Kevin Gabeci

On the dream before the dreams. How I Came Back to Medium After an 18-Month Hiatus and Stopped Pretending I Did Not Care Life got in the way. Then I remembered the dream that came before all the other dreams. Press enter or click to view image in full size The dream I had before any of the other dreams. It was a Tuesday in mid-2024 and I opened my Medium dashboard for what would turn out to be the last time in over a year. Two articles published that month. Both under 100 views.

I’ve been building Apatero while holding down a full-time job. No venture funding. No trust fund. No “quit your job and follow your dreams” moment. Just early mornings, late nights, and a lot of saying no to things that don’t matter. Here’s what actually works when you’re building on borrowed time. You Don’t Have a Time Problem. You Have a Priority Problem. “I don’t have time” is the biggest lie we tell ourselves. You have the same 24 hours as everyone else. The difference is allocation.

We Built an AI Platform While Working 9 to 5. Here’s How We Hit $2.75K MRR in 1 Month No funding. No quitting our jobs. Just two developers, a VPS, and a problem worth solving. Press enter or click to view image in full size In June 2025, my co-founder Kejvi and I started building Apatero Studio. Six months later, we launched and within a month we crossed $33,000 in annual recurring revenue and $2,750+ in January so far. We’re still working our 9–5 jobs.