I’ve been a developer for a long time. I’m not claiming to be the best developer out there, but I’ve worked on some pretty cool stuff over the years. The truth is, though, I haven’t written production code in ages. Life got busy, my priorities shifted, and now I’m a Director of Engineering, which means I don’t get to code much anymore. I’ve got two kids under three, and if you know what that’s like, you know there’s no such thing as “free time” anymore.
Then something changed. The rise of AI-powered tools like Cursor, Pythagora, and Replit caught my attention. I started wondering—could these tools make it easier for me to get back into coding? Could they make me effective enough to actually build something again?
So, I started coding… but only when the house was quiet, after the kids were asleep. Usually sometime between 10 PM and 2 AM. That’s how this blog—and the name for this project—came to be: 2 AM Engineering.
The 10 PM – 2 AM Experiment
Here’s what I want to do: I want to build a product. Specifically, I want to build a SaaS that makes money—even if it’s just a little bit. And here’s the twist: the entire business will have just one employee—me. I’ll be doing everything: coding, design, marketing, maintenance, customer support, all of it. Oh, and I’ll be doing it in the middle of the night because that’s the only time I have. One thing that followed me throughout my development career is a focus on automation and performance optimization. Can AI help me do the impossible – let’s see if I can automate most business processes to a level where spending just a couple of hours a day can make a successful business.
It sounds a bit naive, I know. But with AI moving so quickly, I can’t help but wonder if these tools could make something like this possible.
Why Now?
Honestly, it just feels like the right time. AI is getting better and cheaper every day. The available tools now make it possible for someone like me—a sleep-deprived parent with barely any time—to build something meaningful. AI isn’t just for big tech companies anymore; it’s for solo creators, busy parents, and part-time builders like me.
If I can dive into this challenge now, I think I’ll be in a good place when this technology really goes mainstream. It feels like the right moment to jump in, learn as much as possible, and see what I can make.
I’ve been a developer for years, but most of my experience with machine learning is in computer vision. That means a lot of what I know isn’t super relevant to this new project. It’s kind of like starting from scratch. But I’m okay with that—it’s part of the fun. I’m ready to learn as I go and see where it takes me.
What’s Next?
This blog is where I’ll document the journey. The late-night coding sessions, the challenges, the wins, and the failures—I’ll share it all. I want this space to be a place where I can talk openly about what it’s like to build a business while juggling everything else in my life.
Will I succeed? Will anyone actually pay for the product I create? Or will this whole thing just end up being a crazy experiment? I don’t know yet. But I do know it’s going to be interesting, and I’m excited to share the ride with you.
Let’s see where this goes. I hope you’ll follow along, maybe get inspired, and who knows—maybe start your own late-night project too.
It’s 1:30 AM, time to wrap up this post, commit my poor attempts at Vue.js based frontend and try to get some sleep.
Next time, it’ll tell you about the SaaS that I’m building.
