One developer spent a year building a better version of NotebookLM
A developer who loved using NotebookLM — Google's AI-powered note and learning tool — decided to build their own improved version over the past year. They shared the finished side project on Reddit.
NotebookLM lets you upload documents and then ask an AI questions about them or get summaries. This developer found it lacking in some areas and spent a full year building an alternative with the features they wanted — a classic solo-builder story of scratching your own itch.
For solo internet business operators, this approach has real advantages: you start with a genuine personal problem, which means real demand likely exists, and you become your own first user — making it faster to spot and fix issues. Sharing the result in communities like r/SideProject is also a low-cost way to get early feedback and users.
Key points
- The developer built a learning and research tool to fix what they felt was missing in NotebookLM.
- NotebookLM is Google's AI tool that summarizes documents and answers questions about them.
- Building a tool to solve your own problem is one of the most reliable ways to find a real market.
- Completing and publicly sharing a year-long solo project is a concrete example of indie product building.
- Posting in communities like r/SideProject is a free way to get early users and feedback.
Quick term guide
- NotebookLM
- A free Google tool where you upload files and an AI helps you search, summarize, and ask questions across them.
- side project
- A small project someone builds outside their main job or main business.
- native
- Built using the operating system's own built-in tools, so the app feels at home on that platform and runs efficiently
- business
- An activity where you provide value to others in exchange for money.
- persona
- A specific personality or role that an AI agent is set to play.
- r/SideProject
- A Reddit forum where people share small personal products and projects.
- feedback
- A response that tells a user what they did well or should fix.
- indie
- Short for 'independent' — made and sold by one person or a tiny team, not a big company.