1d • Wins 🌟
Client's previous developer ghosted after 3 months and $18k. Rebuilt everything in 11 minutes. He cried on the Zoom call.
Client's previous developer ghosted after 3 months and $18k. Rebuilt everything in 11 minutes. He cried on the Zoom call.
Not exaggerating about the crying part.
THE SITUATION
Email from a desperate business owner:
"Developer disappeared"
"Took $18k"
"3 months of work"
"Nothing works"
"Business is dying"
"Can you help?"
This happens more than you think.
THE DAMAGE ASSESSMENT
Jumped on a call.
Owner shared his screen.
What I saw:
- Broken n8n workflows (12 of them)
- Half-finished integrations
- No documentation
- Passwords changed
- Access locked out of everything
The promise was:
"Complete customer onboarding automation"
The reality:
Nothing worked.
Business was manually processing everything.
Burning 6 hours daily.
Owner: "I paid $18k for this"
His voice cracked.
THE SCOPE
What he actually needed:
1. New customer signs up
2. Send welcome email
3. Create account in system
4. Schedule onboarding call
5. Add to CRM
6. Notify team in Slack
The developer spent 3 months on this.
Built 12 "advanced" workflows.
None of them functional.
THE REBUILD
Owner: "How long to fix this?"
Me: "I'm not fixing it. I'm rebuilding it."
Owner: "How long?"
Me: "Give me 15 minutes"
10:23 AM - Opened Skada.ai
Typed:
"New customer signup triggers: welcome email, account creation, onboarding calendar booking, CRM entry, team Slack notification"
Skada built it:
- Signup webhook
- Personalized welcome sequence
- Account provisioning
- Calendar integration
- CRM sync
- Slack notification with customer details
10:34 AM - Workflow complete
Added 2 custom touches:
- Owner's branding in emails
- Specific Slack channel routing
10:36 AM - Testing done
Everything worked.
Total time: 11 minutes
THE REVEAL
Owner: "So when can you start?"
Me: "It's done"
Owner: "What's done?"
Me: "Everything. Test it."
Sent him the signup link.
He filled it out.
5 seconds later:
✓ Welcome email arrived
✓ Account created
✓ Calendar invite sent
✓ CRM updated
✓ Slack notification posted
Owner went silent.
Video still on.
He was crying.
Owner: "Three months... and you did it in..."
Me: "11 minutes"
Owner: "I almost shut down my business"
THE MATH THAT BROKE HIM
His previous situation:
- $18k paid
- 3 months wasted
- 0 working automation
- 6 hours daily manual work
- Almost went bankrupt
What I delivered:
- $2,500 setup
- 11 minutes build time
- Fully working automation
- 6 hours daily saved
- Business saved
He paid immediately.
Added $1k tip.
"You deserve more than $2,500"
THE DEVELOPER'S "WORK"
I looked at the broken workflows.
Absolute mess:
- Overcomplicated logic
- Unnecessary loops
- Hardcoded values everywhere
- No error handling
- APIs called wrong
- Data transformations broken
They spent 3 months making it complicated.
I spent 11 minutes making it work.
THE PATTERN
This is the 4th "ghosted client" I've saved this year.
Pattern:
1. Developer promises custom solution
2. Overcomplicates everything
3. Drags timeline
4. Takes money
5. Delivers broken mess or disappears
6. Client is stuck
Why it happens:
Developers bill hourly.
Complexity = more hours.
More hours = more money.
Working solution = project ends.
THE NEW APPROACH
I don't bill hourly.
I bill for outcomes.
Client doesn't care if it took:
- 3 months or 11 minutes
- 1000 lines of code or one prompt
- Complex architecture or simple workflow
They care: Does it work?
With Skada, it works in minutes.
CURRENT CLIENT BASE
28 active clients.
17 are "rescue projects"
Average previous investment: $12k
Average time wasted: 6 weeks
Average my build time: 8 minutes
Average my fee: $2,800
Total I've saved clients: $204k in wasted spend
Total time I've invested: ~2.5 hours
Total revenue: $47,600
THE OPPORTUNITY
There are thousands of businesses:
- Sitting on broken automations
- Burned by developers
- Afraid to try again
- Manually doing everything
They're not hard to find.
They're in Facebook groups complaining.
They're in LinkedIn DMs asking for help.
They're everywhere.
THE REAL COMPETITIVE EDGE
It's not technical skill anymore.
It's speed + reliability.
I can rebuild in minutes what took others months.
And it actually works.
That's the entire business model.
Who else is finding "rescue projects" everywhere they look?
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Client's previous developer ghosted after 3 months and $18k. Rebuilt everything in 11 minutes. He cried on the Zoom call.
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