states map
  • Onboarding funnel teardown
  • 30-min walkthrough call
  • Credit toward any sprint below
Book audit
For: fastest retention lift

Empty States Sprint

$5k flat
1 week
  • Every empty state across the app
  • Loading states + skeleton screens
  • Error states with retry flows
  • First-use vs returning-user states
  • Shipped as React/Next.js code
  • +8-15% retention measured
Book a call
For: fixing the funnel

Onboarding Fix

$8k flat
2 weeks
  • Current funnel teardown with metrics
  • Redesigned activation flow
  • Aha-moment audit + acceleration
  • Tooltip + empty-state copy
  • Analytics events instrumented
  • A/B test setup with PostHog
  • Shipped to production
Book a call
For: scaling past 10 screens

Design System

$12k flat
2-3 weeks
  • Tokens (color, type, spacing, radii)
  • 20+ production components
  • Light + dark, responsive
  • Figma + Tailwind config in sync
  • Replace v0/Lovable output
  • Docs for your engineers
Book a call
For: full MVP from scratch

Product MVP

$15k flat
3-4 weeks
  • Strategy + flows + design system
  • 20-30 production screens
  • Frontend in React/Next.js
  • AI API integration
  • Auth + billing wiring
  • Deploy + analytics
  • 2 weeks of post-launch support
Book a call
How a sprint runs

Four weeks. Four checkpoints. One person to talk to.

01
Day 1-3

Strategy + flows

30-min kickoff. I map your product flows, ICP, and what to ship vs. cut. By day 3 you see a clickable Figma flow of the whole MVP.

02
Day 4-10

Design system + UI

Build the design system in Figma (tokens, components, dark/light). Design all key screens. You get a Figma link with daily updates.

03
Day 11-21

Build + integrate

I ship React/Next.js code as I design. Connect your AI APIs. Auth, billing, deploy. By day 21 you have a live URL.

04
Day 22-28

Polish + launch

Animations, edge cases, analytics, SEO. You launch. I'm available for 2 weeks of post-launch fixes at no extra cost.

Other proof

Real products I've designed, shipped, and ran in production.

Live · Production

Vigilo

Solo · 6 weeks · 191 countries

Real-time global risk intelligence. 44 verified data feeds, 26 serverless functions, hourly refresh. Every signal traces back to its original source. $49-499/mo SaaS, NGOs free.

Try live →
Live · Production

EngiBoard

Solo · 2 weeks · Native desktop

Native desktop SaaS shipped to production in 2 weeks. Tauri 2, Next.js, Supabase. 4 platforms, 38 releases, 98 commits. Real users, real revenue.

Read the build diary →
AI · Video Editor

Lumen Studio

Solo · 1 week · Interactive demo

AI video editor prototype — 21 screens, onboarding flow, simulated generation. Built with Next.js, deployed to Vercel. The proof you clicked above.

Live demo →
SaaS · AI Dental

AI Dent

Design lead · Production

AI diagnostic interface for dental clinics. Designed the core workflow for radiograph analysis. Used by 1,000+ clinics globally.

View case study →
Common questions

Answers founders actually ask.

We already shipped with v0/Cursor/Lovable. Why do we need you?

Because AI tools shipped the easy 70%. The remaining 30% — empty states, error states, onboarding flow, mobile responsive, real branding, accessible form patterns — is where your retention dies. I'm the person who reads your AI-generated codebase, identifies what's leaking users, and ships the fixes in production code. Without throwing away what works.

How do I know it's a design problem and not engineering?

Easy way to tell: open your product in incognito as a brand-new user. Count the screens where you see "no data" with no explanation. Count the loading states that are just generic spinners. Try it on mobile. Try breaking a network request. If you hit walls in 5 minutes, that's not engineering — that's design debt. The audit ($2k) catches all of it on day one.

Why solo? Aren't agencies more reliable?

An agency reliably gives you 3 layers of project management between you and the work. I give you my direct phone. No briefs lost in translation. No PM bandwidth tax. If something's broken at 11pm, you ping me and I fix it. With AI tools (Claude, Cursor) one experienced person moves faster than a 5-person agency. The math has changed.

What stack do you ship?

React, Next.js, Tailwind, TypeScript. For backend: Supabase, Vercel, or your existing infra. For AI: OpenAI, Anthropic, OpenRouter, Replicate, fal.ai. For desktop: Tauri. I won't fight your stack — I work in yours.

How do payments work?

I invoice through easystaff — you can pay by SWIFT wire OR by corporate card (Brex, Ramp, Mercury, regular Visa/Mastercard). 50% upfront, 50% on delivery. Net 7 terms. Proper English invoice. Same easy flow as paying any SaaS — no special procurement process.

What if we need ongoing design after the sprint?

Two paths. Either I do a follow-up sprint (same price, 2-3 weeks) or I help you hire a full-time designer and onboard them on the design system I built. I don't do retainers — they kill velocity.

How do I know you won't ghost mid-sprint?

I have a public portfolio with 7 cases, a live working demo (Lumen above), a Github (arablex), and 8 years of working with venture-backed teams. Sprint contracts have clear milestones with partial refunds if I miss them. I haven't yet.

What's your background?

Ex-Head of Design at Diagnocat (AI healthtech, raised $14M, 1000+ enterprise customers). Before that, lead designer at multiple Series A startups. Based in Georgia, work in EST/CET hours by default, flexible.

Stop blocking your engineers.
Start shipping design.

20-minute call. No pitch, no slides. We talk about your product and decide if a sprint makes sense. If not, I'll point you to someone who fits.

Book your call →

Typical reply within 4 hours · EST/CET friendly