# Turn a simple product into a business with service and sales

Markdown copy of https://realalpha.app/s/turn-a-simple-product-into-a-business-with-service-and-sales/ on Real Alpha, the best minutes from long interviews with the people building AI. Cite and link the page, not this copy.

- Speaker: [Anton Osika](https://realalpha.app/builders/anton-osika/) · Anton Osika is cofounder of Lovable. · Founded Lovable, the platform for building apps by chatting with AI, after creating open-source GPT-Engineer.
- Host: [Marina Mogilko](https://realalpha.app/people/marina-mogilko/) · Host, Silicon Valley Girl · Co-founded LinguaTrip and built Linguamarina, an English-learning YouTube channel with almost 9M subscribers.
- Show: Silicon Valley Girl
- Episode: [$13B Lovable Co-Founder: Build a Profitable AI Product From Scratch in 30 Minutes](https://realalpha.app/v/KEAYPqQG2-M/), Sep 22, 2026
- Moment: 13:05 to 17:38 of the episode (5 min), playing on https://realalpha.app/s/turn-a-simple-product-into-a-business-with-service-and-sales/; the episode from there: https://realalpha.app/v/KEAYPqQG2-M/?t=785

## Quote

> “And I think entrepreneurship is usually about **combining those new discoveries** into a service or a solution that hasn't been built before.”
> — [Anton Osika](https://realalpha.app/builders/anton-osika/) at [14:48](https://realalpha.app/v/KEAYPqQG2-M/?t=888) · Silicon Valley Girl

## Takeaways

1. The dog-portrait business ships a physical portrait, not just an image.
2. Ask 10 potential customers what they care about.
3. Try to get one customer to pay before scaling.

## About this segment

Anton Osika explains how a dog-portrait business adds value beyond AI-generated images, then shares how he tests demand with customers. The lesson is to sell a complete solution, not just a tool.

From “$13B Lovable Co-Founder: Build a Profitable AI Product From Scratch in 30 Minutes”, Sep 22, 2026. [Watch the full episode](https://realalpha.app/v/KEAYPqQG2-M/)

## Transcript

Transcribed by machine (Whisper) from the episode’s audio, so a word may be off here and there.

[13:17](https://realalpha.app/v/KEAYPqQG2-M/?t=797) that can be built on lovable how do you distinguish what idea is going to make you money like i've seen those dogs built on lovable i i could not believe when my team was like have you seen this website the paintings you order with the dog Thank you very much. three hundred thousand dollars a month yes why like on dog paintings explain explain it to me how is that a business idea so the the founder he's obviously uh very curious and creative and he when he sets his mind to something he goes through with it i think that's the main differentiator if you can build a serious business on this platform or if you can just build a tool for yourself both are good outcomes but for building building that business um then it's it usually comes down to how hard are you going to work to make this business work and are you going to be

[14:05](https://realalpha.app/v/KEAYPqQG2-M/?t=845) able to make people who would be your customers care about you and understand that this is something exciting that they want to be a part of well so when i'm looking at a lot of businesses as an entrepreneur myself i'm like okay even when i have ideas i tell myself especially if it's like a dog-like idea like oh i'll make a dog look like a painting uh this can be done with chat gpt with an easy prompt right how do i tell myself as an entrepreneur to keep pushing like i don't know if you talk to that guy because he's i think the best example of it because i tried and i could do the same similar thing with chat gpt how do you not stop when you know chat gpt uh claude can do this Yeah, so Damien, who built this Surrealism World website, he doesn't just create the images for the dog.

[14:58](https://realalpha.app/v/KEAYPqQG2-M/?t=898) He sends it home to you as a portrait. And I think entrepreneurship is usually about combining those new discoveries into a service or a solution that hasn't been built before. That's when you can really make people care about it. And that's what he did, combining the website, the payments, and somehow finding marketing the web service, of course. And this is amazing because he added this extra feature and turns out there is a market for it.

[15:29](https://realalpha.app/v/KEAYPqQG2-M/?t=929) So how do you, first of all, how do you know there is a market for it? And how do you price it right? Even when it comes to lovable, right? When it comes to pricing, how do you think about it? And there are different approaches. You can be just your home in your garage, but the most reliable and I think fastest way to learn about your customers, which is key, is to get in front of 10 customers or potential customers and tell them about what you're thinking of building and actually dig into what they care about.

[15:58](https://realalpha.app/v/KEAYPqQG2-M/?t=958) Just ask a lot of questions from your customers, like what's the pain that you're experiencing, what are the interests that you're excited about? And then going in front of 10 customers and try to make one of them actually buy and pay for what you're building. Is that what you do as well with Laval? Do you still talk to 10 people before you build a new feature? That's what we try to do, yes. That's what the product team tries to do.

[16:19](https://realalpha.app/v/KEAYPqQG2-M/?t=979) And you think 10 is a good number? I think 10 is a good starting point, yes. And then in terms of pricing, I think you should get 10 really big fans of your product. And one way to know that they are really big fans is to not make it too cheap and not make it free. Because it's only if they actually pay that you know that this is something they really care about. You introduce that friction to know that they really like the product.

[16:54](https://realalpha.app/v/KEAYPqQG2-M/?t=1014) And then you should hope that they spread the word and make them feel special and make them spread the word about the product that they are actually paying their hard-earned money for buying and then hopefully you get more customers from them and over time figure out how to scale that distribution. Yeah, and also knowing how big it can get because if you have a lot of ambition,