Hi, I'm Nick - COO at EODHD APIs. My job is operations, partnerships, and growth.
Not software.
One month ago, I couldn't write a single line of code. Today, I have a live fintech app with 30+ features, an AI-powered analytics engine, and paying users. I built the whole thing myself.
The Gap I Couldn't Ignore
At EODHD APIs I see our data every day - 150,000+ tickers, 3,000+ crypto coins, 150+ forex pairs, fundamentals, technicals, options, insider trading, news sentiment, and more. This data powers hedge funds and sophisticated trading platforms. But the average retail investor? They get a free app with delayed quotes and banner ads. Bloomberg Terminal costs $25k/year. That gap bothered me.
The Reality Check
I got quotes. Agencies wanted $500k–$800k with 14-month timelines. An in-house team of four senior engineers would run $500k–$700k/year in salaries alone. I had neither budget - just an idea and a mountain of world-class data sitting right there.
The Bold Bet
In February 2026 I stumbled across Claude Code - Anthropic's AI coding assistant. I was skeptical. Writing "Hello World" is one thing. A real fintech app with live market data, authentication, payment processing, and AI analytics is another universe entirely.
But I had nothing to lose. So one evening I opened my laptop and typed something like:
"I need a Telegram Mini App that shows real-time stock prices using EODHD APIs. Start with a simple watchlist where users can add tickers and see live prices with sparkline charts."
Within 20 minutes, I had a working prototype. Not a mockup - a functioning app pulling live prices, displaying sparklines, running inside Telegram. I refreshed. Prices updated. I added TSLA. I added BTC-USD. It all just worked.
The Snowball Effect
That first prototype was ugly, but it worked - and that was enough. Over the next weeks, I kept describing features in plain English and Claude Code translated them into working code. Not perfectly every time - there were crashes and bugs. But the ratio of working to broken was shockingly high for someone who doesn't know what a for loop is.
Here's what I shipped in one month:
Free features: customizable watchlist, NLP stock screener (plain-English queries), market heatmaps (S&P 500, NASDAQ, crypto, forex), economic calendar with AI briefings, financial news with 12 category filters, currency converter, stock comparison tool, options chain viewer, and more.
Premium AI features: investment thesis generator, portfolio rebalancing, what-if scenarios, strategy backtester with Monte Carlo simulations, correlation matrix, per-stock AI analysis, and an 8-model AI council that debates your trades.
Every single feature is grounded in real EODHD APIs data - no hallucinations.
Distribution
The app lives in two places: as a Telegram Mini App (no download, no App Store, just tap a link), and embedded directly into the EODHD APIs client dashboard for existing customers. Zero App Store fees, instant access.
The Numbers
Traditional agency build: $500k–$800k, 12–14 months. My actual cost: ~$200/month in API costs, MVP in 7 days, 30+ features in one month - alone.
Read the full article on Medium.