Year #1: Codexai 2025

Looking back, next year, and an easy-to-use index for our personal use

Dec 28, 2025

It’s almost been a year since I started Codexai, but I wasn’t consistent, so the results were never strong. And in that time, I pivoted again and again. So many pivots that even the idea of pivoting would feel embarrassed.

So, you are about to read what Codexai’s first year really looked like. There were a lot of ups and lot more downs, a lot of pivots, funding almost happened and then didn’t. Things almost went to hell, but stopped just short of it. I started this thinking I would learn coding and share that journey with you. Then suddenly, it shifted into the AI app building niche.

The plan was to help non-technical people get AI apps built to solve their personal life problems, but looking at my own life, I realized not every problem in your life needs an app to be solved.

Before you begin I want to tell you something, and that is: this is an almost 5,000-word essay. If you can read it in one go, that is great.

If you can’t, then send it to yourself on WhatsApp, so you can find it easily later.

So here I am, pivoting for the last time and trying to make this thing work.

Why this article exists?

So if I had to explain in two lines why I am writing this article, there are two reasons. The first real question is who I am writing this article for. The answer is two people. First, myself. Second, the person who wants to see my journey.

But beyond these obvious reasons, the real reason is this. I wanted to create a milestone document that I can use to self audit. Something you can look at honestly and measure where you stand.

So here it is. My self audit of Codexai’s first year.

When I started, my goal was clear:

CodexAI is not just a newsletter; it is your personal guide to turning ChatGPT and ClaudeAI into your ultimate coding assistants. My target audience was tier-3 college students.
But within the first three months, I clearly understood that most students from tier 3 colleges have little to do with engineering at all.

And that is when I understood one thing: students from tier-3 colleges have no real interest in studying. I say this because I myself did engineering from a similar trash college. When I looked around my surroundings, everyone had a short attention span. No one cared about reading. For me, handling things in that environment becomes difficult. Everyone around you was addicted to reels and shorts.

If I had to write one sentence that future Manas would read and say, “yes, this was the reason,” it would be this: I wanted to help people like me who came from villages and tier-3 cities, people with big dreams.

But even there, I had a realization:

First help yourself. Then help others. Because if you have nothing material that gives you validation in society, even your own will leave you.

Codexai at the beginning of 2025

Codexai newsletter was launched on the 14th of January, and I remember this date clearly because I wrote it in my daily journal: “launched Codexai, bought domains, let’s rule the world.” When you read it today, it brings a slight smile. One day, you will win the world.

In the beginning, and even now, Codexai was just a Substack newsletter. Even today, for the public, Codexai is only a newsletter. But in my pipeline, there is a website, products, and something special for you. All of it will arrive properly in 2026, with a clothing line too.
With Codexai, this year I ran many content-specific experiments. Those experiments taught me how to make AI-generated content escape AI detectors, so what you read feels human, real, and yours.

And once (I do not remember the exact date), but it was sometime this year. I was sitting with a few friends, and I told them, look, let me show you some magic. That magic was this. I had a poem written using ChatGPT, then ran it through an AI detector, and it showed “99% AI-generated.”

Then I used a prompt written by me. I asked ChatGPT to write a poem on the same idea. This time, the AI detector showed “0% AI-generated.” The shock on their faces, and the question in their minds, was simple. How did this happen?

When I started, I was extremely confused. I had no clarity at all. I just keep doing a few things, and a few things keep happening. Some things went right, most things did not. But whatever happens, happens for the good.
In the beginning, there were no systems. No content pillars were decided. No reference accounts existed. But now, my workflow is completely solid.
In the beginning, I expected nothing from Codexai, but I did expect support from my friends. And they did support me, but only for the things I personally sent them. Only as much as I forwarded myself. Beyond that, no one supported anything. Even when I launched a paid product, everyone started asking for discounts or told me to give it for free.

What Didn’t Work (The Reality Check)

So, as I mentioned in the previous section, I had some expectations from my friends that they would support me going forward. They did not. And that became my reality check:

If you want to know who truly wishes you well, start something of your own. Start a business, or anything where money is involved. You will quickly see who stands for you, and who quietly prays for your defeat.

And I genuinely tell you this. Start something of your own. For you, it will be a deeply humbling experience.

There was one thing I did with full confidence. I believed its output would be explosive. But the result was extremely weak. That thing was sharing the newsletter link in random niche WhatsApp groups.

If I sent one link to 20 groups, I got around 50 to 100 subscribers. But they stayed inactive. Because of that, my overall open rate stayed very low. Engagement dropped. And that is when I understood that if you are a one person, single handler, the more high quality and valuable subscribers you have, the better it is for you.

And this was the uncomfortable truth Codexai taught me: numbers are good, but only if you have the money to advertise at scale. When you don’t have money, your greatest advertisement becomes people’s word of mouth.

