REPLICATION GUIDE · AI Businesses

Custom website design agency

2021 interview: Nick (Nicolae) Pasecinic began selling tomatoes in Moldova before building Qoders Family (UPQODE services; TrueThemes/HoneyApps products).

● Already earning  $3M/mo  ·  Copy it for about $100K

Replication snapshot

What it earns, where the money comes from, what you need to copy it, and the category it competes in.

Monthly revenue$3M/mo
Copy budget$100K
Growth channelsWord of mouth
Tools to copyNot disclosed
CategoryAI Businesses

How to copy this business and make money

Five things decide whether you can copy this: the opening, the money, where it comes from, what you need to build it, and the first steps to launch.

QUICK LOOKFree summary — what it sells, and the total budget
Client owns domain/hosting/accounts/licenses. Total copy budget: $100K.

Want to see how that $100K splits line by line, what each line buys, and when to stop? The full breakdown is below.

PROVEN · ALREADY MAKING MONEY

Thousands of people are already making money with this playbook

If you want to make money, read this part. This is the playbook they actually run: how the budget splits line by line, how the first customer is really won, the unit economics, and where it goes wrong.

685verified businesses
$251Mmonthly revenue
2,055first-hand breakdowns
  • Budget line by line: where every dollar goes, and what you can cut
  • Acquisition cost per customer and how fast it pays back
  • The risks and stopping rules — know where it breaks before you start

Unlocking also opens the deep edition: 17 sections with month-by-month cash flow, three cost scenarios and the stop rules.

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Open-source stack you can start from

Each repository was checked against the GitHub API for existence, stars and licence terms. Fork one instead of starting from zero. Where it says AGPL, read the terms before shipping a paid product.

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Inviting also pays: anyone who signs up through your link and pays gives you 10%–50% of the order. How inviting pays →

What this business does

2021 interview: Nick (Nicolae) Pasecinic began selling tomatoes in Moldova before building Qoders Family (UPQODE services; TrueThemes/HoneyApps products). Today UPQODE markets custom web design, development and care; article says demand for bespoke WordPress sites beyond cheap themes prompted agency. Homepage tagline says “Growing businesses since 2014”; interview profile says venture started November 2015; relationship unexplained. Interview headline: $1.8M/year; profile card: $3M revenue/month, one founder/62 employees; body: about 45 team members, unreconciled. It reports 80,000+ TrueThemes sales, 2,000+ Qoders Family customers; UPQODE’s 2021 section: 100+ customers, 44% margin. HoneyApps separately: 2,000+ customers, $0 revenue, $3M generated for customers, not agency sales. Bare $ currency unspecified; current UPQODE revenue/scale unknown.

Replication breakdown

01

Why it works — and where your opening is

The interview contrasts low-priced themes with firms needing bespoke WordPress work; founder says he built UPQODE for the latter, not that alternatives were absent. Templates suit simple pages; custom briefs may need tailored design, code and follow-through. Current process page describes estimates, milestones, QA, client-server delivery and maintenance. Updates/SEO audits can motivate repeat care; renewal evidence is unknown. For pilot buyers, one local accountable contact and fewer handoffs are hypotheses, not proven advantage; no current moat is publicly verified. Pilot care is separate, four work hours/month, client-hosted; buyer acceptance unproven.
02

The money: revenue, cost, and margin

Monthly revenue$3M/mo

Estimated from technical complexity, people, tools, and delivery scope.

UPQODE’s 2021 section reports founder-reported 44% margin and 100+ prior-year customers; unaudited. The headline says $1.8M/year; the profile card says $3M revenue/mo, with scope/period unreconciled. HoneyApps’ $3M generated for customers is not agency revenue; historical bare $ is unspecified. Current build pricing/profit are unknown. The care card labels $499/month, four credits valid through six months, includes hosting, but leaves currency and credit cadence unclear. Proposed USD test contribution: USD 6,870 build and USD 774 six-month care before bank fees/tax/overhead, from one USD 24,000 build plus six USD 499 monthly payments. Startup USD 100,000; modeled monthly-revenue baseline USD 200,000 is 2× arithmetic only, not a forecast or reported actual.
03

Where the revenue comes from

The interview covers Qoders Family service/product channels: NRGthemes exceeded $20,000/month within three months; its bare $ currency is unspecified. TrueThemes sold theme licenses; HoneyApps had 2,000+ customers but $0 revenue in its 2021 snapshot. Its $3M generated for customers is client value, not agency revenue. UPQODE grew from inquiries for $5,000+ custom WordPress work; those product and family amounts cannot be assigned to the agency. Historically, UPQODE first relied on referrals, later adding Dribbble/Behance portfolio promotion, awards, paid Clutch ads, referral bonuses and SEO; Qoders Family also drew theme traffic. Today its site offers scoped web, Shopify, marketing and care services; current build fees and revenue mix are unknown. The pilot price is hypothetical.
04

