Friends sold side hustle for $150,000 after starting it using just AI and $185

Creating a side hustle which virtually 'prints money' with minimal effort is something most of us can only dream of – but this entrepreneurial pair made it happen with less than $200 between them.

Salvatore 'Sal' Aiello, a longtime CTO for tech startups, only met Monica Powers, a product designer, at a virtual startup event in Silicon Valley a year ago, but it wasn't long before the pair started working together.

It took as little a four days for the tech wizards to create their lucrative empire as they turned to a tool many of us have at our fingertips.

Sal Aiello (LinkedIn/Sal Aiello)

Using ChatGPT, the artificial intelligence chatbot, the duo ran their side hustle ideas into the site to conduct market research.

It wasn't long before Aiello and Powers knew the exact questions to ask the chatbot to maximise their results - and in March this year, their AI-powered research tool was born.

The way it works is users fill out a form with their idea and the tool does all the legwork, inputting answers from ChatGPT into 50-page reports.

The tool charges $39 for a comprehensive report and is geared towards helping businesses and 'want-repreneurs' with their hypothetical ideas.

While, technically, anyone can conduct their own research using Google, Aiello explained to CNBC that the beauty of it is that it works in a fraction of the time.

The 36-year-old said: "There's no reason you can't do 1,000 Google searches and get the same results. [But] it's a no-brainer to lean on somebody [to do it faster]."

Monica Powers (LinkedIn/Monica Powers)

Just four days after making the tool, Aiello and Powers launched their business, DimeADozen.

Aiello also said he remembered thinking at the time: "Maybe we can sell this."

And in a little more after reaching the six-month milestone, that's exactly what they did for a hefty sum.

DimeADozen raked in more than $66,000, according to records verified by CNBC, and the pair spent less than $185 in bringing it to life.

A mere $150 went towards the web domain and a further $35 on hosting and a database, making the rest virtually all profit that the pair split equally.

ChatGPT helped the pair launch their lucrative side hustle (Jakub Porzycki/NurPhoto via Getty Images)

Then, last month, they struck a deal with married couple, Felipe Arosemena and Danielle de Corneille, who work as a software engineer and product designer, with big plans to make DimeADozen their full-time jobs.

Though the side hustle was promptly sold to the couple for $150,000, Aiello and Powers commit to working around five hours a week as company advisors.

The pair also have three other side hustles and a vision to start more.

But as for DimeADozen, Aiello said it 'really does print money' and has bigger dreams it will be bought out by a software giant Salesforce 'or something silly like that'.