How I’d Make $1M with AI in 2026 (Zero Code)

I became a cash millionaire at 27 years

old with software. But if I had to go

back and make my first million dollars

in the next 12 months with AI, this is

exactly what I do. It's the same proven

process that I took all my AI companies

at Martell Ventures through over the

last year. And three of those companies

are already at a million dollars in

revenue in less than 12 months. So, if

you've been thinking about building an

AI company or already have one and want

to scale past the million, this video is

your blueprint. Now, if at any point in

this video you think to yourself, I

can't do this, you might not be cut out

to make a million with AI. But if you're

one of the select few that are willing

to do the work, this video is for you.

Starting with step one, sell before you

build. Let me tell you the fastest way

to go broke with AI. Spend the next 6

months building a tool, then find out

nobody wants it. You actually got to

flip it. You need to sell it first, then

build it. I call it pre-elling. Here's

how it [music] works. The first thing is

we have to find 10 potential customers

and ask them for advice. I'm going to

give you the question to make this

really easy. Because I learned a long

time ago, if you talk to a potential

customer and ask them for money, they'll

just give you advice on why maybe you're

not ready. But if you ask for advice,

they give you feedback and then they

sell themselves into buying from you. So

the question you want to ask them

[music] is, what has been hard about

your business that if you could automate

with AI, you would love to get that set

up for yourself, right? Just ask them

those questions. And when they give you

the answer, then you create the offer.

Which brings us to step two. That's

usually when people say, "Well, how much

should I charge?" My rule is is whatever

you would charge for the year, give them

a 50% discount. And the reason you're

giving the discount is because you're

going to ask them for a case study. But

what they're giving you in return is the

permission to use their name to then use

that when you go talk to other

customers. And finally, you have to

decrease the first time to value for

your customer. Meaning, you have to

build a plan that goes from like they

gave you money to they got something as

fast as possible. That's pre-selling and

it's easier than you think. But now that

you understand you have to pre-sell, how

do you find the people to sell to? Which

brings us to step two. Pick a boring

market. I have a rule. I don't like to

sell to hot, exciting, flashin the pan

industries, things like marketing and

technology, right? Crypto, ecom, course

selling. And I'm not saying they're an

absolute no. The problem is is that when

you get into these shifts in fads, the

fad could go away and you build a whole

business against something that won't be

there in three or four years. [music] We

have to pick a market that's easy to get

into that's going to value innovation.

It's like Jeff Bezos. He said, "Look, I

don't care about what's new. I care

about what's true. What are customers

going to care about in 10 years, 20

years that's not going to change?"

Because if you can find these boring

markets that don't have a lot of

competition, those are the ones that

typically have high margins and they're

ripe for disruption and innovation. So,

how do you pick a boring market? Well,

first ask AI. You can type, "Show me 20

boring industries with high average deal

sizes where operations are still

manual." Okay? Why? Because AI will help

you automate those manual processes. See

what I did there? And then the high deal

size means that they're going to pay a

lot, not too much, not too low because

people that have money are great to sell

to. So once you've got the boring

market, how do you actually know what to

sell? The second within that market, we

got to find a pain that they actually

have. So for an electrician, maybe it's

the fact that they have missed calls

that they're always getting and they're

losing jobs because those calls are

coming in after hours. See how that

could be painful for somebody's trying

not to be tied to their work or when

they're working they're actually getting

paid and they don't have time to answer

a call. The third thing is we have to

figure out the benefits that are needed.

If the person has these problems, what

are the key things that you're going to

solve for them? So, for example, if it's

that they're not available to take

calls, then you can use an AI software

like your Atlas and actually get paid to

set it up for them so that it answer, it

qualifies, and it schedules calls while

they're on a job being an electrician.

