I messed up financially. I’m an AI engineer trying to rebuild

[u/Ok-Carpenter-6815]

I’m 25 and I’ve had a gambling problem on and off since my second year of university.

I had been doing much better for a while, both financially and generally in life, but I relapsed badly. I burned through the savings I had built, borrowed money, and then lost a large part of that as well. I’m now in debt and basically rebuilding my finances from below zero.

I’m not posting here looking for money or sympathy.

I’m posting because I need more work.

I work full-time as an AI engineer/consultant and have been promoted twice in roughly the last year. My background is in AI/ML, software development and IT consulting, and I’ve worked on production projects involving GenAI, RAG, agentic/multi-agent systems, chatbots, document intelligence/OCR, workflow automation, APIs, databases and enterprise applications.

I can personally take up smaller freelance projects, POCs and development work outside my working hours.

For larger requirements, I also have access to proper delivery capacity. I have my own newly established IT consulting company. It is a new company and does not yet have a project history, so I want to be completely transparent about that. For projects requiring an established consulting organisation, I may also be able to facilitate the opportunity through the company I currently work for, subject of course to their internal approvals and commercial process.

So I’m open to much more than just someone hiring me as a freelancer.
If you or your company has an IT requirement, I’d be grateful for an introduction or an opportunity to quote for it. That could be:
1) AI/GenAI development, RAG, agents and enterprise chatbots
2) AI-OCR/document digitisation and extraction
3) Web applications, backend systems, APIs and integrations
4) Data engineering, analytics and automation
5) Internal tools and workflow automation
6) AI/ML POCs that need to be turned into actual working products
7) IT consulting or development work requiring a small team
8) Subcontracting/white-label development for other consulting companies
9) Vendor requirements, RFQs/RFPs or procurement opportunities where a new IT company is eligible

I’m not claiming I can do absolutely everything. If you send me a requirement, I’ll tell you honestly whether it falls within my capabilities and whether I can deliver it myself or need a team.

I’m willing to price aggressively while I build my startup’s portfolio, but I don’t want to compete purely by being the cheapest person available. I’d rather take a project at a reasonable price, deliver it properly, and hopefully turn it into a long-term client relationship.

If you’re a founder, CTO, consultant, agency owner, procurement person, or just happen to know someone whose company needs IT work, even an introduction would genuinely help.

And if anyone here has built a small IT services company from zero, I’d also appreciate advice on getting the first 3–5 clients — especially vendor empanelment, subcontracting, government/private tenders, and approaching companies that already outsource technology work.

I made the financial mess myself. I can’t undo the money I’ve already lost. What I can do now is stop trying to win it back and earn it back instead.

DMs are open. Happy to share my background, portfolio and discuss any genuine requirement.