How One US Navy Veteran Built 8,000 Websites and Never Stopped
Todd Bogert didn't set out to become a web developer. He set out to be a sailor. After years in the Navy's Special Boat Unit 12 (SBU-12), driving Rigid Hull Inflatable Boats (RHIBS) for SEAL teams across Korea, the Philippines, Jordan, Thailand, and around the world, a demolition charge went off too early, knocked him off his boat, and ended his military career in one moment. The knee never healed right. The Navy was done.
What followed was a second act that almost no career counselor would have predicted: fifteen years as a government CIO, a chance encounter with a real estate tech platform, and a business that has now produced over 8,000 websites. Today, Todd runs a lean two-person operation out of Arizona at GoHighLevel Designs, built on platforms like Real Geeks, Sierra Interactive, and is quietly developing his own SaaS product… using Genspark as his primary development tool.
How a Non-Coder Built an 8,000-Website Business
Todd's entry into web design was accidental. His wife needed a real estate website and wanted to use the Real Geeks IDX platform. Real Geeks wasn't in Arizona yet, but he had done the research and knew it was a great IDX platform. He met with them, and they agreed to move into the Arizona market if he could find 9 other agents to join him. He found 7, and they said okay. Each agent would just have to pay a little more per month until they reached the break-even point of 10. He then built his wife’s new Real Geeks site himself using his IT background, and the co-founder noticed. An invitation to join their referral list turned into a full-time business within a year. By 2013, he'd left government work behind.
For a decade, the model worked. Todd and his partner Jon, based in Wisconsin, met in person exactly once, built a custom AWS system that auto-generated SEO pages for real estate clients across dozens of cities, subdivisions, lifestyle searches, and price points. Revenue peaked at $35,000 a month. Then Real Geeks invited Todd to sponsor their conference (and it cost him $20,000). Their big announcement: a new system that did almost exactly what his did. His revenue dropped to $750 the following month.
"I've had to kind of claw my way back ever since," Todd says.
Why Todd Switched From ChatGPT to Genspark for Web Development
A real estate client in Dallas mentioned Genspark in passing. Todd had been using ChatGPT for basic tasks. He took a look. What he found solved a problem he hadn't been able to articulate: he needed to see what he was building while he was building it.
"I just kind of get the best of all the different LLMs, 'cause each LLM has its strengths and weaknesses," he explains. The live preview was the deciding factor. Unlike Claude, Genspark renders externally hosted images in real time, critical for GoHighLevel pages where every element is pulled from a client's CDN. "That was a big deal for me," he says.
What Todd Has Built With Genspark
Projects completed or in progress using Genspark:
- Custom CSS/JavaScript pages for real estate clients (work previously only his partner could do)
- Seat reservation and ticketing database for an Elks Lodge dinner theater in Ohio
- Websites for local businesses: pizza restaurant, Thai food restaurant, mortgage company
- GoHighLevel SaaS page-generation system (automated SEO pages across 60+ cities)
- His own proprietary new construction homes web design platform (in development — stealth mode)
The Workflow That Tripled His Capacity
Todd's Genspark setup is methodical. He creates one hub per client, one project per website, and starts a fresh chat for each page. Code gets copied directly into GoHighLevel's source code widget. He uses Prompt Cowboy to sharpen rough prompts before feeding them to Genspark. The split-screen browser feature lets him run two workflows side by side on his 40-inch monitor.
The impact is concrete. "Triple, at least triple the number of projects I can take on at once," he says. "It literally changed what I do on a day-to-day basis." Work that once required his partner Jon's CSS and JavaScript expertise? Todd can do it himself now. "I don't know how to do CSS and JavaScript, so I could never do these on my own. Now with Genspark, with AI, I can."
Building His Own Platform: The Long Game
The biggest project isn't public yet. Todd is building his own web design SaaS: still in the real estate area, but concentrating on an underserved niche, new construction homes. He is using Genspark to help with the design, and running on the GoHighLevel platform. He's holding off on the launch until he's ready to handle the volume he is hoping to generate.
"I'm gonna build my own platform," he says plainly. "This is what Genspark has allowed me to do."
It's a sentence worth sitting with. After clawing back revenue dollar by dollar, after twelve years of working with a partner he's met once, Todd is finally building something that can't be taken away. "I want to be more of a web designer. All-encompassing."
FAQ: Using AI for Web Development as a Freelancer
Can you build real client websites with Genspark if you don't know how to code? Yes. Todd Bogert has built over 8,000 real estate websites using Genspark's AI code editor without formal coding skills. The key is using the live preview feature to see changes in real time and organizing work into hubs and projects so code is easy to reuse across clients.
How does Genspark compare to other AI services for web development? For web work specifically, Genspark's advantage is its live preview; it renders externally hosted images and CSS in real time, which other AI services don't do reliably. This matters when building pages that pull assets from a client's CDN or content management system.
How do you scale a solo web design business with AI? Todd's approach: one hub per client, one project per website, a fresh chat per page. Use a prompt-expansion tool (he uses Prompt Cowboy) to turn rough ideas into detailed prompts. Assign all work to organized hubs so you can reference past client work instantly. This system lets him handle triple the project volume he could manage before.
What platforms work well with AI-generated code? WordPress, GoHighLevel, Real Geeks, Lofty, and Sierra all accept HTML/CSS/JavaScript that can be generated and refined in Genspark. The code is pasted directly into the platform's source code editor or widget, making AI-assisted development practical even on platforms with limited built-in editors.
What Could You Build Today?
Todd's story isn't about being exceptionally technical. It's about removing the ceiling on what you can execute alone.
Three steps to get started:
- Open Genspark and create a Hub for your first client project
- Describe the page you want to build in plain language and paste it into the code editor
- See the preview, iterate, copy the code into your platform of choice
You don't need a technical co-founder. You need the right tool.
Genspark power users share how they're using AI to do work that once required a team. Want to share your story? Connect with us in the Genspark community.
