How Far Can One Person Build With AI?

Ben Broca is doing something that would have seemed far-fetched just a few years ago. The 40-year-old founder, working out of his Sausalito living room, launched an AI tools business last December that has already pulled in 10,000 paying customers and is on track to hit $10 million in revenue this year. He has not hired a single employee.

Artificial intelligence tools answer Broca's emails, help write and debug code, field requests from customers, sign up new subscribers, and grant refunds when issues arise.He has also raised $30 million from investors and says he is saving millions in salaries he would otherwise be paying staff.

Broca relishes the ability to make whatever decisions he wants on his own. "I think compromises make lukewarm results," he said.

A Broader Shift in How Businesses Are Built

Broca is not alone. Artificial intelligence is making it easier than ever to build a business without building a team. As AI takes over coding, customer support, marketing, and administration, a growing number of solo founders are scaling startups to millions in revenue with few or no employees.

An analysis by payments company Stripe shows there are thousands of solo operators on its platform generating over $1 million in revenue, with their ranks doubling between 2023 and 2025. The number of solo operators crossing the $10 million threshold nearly tripled in that same span.

Stripe's chief economist, Ernie Tedeschi, noted that in the past, people without business contacts or particular savvy might not have known how to get their ideas off the ground. "Now, AI can be a built-in business partner," he said.

AI Is Reshaping the Economics of Starting Up

AI-influenced journeys now represent about four times the share of new Stripe sign-ups they used to, and businesses that joined the platform after 2023 are hitting $1 million in cumulative revenue within a year at a rate roughly 30% higher than the 2023 cohort and about three times the 2019 cohort.

Stripe's own data shows that in 2025, solo founders in the top decile generated 61 times the revenue of the median solo founder in their first six months. Four years ago, that multiplier stood at around 34 times. The gap between the best-performing solo operators and everyone else is widening rapidly.

While the trend is lowering barriers to entrepreneurship, it is also reshaping hiring and raising questions about the future of work and how businesses will grow in the AI era.

SourcesThe Rise of Million-Dollar Companies With Just One Employee, Kanebridge NewsSolo Founding Is at an All-Time High: Top Performers Have These Traits in Common, StripeThe Age of the Solopreneur, Stripe Economics