700: From $9 to $350K: How I Built and Sold an AI-Powered Website

The Side Hustle Show

Nick Loper

Business, Education, Entrepreneurship, How To

4.7 • 1.6K Ratings

🗓️ 6 October 2025

⏱️ 55 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

🧾️ Download transcript

Summary

What if you could build a six-figure business in under 2 years — with zero technical skills and almost no marketing budget? Tanya van Gastel did exactly that with Multiverse.ai, an AI-powered headshot generator that turned selfies into professional photos. She started with just $9 per sale, scaled to $29, drove over $350,000 in revenue, and sold the business — all while working with two co-founders and learning marketing from scratch. In this episode, Tanya pulls back the curtain on how she found customers, grew through SEO and affiliates, pivoted to corporate clients, and ultimately prepared the business for acquisition. Listen to Episode 701 of the Side Hustle Show to learn: How to enter a crowded market and still win Low-cost marketing tactics that actually scale The real difference between SEO and "GEO" (generative engine optimization) How to position a business for sale even without recurring revenue Full Show Notes: From $9 to $350K: How to Build and Sell an AI Headshot Business New to the Show? Get your personalized money-making playlist ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠here⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠! Sponsors: ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠Mint Mobile⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ — Cut your wireless bill to $15 a month! ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠Indeed⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ – Start hiring NOW with a $75 sponsored job credit to upgrade your job post! ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠Quo (formerly OpenPhone)⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ — Get 20% off of your first 6 months! ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠Shopify⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ — Sign up for a $1 per month trial! ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠Policygenius⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ — Compare free life insurance quotes from top companies and see how much you could save. About The Side Hustle Show This is the entrepreneurship podcast you can actually apply! The award-winning small business show covers the best side hustles and ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠side hustle ideas⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠. We share how to start a business and ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠make money online⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ and offline, including online business, side gigs, freelancing, marketing, sales funnels, investing, and much more. Join 100,000+ listeners and get legit business ideas and ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠passive income⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ strategies straight to your earbuds. No BS, just actionable tips on how to start and grow your side hustle. Hosted by Nick Loper of ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠Side Hustle Nation⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠.

Transcript

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0:00.0	Introducing your new Dell PC powered by the Intel Core Ultra processors, it helps you handle a lot, even when your holiday to do lists get to be a lot, because it's built with an all-day battery plus powerful AI features that help you do it all with ease, from editing images to drafting emails, to summarizing large documents, to multitaskingasking so you can organize your holiday shopping
0:21.8	and make custom holiday decor and search for great holiday deals and respond to holiday
0:25.4	requests and customer questions and customers requesting custom things and plan your perfect
0:29.7	holiday dinner for vegans, vegetarians, and Uncle Mike's carnivore diet.
0:34.3	Luckily, you can get a PC that helps you do it all faster, so you can get it all done.
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0:44.3	Get yours today at Dell.com slash deals.
0:47.3	Terms and conditions apply.
0:48.5	See Dell.com for details.
0:54.5	From a side project to six- Figure Exit, Stick around to hear how today's guest started, grew,
1:00.9	and sold, an AI-powered headshot generator service all in just the last couple years.
1:08.1	She is founder Tanya on YouTube.
1:13.4	Tanya Van Gastel, welcome to The Side Hustle show.
1:18.8	Hey, Nick, super happy to be here. I am excited for this one. The business that we're dissecting today is the multiverse.a.I, which takes your selfies and turns them into professional-looking
1:24.4	headshots. I just had mine done. Some of them turned out pretty well.
1:28.3	It really went in with the professional look. You gave me a jacket and a shirt and tie in a lot of
1:33.7	them. Really cool product. Ended up generating over $350,000 in sales before the business itself
1:40.2	sold this year. But even going back a couple years, there were other headshot generator
1:46.6	services out there. This couldn't have been the first one to exist. So what attracted you to this
1:51.3	space? What made you think? I think there's still some white space here that we can compete in.
1:55.2	Well, we were definitely not the first. There were probably already like 10 on the market.
1:59.5	So that means we were still like one of the early ones.
	...

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