MONEY LIST · 25 receipts
Businesses that replaced software with AI
These receipts describe savings, not sales. Each record is marked saved and shows a business, team, or maker that used an AI system or AI-built tool to replace a software bill, agency quote, labour cost, or other operating expense. The amounts are useful because they show the value of a problem that already had a budget. They are not cash collected from customers, and some are estimates or counterfactual quotes rather than audited accounts.
The largest record is Ben McMillan's IDX Advisors in-house legal and software automation, with $1M of legal bills saved since 2022. Trave Harmon reports $364,858 of annual recurring savings from 38 Claude-built internal projects that replaced paid software and labour. Jason Lemkin's SaaStr speaker and content grader reports $200,000 of annual savings by reviewing thousands of speaker submissions instead of paying an agency. Zohar Vanunu's MagiCan reports $200,000 of developer costs avoided, and Allan Paterson's Benders Paper Cups workflow records a quoted three-year enterprise software cost avoided of $116,000.
The smaller records show more specific replacement jobs. Productiv's ProDocks reports $36,000 of annual cost avoided by replacing a warehouse vendor tool. O3 World's Dialed reports $35,000 of annual savings from an in-house resource-planning app. Gabe Larsen's Atonom internal CRM reports a $40,000 yearly CRM bill replaced, while Preston Zeller's BatchData tools report $62,000 of annual savings across quoting, real-estate calculations, and social listening. Max Votek reports a $2,000 monthly SaaS bill replaced by a CRM that replaced HubSpot, Monday.com, Notion, and Zapier.
The pattern is operational and narrow. Atonom tracks leads and revenue. ProDocks schedules docks. The Marathon help portal documents more than 1,250 insurance-system items and reports $100,000 of estimated agency cost avoided. Martin Ebongue reports $96,000 of annual creative-studio cost avoided after replacing a five-person content team with five free Claude skills. These examples do not require a new consumer market before value appears. They start with work that someone was already doing or paying for, then compare the old cost with a new internal workflow.
The evidence limits matter. Some records are maker-documented, such as Triton, SaaStr, Atonom, BatchData, My Doctor, and the Marathon portal. Others are maker claims. The currencies also vary: My Doctor reports at least £75,000 of agency cost avoided, and Bordeaux & Burgundy reports £62,000 of annualised design-time savings. Avoided cost is a business case, not revenue. Before copying one, verify the old bill, the replacement scope, the AI-tool cost, and whether a person still performs the work.
Key takeaways
- Saved cost is not revenue, but it can show a budgeted problem with a clear economic value.
- The strongest examples replace a named workflow, vendor, agency, labour cost, or software bill.
- IDX Advisors reports $1M saved and Triton reports $364,858 annual recurring savings, but both need source context.
- Quotes avoided and estimated savings are counterfactual figures, not cash receipts.
- Check the old cost, replacement scope, AI-tool cost, and remaining human work before copying a case.
Receipts in this list
| Product | Maker | Amount | What it is | Built with | Evidence |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| IDX Advisors in-house legal and software automation | Ben McMillan | $1Mlegal bills saved since 2022 | The CIO of a small investment firm used LLMs to run an in-house paralegal function and replace outsourced developers. | ChatGPT, Claude, Claude Code, Codex, OpenClaw | Maker claim |
| Triton Technologies internal automation (38 Claude-built projects) | Trave Harmon | $364,858annual recurring savings (mid estimate) | The CEO of a small managed-IT firm used Claude to build 38 internal projects that replaced paid software and labor. | Claude AI | Maker-documented |
| MagiCan | Zohar Vanunu | $200,000reported dev costs avoided | MagiCan is an AI content platform Zohar Vanunu built himself instead of paying developers. | Lovable | Maker claim |
| SaaStr speaker and content grader | Jason Lemkin | $200,000reported annual savings | An app Jason Lemkin built to automatically review thousands of speaker submissions instead of paying an agency. | Replit | Maker claim |
| Skincare company custom ERP | Ahmad George | $132,000quoted NetSuite cost avoided | A custom ERP covering inventory, manufacturing, and sales, built for a skincare company. | Replit, ChatGPT, Firebase | Maker claim |
| Benders Paper Cups automation (Claude Cowork) | Allan Paterson | $116,000quoted three-year enterprise software cost avoided | A manufacturing technical manager showed a Claude Cowork workflow could replace an enterprise automation quote at a fraction of the price. | Claude, Claude Cowork | Maker claim |
| GenAIPI | Jon Cheney | $105,000agency quote avoided | GenAIPI is an online school that trains business teams to use AI tools. | Replit | Maker-documented |
