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This article was first published on the official account: 嘟爷创业日记. I have been posting daily updates for over 600 days, welcome to follow along~

Hello everyone, I'm DuduMD, a programmer with 10 years of experience. I left my job to start a business 900 days ago. Every month, I write a summary review to give everyone a close look at what a programmer who left his job is doing. This article is the summary for April, about 2000 words, a bit long. Feel free to read it if you have time, I hope it can offer a little bit of insight!

I. Monthly Highlights

Haha, I saw some people in the backend urging for updates. It's true that I haven't written a review in a long time. I've been busy since the New Year. Today I have some time to review what I did in April. Lately, I've really been coding all night, haha. Today, a new version of the software I developed was released, so I can finally relax a bit.

1: Transitioning to AI Programming and Agent Track

Actually, since the Chinese New Year in 2026 until now, my direction has changed somewhat. Last year, I was focused on ComfyUI, but with the rise of intelligent agents this year, I've invested more in AI programming and AI agents.

The core focus is around Claude Code and OpenCLaw, represented by Xiaolongxia.

In April, I conducted multiple sharing sessions and training on OpenCLaw. I also spent the entire month delivering and training for an enterprise group on AI agents, which is still a week from completion.

Because the allocation of my time changed, I didn't spend any time on the ComfyUI track throughout April, so the income from contributions in that area disappeared.

My income was entirely supported by training and corporate training. Overall, the income didn't change much, but I personally still feel a bit regretful about abandoning such a promising track. So, in May, after this corporate training delivery is finished, I might dedicate 3 hours a day to continue with the ComfyUI track. With the assistance of intelligent agents like Xiaolongxia, I should be able to keep it up.

2: Developed a New Software

This month, I've been developing intermittently. If it weren't for my group friend Yumo urging me, I wouldn't have wanted to release the software for sale so quickly.

However, it finally launched last week, and I've brought dozens of group members along to use this software to run the WeChat Channels book recommendation e-commerce niche.

The tool I made is called Storybound. You drop in the text, and it automatically rewrites, adds images, voiceovers, and synthesizes a complete video in 15-20 minutes.

I'm currently using this process to run e-commerce on WeChat Channels, gaining 90,000 followers in April alone.

Nearly 15 million video views in the last 30 days.

GMV exceeded 20,000 RMB, and the book niche generally has high commissions, ranging from 50%-60%, so my commission was over 10,000 RMB.

What can I say, it's a bit of luck, I stumbled into quick monetization and feel like I've discovered a very good niche.

The software was actually developed using Claude Code. After leaving my job to start a business, I hadn't really written much code. Last year, I bought a year's membership for the AI programming tool Cursor, but it went completely unused and was wasted. This year, from the Chinese New Year until now, I've been deeply using programming tools. This is one of my deeply developed software projects; another one for comic drama automation is still under development.

It made me rediscover the joy of programming.

This is roughly the interface. The core function of the software is Skill, which encapsulates automated processes into the software. I package it as a client-side application, supporting Windows and Mac. What I sell is the software's License, with monthly, annual, and lifetime activation methods.

The large models, voiceover models, and drawing models within the software all need to be integrated by the user, which makes my delivery less burdensome, haha.

So recently, I've been focused on iterative development for this software, having pulled two all-nighters already, but the features are still not fully developed.

Anyway, the software is now profitable, and everyone's testing has shown good results. For now, I plan to continue digging deep into this niche and lead everyone to success.

Other matters will take a backseat to this project!

By the way, please don't think about adding me after reading this, it's not open to the public yet. This month is dedicated to perfecting the features; we have enough internal testers, and this tool will definitely sell well, so I'm not in a hurry!

3: Let's talk about the offline company

Last year, a few partners from FuAI Night School and I somewhat haphazardly formed a company. This year, I realized that the niche I want to deeply cultivate doesn't quite align with the company's desired direction. The company can still only do training and simple video customization. Other business segments haven't materialized. So everyone was working for free. Later, I talked with them, and they wanted to pay salaries and needed a few full-time people. However, I have many of my own projects and can't participate full-time. After considering it, I expressed my intention: I won't take a salary, nor will I participate in the company's daily operations. I'll only collaborate when needed. For example, this corporate training project was secured by other partners in the company, and I'm responsible for the delivery, with profit-sharing based on proportion. I think this model is quite good.