What if, Codexai was a person?

This “word of mouth” realization was the moment that made me see I was doing something wrong. And my core purpose was simple. To share my journey, and help those who are two steps behind you. Just that.

But I started chasing numbers. I got trapped in useless content games. Design after design, but you built nothing real. And whatever small projects I made are still lying private, untouched.

And that is when I realized it was time to bring Codexai back to its roots. To solve my own problems using code, AI, and out-of-the-box thinking. And to keep sharing that journey with you. Problems related to my writing, building, and every aspect of life where I continue to face challenges.

Before this realization, I believed I could become a tech creator. But in the Indian creator space, the top creators, except a few exceptions, are all ex-employees of MAANG companies. And what I have noticed is that for Indian students, the company tag matters more than knowledge.

If Codexai were a person, at that point it would have had a complete breakdown. What should I do, how should I do it. But if Codexai’s persona were like mine, it would definitely think about how to get out of this situation.
And not just think, but it would also find some path forward. As for why I have not done anything meaningful yet, that reason is a bit personal. I will share it in the Manas Memo year wrap, not here.

But the mindset shift that happened after this changed everything for me. I truly started enjoying things because of it. And you also realize that not everyone deserves your friendship. Some snakes are the ones you raise yourself.

How I dealt with the building phase and beyond

For 3 months, there was a phase where I was only building. Systems, study workflows, prompts, platforms, projects. But if I am honest, I could not really build anything. I have capability for out-of-the-box thinking, but not the right skill set.

Because of that, I did build projects, I did deliver them, and clients were satisfied. Yet there is always that one thing inside you that keeps saying, “something still feels missing”. And that feeling has been eating me from the inside.

And next year, I will aim for this. Not aim, I will do it for sure. If I am delivering something to you, it must give me satisfaction too. And I will not just deliver. I will overdeliver.

After that good phase, a down phase also came into my life, both personally and professionally. They say that after every bright morning, a dark night must come, and the same happened with me. In that phase, I learned one thing: no matter what you are doing, having a system is very important for you. And that system is important for you because:

You do not rise to the level of your goals, you fall to the level of your systems. — James Clear (Author of best selling book, Atomic Habits)

And from this one line, you can understand why systems matter so much. Because every day is not the same. But if you follow your systems and habits for a significant period of time, you can reach your flow state within 10 minutes. This is something I am telling you from my personal experience.

Because now, by God’s grace and my own effort, no matter what mood I am in, no matter the situation, or how bad the day is. If I sit down to do my task for just 10 minutes, I enter a flow state within that time, and I don’t even realize when those 10 minutes turn into 2 hours.

Now that I understand what I need to do to enter a flow state, it feels like I have understood something crucial about myself. And the one thing I want you to learn from this entire essay is this: find out what you need to do to enter your own flow state. At first, this will feel very boring to you. You will start thinking, what am I even doing, why am I not seeing any instant results. But within one month, you will start seeing results.

And if you did it or want to know step-by-step process, please comment and let me know.

How this journey of Codexai changed me

Once, I was drunk as hell. I was lying on my bed, but I could not sleep. It must have been around 2 or 3 at night. And in that moment, a thought came to me: what if I had never started Codexai at all.

I remember this clearly because the next day I wrote these thoughts in my journal, whatever I could recall the following morning, while I was in a hangover. So when I thought about this what if, I realized that if I had never started Codexai, then:

today, I would not know myself,
I would not know my strengths and weaknesses,
the new friends I have today from the industry would not exist, and I would be living a meaningless life.

Because of Codexai, I learned to think with data instead of biased thinking. Now, whenever you see me make a decision, it is always data-specific. Whether it is apps, my content, or systems. I prefer doing what feels most believable and doable to me, and where the data is clearly available.

And this data specific thinking came to me because I enjoy reading research papers, statistical reports, or you can say writing in general. So this is also one reason why, for any problem now except personal ones, I do not use my own brain. I directly do a Google search. And in very little time, you get the answers to your questions.

Now this has become even easier for me, because instead of Google, I directly ask on Perplexity in my preferred language. And you get the answers in your preferred way.

So because of this “thinking with data,” I have stopped chasing unrealistic results. And also because of this, a philosophy has developed for me that says:

To get realistic results, you need to do un-realistic efforts.

Codexai’s non-negotiables for 2026

In 2025, my grip on Codexai was very light. But what Codexai taught me after 2025 pushed me to set a few non-negotiable rules for you and me in 2026. And those non-negotiable rules are:

If someone gives us work worth one lakh, We’ll deliver work worth five lakhs. We’ll overdeliver so both me and our clients feel satisfied.
For now, we will follow the current system we have. When needed, we will change it, because everything changes with time, and you and I will have to change too. But changes will happen only when they are truly necessary, otherwise we will let things run as they are.
Every decision must either make sense or make money, because in 2026, the only metrics you and we will track are how many people are joining the community and how much revenue we are generating.

