I started a software agency with a $20 Claude subscription. No office. No team. No clients yet.
Before that, I was running workflows across Gemini browser tabs and copy-pasting context between windows. The subscription didn't make me a better developer. It made the pace feel possible.
What We've Built
VitalRegistry is a web CRM for medical device rental distributors. My mum was the first user. Ten distributors run it daily across Hungary, tracking devices, contracts, and returns. Six weeks later, she was using it daily. The end-of-month reconciliation that used to cost her most of a Sunday now runs automatically.
czaban.dev is the agency site. The design system that came out of building it now seeds every product we touch.
Two products. Both work. Both are live.
The Part Nobody Talks About
Neither of those products found us a client.
Both came from warm connections. Family network. People who already knew us. The founders who need what we build and have no idea we exist have no route to us. The site was built to look good. It was not built to be found.
The hardest problem in agency positioning is the instinct to build in private.
I have that instinct. Building in the dark feels safer. The work is controllable: write the code, test it, ship it. Marketing is different. You show the process before it is finished. You talk about problems before you have answers. You invite comparison.
Every post creates a record. Every video is a judgment I didn't ask for. The loop I run is: build the thing, finish it, keep it quiet until it's ready. That loop has kept us invisible.
There is no version of "trust us, we are good" that converts. There is only: here is what we built, here is what it cost us, here is what we're figuring out next.
Build in Public
We are pre-client, pre-revenue. Two brothers, a $20 subscription, a used graphics card, and two products we believe in.
The next problem is not technical. It is learning to market. I am an introvert who fell in love with building tools. Putting the work in public does not come naturally. That is exactly why it is the right next thing.
The blog, the YouTube channel, the LinkedIn posts are the mechanism that forces us to show the build instead of keeping it private.
This is the first video. Come watch an introverted founder who fell in love with building tools learn how to put himself out there.
The principle: building something real is table stakes. The founders who need what you build can only find you if you show up where they are looking.
Is the marketing harder for you than the building, or the other way around?