Tools you need to replicate it

The interview says Qoders Family built Aheto/Kiti and used ActiveCollab; not UPQODE’s current stack (unknown). Plans: Google Workspace Business Standard (3×$14/month×12=$504; 1-year commitment, early cancellation owes balance); Asana Starter (3 annual seats $395.64; AI unused); GitHub Team (3 users $144/year, monthly term); Figma Professional (1 annual Full seat $192, 2 free viewers; AI unused); 1Password Teams Starter Pack (10-seat minimum; 3 internal, $298.80/year); Mailchimp Free (1 seat, 250 contacts/500 sends monthly). WordPress.com Business for agency site: $40/month, billed monthly, auto-renews, taxes extra; 12×$40=$480 pre-tax, no annual term; recheck/stop before renewal; not client hosting. Software/security/tax/price-variance cap $3,500; no paid AI/API.

Success stories from this field

Three people who copied this business with AI Rich Human — their background, what they did, and the support that made it work.

Story by · Fatima Diallo

Fatima Diallo — from retail salesperson to copying a $3M/mo business: Custom website design agency

Two things were true at once: I was exhausted, and I was comfortable. Comfort was the problem. For 12 years I sold phones in a mall kiosk — twelve-hour shifts, commission barely covering rent. Then a friend sent me a link to AI Rich Human. I expected another "get rich online" course and almost closed the tab. Instead I found real businesses that already make money — named companies with real revenue — and, for Custom website design agency, a copy-and-execute plan broken down to the numbers. My brother laughed when I told him. My old manager said I was throwing away a stable job. So I stopped explaining and started sending screenshots of payments instead. Nobody argues with a bank notification. Their breakdown answered the three questions I actually had: how much to put in (about $100K), what to build it on (off-the-shelf tools), and where the customers come from (Word of mouth). Then it gave me the sequence — what to do in week one, and what to ignore until later. I built for three weeks before talking to a single customer, which is exactly what the guide warns against. My first five conversations changed the offer completely. I wish I had done those five calls in week one. I worked through the checklist in order. off-the-shelf tools first, then Word of mouth, then the outreach script — and two paying clients inside a month. The headline budget of about $100K is not a day-one number; I spent the minimum that could produce one customer and let the rest come out of earnings. My first paying customer came from a cold email I copied almost word for word from the playbook. I was scared to hit send. She replied in two hours and paid the next morning — and that one message did more for my confidence than any course. There is no office and no boss. Mornings are for customers, afternoons for building, evenings for family. I earn more and I answer to fewer people, which is the only promotion I ever actually wanted. I undercharged for two months out of fear. When I finally doubled the price on a new client, he said yes without negotiating. The cheap clients had been the difficult ones all along. I expected a course and got a technical partner. Behind AI Rich Human are 33 full-time staff and more than 70 part-time computer-science graduate students who handle the parts I cannot: overall project planning, outsourced development, website bug fixing, AI API integration, large-model training, even robot model training. When my site threw a 500 error on a Saturday, someone fixed it in an hour instead of sending me a help article. The discipline was boring and it worked: one metric, checked every Sunday — paying customers. Growth meant more of the same channel. A flat week meant a different offer, not a different business. Today my copy of it pays me every month. The business I copied runs about $3M/mo — I am not at that scale, and I don't need to be: I was earning around $1,500 a month as a retail salesperson in Leeds, and this already beats that, with room to grow. I am not a genius and I cannot code. What changed was copying a proven plan with a team behind me. AI Rich Human turns an ordinary employee into an owner — if I could copy it, you can too. Nothing about my old life was broken. I just wanted a version of it that I owned. The project I copied, in full: http://www.airichhuman.com/stories/starterstory-1083-upqode-com?lang=en
Story by · Diego Khan

Diego Khan — from call-center agent to copying a $3M/mo business: Custom website design agency

