Rediscovering an Idea Through AI
How a decade-old concept found new life with today’s tools.
Ten years ago, back in 2015, I had an idea. At the time, I was working for an international company, earning a good salary and with plenty of free time after work to explore the city. I had been living in Buenos Aires for two years, but aside from my coworkers—who I occasionally met for drinks—I didn’t have a circle of friends of my own. I felt the need to do more, to meet more people.
Tinder was at its peak, and I wondered: why wasn’t there something similar, but for making friends? An app that could connect people in the same situation as me: with free time and the desire to go to the theater, try a new restaurant, or simply grab a coffee. A bit of research showed me that such platforms did exist, but none had taken off the way Tinder had in the dating world.
The First Attempt
I was working in tech, but I knew very little about programming. I had graduated with a degree in Business Administration, and most of my knowledge came from curiosity rather than formal training. Some terms were familiar thanks to friends studying Computer Engineering, but building an app from scratch was far beyond my capabilities.
One day I shared the idea with a programmer friend. I showed him my sketches and tried to convince him to join. He explained a bunch of technical details I barely understood and, although he liked the concept, he didn’t want to add more hours to his workday. For me it was a personal project, not a business. Without capital to pay for development, the idea went back into a drawer.
The only sleek perfection here is in the design of the Apple products. The rest, the real parts of life, are inevitably messy. Photo by Jesus Hilario H. on Unsplash
The Second Attempt
Seven years later, after many personal and professional changes, I found myself studying a new field and developing new skills. Slowly, I was getting closer to that 2015 idea. I began studying web design, and my first project was prototyping the app.
After three months of trial and error, I managed to build a very basic version—far from ideal, but it was my first design—of an Android app that allowed people to organize events and meet others. I had the visuals, the mockup, but still no code.
Over time, I realized that building an app wasn’t just about turning a design into something functional. There were issues of security, data architecture, interfaces, and countless other aspects far beyond my knowledge. Developers usually specialize in different areas—front end, back end, devops—so what I really needed was a whole team. I tried learning programming, but quickly understood that it would take me years to acquire the necessary skills, and more importantly, I didn’t enjoy it. The idea remained unfinished, this time as a prototype.
The only sleek perfection here is in the design of the Apple products. The rest, the real parts of life, are inevitably messy. Photo by Jesus Hilario H. on Unsplash
Third Time's A Charm
Fast forward three more years, and AI entered the scene. What once felt abstract suddenly became real, with thousands of tools appearing at once. And although the technology is still evolving, AI solutions already exist for processes that once relied solely on people.
That’s how I discovered not only ChatGPT, but also Claude, Lovable, Bolt, V0, Jitter, Cursor, and many more. Tools that act like that programmer friend—but always available. They answer the same question a thousand times, teach, correct their own mistakes, and work with me at any hour. And most of them are free.
After just fifteen minutes exploring ChatGPT, I learned how to build an app from scratch—even how to design it. I did it easily, with the freedom to ask questions I would never have dared to ask a colleague, for fear of exposing my lack of knowledge.
That’s the true power of artificial intelligence: empowerment. Making all the tools needed to bring an idea to life accessible to anyone.
In September 2024, Sam Altman, CEO of OpenAI, said: “AI will make it possible for a single person to create a company worth a billion dollars.” That’s the potential of AI: bringing resources closer, bridging gaps in knowledge and execution, and changing what’s possible for individuals like me—who carried an idea for ten years and can now begin to realize it with the help of a virtual team of experts.