Result
self-reportedA solo design practice hit $50k MRR in one month with two to three clients at a time and no team. He says better work, made possible by AI, landed him two $20k+ retainers plus smaller fixed-fee consulting gigs.
gunni (@rungunni) runs a design practice alone. A Hermes agent lives in his Slack, and he talks to it like a chief of staff. It writes a brief, hands it to a background worker and reports back. ‘Research how five products handle onboarding’ comes back 20 minutes later as a report with screenshots. Tools he built himself sync tasks, time and docs, meeting notes become task updates he approves with one tap, and his design file is a repo that becomes a client link. His honest note: AI didn’t buy him free time. It bought him better work.
Who did it
Try it now
- Put one agent where you already work (Slack, email or chat) and talk to it like a chief of staff.
- Before every client call, give it a research brief, e.g. ‘how five competitors handle onboarding, with screenshots.’
- Send meeting notes to it, and have it turn each client request into a task you approve with one tap, so nothing asked on a call gets lost.
- Use the agent to send clients real, working drafts sooner. He says AI bought him better work, not free time.
You’re my research chief of staff. Before my call with [client] on [date], research [question, e.g. how five competitors handle onboarding]. Give me a one-page brief: what each one does, screenshots with links, what works, what doesn’t, and three ideas for [client]. Then list the five questions I should ask on the call. Only use sources you can link. Don’t contact anyone.
Make it run every week
A play works once. Turn it into a routine in three small steps:
- Run it once and check the result yourself.
- Give your AI a schedule. Tell it when to run this play (every week, or every month) and to message you with what it found before you act.
- Keep a log. One line per run: what was checked, anything flagged, what you did.
What to watch out for
Self-reported. He says he still works a lot, and his setup includes tools he built himself, so start with the research brief alone. Never put client secrets in tools you don’t control. Build it with Page: a case-study page for each retainer you win.
Did it work?
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