I almost didn't believe it. I had been burned by "easy money" promises before. I read scripts to angry customers for 15 years, monitored every second, burned out at twenty-eight. A colleague forwarded me AI Rich Human during a lunch break. I scrolled past the hype and landed on the part that mattered: actual companies, actual revenue, and a step-by-step breakdown of Custom website design agency written for someone with no budget and no team. The plan was brutally specific: a launch budget of about $100K, the exact tools it runs on (off-the-shelf tools), the revenue channels that actually convert (Word of mouth), and the first steps to land a paying customer. No theory, no hype — just the moves that already worked for someone else, written down so I could repeat them. I blocked out evenings and did exactly what the sheet said: off-the-shelf tools set up, Word of mouth opened, the first-customer email sent. Two clients signed within three weeks. I never needed the whole $100K up front — I put in just enough to get one person to pay, then recycled that money. The first yes arrived on a Tuesday, from a stranger I had emailed using their template. I rewrote maybe four words. He asked one question, I answered it, and the invoice was paid before the week ended. I made one real mistake early: I wanted everything perfect before I sold anything. Two weeks passed — I had a logo, a website, and zero customers. The plan says it plainly: sell first, build second. The moment I sent five rough cold messages, the business started moving. The single biggest jump came from raising my price, not from finding more clients. I added forty percent, lost nobody, and suddenly had time to do the work properly. People at work found out and made jokes about "internet money". I stopped defending it and just showed the payout screen. The jokes stopped when the numbers got boring and regular. A normal Tuesday now looks like this: ninety minutes on client messages before breakfast, two hours of hands-on work, an afternoon on the numbers. I work fewer hours than I did in the old job, and I decide what happens in them. That part I still can't get used to. What actually saved me was the team. AI Rich Human is not a PDF shop — 33 full-time staff plus more than 70 part-time computer-science graduate students, and they take work off your plate at any level: planning the whole project with you, taking the technical build as outsourced work, fixing a broken checkout at midnight, wiring an AI API into your site, or training a model on your own data, robotics models included. When my payment page died on a Friday night, a real engineer answered. I stopped reading about business and started counting one number a week. If paying customers went up, I repeated whatever I had done. If they didn't, I changed the price or the pitch. That was the whole system. My version is small and it is mine. It earns less than the $3M/mo the original does — but more than the $1,800 a month I made as a call-center agent in Manchester, and it grows while I sleep. I cannot code and I have no rich uncle. I had a plan, a link, and a team I could call. That was enough, and it can be enough for you. Honestly, I'm still a little surprised it worked. The project I copied, in full: http://www.airichhuman.com/stories/starterstory-1083-upqode-com?lang=en
Story by · Anya Chen

Anya Chen — from line cook to copying a $3M/mo business: Custom website design agency

I did this for my daughter. I was tired of choosing between rent and her school fees. I worked the line in a restaurant kitchen for 3 years — split shifts, burns, tips split three ways. I found AI Rich Human through a search I had almost given up on. What kept me there was not a promise but a spreadsheet: Custom website design agency, what it costs to start, which tools it runs on, and how the first customer actually arrives. My mother asked, twice, whether this was a scam. The third time she asked, it was to find out how much I was making. I did not convince anyone with words — the transfers did it. What I got was not a course but a build sheet — the launch budget (about $100K), the stack (off-the-shelf tools), the channels that actually convert (Word of mouth), and the order to do things in. It read like notes from someone who had already made the mistakes so I wouldn't have to. So I followed it, step by step. I set up off-the-shelf tools, opened Word of mouth first, and used their first-customer script to land my first two paying clients within a few weeks. The plan lists a full launch budget of about $100K, but nobody spends that on day one — I started with the smallest slice that could produce a paying customer, and reinvested from the revenue. I sent eleven messages before anyone answered. The twelfth person — a small studio owner — replied "how much?" and paid that afternoon. Eleven rejections cost me nothing but an evening. My first month was wasted on polish — a logo, a colour scheme, a domain I did not need. Nobody bought anything. Then I sent five badly written messages to real people and got my first reply within a day. Sell first, decorate later. The part nobody advertises: there is a bench behind the plan. 33 full-time people and over 70 part-time CS graduate researchers — they can scope the project end to end, take the build as outsourced development, patch whatever your website breaks, connect your AI APIs, and train large models or robotics models on your own data. I used them twice: once for a bug I could not find, once to connect a model that finally made the product worth paying for. Nobody warns you about pricing. My first price was so low that I was busy all day and still broke. On the third client I raised it by forty percent and nobody blinked. That same client later sent me two referrals. I also learned to trust numbers over fear. Every week I tracked one thing: paying customers. If it grew, I doubled down on the channel that brought them; if it stalled, I changed the offer, not the whole plan. I still get up early, but now the first hour belongs to me, not to a commute. Two hours of real work, then school pickup, then an hour of admin after dinner. Same number of hours, completely different life. A year ago I was a line cook in Warsaw on about $2,000 a month. Today this copy pays me more than that, and the business I copied is doing $3M/mo — proof the ceiling is far above me. Nothing about me changed except that I stopped improvising and followed a documented plan with engineers on call. The first month I paid both without panic, I cried. The project I copied, in full: http://www.airichhuman.com/stories/starterstory-1083-upqode-com?lang=en

See all success stories → I copied this business — let me tell my story

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