Designing and shipping an AI product in under 24 hours, solo.
Three products in one. A free AI lease reader that reads any US lease in 15 seconds and cites the actual state law. A curated 50-state legal-aid directory. And a built-in AI chatbot that knows every state's tenant rules. Designed, built, branded, and shipped solo in under 24 hours for the Replit 10 Year hackathon.
Replit gave 24 free hours of their AI Agent. I gave myself a tighter brief.
Ship a real product for real people. Live URL by the deadline. Brand from scratch. Two audiences from day one: a tool that protects renters who sign and landlords who issue, with one product working both jobs.
"Both sides deserve a fair read."
Brand, Analyzer, data, chatbot. Four layers, all original.
The Brand
Brand came before product. Cream, sage, clay, Fraunces italic — an editorial register that reads like a thoughtful magazine, not a SaaS dashboard. 32 hand-coded SVG icons and 6 big illustrations, all drawn from scratch. A renter signing a 35-page contract has to feel the tool is on their side before they'll trust the analysis.
The Analyzer
Reads any US lease in 15 seconds. Returns a state-tagged action plan with the red flags, the missing tenant protections, and the exact questions to ask before signing. Every flag links to the actual statute.
The State Map
Click any state to see the tenant laws and the free legal aid available there. Two databases sit underneath: a 50-state tenant law dataset that gives the AI real statutes to cite, and a curated legal-aid directory for every state, DC, and 6 territories.
The Chatbot
A floating chatbot that answers state-specific tenant questions in plain English: notice required for entry in California, deposit caps in Texas, eviction timelines in New York. Streams responses, never stores transcripts. Built for the renter who reads the analysis and has one more question.
In 24 hours.
What 24 hours of solo shipping taught me.
Brand decides trust before the AI runs. People judge a tool in the first three seconds, before any analysis happens. Data quality beats model quality — a citation only works if the source is real. And working with Replit's AI Agent rewards clarity: the cleaner the brief, the better the output.
Next: a custom domain, a non-profit partnership for the resources hub, and a voice mode so a renter can call the chatbot from the doorstep of a viewing.