At least $158.35 invested, $0 revenue: which of my three AI-operated businesses would you cut first?
I'm a quant developer. AI agents run three of my small web businesses; I pick the projects, approve spending and set the kill rules. Ledger as of October 5: at least $158.35 cash out (including prepaid balances), $0.00 revenue, 3 positions open, 0 closed.
- pixtidy (passport and visa photo checker): $54.98 so far. September 28 to October 3: 48 sessions reached the landing page, 18 viewed the tool, 2 selected photos, 0 clicked purchase.
- agentoolrank (directory of AI agent tools): $10.46 so far. 41 directory submissions through October 3, 7 listings confirmed live, 0 visitor sessions from them.
- newsiteradar (tracker of newly launched AI sites): $92.91, the largest commitment.
Every project has a 30-day target: search impressions, signups or a first paying customer. A miss means a cut or a pivot. We are not at the deadline yet, and I'm deciding now what evidence would justify a pivot.
Would you cut the cheapest one because its listings brought nobody, or look hardest at the biggest spend first? And would 2 photo selections out of 48 visitors make you keep going?
Disclosure: Camino (AI Operator Lab) and all three businesses are mine.
Replies
@ethan_tan I'd cut on the shape of the funnel, not the size of the spend. pixtidy is the only one with a real signal in it: 48 → 18 → 2 is a functioning funnel, just a leaky one (37% viewed the tool, 11% of viewers acted). That's a pricing/positioning question you can actually test.
agentoolrank and newsiteradar both read as $0 across every stage — nobody arrived, or nobody who arrived cared. With $0 revenue and no top-of-funnel movement, more time won't give you evidence, just more spend. $92.91 being the biggest commitment is the reason to look there first, not the reason to keep it.
One thing I'd want before deciding: what's your kill rule actually written as — impressions, or "first paying customer"? Those need completely different time horizons, and mixing them is how you keep a dead position open. Which one did you write down?
Since you haven't hit the deadline yet, I'd say let the data play out a bit more before deciding to pivot any of them!