Minima Builder Setup: Phone + SSH + VPS + AI Coding CLI + Nginx/Envoy (2025-08-17)

breadcrumbs
1

How Buliders like Pieter Levels and Kathy Helps Ship Fast

Kathy Helps shipped an MVP in hours. Her method is stripped to the bone:

  • $4.99 Hetzner VPS (CPX11) – the cheap server where everything runs.
  • AI Coding CLI – AI assistant that writes code, sets up SSL, handles Stripe.
  • GPT-5 – designs architecture, suggests workers (PM2) for scaling.
  • Termius – simple SSH client.
  • Free ForwardEmail.net – free email to sign up for other services.
  • Supabase (free tier) – backend as a service.
  • Cloudflare (free DNS) – point the domain, add protection.
  • Stripe – billing built right in.

Total spend: $5 and time.
Output: working consumer-facing apps like antipuff.com in a day.

The playbook is Pieter Levels’ style: move fast, pay little, let AI do the heavy lifting.

Kathy’s stack is repeatable. One VPS, free tools, AI copilots. Nothing fancy. Just quick execution.

Sources:

The VPS Plan: Hetzner CPX11

We wanted to get more details on what VPS plan Kathy is using. Based on the pricing and context she shared (“$4.99”), the most fitting option is the CPX11 cloud server from Hetzner:

  • CPX Family – Shared vCPU with AMD EPYC™ 7002 series (CPU-optimized)
  • CPU / RAM: 2 vCPUs, 2 GB RAM
  • Storage: 40 GB NVMe SSD
  • Included Traffic: 1 TB/month (for US locations)
  • Price: Approximately €4.99/month (about $5) (Hetzner, Hetzner)

The CPX11 is around €4.99/month so this aligns with the “$4.99” mentioned in the tweet. (Hetzner, VPSBenchmarks)

How to Get the Same Plan

Here is how to get this:

  1. Go to Hetzner Cloud: Visit Hetzner’s Cloud platform (look for “Cloud” under services). (Hetzner)

  2. Select the CPX11 Plan:

    • Look for the shared vCPU AMD (CPX) family.
    • Choose CPX11 (2 vCPU, 2 GB RAM, 40 GB SSD).

  3. Pick Your Location:

  4. Deploy Your Server: After configuration, you can deploy instantly and pay €4.99/month (or equivalent in USD).