Overview

An AI-powered marketing platform built from the ground up for the underdogs.

We built Ampen as a low-cost solution leveraging affordable LLMs. It served as a lightweight CRM for nonprofits and underrepresented groups, automating outreach, streamlining workflows, and significantly reducing manual effort. Built with React/Next.js, TypeScript, Tailwind, shadcn, Redis, Firebase, React Query, and Google Gemini 2.5 Pro.

Why

Today's advancing technologies mostly benefit companies with big budgets. We wanted to build for the underdogs.

A major issue with today's advancing technologies is that they mostly benefit consumer products or companies with big budgets and dedicated teams. But we wanted to build for the underdogs: nonprofits that often lack the time, staff, or resources to run full-scale marketing operations. These organizations are usually run by just a few passionate people serving their communities without expecting profit. Ampen made advanced tools accessible to organizations that usually can't afford consumer-focused CRM platforms. Nonprofits often struggle to balance day-to-day operations with the demands of outreach, and this tool helped bridge that gap in a meaningful, cost-effective way.

Solution

An AI copilot that writes, schedules, and sends — for $3 a month.

The platform uses Gemini 2.5 Pro to generate context-aware marketing content tailored to each nonprofit's voice and audience. Users can review, edit, and schedule campaigns through a clean dashboard. The entire system runs on Google Cloud Run, Dockerized for portability, and costs under $3/month to operate at scale.

Architecture

Serverless-first, designed to scale without scaling costs.

The initial architecture used Redis + Express for email automation. I migrated this to Vercel Cron Jobs, eliminating the need for a persistent server and improving reliability. The system design balanced LLM performance with serverless scaling — no paywalls, no vendor lock-in.

Impact

1,000+ monthly uses. 30% less time on marketing. Under $3 to run.

Ttickle scaled to over 1,000 monthly uses while keeping infrastructure costs negligible. Nonprofits reported spending significantly less time on outreach, allowing small teams to redirect energy toward direct community engagement.

Reflection

The best systems disappear into the workflow.

The goal was never to build a flashy product — it was to remove friction. The most rewarding feedback wasn't about features, it was nonprofits saying they forgot they were using a tool at all. That's when you know the system is working.