How Duelly Went From Idea to Live SaaS in 8 Weeks

The Gap

When someone asks ChatGPT "best plumber in Rothesay," does your name come up? For most small businesses, the answer is no. That's why we built Duelly.

Weeks 1-2: The Concept

We queried every major AI platform about local businesses. Some with great Google rankings were invisible to AI. Others with modest SEO showed up everywhere. Clear thesis: businesses need AEO and GEO audits.

Weeks 3-4: Building the Engine

We chose Gemini Flash at $0.02 per query vs GPT-4 at $0.20. When running hundreds of assessments per day, that 10x cost difference matters.

Weeks 5-6: Accounts and Payments

No subscriptions. One-time credit packs. Buy 10 audits for $49. Use them whenever. This lowered the barrier dramatically.

Weeks 7-8: Launch

Deployed on Vercel. Paying users within 72 hours. Eight weeks from idea to revenue.

The Bigger Lesson

Every decision you delay is a week you don't ship. Speed is our advantage. We can't outspend big agencies. But we can out-ship them.