But you get paid by setting that up for

them. See, the cool part is in this

world we live in, you can make money

using AI tools that other people built,

but you're the person in the middle that

sets it up for these business owners. By

the way, I have links to all the tools

I'm going to mention in this video below

in the description, so you can click

them if you want to check them out. But

if I had to make a million dollars with

AI this year, again, I wouldn't start

with an idea. I would start with the

boring market. So now that you know the

market you want to be in, next we have

to lock in the math that keeps you rich,

not just busy. Step number three, pick

your high margin model. Now margin is a

weird word. A lot of people don't

understand it, but it's very simple. If

I sell a product for $5 and it cost me a

dollar to make, my margin is $4. The

challenge is most people focus on

revenue and it's a vanity. How much

money did you make last year? Oh, I made

100 grand. Well, if it cost you a

million to make a h 100red grand, it's

not a business you want to be in. And

unfortunately, most people don't

understand how to build the business in

a way that can make them a lot of

profit. And why AI is so powerful for

this is that it can take your delivery

costs where in the past you'd have to

pay somebody to do it and bring it down

to almost zero because AI can automate

it. You want your AI business to feel

like that high price, tiny cost. Charge

a lot for what you do, very low cost to

deliver. And look, I've done the

research for you. So, here are the

highest margin AI business models for

2026. The lowest one is AI services

around 70% margin. Again, you can Google

or search on AI any one of these. The

next level up is AI consulting around

80% margins. Then we go to AI digital

products around 90% margins. And then

the one that I'm in and I love is AI

software. A little bit more complicated

to do and they have around 95% margins.

where I spent personally 93% of my time

all week building these companies. If I

had to get rich with AI this year,

here's what I would do. First, I would

start with an AI service or consulting.

That way, it gets me in the conversation

with the customers. I learn the AI to

automate, but then I would try to

productize it into a light software that

takes the workflow that I've documented,

systematized, and packages it into a

software that other people can buy

without me even talking to them. That's

how we get to 95% margin. So now we've

got a boring market figured out and a

high margin model so you can make some

profit. Now you need to find the right

person to sell it to. Step number four,

create a high cash flow offer. Most

people sell AI, but truth is nobody

wants AI. A business wants customers. A

business wants productivity. A business

wants to reduce its cost. It doesn't

care if that's AI or freaking a thousand

people. As long as what they're paying

and what they're getting, there's an

ROI. Just so we're clear, margin is the

profit potential. Cash flow is how the

money flows through the business. For

example, if I sell you a $1,000 solution

that you buy from me, but then I got to

put out $500 of my own money because by

the time I send you an invoice and then

your finance team gets it and they pay

it, I got to put money out before I get

money back. That's where cash flow is

important. These are the four steps to

avoid making the mistake of creating a

cash flow crunch in your business before

you even get started. The first thing we

have to do is when we're selling, we

have to sell one specific benefit. You

can't try to sell anything they want.

So, for example, if I'm selling to

electricians, I'm saying that I can get

them 10 more customers per week without

answering a single phone call. See how

that's one specific result or outcome.

The second is we have to package our

pricing so that we get paid as much as

we can upfront before we incur any

costs. So, for example, maybe your

service you're selling is $1,000 for one

month, but you might be willing to give

them a discount if they go 6 months

upfront and you give them a discount to

$4,000. So, that first conversation and

transaction is now four times more than

the initial for 1 month, but you've

committed for a longer term. The

beautiful part of this is it reduce your

potential churn, meaning customers that

cancel and it increases the amount of

cash in your bank account early and

upfront. Then we have to implement

scarcity because the truth is is we have

to give people a reason to buy cuz if

they won't, they'll just put on to-do

list and think about it later. So I like

to say that we're opening up 10 founding

spots. After that, the price is going to

go up cuz you say, "I only got 10 spots.

I don't have all the time in the world.

It's just me right now and I only have

so much capacity." So you can use that

to create scarcity and get the person to

make a decision versus them just sitting

on their hands and waiting. And lastly,

we want to add a bonus so that we give

them a reason to make a decision today.

