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Jun 22 • 1 min read

People Are Paying $20 for AI Prompts They Could Generate for Free


Startup Brief

Issue #276

And that's the opportunity.


Last week I was browsing Gumroad.

Not looking for products.

Looking for weird purchases.


I found someone selling:

"50 AI prompts for job seekers"

Price: $19


Another:

"AI prompts for lawyers"

Price: $29

Another:

"AI prompts for real estate agents"

Price: $39


My first reaction:

Why would anyone buy this?

ChatGPT is free.

Claude exists.

Gemini exists.

Then I read the reviews.


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The buyers weren't paying for prompts.

They were paying for outcomes.


A lawyer doesn't want to spend 3 hours figuring out how to use AI.

He wants:

"Generate a contract review summary."

Click.

Done.


A real estate agent doesn't want to learn prompting.

They want:

"Create 10 property descriptions."

Done.


This creates a weird opportunity.


Most people think AI killed information products.

In reality, it created a new category.


Workflow products.


Here's what I mean.


Pick a profession.

Dentists.

Recruiters.

Teachers.

Accountants.

Lawyers.

Fitness coaches.


Now spend one hour asking ChatGPT:

"What repetitive tasks does this profession do every week?"


Let's say recruiters.


You might discover:

  • Candidate outreach
  • Interview summaries
  • Job descriptions
  • Rejection emails
  • LinkedIn messages

Now create:

100 recruiter AI workflows.


Put them into:

  • Notion
  • PDF
  • Airtable
  • Google Docs

Sell for $19-$49.


No coding.

No inventory.

No startup.


Here's why this is working in 2026.


Most people have access to AI.

Few people have systems.


Access is free.

Systems are valuable.


A recent survey found that many professionals use AI weekly but struggle to integrate it into daily workflows.

That's the gap.


People don't buy tools.

They buy shortcuts.


The interesting part?

You don't need expertise.


You can partner with AI.


For example:

Ask 20 accountants:

"What tasks waste the most time?"


Turn the answers into AI workflows.


Package them.

Sell them.


One creator did this for teachers.

Another did it for recruiters.

Another did it for ecommerce managers.


Same model.

Different audience.


Your challenge tonight:

Pick one profession.

Ask ChatGPT:

"What are the 50 most repetitive tasks this profession performs?"


Build solutions for those tasks.

Not content.

Not courses.

Not theory.

Solutions.


Because in 2026, people aren't paying for information anymore.

They're paying to skip work.


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