| Marathon help portal | Jeff Hojka | $100,000estimated agency cost avoided | A searchable 43-page help portal documenting more than 1,250 items in the Marathon insurance system. | Claude, AI-generated HTML, AI-generated documentation | Maker-documented |
| martinebongue.com content studio (five free Claude skills) | Martin Ebongue | $96,000annual creative-studio cost avoided | A solo creator replaced his five-person content team with five free Claude skills. | Claude, NotebookLM skill, Nano Banana, Remotion skill, Stitcher skill, Humanizer skill | Maker claim |
| My Doctor / Health Compass | Dr. Fahim Hussain | £75,000 (about $95,250 USD)agency quote avoided (at least) | My Doctor is a private healthcare platform with telemedicine booking, prescriptions, and a wearable-connected health subscription. | Replit Agent | Maker-documented |
| Bordeaux & Burgundy (B2B marketing agency) | George Saunders | £62,000 (about $78,740 USD)annualised design-time savings | A creative director's multi-client agency trained private Exactly.ai styles to stop paying for stock search and design time. | Exactly.ai | Maker claim |
| TradeWeave | Paul L. | $70,000yearly software bill avoided | Trucking-software consultant Paul L. built the TradeWeave EDI platform with his two sons on Bolt.new. | Bolt.new | Maker claim |
| BatchData internal tools (CPQ, calculators, Social Pulse) | Preston Zeller | $62,000annual savings | Three internal BatchData tools for quoting, real-estate math, and social listening. | Replit | Maker-documented |
| RB2B AI support agent | Robb Clarke | $59,915reported 2025 savings | An AI support agent that handles tickets for RB2B and replaces a full-time support hire. | AI support agent, AI ticket resolution, AI documentation lookup | Maker-documented |
| Polyak Trucking AI telematics audit | Pam Polyak | $53,000labor costs recovered | A third-generation trucking owner fed fleet data into Claude and recovered labor costs from idle-driver time. | Claude | Maker claim |
| Mindstone community connection tool | Joshua Wöhle | $50,000SaaS contract avoided | A custom community tool that connects Mindstone members by complementary problems and skills. | AI code generation | Maker claim |
| The Legend of Akam (wildlife feature) | Pierre Meynadier | $45,000dubbing cost saved per language | A French producer-director used AI dubbing to cut per-language localization cost by 90% and get his film released abroad. | Rask AI dubbing, AI voice cloning, automated translation | Maker claim |
| Atonom internal CRM | Gabe Larsen | $40,000yearly CRM bill replaced | Atonom's internal CRM tracks leads, pipeline, and revenue and triggers its AI sales agent. | Lovable | Maker-documented |
| Scratch Golf Command Center | Sky Lubreski | $36,000yearly software and agency bills cancelled | Scratch Golf owner Sky Lubreski rebuilt his store's back office with Bolt.new and cancelled its SaaS stack and ad agency. | Bolt.new, AI agents | Maker-documented |
| ProDocks | Paul Baker and Raj Vangala | $36,000reported annual cost avoided | ProDocks is a dock-scheduling app Productiv built for its own warehouses instead of buying a vendor tool. | Lovable | Maker claim |
| Dialed | Justin Handler and James Clair | $35,000reported annual savings | Dialed is a resource-planning app O3 World built in-house to replace its old planning software. | Lovable | Maker claim |
| CEO Assistant Agent / AI Chief of Staff | Rihab L. and Badis | ≈$5,000monthly VA and Chief of Staff cost saved | The CEO Assistant Agent summarises calls, drafts follow-ups, tracks priorities, and sends nudges. | Custom AI agent | Maker claim |
| Personal CRM built with Claude Code | Max Votek | $2,000monthly SaaS bill replaced | A solopreneur replaced HubSpot, Monday.com, Notion and Zapier with a CRM he built in Claude Code. | Claude Code | Maker claim |
| Kenny's in-house AI agent | Kenny Nwokoye | ₦1,018,500 (about $662.03 USD)monthly staff cost saved after AI-tool cost | Kenny's in-house AI agent handles personal-assistant, IT, community, social-media, and developer work. | Custom AI agents, ChatGPT Plus | Maker claim |
| Albert | Alan Scott Encinas | $460monthly software cost avoided | Albert is a private multi-agent B2B sales workforce wired into a CRM, inbox, and operating tools. | Claude, custom sales agents, HubSpot, Outlook | Maker claim |
FAQ
What does saved mean on this page?
It means the receipt kind is saved. The record describes avoided spend, cancelled bills, recovered labour cost, or a similar operating saving rather than customer revenue.
Did these businesses receive the listed amounts in cash?
No. The amounts describe savings or costs avoided. They may be annual, monthly, quoted, estimated, or recovered labour values, so the amount label matters.
Which examples replaced software directly?
Examples include ProDocks replacing a warehouse vendor tool, Dialed replacing planning software, Atonom replacing a CRM bill, and Max Votek replacing several SaaS tools.
Are all savings independently audited?
No. The evidence label varies between maker-documented and maker-claim. Open each receipt and its source before using an amount in a business case.