The Reality Check

Twenty months ago, I was writing restaurant schedules and managing food costs. Today, I’m running five production platforms serving real customers, maintaining 236 Claude Code plugins, and consulting on AI automation.

This isn’t a success story. It’s a progress report from someone who’s learning in public.

What’s Actually Running in Production

DiagnosticPro: The $500K Revenue Validation

What it does: AI-powered vehicle diagnostics using Google Vertex AI Gemini 2.5 Flash.

Current status: Live at diagnosticpro.io with paying customers.

Tech stack: React 18 + TypeScript + Firebase + Firestore + Vertex AI

What it taught me:

• Migrate fast, validate faster. We moved from Supabase to Firebase in 4 days.
• Cost structure matters. Vertex AI at $0.15 per diagnostic vs. OpenAI’s pricing made this profitable on day one.
• Data scale is real. Managing 226+ RSS feeds and multiple BigQuery datasets isn’t theoretical—it’s production infrastructure that breaks when you ignore it.

Biggest surprise: People will pay for AI diagnostics at $4.99 when traditional shops charge $120. The business model validated before the product was polished.

Hustle: The COPPA Compliance Education

What it does: Youth sports statistics platform for high school athletic recruiting.

Current status: Production deployment at hustlestats.io (Next.js 15 + PostgreSQL)

Tech stack: Next.js 15 with Turbopack, React 19, NextAuth v5, Cloud Run, Terraform

What it taught me:

• Legal compliance isn’t optional. COPPA requirements for youth data forced me to become an expert in child privacy law.
• Authentication at scale is hard. NextAuth v5 with JWT strategy, bcrypt hashing, password reset flows—all production-grade, all necessary.
• Database schema design matters. Player profiles, game statistics, parent verification—designing Prisma schemas that scale requires thinking three steps ahead.

Biggest lesson: Building for kids means building for parents. Trust verification isn’t a feature—it’s the entire value proposition.

CostPlusDB: The Transparent Pricing Experiment

What it does: Managed PostgreSQL hosting with “cost plus 25%” pricing model.

Current status: Live at costplusdb.dev, accepting 5 clients/month maximum

Tech stack: AWS infrastructure, PostgreSQL 16, pgBackRest, transparent operations

What it taught me:

• Radical transparency sells. Publishing exact cost breakdowns and internal documentation isn’t risky—it’s a competitive advantage.
• Constraints create quality. Limiting to 5 clients/month keeps service personal and forces deliberate growth.
• Pricing honesty works. $89/month vs AWS’s $280/month for equivalent specs—68% savings creates evangelists, not just customers.

Biggest insight: People are tired of vendor bullshit. Showing your work builds more trust than any marketing copy.

ClaudeCodePlugins: The 236-Plugin Marketplace

What it does: Plugin marketplace and hub for Claude Code extensions.

Current status: Live at claudecodeplugins.io with 236 production plugins

Tech stack: Next.js 15, React 19, Cloud Run, two-catalog architecture

What it taught me:

• Scale requires systems. 236 plugins need automation—manual management breaks at 50.
• Documentation IS the product. CLAUDE.md files in every repo became more valuable than the code itself.
• AI can build AI tools. Using Vertex AI Gemini to generate 159 plugin Skills at $0 cost proved LLMs can scale content creation with proper prompting.

Biggest achievement: 100% success rate on Vertex AI batch processing with zero errors across 159 plugins. Proper context engineering works.

Intent Solutions Landing: The 4-Day Deployment

What it does: Company landing page with SEO optimization.

Current status: Live at intentsolutions.io (Astro 5.14)

Tech stack: Astro, Tailwind CSS 4, performance-optimized

What it taught me:

• Ship fast, iterate faster. From concept to production in 4 days. No overthinking.
• SEO isn’t magic. It’s technical correctness, semantic HTML, and page speed.
• Simple beats complex. Static site generation with Astro outperforms complex frameworks for landing pages.

The Supporting Infrastructure

N8N Workflow Automation (10+ Production Workflows)

Running automated systems that actually work:

• Daily news intelligence pipeline (12 RSS sources, GPT-4o-mini analysis)
• Lead follow-up automation (B2B scoring, Airtable integration)
• Content generation systems (Daily Energizer, disposable marketplace)

What it taught me: Automation isn’t about replacing humans—it’s about removing repetitive decision fatigue.

Bob’s Brain: Sovereign AI Agent

Slack integration with Neo4j knowledge graph and continuous learning pipeline.