But the best bonuses kill objections. So

for example, maybe they're like, "Hey, I

want to do this, but I'm worried that my

team doesn't have time to actually

implement what you're selling." You say,

"Cool." Well, because you're one of our

first 10 customers, we actually have a

bonus we want to add where we come in

and we train your staff. Normally people

are going to invest $5 to $10,000 to do

that, but because you enrolled at the

sixmonth level, we're going [music] to

do that for free. See how it's a bonus

that deals with their objection. Do that

every time and you will get more deals.

If you want to get rich with AI or

business in general, you just can't sell

your hours. When you sell the result,

then you're motivated to become more

effective at getting the result. And

anytime you can improve with automation

or AI or training your staff better, the

improvement you keep. And by the way, I

spent years testing and tweaking offers

until they converted fast. [music]

Then I turned it into a simple

plug-and-play template. If you want my

exact offer template that you can copy

and paste for your AI business, find me

on Instagram and DM me the words YouTube

offer or just click the link below in

the description. I'll send that over to

you. Cool. So, you have an offer. Now

what you need to build your product.

Step number five, you have to build your

AI MVP. So MVP stands for minimum viable

product. Essentially, most people hear

product and they think, "Oh, now I have

to go hire a bunch of engineers and

developers and build a bunch of stuff."

And guess what? You don't. There's a

bunch of tools you can use to build the

product I'm going to teach you about in

a second. But the idea is for it not to

be perfect and not beautiful, but for

that it just works. It's like this guy

was talking to an event once. He was

showing me his product, okay? Fancy,

beautiful, mobile, all the bells and

whistles. And I was like, "Well, how did

you build it?" He's like, "I hired an

agency and it cost me $100,000." And I'm

like, "Cool. Is anybody using it?

Customers yet?" "No, not yet." And I'm

like, "You spent all your time on

functionality to make it look good, but

never asked, "Does it actually deliver

value for the customer?" So, what I want

to share with you is how to build an MVP

that actually gets results, not just

looks good. Best part is you only have

three options. The last one's the most

advanced, but it's where I spend most of

my time. The first is a no code

platform. When you look into these tools

like a Zapier or a make.com or nadn

essentially, you can take any manual

process using AI and automate it.

There's even tools like go high level

that are CRM and funnel builders or

things like lovable where you can just

type to it and it'll build apps that

solve problems for customers. The key is

spend the least amount of time

configuring your automation so that it

gets a result for a customer. If you

have to do it manually first so you just

even learn the steps of how it needs to

be automated. That's probably a better

place to start than to just pay somebody

to come in and build you something super

custom and coded. The second option is

to use an AI assisted code platform.

What's called the Gentic programming.

Those are tools like Replet or Cursor or

Google's anti-gravity platform. It's not

as simple as just prompting like a

lovable, but it's way more configurable.

Every one of my engineers in my venture

studio uses one of these platforms to

write the code. The third option is a

hire an AI developer to build it for

you. Now, most people get burned because

they hire somebody. They say they can

build the thing. They give them all

their money and then all of a sudden the

product they get back is crappy, buggy,

or just doesn't [music] work. The best

way to test for this is if you're going

to hire a developer, give them a tiny

test project first. I like to look on

upwork.com or call my local college. The

key is is the MVP not only has to be

simple, but it has to add value. If you

don't show it to a customer and they go,

"Oh, that's cool." Then it doesn't work

yet. So now you have an MVP. your AI

system works either through automation

or custom code. But the next problem is

if you don't automate the delivery after

you sell a customer, you will drown in

client work. Step number six, automate

delivery. The biggest mistake that

happens for entrepreneurs is not being

prepared for success. One customer, no

problem. Three customers, I can get it.

Five to 10, now I have to use project

management software. I have to have a

support email, maybe a support phone

call. And if you don't get ahead of it

to automate it, that pressure can

actually take you out of business.

