AI Clinic · Ticket 500 · Newport Beach
From Ideation to $5,000.00
How we went from sketch to funded in a single afternoon.
The 30-Second Version
Here's the whole thing, fast.
But then we had a new idea.
But then we had a crazy idea. We weren't even sure it would work.
Meet Rocky
Rocky Nguyen
CEO, Exponent Labs · Engineering Manager, Elysium Health
From building custom MySpace themes in middle school to engineering AI agents at a longevity company — Rocky taught himself to code because he wanted a theme he couldn't afford, then started selling them to other kids. See what's missing, build it yourself: the pattern never left him.
Today he runs Exponent Labs — the syndicate behind this page — and manages engineering at Elysium Health. His framework for the AI-native era: Design, Development, Distribution.
“Even a loss is a win — it's telling you what not to build.”
The Full Story
Every image on this page is a real screenshot from the actual workflow.
Phase 1
It all started when Abinashi sent me this sketch.
Phase 2
I took that sketch into ChatGPT and added a simple prompt.
Phase 3
And this is what I got.
Phase 4
So I sent it to Abinashi and Brian in the WhatsApp group chat.
Phase 5
They said that's good — but Abinashi wanted the packaging to look like this.
Phase 6
So we took that reference back into ChatGPT with a simple prompt, and got this.
Phase 7
We sent it to the group and started getting immediate feedback from Abinashi and team.
Phase 8
This is where we started having fun. We turned the character into a full-blown character sheet with karate animations.
Phase 9
And ended up with this.
Meet Umyum — Umami Salt's mascot and "Umami Ambassador," named directly on the character sheet.
Phase 10
Then we took the character into Higgsfield.
Phase 11
And then we got a prompt for the trailer from ChatGPT.
Phase 12
We took that prompt from ChatGPT into Higgsfield, and got this.
Phase 13
And here's the final trailer.
At a Glance
The whole workflow, by the numbers.
1
Founder sketch
16
Real steps, no theater
3
Tools: ChatGPT, Higgsfield, WhatsApp
0
Designers hired
$0
ChatGPT — image creation + Higgsfield prompts
$0
WhatsApp — coordination, feedback, sharing
$7
Higgsfield — premium cinematic quality
Total spend: $7. Everything else on this page, free.
Meet the Founder
Abinashi Khalsa
Founder & CEO, Umami Salt (working name)
Nearly twenty years building startups, the last thirteen exclusively in manufacturing. Three companies founded since 2007, one consistent shape: take a physical product into a new or difficult category, build the financial and operational machinery around it from nothing, and run it with discipline until it scales. The finance leader who also knows the factory floor — BOM planning, supply chain, cost analysis at the discrete-process level — and the operator who brings order to early-stage chaos.
Founding CFO of a California cannabis manufacturer, launched at legalization. Built the company's entire financial infrastructure from the ground up in a brand-new regulated consumer category: accounting systems, financial controls, ERP, and a weekly cash-planning discipline. Grew revenue from $1M in 2019 to $8M trailing-twelve-months by 2024, managed the Series A round alongside the CEO, and led the acquisition and integration of a smaller competitor.
Interim CFO of a natural-foods manufacturer — delivered the financial planning and analysis that took the company into Costco, selling into more than 400 warehouses.
This is not a whim. Abinashi began developing Umami Salt in 2023 — label design, packaging engineering, and vendor quotes predate the current launch push by three years. The founding team formed around a product that already existed: a co-founder's locked formulation, a secured domain, and Abinashi as the operator who takes it from recipe to shelf.
The Investment
B. Ahuja, MD was in the same group chat as Abinashi — not pitched, not demoed, just there, watching the sketch turn into a brand kit, the brand kit turn into packaging, the packaging turn into a character that could move.
He watched all of it happen in real time. Then he decided to invest $5,000 — becoming Umami Salt's first investor.
“Even a loss is a win — it's telling you what not to build.”
This is what an AI workflow looks like when the founder is real and the stakes are real.
Sketch → Brand Kit → Packaging → Character & Motion → Trailer. Built by Exponent Labs — the same syndicate model behind every case study on this page.