KK KeyKey

Issue #1

I built 9 AI tools. Two leads showed up.

This isn't a success story. It's the story of what happens before one.

Published: 4 min read

Intro

I built 9 free AI tools in under a month. So far, two leads have shown up. This isn't a success story — it's the story of what happens before success.

Main story

Instead of Google Ads, I built a chain of free, narrowly focused AI tools — a savings calculator, a business plan generator, a business idea validator — that solve one problem in 2 minutes and take an email in return.

Cost per tool: €0 to a few cents per query (Claude API + web search: ~€0.012/call), hosting free on Netlify.

The first week wasn't about volume. It was about whether the system works end to end at all. I lost a couple of hours to a mislabeled API secret. Now it works.

That's the whole point of this issue: before traffic, before conversions, a thing that works has to exist. Nine things that work. Now I can measure what happens with them — and I'll share it, month after month, even when the numbers aren't pretty.

Case study of the month

Open book: where I actually stand

Live tools

9

Cost / query

€0.012

First real lead

Jun 24

Total leads

2

  • 9 tools live, 1 shared admin panel.
  • Cost per AI query: ~€0.012 (Claude API + web search).
  • First real lead: June 24, the pricing calculator.
  • Next month's goal: at least 5 real organic visits per tool. I'm measuring distribution, not conversion — without traffic, conversion isn't relevant yet.

Tool of the month

cenovni-kalkulator.keykey.si

The AI searches the market in real time for actual providers and prices (cleaning, websites, accounting…) with source links. 2 minutes, no commitment.

Open the tool →

Quick tricks

  • 401 on an AI API call? 9 times out of 10 it's a missing Authorization: Bearer header in the frontend fetch. Check that first.

AI spark of the month

Anthropic

Anthropic released Claude Sonnet 5 — the model now powering every KeyKey tool (larger context window, better price). Tip: if you build on an AI API, regularly check you're on the latest model — old versions get retired (60-day notice).

Behind the scenes

In mid-June the US government banned access to Anthropic's most capable models for a week, then reversed the ban. Lesson: if you build on a single AI provider, keep a plan B.

Short tail

Next time: the first real customer story (or the open book, continued).