From being fired to building a thriving AI product in public
Full name: Fernando Pessagno
Business: aiCarousels
Started in: 2023
Website: aiCarousels.com
Social Media channels: Twitter, LinkedIn
Role: Founder
Number of employees: 1
Deal: 🔒 UNLOCK 15% OFF
Who are you, and what’s the SaaS you’re working on?
Hello! My name is Fernando Pessagno, I am an Argentinian product designer with a passion for coding.
I am the founder of aiCarousels.com, which I started kind of by accident during a 10-day #buildinpublic challenge.
aiCarousels is a tool that helps non-designers create social media carousels for LinkedIn, Instagram, and TikTok using AI.
How did you come up with the idea?
Around 9 months ago, just one day before my vacation was about to start, I got some not-so-great news that I could be let go from my full-time job.
What an amazing way to start my break…
Living in Sweden as a foreign worker who relies on a work visa, this was my worst nightmare.
I simply couldn’t really relax and enjoy my vacation. I needed to keep my mind occupied.
And to me, coding it's like ritual or meditation—headphones on, coding, and everything else just fades away.
So, I decided to take on a personal 10-day #buildinpublic challenge on X and YouTube to ship something — anything! (You can binge-watch the entire saga here)
The inspiration struck when I noticed how popular carousel posts were on LinkedIn.
As a former multimedia designer who has worked with marketing teams for startups and created carousels myself, I know firsthand how time-consuming they can be, even for experienced designers.
So, I thought, why not create something that simplifies the process for everyone, especially non-designers, to create beautiful carousels?
How did you validate the product?
To be honest, I had no idea what to expect, and launching the product without testing it properly was a bit like a leap in the dark.
I showed it to some friends, but you know how friends can be — they always want to make you feel good.
So, even though they said they liked it, I took their feedback with a grain of salt. I really wasn’t sure if people would like it.
Despite my concerns, the Product Hunt launch went surprisingly well!
aiCarousels.com secured the 9th spot, earning 154 upvotes, 64 comments, and 7 stellar 5/5 reviews.
It’s not really about the upvotes for me. I am more focused on the comments, because the positive feedback was overwhelming, and in my mind at that moment, they began to validate the product:
“Nice! I’m going to have my content creators try this and see if we can move away from Canva and save some time and $! It looks slick but it seems like the creation process too is super straightforward and simple!”
“I just paid a content creator on Fiverr to make me a load of carousels and ngl the stuff that your product has made for me is much better. Oh I wish I found this a couple weeks ago”
“As a social media manager for some Instagram accounts this tool is pure gold for me, I love it! Congrats on the launch! ❤”
“Beautiful! I was looking for a tool like that, even though I can use Figma for it. Your tool helps to make it quick, which is super beneficial.”
The icing on the cake was that 5 paid users signed up! That’s the ultimate proof right there.
People can say they like your stuff, but when they actually pay for it, that’s when you know they mean it!
What’s the best growth hack or tactic to get new customers to your SaaS right now?
Having the first-mover advantage, especially with all the excitement around AI, gave me a good head start.
aiCarousels.com was the first AI-powered Carousel Generator and it got a lot of shares on different websites, blogs, newsletters, and social media.
Having a good domain name, along with all the attention and backlinks it got after launch, has been great for SEO.
This is currently the biggest source of sales and traffic.
I also leverage… 🔒 UNLOCK ALL
What is your biggest lesson learned thus far?
I used to build in private... and it has high risks of taking you down the path of building something that people don't really want... then it can be hard to admit that some features that took so long to code need to be axed.
If I had waited to feel really proud and happy with aiCarousels, it would have been shipped today, 9 months late.
Even if this is not my first rodeo, every time I put myself out there with a somewhat broken MVP, it really takes a bit of courage, but the feedback I get as guidance is key.
What are the 5 tools you use the most?
Notion & ChatGPT
What’s 1 book you’d recommend to fellow founders?
I could easily recommend any of the classics. I loved "The Lean Startup" by Eric Ries back in the days, and I would have loved to have read "Atomic Habits" by James Clear when I was just starting out.
But sometimes, I am so absorbed and focused on work that I find it healthier to read about things unrelated to SaaS. And it's in those moments, when I am bored or entertained by doing something without thinking about work, that I get my best ideas. "Shoe Dog" and "Creativity, Inc." were really fun reads.
What’s your advice for (aspiring) founders in SaaS?
aiCarousels almost didn’t happen. I wasn’t entirely sure about the idea, but I needed something to distract me from the potential job cuts at my 9-to-5.
Fast forward to today, and I couldn’t be happier with how things have turned out.
Sure, I lost my job, but it also marked the end of my search for a conventional 9-to-5.
To be fully transparent, I'm not that good at coding. But that just goes to show one thing: If I can do it, so can you.
With all the no-code tools and AI at your disposal, stop making excuses and start shipping. You never know when a small project might suddenly change your life.