AI Operator,
Builder & Creator
Builder & Creator
Austin Peechatt — Austin Peechatt —
Austin Peechatt — Austin Peechatt —
Ride
The AI Wave
Ride
The AI Wave
Hi, my name is Austin. I'm 23, based in New York. I make AI educational and lifestyle videos online and build cool things with it. I also run AI Waterside, an automation agency that handles voice agents, websites, and custom builds.
I'm documenting the whole journey as I go. I've been building and creating since I was 12: my first YouTube video, stock trading in high school, six dropshipping stores that each failed in their own special way. A decade of swings taught me to learn fast and keep going. Now all that energy goes into making AI easy to understand, and helping you ride the wave instead of getting swept by it.
Hi, I'm Austin. I'm 23 and based in New York. I make AI educational and lifestyle videos and build things with AI. These are the moments that shaped how I build.
I had just turned 12, was obsessed with Dude Perfect, and was sure being a YouTuber was my dream job. My trickshot career didn't last long. High school was coming, and recording and editing took too much time for the payoff. So I put the camera down.
My uncle talked my parents into letting me invest. I got hooked on day trading, and within a few months I'd lost half the portfolio. That pushed me toward swing trading, which went much better. I still remember checking Robinhood during English class, seeing the account up $1,000, and raising my hand to "use the bathroom." (God bless Netflix earnings.)
Dropshipping means being the middleman: find a product (usually on AliExpress), build a store (Shopify), market it (influencers or Meta ads), and ship straight from the supplier to the customer. It's the perfect model when you don't have much money, which describes about 99% of high schoolers. I loved that I ran every part of the business: product research, talking to suppliers, building the website and funnel, running ads, and handling customers. I watched hundreds of hours of YouTube videos and courses and launched six stores in two years. All six failed. Some had bad products, some had thin margins, and some had their ad accounts banned (Facebook 2020 purge, ifykyk).
During COVID I went all-in on one risky trade, and it wiped out most of what I'd built. It was a hard lesson, and it changed how I thought about money and work. That summer I took two pizza delivery jobs and a student assistant job at an elementary school, which mostly meant cleaning classrooms, for $14 an hour. Seeing my first paycheck and meeting this guy named FICA taught me the "value of money." That summer was my canon event. I've had a chip on my shoulder ever since, and the work ethic to match.
I'd always wanted to skip college and make it on my own, so I started out skeptical. I had plenty of fun, but the drive was still there, now pointed in a more structured direction. I did well in school and landed internships at financial and trading firms. On the side I tried NFT trading, a student-run hedge fund with my fraternity, and a seventh store with friends (Squid Game masks for Halloween). Over time, though, the entrepreneur in me took a back seat. I kept telling myself I'd go all-in once the right opportunity showed up. Then I graduated and started a career I enjoy, but the itch to build something of my own never went away.
Not long after, I came across a YouTube video on AI automation. At that point I only knew ChatGPT (and a few close calls with plagiarism in college). Tools like n8n and Make.com showed me you could build fairly complex workflows powered by AI, and I was hooked. This time I decided to document the journey and started posting weekly videos of my builds, like email automations and voice agents. The more I learned, the clearer it became that there was a real business here.
I started AI Waterside, an AI automation agency that helps small businesses put AI to work. Early on, I cold called, cold emailed, and even walked around town pitching local businesses. Almost everyone said no. AI felt new and intimidating, and here was a guy in his twenties telling them how much time and money it could save. We kept going. One of our clients was an early-stage SaaS company, and we helped grow its users from 200 to 1,000 and its MRR by 5x. It's still early, but wins like that keep me building.
That brings us to today. I wouldn't blame you if you're asking, "Where's the payoff? Did he make it?" Well, yes and no. I enjoy my job, I love learning and building with AI, and I get to make videos showing the journey. In terms of fulfillment and happiness, I think I made it. In a financial sense, not yet. Maybe you can help me with that.
Work With Me
Install Claude Code from zero and run your first agent. No code required.
Turn any prompt into a clean, editable Excalidraw diagram with a reusable Claude Code skill.
An AI receptionist on Retell that captures real appointment requests and pings your Slack through n8n.
How a Codex agent works carrier portals end to end and stops at a saved quote. An outline of the setup, with a polished version coming.