Here's my rule. Automation can turn your

business into a machine, one that works

while you sleep. So, here's how you map

your four-step delivery system. First is

the purchase, the moment somebody checks

out. Okay? So, you're probably going to

use Stripe to accept payment. That kicks

off a notification. The second is once

you get that purchase, okay, and you can

do it manually or you can ask them to

click a link and buy from you. that'll

trigger access into your software or

even into your community. My brother

sells houses and as soon as somebody

puts a deposit, it sends an email to add

them to the project management software

that the client's going to use to pick

all the options for their custom home.

So, it works for any industry. The third

step is onboarding. Think [music] I

bought something. Now, what happens

next? Well, ideally, you give them the

software you just built or you might

give them the ability to schedule some

time with you so that they can schedule

a review of how the software needs to be

set up, right? and that whole process is

automated. The fourth step is support.

Think about all the questions that

they're going to have for you. So, if

you want to get rich this year, you

can't be manually onboarding clients

over time. You have to build a delivery

system that feels like a vending machine

and it's automated and it works every

[music] time. So, now you've done

everything. You've got the business

model, you got the product, you got the

customers, you've automated your system.

This is how we scale in 2026. But you

have to be careful because if you're too

greedy or worse, not greedy enough, it

might be all for nothing. Which takes us

to a hidden step that very few people

consider. Step number seven, getting

long-term greedy. A long time ago, one

of my mentors, this guy named Steve,

said there's two types of greed. There's

short-term greedy, and then there's

long-term greedy. Short-term greedy

might get you what you want today, but

it stops you from getting what you want

long term. What he was trying to say is

that I could ask for the investment

terms I wanted today and people will pay

for it, but then I'm going to have

investors that I might not need for the

long-term journey. Where he said, if I'm

long-term greedy, then I'm going to give

my investors the right terms to capture

the right investors so they support me

over the long term. You can only get

rich this year by wanting to build an

empire for the next 50 years. If you

don't fall in love with the idea of

making money over a long period of time,

then your desire to find the flash in

the pan will actually be your

kryptonite. That's why being long-term

greedy is always broken down into the

three S's of wealth. The first S is

sell. This is the skill you need to

develop. You get your first client, you

start to get the machine turning. Okay.

The second S is scale. Once you get

dozens of customers, then you have to

scale it up. You have to tighten your

systems, which stands for save yourself

time, energy, money, and stress. You

raise your prices because you're adding

more value. You improve your offer. You

work on your team. You get to a place

where it almost feels easy. But that's

where we go to the third S, which is

stack. Once you have one machine working

really well, which every business can

get to a place where it's producing

cash, you can now add other offers or

other products on top of your service

either through partnerships for things

that you like or you build yourself or

you could even buy other AI companies to

sell into your existing customer base.

That is the goal is to build an empire.

It's to create a life of unlimited

creation you never have to retire from.

Most people that start businesses are

very creative people and they think the

bigger I get, the harder it's going to

be. And the opposite actually happens at

scale because the bigger you get, the

more resources you have to invest in

really smart people that are going to

come in and help you co-create that

future with you and make your life

easier. So, here's the deal. Anybody

watching this can do what I just shared.

It doesn't require any special schooling

or a trust fund or anything. You just

have to talk to customers. But what it

will teach you along the way is to

strive to become your 10.0 self, the

best version of yourself. That is one

way of being successful. But if you want

to live a life of fulfillment, yes, 10.0

self is what you're after. But the other

side of that is to give yourself away.

Share your strategies with the world

like I'm doing here. Now, I don't want

you to just watch this. I want you to do

something with it. So find me on

Instagram and DM me the words YouTube

offer and grab my template. Build an

offer that you can start selling this

week. Find the customers, ask the

questions, be curious, but I need you to

win this year. 2026 is your year. AI is

still early and the companies are out

there waiting for your call. And if you

want to learn the nine highinccome AI

skills you need to get rich, click the

link and I'll see you on the other