Ep. 5: 🚀 How We Built a Working Prototype in 24 Hours — with Just 2 People and ChatGPT

👋 You Don’t Need a Team. You Need a System.

You’ve got a killer idea.
A gap in the market.
A domain you know inside-out.

But here’s the problem:
You’re stuck between a blank page… and a massive dev bill.
And that’s where 90% of founders pause. They think:

“Should I raise first?”

“Should I hire a CTO?”

“Should I just wait until I’m more ready?”

We’re here to show you a better path.

At Forest Technologies, we’re obsessed with speed, clarity, and building the right thing first — not the fanciest.
So we put our own methods to the test.

Could we take a real-world startup idea and turn it into a working, shareable prototype — in 24 hours — with just 2 people and AI?

Spoiler: Yes‼️

And this article shows you how.

What We Tried to Build (Hint: It’s Not a To-Do App)

Let’s be honest:
Most “build in a day” stories feel like toy projects. Hello world apps in disguise.
So we picked something founders actually ask us for — a lot.

The challenge:

Build a tool that helps real estate agents generate property reports by uploading messy, unstructured documents. PDFs. Excel sheets. Permits. Photos.

It had to:
✅ Extract data
✅ Make sense of it
✅ Generate a beautiful, clean PDF
✅ Look real enough to sell, test, or pitch

Ambitious? Definitely.
But that’s the point.

The Rules We Gave Ourselves

To keep this real, we made three strict rules:

1. No pre-built templates

2. Only public, accessible tools

3. It must feel real to real users

If you’re a founder with zero code but sharp instincts, this is your blueprint.

⏱️ Hour 0–3: ChatGPT as Our Product Strategist

Instead of starting with a blank Notion doc, we prompted like pros:

“You’re a startup strategist. I want to build a product report generator for real estate agents. What features matter most in the MVP?”

ChatGPT didn’t just spit out fluff. It gave us:

• Key features

• Competitive comparisons

• Flow ideas

• Pricing models

• Value props

• User personas

But here’s the catch:

AI gives you the map. We know how to drive

We layered our product brain on top to refine what actually mattered.

⏱️Hour 4–7: From Idea to Interactive in Figma

Designing from scratch? Dead.
Designing with purpose? 🔥

We used:

• Uizard for instant layout drafts

• Figma AI for text and flow generation

• Our own Forest design system for polish

• Claude to write microcopy and helper text

• Real user context to make it actually usable

Ep. 2: Can Figma AI Actually Design — or Just Decorate?

The result?
A sleek prototype that didn’t just look good — it worked like our target users think.

⏱️Hour 8–16: Code (But Smarter)

Frontend MVP? Built with:

• Next.js + Tailwind

• GitHub Copilot (writing 60% of the code)

• Mock Service Worker (fake APIs, real feel)

• LangChain + Claude to simulate document parsing

No backend.
No guesswork.
Just a realistic experience, fast.
We even generated a fake final report using Claude + PDFKit — and it looked good enough to show to investors.

⏱️Hour 17–23: Feedback, Fixes, Flow

This part? Non-negotiable.
We tested the prototype with:

• 3 real estate agents via Loom

• async feedback forms

• observation of where users paused, asked questions, or said “wait, what does this mean?”

We fixed:

• Navigation logic

• Input validation

• Misaligned expectations

We improved:

• Mobile flow

• Button states

• Error handling

All with ChatGPT’s help.
But always with human QA.

⏱️Hour 24: Live. Real. Shareable.

We launched it live on Vercel.
We sent it to users.
Got replies.
Scheduled demos.
Even opened the door to a partnership.

In 24 hours.

No big team. 
No six figures. 
Just execution — at founder speed

💡 Why This Approach Works (And Who It’s For)

Let’s break it down:

This isn’t “just for fun.”
This is how smart founders win in 2025.

Tools We Used (Steal This Stack)

What You Can Learn From This (Even If You Never Touch Code)

1. Speed matters — especially when raising or validating

2. You don’t need a dev team to start — you need clarity

3. AI helps, but only when guided — tools are not strategy

4. Real feedback > perfect builds — prototypes de-risk everything

5. Momentum creates magic — especially when you can demo tomorrow

Why Forest Technologies Builds This Way

We don’t just build software.
We build smart momentum.

We’ve helped:

• First-time founders test before fundraising

• Enterprise teams launch pilots in 30 days

• Product leaders fix 6-month stalls with 1-week prototypes

We're the partner you bring in when you're tired of slow, bloated, unclear builds — and want smart, fast, sharp execution.

This is what we do. Every day.

Ready to Build Smarter?

If this sparked something in you — an idea, a direction, a hunch — we can turn it into a prototype, fast.

Let’s do a 1-day or 3-day sprint and see what’s possible.

Book your prototype sprint

Drop a Comment, Share This, And Stay Tuned

This was just one episode.
We’re going to do more.

Next up?

We’re testing if AI can write an investor pitch deck that actually lands meetings

Want to see how that turns out?

👉 Follow us on Twitter and LinkedIn
💬 Drop your questions or your startup idea in the comments
🔁 Share this with a founder friend who’s still stuck waiting for the “right time”

We’ll be here — building smart, fast, and right.
theforest.ai