So, for me, the company is just an additional channel for cooperation. I need to be responsible for my own monetization. Currently, the monetization channels I've established are quite good, so I'll focus on my own development. After leaving my job, I've grown accustomed to working independently and am no longer suited for regular company work.

4: Community Renewal

This year, no new members have joined the community because my main source of community members is this official account. I don't promote it on WeChat Moments with over 10,000 people, and if I don't write articles here, there's no traffic, and people won't know about it. So, it's basically the 180+ people within the group chatting and interacting. I'm too lazy to recruit more people; having some deeply engaged partners is enough. We share possibilities in side hustles and AI directions. For example, the AI book list niche I'm currently deeply involved in, where I developed software to guide everyone. There's also the Douyin (TikTok) clip project in collaboration with group member Yumo, which allowed group members to participate in an action camp at a very low price.

Basically, those who collaborate are old friends from the group, whose backgrounds are known, and seeing their achievements, we organize low-priced training camps to involve everyone. We also have a Duyu (group member) lined up for a Xiaohongshu (Little Red Book) virtual niche project; he showed me his recent data, and it looks good. I'm quite looking forward to it.

So, my community renewal rate is decent, over 60%. The community is like a home; everyone has been together for a few years and is familiar with each other.

II. What I Gained

[Cognition]

1: Do things that compound

This is an old saying, but each time I have new insights. My ComfyUI niche last year, when I stopped doing it this year, the income immediately disappeared. This shows it's not a truly compounding niche. Its compounding effect was in follower growth, but once I stopped working on that niche, the compounding ceased to exist.

The market is changing. How to find a truly compounding niche and stick with it long-term to reap the benefits is something everyone needs to research and ponder.

And AI brings too many changes. I started using AI deeply, and the efficiency boost it brings is truly several times over, while my expenditure is just a programmer's monthly salary.

[Income]

This month, overall, relying on corporate training and software customization, as well as the commissions from the video book list account and selling licenses for my software, it all added up to several tens of thousands of RMB. It's a good start, keep working hard.

The corporate training is almost delivered, but the payment hasn't been transferred to our company's public account yet!

[Skills]

1: Optimal choices for each stage of product development

I think for us programmers, deeply understanding and mastering AI programming tools brings several times the efficiency compared to non-programmers. Others truly "code with their mouths" (talk about coding without doing it), while we, who understand programming concepts, can troubleshoot problems much faster. Coupled with the increasing capabilities of the tools themselves, from requirements to design and finally to product development, one person truly becomes a team. Every stage has excellent tools to use in conjunction. We should learn these systematic approaches.

III. Problems

This month had quite a few problems, let me list them:

1: Sleep + Fitness

Staying up late is my biggest problem. When I'm tired from staying up late, I can't go running or exercise during the day, because exercising forcefully when the body is weak increases the risk of sudden death.

2: Time Allocation

My time management hasn't been great recently. I want to wake up early but can't. Lately, my energy hasn't been good, and what constantly makes me anxious is not having time to make ComfyUI videos. I want to do it, but there isn't enough time, as I'm always invested in other directions, and over time, I become lazy. If I could improve my efficiency, I could tackle ComfyUI articles and video creation in the morning, and then fully dedicate my afternoons to the agent and AI programming sections.

IV. Next Month's Plan

For May, I've listed important plans:

1: Early to bed, early to rise + Weight loss

Prioritizing early to bed and early to rise is one of my highest priorities. I hope to have a very healthy body. Currently, the projects are progressing well, and a good body is essential, but I'm prone to staying up late, so I need my wife to remind me.

2: Software Feature Improvement

This is my core goal for the next period. I plan to spend one month refining every detail of this product, setting up the payment system and distribution system, and creating an official website. Then, it can officially launch, and I will also distribute it here for everyone to experience.

V. Conclusion

The above is a summary of some important things I did this month. I share it so everyone can get a close look at the daily life of a programmer who left his job. There are things I didn't do well, and things that are commendable. I'm also an ordinary person, constantly trying and struggling. I wrote this monthly summary by reviewing my official account articles from this month and extracting the information; otherwise, I would have forgotten it long ago. In the future, I can also look back at monthly summaries for annual reviews and extract key points! Therefore, what I write must be authentic; I cannot deceive myself!

I'm Dudu, a 12-year full-stack programmer, now an entrepreneur. I need your three consecutive actions (like, share, follow)~