Most "make money with AI" content assumes you already have an audience, a laptop budget, or some existing skill to automate. I built SideStack AI specifically for people who have none of that — because that was me a year ago.

Here's the actual sequence that works when you're starting from zero:

1. Skip the SaaS wrapper trend. Everyone's building "ChatGPT but for X" — that market is saturated and requires upfront dev costs you don't have. Skip it.

2. Sell AI-assisted services, not AI products. Freelance writing, editing, research, and design briefs — but do the work 5x faster using AI tools. Clients pay for the outcome, not the method. This is the fastest path to your first $100.

3. Package your workflow once you've done it 10+ times. That's when you turn a service into a repeatable playbook (or a product) other people can pay to learn.

4. Reinvest the first profits into one paid tool, not ten free trials. Tool-hopping kills more beginners than lack of skill does.

I wrote this because I was tired of seeing broke college students get sold "$10k/month AI blueprints" that assume capital they don't have. If you're starting from actual zero, happy to answer questions in the comments.