If after reading the above points you feel like these rules must have come to me naturally, that is completely wrong. Because I did not learn these rules. I adopted them out of compulsion, because:

Once, I delivered a project for X amount using only AI. It was random, not relevant, and visually poor. I shipped it like a rough prototype. That client said nothing at the time. But later, I found out that the very next week, the same client gave a similar project to someone else at 2X the price.
Right now, because I am alone, I build and run all my systems inside Notion. And because of that, I have a very bad habit of constantly chasing the perfect system. When I look back, it feels like this chase for perfection is exactly why the revenue never came.
And every decision of mine should either make sense or make money, because once I spent an entire week creating 30 thumbnails for my Codexai newsletter. Today, I am not even using those thumbnails anywhere, and wherever I did use them, I have already deleted them. So, looking at it today, that time was simply wasted. That will not happen in 2026.

If you are building something of your own, these rules can be very useful for you too. But if you only enjoy reading, and you like consuming Codexai essays and applying them quietly in your own life, then these rules are not for you at all. Because these rules are only for me, and for those of you who are first-time founders.

Codexai is NOT for everyone, anymore!

Now that I have taken one “final” pivot, I will fully try to ensure that our growth is not delayed because of any external reasons. Because problems will come anyway, they always do. That is life. But this time, if there is any delay, the reason will be me and only me. All the blame will stay on my head, because blaming others changes nothing.

And now, Codexai is not an ed-tech platform. It is a community where there is friendship, like-minded people, and guidance on how you solve your own life problems. Honestly, I have not given Codexai any fixed term yet. Right now, it is in a real experimental phase. But as clarity comes, you will gradually see changes in our taglines, emails, and bios.

Currently, the Codexai bio is written by me after getting inspired by Justin Welsh’s newsletter Unsubscribe, and the current newsletter bio is:

Weekly essay for solo founders who want to save 10+ hours every week by using AI, so they can build smarter businesses, better distribution and reclaim time for the life they actually want.

Earlier, I used to write for everyone. Then I understood that what belongs to everyone belongs to no one. So now, my target audience is people like me.

First-time founders, writers, investors, and the same kind. From mental health problems across domains to article drafting, whatever problems I face, how I solve them using code, AI, and out-of-the-box thinking, that is exactly how the content will come to you.

The content ideas coming next in line are:

How you can save $500 as a content creator.
How to create custom apps for your personal solutions.
How I made my mental health better using AI, (and you can too).
And much more.

So if you know someone who is interested in these topics, you can share this newsletter with them. And if you do, I am truly grateful that you are helping me in some way.

Share Codexai

Because, as I mentioned above, inactive emails mean nothing to me. Fewer subscribers are fine, but they should be people you can truly call friends. Right now, I am not participating in the subscriber game at all. Because my race now is to become a better person by the end of 2026 and to solve my own problems.

So only if you want to solve your problems, or you want to watch my journey, stay subscribed. Otherwise, there is an unsubscribe option at the end of the email. You can unsubscribe there.

What 2026 will look like?

In 2026, we are not chasing yearly goals, because this time we have set quarterly goals. The goals we’ll try to complete quarter by quarter, and then plan the next targets based on that progress.

So if I give you a rough plan of how 2026 will look, it will be something like this:

Q1: The main focus will be testing workflows, funnels, and messages. The second focus will be building a social media presence so people know that we exist.
Q2: The main focus will be building community channels. Along with that, we will provide services to startups by building customized solutions for their specific problems using AI.
Q3: The main focus will be bringing sponsors for the newsletter, so we can run AI-powered hackathons where the project topics are real-life business problems.
Q4: The main focus will be figuring out how to scale the community, so we can grow both in terms of people and finances.

In 2026, I would like to do two things. One for improving my knowledge, and one for keeping my mental health in place.

The first thing I want to improve in myself is my developer skills. My focus will stay on strengthening my technical knowledge and improving my English communication, for you and for your future.

The second thing I will deliberately ignore is listening to sad songs. I know it sounds off topic, but even when you are not sad, those songs pull you back into the past or into fake scenarios, and you start feeling low again. I no longer have the energy for that.

If I had to choose one word as the theme of 2026, it would be becoming better. The only reason I believe in for this is “Like attracts like.” And who does not like to be in a good environment.

Closing Note To The Reader

There are four types of people on Codexai. So I have written four points below for different personalities. Choose the one that suits you best, and that point is only for you. Ignore the rest.

