At the beginning of 2025, I set myself an unusual challenge.
Build 12 products in 12 months.
Not pitch decks.
Not ideas.
Actual working products.
Some would fail.
Some would survive.
A few, if I was lucky, would become real businesses.
The point of the challenge was simple: execution over theory.
Too many founders get stuck in planning mode — researching markets, polishing strategy documents, debating logos, or waiting for funding. Meanwhile, the market doesn’t reward ideas. It rewards working products that solve real problems.
So I forced myself into a rhythm: build, launch, learn, repeat.
Fast forward to 2026, and that experiment is now entering a different phase.
This year is about commercialization.
Not building new products.
But turning the best ones into businesses.
And in April, the fourth product officially crossed that line.
InterviewPrep.
You can explore it here:
InterviewPrep App
The Problem That Inspired InterviewPrep
If you’ve ever searched for a job, you know how confusing the process can be.
You send out dozens of applications.
Sometimes hundreds.
You rewrite your CV again and again.
You tweak your cover letter.
You Google interview questions the night before.
You watch YouTube videos about “top 10 interview questions.”
And yet when the interview comes, you’re still unsure whether you’re prepared.
The truth is this:
Most job seekers are guessing.
They don’t know:
- Whether their CV is structured correctly
- Whether their cover letter actually makes sense
- What questions they’ll be asked
- How to answer those questions effectively
And if you’re applying for jobs in a competitive market, guessing is expensive.
One weak CV can get you filtered out before anyone reads your experience.
One poor interview answer can cost you a job you were qualified for.
I’ve seen this problem repeatedly while working with founders, startups, and job seekers.
People don’t lack capability.
They lack structured preparation.
That gap is what InterviewPrep was built to solve.
What InterviewPrep Actually Does
InterviewPrep is a simple tool designed to help job seekers prepare properly before applying and before interviews.
Instead of scrambling across dozens of websites, the tool brings preparation into one place.
With InterviewPrep, users can:
1. Curate Their CV
The platform helps users structure their CVs in a way that is:
- clear
- professional
- optimized for hiring managers
Many CVs fail not because of poor experience, but because of poor structure.
InterviewPrep helps fix that.
2. Generate a Cover Letter
Cover letters are one of the most misunderstood parts of job applications.
People either:
- write essays that nobody reads, or
- submit generic templates copied from the internet.
InterviewPrep helps users craft relevant cover letters tailored to specific applications.
3. Prepare for Interview Questions
This is where most candidates struggle.
InterviewPrep helps users generate:
- common interview questions
- role-specific interview questions
- structured answers to those questions
Instead of being surprised in the interview room, candidates can practice and refine their responses beforehand.
Preparation builds confidence.
Confidence improves performance.
4. Practice Thoughtful Answers
Many interview answers fail because they are:
- too long
- too vague
- too unfocused
InterviewPrep helps users structure responses clearly.
Not robotic answers.
But organized thinking.
And that often makes the difference.
When Is a Product Truly “Commercialized”?
One thing I learned during the 12-products experiment is that launching a product is not the same as building a business.
A GitHub repo is not a company.
A demo app is not a product.
For me, a product becomes officially commercialized only when it hits a few non-negotiable milestones.
These are the rules I now use.
1. A Clear Ideal Customer Profile (ICP)
The first question every product must answer is:
Who is this for?
Not “everyone.”
Not “professionals.”
Not “people who want jobs.”
InterviewPrep is designed for:
Job seekers who want structured preparation before applying and interviewing.
That clarity shapes everything.
2. One Focused Use Case
Many early products fail because they try to do too much.
InterviewPrep does one thing well:
Help people prepare for job applications and interviews.
That’s it.
Everything inside the platform supports that core mission.
3. A Landing Page That Converts
If a product has no landing page, it’s not real.
People need to understand:
- what the tool does
- who it helps
- why they should use it
The landing page becomes the first interaction between the product and the market.
You can see it here:
4. Pricing and Payments Enabled
Free tools are easy to build.
Paid tools are harder.
Because pricing forces you to answer uncomfortable questions:
- Is this actually valuable?
- Will anyone pay?
- Does it solve a real problem?
InterviewPrep now runs on a three-tier model.
Free Plan
Users can try the tool and explore basic features.
Although to be honest, the free tier isn’t great for me.
Because every time someone uses the AI features, I burn tokens.
But I keep it because free access helps people test the platform before committing.
Starter Plan
$10 per month
For users who want deeper preparation and more usage.
Annual Plan
$100 per year
A simple discounted option for consistent users.
Pricing changes the psychology of a product.
It forces discipline.
Because once someone pays, they expect real value.
5. Onboarding Content
Another sign that a product is serious is documentation.
That includes:
- tutorials
- quick start guides
- explanations of how features work
Users should not have to guess how to use a tool.
If they are confused, the product is incomplete.
6. Real Users Giving Feedback
Finally, commercialization happens when real people start using the product.
Not friends.
Not testers.
Actual users with real needs.
Their feedback shapes the product far more than my assumptions ever could.
The Reality of Building AI Products
AI tools look magical from the outside.
But behind the scenes they come with a constant tension:
cost vs value.
Every AI request consumes tokens.
Every token costs money.
Which means every free user interaction is literally an expense.
That’s why most AI tools eventually introduce paywalls.
Not out of greed.
But out of survival.
InterviewPrep now has that paywall in place.
The free version still exists.
But deeper functionality sits behind paid tiers.
That balance allows the product to grow without burning unlimited resources.
What I’ve Learned Commercializing Products
Commercializing these products this year has taught me something important.
Building software is the easy part.
Turning it into a business is the real challenge.
That requires:
- positioning
- pricing
- messaging
- onboarding
- customer support
- continuous improvement
Software is not finished when it launches.
It’s finished when people consistently get value from it.
The Products Commercialized So Far in 2026
This year I committed to commercializing the strongest tools from the 12-product experiment.
So far, four products have crossed that line.
January Product 1
February Product 2
March Startup List Africa
April InterviewPrep
Each one has moved from experiment to product.
And each one is teaching me something different about building sustainable tools.
Why This Journey Matters
When I started building these tools, I wasn’t trying to impress anyone.
I was trying to rebuild something simple:
momentum.
Momentum is powerful.
Once you start building regularly, things compound.
Ideas improve.
Systems improve.
Confidence improves.
And over time, what started as experiments slowly turn into products.
If You’re Currently Looking for a Job
If you’re currently applying for jobs, InterviewPrep may genuinely help.
Preparing properly changes how you approach interviews.
It gives you:
- structure
- clarity
- confidence
You can try it yourself here:
And yes — you can use the free package if you just want to explore the tool.
Follow the Journey
This experiment is still ongoing.
Every month I share updates about:
- products being commercialized
- lessons learned while building
- mistakes made along the way
If you want to follow the journey more closely, subscribe to my email updates here:
Where the Journey Started
If you’re new to this series and wondering where all this began, the full story starts here:
That post explains the thinking behind the entire experiment.
What Comes Next
The work continues.
More products from the 12-build experiment will be commercialized this year.
Some will succeed.
Some may fail.
But the process continues.
Build.
Launch.
Learn.
Improve.
And then repeat.
Because in the end, entrepreneurship is not about one big success.
It’s about consistent building.
And InterviewPrep is one more step forward.
