hey there! thought i'd share a bit about what it's like wearing all the hats as the founder and cto of dochelp.ai.
dochelp.ai
imagine a chatgpt but for doctors. we basically connect gpt models with some medical pdfs so the AI can answer correctly and more precisely.
current frontend stack:
- next.js
- tailwindcss
- shadcn/ui
current backend stack:
- node.js
- fastify
- drizzle orm
- postgresql
- vitest
- openai
- langchain
- upstash vector store
infra:
- vercel for frontend deploy
- railway for backend deploy
- github with ci/cd actions
- resend for sending messages
where we're at?
- 2023/jan (first idea): anamnese ai generator
- this idea came as a freelance project for me, i delivered but the client didn't go forward with the app
- 2024/jan (pivot idea): chatgpt for doctors mvp 1
- i showed the custom gpt assitant that you can create and upload some pdf's for this old client
- we talked about creating an mvp and trying to get people to use it
- created an instagram profile and got about 300 subscribers into a online form
- put them into a whatsapp group
- developed the mvp within 2 days, this app version consisted of:
- one single page next.js app
- one text input only fixed at the bottom
- user send message would connect to langchain
- langchain would consult upstash vector store database
- using langchain rag to keep context consistent
- if user refresh pages it would reset the chat messages
- user could not access previous chats
- user could only send messages after login with a OTP code
- stored everything on mongodb, next.js only project, very simple
- user could send feedback
- we let users using the app for 7 days for free and we got a lot of feedback
- from about 300 form subscribers we got about 70 of them to register to the app
- most of users only send one message and never came back
- some of them uses everyday from morning to night
- we offered a stripe subscription for 20$ at the end of 7 days but got no sales
- 2024/jul (first robust version): dochelp.ai
- after the mvp test we got some insights
- also decided to go into this as a co-founder partner
- the team now was me (tech), marcio (doctor and main financer) and marcos (marketing and audio-visual)
- i started developing this new version with one goal in mind: build a more robust, pretty and sellable version
- 2025/feb: we launched!
- i finally finished the app new version
- we started to produce instagram ads again
- with organic and free traffic we could get 100 users to subscribe
- most of users don't use the app enough, most of them only send a test message and never come back
- we noticed that maybe our target clients will only come with paid traffic
- (on going) started planning sales workflow to focus on get some revenue
dochelp live website: https://dochelp.ai
wrapping up
if you're thinking about going solo as a technical founder, here's my advice: embrace the chaos, keep learning, and don't forget to take breaks (something i'm still working on!). it's a wild ride, but i wouldn't have it any other way.
catch you later!