One type is people who reads my newsletter fully and actually implements it. I am genuinely thankful to you because most people do not. Likes, comments, shares do not matter to me right now. Even if you never tell me, it is fine. But you implement. That alone means a lot to me. And a big love to you from my side.
One type is people who reads, but implements nothing. To you, I would say please unsubscribe. I am not here to do moral policing, but if you are not going to do anything anyway, my saying or not saying things will not change anything for you. A new year is coming though, so do one more round of that new year new me nonsense. Who knows, maybe this time you get some results.
Then there are people who ignore it straight from the notifications. Even if I say something to them, it will never reach them. I do not focus on these people at all. If I see no activity from someone on my newsletter, I manually remove them myself.
And the last type is people who has email notifications turned off. I respect you for that because you prioritize your own things. You check when you want to check, and that is solid. Even my own notifications are off except for a few payment apps, so I understand how dry yet peaceful your phone must be.

After reading such a long essay, you will remember a few things and forget a few. But if you take away just one feeling after reading this article, let it be this: a comeback is coming.

Either I will do something meaningful, or I will be working a job by the end of the year. That entire journey will live inside Manas Memo, and it will be worth watching for you.

If you can spare 20 to 30 minutes a week, you can follow my journey, reply to the emails, comment on substack, and who knows, we might even build a good friendship. Maybe you and I end up creating something solid together.

Every learning I had in year #1 of Codexai

So this is where our first year ends.

And if you liked this, and you know you will come back to it, but you do not want to read such a long essay again, this summary is for you. The main goal of this summary is simple. To list all the learnings I took in bullet points below. So both you and I can refer to it and implement it in our own lives.

So all the learnings I picked up in Codexai’s first year, in no fixed order, are these. Here you will find all the learnings you can apply to your life.

Starting something feels powerful. Continuing it when motivation dies is what actually creates results. Without consistency, even good ideas don’t compound.
Pivoting is useful only when it’s informed. Random pivots usually mean you’re reacting emotionally instead of learning structurally.
Not every life problem needs technology. Sometimes thinking clearly, writing, or changing behavior solves more than building software.
If you don’t have stability, skills, or leverage, helping others becomes performative. Build something solid first. First help yourself before trying to help others.
Audience intent, and right people matters more than audience size.
Most people won’t support you financially, even if they support you emotionally. Likes, encouragement, and “bro proud of you” don’t equal financial support.
Starting a business exposes who is actually on your side. The moment money is involved, relationships become clear.
Sharing links everywhere increases numbers but kills engagement. Inactive users are worse than fewer active ones.
When you don’t have money, word of mouth is your strongest marketing.
Chasing numbers disconnects you from purpose. Numbers should validate progress, not define self-worth.
Your roots are your strongest positioning. Your real journey, real problems, and real struggles are harder to fake and easier to trust.
In India, brand tags often matter more than real skill. Understanding this helps you decide whether to play that game or build your own lane.
Thinking is useless without action. Reflection without movement creates anxiety.
Out-of-the-box thinking without core skills hits a ceiling. Creativity needs “execution” to feel complete. Otherwise, dissatisfaction creeps in.
If your work doesn’t satisfy you internally, burnout follows even if clients are happy.
Systems matter more than motivation.
You don’t rise to goals, you fall to systems.
If you know your trigger, even 10 minutes of starting can unlock hours of deep work.
Everyone has a personal “entry point” into flow. Finding yours entry point is more valuable than productivity hacks.
Building something teaches you more about yourself than theory ever will.
Data-driven thinking reduces emotional decision-making. Data replaces overthinking.
Reading research and long-form content sharpens judgment, focus, and attention span. Deep reading trains patience and structured thinking, which social media slowly kills.
AI is most powerful when used as a thinking partner, not a shortcut.
Unrealistic results require unrealistic effort. There are no shortcuts to outcomes that look rare.
Over-delivery builds reputation faster than marketing because clients remember effort, not invoices.
Every decision must either make sense or make money. If it does neither, it’s a distraction.
Time wasted on unused work hurts more than visible failure.
Not every reader is meant to stay because content becomes powerful when it excludes the wrong audience.
If it’s for everyone, it’s for no one.
The right audience comes from shared problems, not polished branding.
Quarterly goals reduce pressure and increase execution because smaller timeframes create faster feedback loops.
Your environment shapes your future more than motivation. Like attracts like, whether you choose it consciously or not.
Implementation matters more than engagement because quiet builders outperform loud consumers in the long run.
Reading without action is a form of self-deception and consumption feels productive but creates no change.
A comeback mindset beats a victim mindset. Controlling attention is a competitive advantage.
Building something meaningful is better than being right because progress matters more than validation.
The real win is becoming a better person, not a bigger brand.

So this was our entire learning and journey. There were little ups, and more downs. But there was a lot of learning, and I gained a lot from it. I hope the next year stays in our favor, and you, me, all of us do well and make our loved ones feel proud.

And after saying all this, we end this year wrap here.

Now it is your turn. What are you feeling after reading this almost 5000-word essay. What are your plans for 2026. If you have something, make sure you tell me.

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