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Shipping a Side Project to 8 Users in a Week: Lessons from Building an AI Telegram Bot

I shipped an AI companion bot on Telegram in under a week and got 8 real users. Here is what I learned.

The Idea

Build an AI friend that lives in Telegram, remembers everything you tell it, and texts you first sometimes. No app store, no signup flow, no landing page required. Just a bot link: t.me/adola2048_bot

Day 1-2: Architecture

The biggest decision was per-user isolation. Each user gets their own Docker container with their own AI agent, memory files, and schedule. This means:

  • Zero chance of data leaking between users
  • Each agent can be customized independently
  • Stopped containers use no resources

The gateway is a simple Node.js/Fastify server that receives Telegram webhooks and routes messages to the right container.

Day 3-4: The Soul File

The personality is defined in SOUL.md, a file the AI reads before every interaction. Key rules:

  • Talk like a real person, not a corporate assistant
  • Send multiple short messages instead of walls of text
  • Have opinions and sometimes disagree
  • Never break character

This single file makes the difference between a chatbot and a companion.

Day 5: Proactive Check-ins

The feature that surprised users the most: the AI texts first. A heartbeat system checks every hour whether there is a reason to reach out based on the users memory file.

Day 6-7: Launch

No Product Hunt launch. No landing page. Just:

  • Comments on relevant HN threads
  • Dev.to articles
  • A few Lemmy posts
  • The bot link shared where conversations about AI companionship happen naturally

Results After 1 Week

  • 8 users (organic, no paid acquisition)
  • $35/month hosting cost (single GCP e2-medium)
  • Average session: 15-20 messages
  • Retention: 5 of 8 users returned after first conversation

What Worked

  1. Telegram as platform - zero friction signup, already installed on 800M devices
  2. Memory as killer feature - users are genuinely surprised when the AI remembers details from days ago
  3. Proactive outreach - texts from the AI generate engagement spikes
  4. Per-user containers - overkill architecturally, but the isolation guarantee builds trust

What I Would Do Differently

  1. Start with a landing page for SEO
  2. Add a /share command so users can invite friends
  3. Build an onboarding flow instead of dropping users into a blank conversation

Try It

t.me/adola2048_bot - free, no signup, works on any device with Telegram.

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