Hey, I'm Vine. And no, none of this was the plan.
21, Munich. Founder, not a developer. The last three years I was agency bankruptcy, promoter, sales rep, ecom chaos — until Claude Code showed up and I finally realized I could actually build the stuff in my head myself.
How I put AI to work for me. And how you can too.
I'm not a developer. Never studied CS and I'm never going to know frameworks off the top of my head — and honestly, I don't care. What I care about isn't how the software works under the hood, it's what it actually changes in my life and business.But I'm also not the type to let things run without understanding them. When I hand something off to AI it's not because I'm lazy — it's because I'd rather put my time into the stuff that actually moves the needle.
For three years as a solo founder I did every single task myself — sales, sourcing, inventory, bookkeeping, shipping, research, customers. Not because I wanted to, but because no one else was there. And honestly: the real problem wasn't the volume. It was that every hour spent on admin was an hour missing somewhere else. If you spend three hours a day on bookkeeping, that's three hours you're not putting into the things that actually grow the business. At some point you realize you're working a lot — just on the wrong stuff.
Then Claude Code showed up. No tutorial, no bootcamp, no “first you have to learn Python.” I just described what I wanted — and it was there. First time I had a tool I didn't have to adapt to. It adapts to me.
I started handing off the time-sucks almost completely. Bookkeeping, sourcing, inventory, research — not to an employee, to Claude Code. And at the same time I could finally go deep on the stuff that actually matters, because I had the hours for it. Market analysis. Data patterns. Building my own Skills that do exactly what I need. Testing strategies instead of just thinking about them.
The speed I work at now is honestly absurd. Stuff that would've taken me two weeks I now ship in an afternoon. But the key part: I still understand what's happening. Claude Code isn't a black box for me — it's a tool I actually know how to use, because I took the time to learn it properly.
And this is where you come in. What I've learned the past few months isn't secret and it isn't complicated. It's a tool, a way of thinking, a few Skills and workflows — and once you get how to actually use it, the stuff that used to take you days gets done before lunch.
That's what I share here. What works for me, what doesn't, and how you actually get Claude Code working for you — instead of just adding it to the subscription pile.
The journey
The first mistake
Right after school I wanted one thing: to be my own boss. So I started a marketing agency with a friend. We sold social media to companies — and we weren't doing social media ourselves. No reach, no proof anything we pitched actually worked. A few clients still came in. But deep down I always knew it wasn't going to last. A few months in, we shut it down. The lesson I never forgot: you can't sell something you're not doing yourself. And every euro I lost in that run was worth it — without the collapse, I never would've taken the next step.
The way forward was going backward
I needed money. Real money. So I started selling pecans at supermarket stands. Orange apron, orange cap, ten hours on my feet, handing out samples, talking to strangers. No glamour. No title. Not LinkedIn-worthy. But for the first time in my life I learned what it feels like to sell directly to a human. No Zoom, no funnel, no excuses. Either the customer buys or they don't — and if they don't, it's not the algorithm, it's you. Hardest school I could've gone to. And looking back, the best.
Cashflow the hard way
Early 2025 I switched from promoter to actual sales. Fixed industry, real conversations, real closes. That became my main thing — and for the first time, hard work was showing up on the account. Every euro went back in: into DeinLaptop, ecom, sourcing, inventory, stock. Daytime I was in the field, evenings I was a founder. The black i4 was the first moment the numbers turned into something I could actually touch. Not a status thing, just proof to myself: this is real. But at the same time I was completely overwhelmed. Bookkeeping, sourcing, inventory, customers, shipping, taxes, invoices, quality checks — and still thinking about eventually starting content. I had a tool for every problem and wasn't using any of them right. That whole stretch I didn't build anything. I just managed.
Munich, 2025 — first real proof it was working.
The moment everything flipped
January 2026. First time I actually used Claude Code. I still remember one night I built a small tool that had been annoying me for months. No tutorial, no docs, no hours of Googling. I just described what it should do — and it was there. Something flipped in my head. I'd spent years buying tools that promised to solve my problems. And most of them just made me more overwhelmed. Now I could build the tools myself. Exactly the way my business needed them. No bloated software list. No SaaS subscriptions for features I use twenty percent of. Just me, Claude Code, and the ability to solve any problem that pops up — same day. That wasn't an upgrade. That was a reset.
Unstoppable. And I'm bringing you with me.
Today I feel unstoppable. Bookkeeping runs itself. Sourcing runs itself. Inventory runs itself. Anything that repeats, I handed off to AI. I build the stuff I imagine — usually faster than the idea has time to get old. No more 47 tools crushing me. One tool, and everything else built around it. But here's the point: this isn't a solo story. Everything I learned the past months, I learned through other builders. People with the same problems. Building the same tools. Asking themselves the same questions I am. So I started a community where we do this together:
- —A new Skill, MCP, or workflow every week (weekly drops)
- —My full Skills library + MCP library, tested and copy-paste ready
- —Production workflows for build, content, outreach, SEO, ads, and ecom
- —Token optimization so you actually max out your Max plan
- —Post your problem — I solve it on video
- —Starter training for anyone just getting into Claude Code
No tutorials from 2024. No reheated stuff. Only what we're actually building and shipping right now. If you read this far, you probably belong here. Come in. We're building what I wish I had two years ago.
What happens when I'm not working.
I grew up in Munich and I'm technically still here. But honestly — Munich is more of a stop than a home right now. Too cold, too gray, too tight for what I'm actually building. The plan is out, as fast as possible. Thailand is top of the list, but end of the day I don't care where — just warm, just forward.
When I'm not in Claude Code or running my businesses, I play basketball, watch NBA, like driving, go out to eat, listen to way too different kinds of music (German rap to deep house while I work), and swim a lot.
When people ask about my morning routine, I have to laugh.
I don't have one. No evening routine either. No meditation, no cold shower at 5am. My sleep has been unpredictable for years — sometimes I sleep until noon, sometimes I'm still writing code at 3am. And honestly: that's not the problem. That's the reason I'm this far.
My best ideas come at night. When nobody's texting, nobody's calling, and I'm not bouncing between ten open threads. Daytime I'm reactive — answering, solving other people's problems. Nights I can work on the stuff that actually moves me forward. Two completely different modes. And I stopped trash-talking one of them.
I read almost exclusively Hormozi. Audio is podcasts or audiobooks from the same world. Everything else is usually a waste of time — I don't need the same lesson from ten different sources.
Out of here.
Nights.
