(2026-06-20) Procopio Everyone Has An AI Side Hustle Now, Here's How To Build Something Better

Joe Procopio: Everyone Has an AI Side Hustle Now. Here’s How To Build Something Better. Now is the time to figure out if AI truly meshes with your entrepreneurial mindset

if you don’t have your own AI side hustle at this point, it’s time to take a weekend to get started.
Maybe this weekend.

What I’m talking about is spending six bucks on a Digital Ocean droplet, another $10 on a domain name, $20 on Claude Pro, and maybe $10–20 on some API token credits.
So like $50 and a weekend to build something on the spectrum from demo to pilot to MVP to full-blown launch. Up to you.

the only way to determine how you’re going to succeed with this evolution in technology is to build something that people will pay for.

If you do that, you separate yourself from all the AI users, hustlers, and, well, 99 percent of the AI bros.

you do have to get started. And there’s never been a better time. Here’s how.

“Claude, I Need a Droplet”
And then the first thing Claude should ask you is, “What is that droplet for, you beautiful devil, you?”
And then you go from there.

The times, they keep a-changin, but right now, at this very moment, there is a pretty solid bedrock of foundation to where you don’t have to be a world-class coder to get something useful and even viable out of these tools.
That wasn’t true before. It is now

AI can give anyone the “how” to build their AI side hustle.

The boats that won’t sink need the “why?”

Find a Problem and Solve It

This is gonna be your leg up, your difference-maker, your game-changer, because this is the part that everyone else keeps skipping

Start by building a solution that solves one of your problems, the thornier the better, and make that available to the world.

Pick one of the stupid, little, repeatable problems that you have to keep dealing with, and start there. I have an entire stealth startup spinning in the background that began with “It takes me too long to get my Inc posts republished on my own website.”
Six months later, the solution that grew out of that problem has evolved into something fundable. It would never have been birthed had I not started with my own stupid little problem.

You Can Pretty Much Ask Your Way to Viability Now

don’t ask Claude to solve the problem for you, don’t ask it for your business idea, or how to build your idea into a viable business. Why? Because Claude isn’t good at that. That’s not how AI works.

if you take small steps, learn as you go, and make sure you not only know that things are working and secure, but why they’re working and secure, you’ll have a much better chance at success and less risk of financial ruin.

These things — backend infrastructure, security holes, sudden cost spikes, technical debt — these are the bogeymen that keep people from chasing the reality that will erase their FOMO.

I built a business using Bubble, and added all sorts of custom features and options and even built a CMS and publishing platform into it so others could do what I did and make money at it.

That’s now a six-figure a year business at about 80 percent margin, and according to the nice email I got from Bubble last week, it’s the #9 most-visited app in their US ecosystem.

I know, it’s like one of those “His 5-hour-a-week business generates over $100K a year!” bullshit articles. But did I mention the seven years it took to build it?

My point is, we’re past the “get-rich-quick” stuff and we’re moving on to “the door is open” stuff. How you walk through that door and what you build when you get there is up to you, but the when should be now.