What it taught me: Privacy-first AI deployment isn’t a nice-to-have for enterprises—it’s a requirement.

Waygate MCP: Security-Hardened MCP Server

Enterprise-grade MCP server framework with Docker isolation.

What it taught me: Security by design requires architecture, not afterthoughts.

The Numbers That Matter

• 5 production platforms serving real customers
• 236 Claude Code plugins across 15 categories
• 159 plugins with Agent Skills (generated via Vertex AI)
• 226+ RSS feeds curated and tested for data collection
• 4-day average from concept to production deployment
• $0 cost for Vertex AI batch processing (free tier optimization)

What I’m Learning About Running Multiple Products

Deployment Velocity Is Everything

The pattern across all projects: ship in days, validate with real users, iterate based on feedback.

DiagnosticPro moved from Supabase to Firebase in 4 days. Hustle went from concept to Cloud Run deployment in 72 hours. Intent Solutions landing took 4 days from design to live site.

Why this matters: Traditional development cycles optimize for perfection. Real-world success optimizes for learning. You can’t learn from code that isn’t deployed.

Cost Optimization Isn’t Optional

• Vertex AI vs OpenAI: $0.15 vs $0.40 per diagnostic = 62.5% cost savings
• CostPlusDB vs AWS: $89 vs $280/month = 68% savings
• Hybrid AI Stack: 60-80% cost reduction through intelligent routing

Why this matters: Profit margins at scale come from infrastructure decisions, not pricing power.

Documentation Scales, Tribal Knowledge Doesn’t

Every project has a comprehensive CLAUDE.md file. Every directory follows standardized naming. Every deployment has runbooks.

Why this matters: Future me is a stranger who won’t remember today’s context. Write for strangers.

What’s Not Working

GitHub Project Organization

I have 30+ repositories across public and private. Some are actively maintained (claude-code-plugins-plus updates daily), others are stable (waygate-mcp), and some are frankly orphaned.

The problem: No clear deprecation strategy. No automated health checks. No visibility into what’s actually being used.

Multi-Platform Authentication

NextAuth v5, Firebase Auth, custom JWT implementations—every platform has different auth. No unified identity.

The problem: User friction when moving between platforms. Development overhead maintaining three auth systems.

Content Marketing

Two blogs (jeremylongshore.com, startaitools.com), LinkedIn, X/Twitter—all manually updated with no consistent schedule.

The problem: Publishing velocity doesn’t match development velocity. I ship code faster than I write about it.

What’s Next (Real Commitments, Not Dreams)

Q4 2025 Focus

1. ClaudeCodePlugins Public Beta - Open the marketplace to community contributions with clear contribution guidelines
2. Hustle Early Access Launch - Beta program for 10 families to validate recruiting workflow
3. CostPlusDB Case Studies - Document real client migrations with transparent cost breakdowns

What I’m Not Doing

• Raising funding (bootstrapped is intentional)
• Building a team (solo operator by design)
• Chasing trends (no blockchain, no metaverse, no buzzword chasing)

The Uncomfortable Truth

Running five production platforms means five potential failure points. Five sets of customers with expectations. Five deployment pipelines that can break.

Some days I question the sanity of maintaining this portfolio solo. Most days I remember why: I’m learning faster than any job could teach me.

For Anyone Building in Public

If you’re reading this wondering whether to ship that side project—here’s what I wish someone had told me:

1. Ship before you’re ready. Every single platform launched with missing features. All are better because of real user feedback.

2. Cost matters from day one. Building on expensive infrastructure teaches bad habits. Learn to optimize early.

3. Documentation is a product. The CLAUDE.md files are used more than some features. Write for future you.

4. Numbers don’t lie. Track deployments, costs, user feedback. Feelings are unreliable. Metrics are truth.

5. Constraints force creativity. Limited to 5 clients? Make it a feature. Can’t afford OpenAI? Use Vertex AI. Solo operator? Automate everything.

The Real Metric

It’s not revenue (though DiagnosticPro proves people will pay). It’s not user count (though real customers use these platforms daily). It’s not GitHub stars or LinkedIn followers.

The real metric: How fast can I go from idea to deployed, revenue-generating product?

Twenty months ago: impossible. Today: 4 days average.

That’s progress.

Current focus: Intent Solutions (intentsolutions.io) Contact: jeremy@intentsolutions.io Portfolio: Five production platforms detailed above

Last updated: October 20, 2025