AI SaaS is the New Sales Funnel
If you're still pushing lead magnets you'll be left behind
It’s 5:04 am somewhere in the world and we’ve been heads down building, researching, testing, creating, and digesting the signals of AI. Here are 3 fundamental reinforcements.
I spent the past decade pushing SaaS. Bootstrap, Operate, Sell and in that process I’ve been very fortunate to build one of the top 3 social growth companies of it’s time from $7k MRR to $1.5m with a small productized team.
Simultaneously, I was one of the founding team members of RocketHub that competes in one of the most competitive markets on the internet LTD SaaS.
I’m very proud of the work done quietly in the trenches over the past few years alongside several successful startups in the productized and SaaS world there were at least 10 failed projects that did not stick. That’s the journey of a startup.
The point of all this is that after launching many products, services, campaigns, and businesses for many years you learn to identify big problems.
You learn to become more observant about timing and sentiment.
This is why you’re reading this. AI SaaS is truly the new sales funnel. Stick around you’ll learn exactly why and what you can do next.
The more technology becomes democratized the easier it becomes to launch productized services and build software. If you think you were flooded with shiny object syndrome before — in the next few months your inbox will be infiltrated with tools, distractions, and even worse the upside down curve.
The point of the internet economy is to build a business where profit increases while required inputs decrease. But AI has literally flipped the game on the world.
Micha Kaufman’s latest thread, “The Future Belongs to Hackers”, is the most accurate job description for the next wave of winners.
If you’re creating regular lead magnets and landing pages your funnel is already broken. Most of the people that are still selling and fulfilling using old methods are either unaware of this new shift or selling you a last ditch effort to milk dying process.
You have to understand there’s a mindset shift the has to occur in this new world.
AI can create your ads better than the world’s best ad strategist, it can churn out content faster than the most proficient team of writers, it can produce your ad copy better than any agency or expert can. There’s no leverage in, “Just using AI to create content”.
The New Sales Funnel is building SaaS. Fortunately, Save Our Startup was built to help you do just that. Let me explain before you run to Bolt or Cursor.
Building a SaaS is now possible for any non-technical person. You can do it with elbow grease but it’s still not as easy as a single prompt.
That’s truly and genuinely the biggest AI lie right now.
You need some technical skill or someone who understands how to build the architecture of a SaaS.
BUT…
The more surprising thing about all of this is that building a SaaS itself is not the answer. You can vibe code your heart away but the SaaS and productized world is deeper than just code. It’s a mind shift.
The answer is an AI Execution System aka The New Age Growth Hacker.
Build AI. Launch. Experiment. Pivot. Acquire. Churn. Optimize. Scale. Exit.
Now in this single post I’m going to teach you what you need to do to build your SaaS. This comes from our experience launching and building brands and businesses that actually turned into million dollar+ businesses. So lock in.
I’m going to break it down for you. This is your next 6 - 12 month flight path.
It’s not for the faint of heart but if you stick around it will outline the real gritty truth of someone who sat in the trenches and did it. Most people will sell you this course - I hope you bookmark this post and share it with others because it’s the real deal.
Growth Hacking Your SaaS Like an AI Operator
When building your SaaS the actual SaaS product, you really don’t need more than YOU, If you’re lucky finding an operator or tech savvy person that can build alongside you. Start with the small feature and validate your market fast.
Your biggest friend at this time is to understand what’s possible with AI and what it means to build a technical platform today otherwise you will be sold solutions by every agency and dev shop that’s purely meant to support their retention vs. your requirement for speed.
I’ve worked with founders who spent their life savings on very stupid things. Like proprietary platforms you can launch for free on ECWID or Payhip and a typeform or gravity form.
Do not fall victim to charm and persuasion that’s literally the job of the closer to persuade you into signing a contract because YOU didn’t know exactly what you needed.
There’s nothing like seeing your last BTC drained simply because a developer took 2 weeks to stage a landing page.
If you don’t have a proven idea yet, you don’t need to build a philosophical mixed reality platform. Right now you’re not looking for the blue ocean idea all you want to do is to turn your expertise into a SaaS and brand it in a way that the brand becomes an intangible asset.
This brings you some form of leverage that you previously didn’t have. The SaaS will enhance your conversions on the front end, decrease your cost of acquisition, and allow you to advertise a contrarian offer.
Most important take away from this section
If you’ve never built a SaaS, productized service, or marketplace before or do not have tons of money to compete don’t try to play in the most competitive B2B markets. You don’t have time to rank and test. It’s much easier to build a SaaS app around a less competitive industry that solves a small problem in your first run.
Evaluate your levers (what do you have at your disposal) that others don’t — use that.
You can build your SaaS with products like Bolt, Cursor, and many others. BUT… be mindful there’s a lot of videos out there that say it’s as simple as a single sentence, a fully functional app with user management and AI integration is not as simple but it’s doable with some grit and learning.
Now that you actualized your idea it’s time to go to market
This part is marketing 101. Find the place your users spend the most time in and use the medium that allows you to reach them the fastest. For example, selling an AI Stiletto app on LinkedIn might not fly as easily as it would on TikTok and Instagram. (I know some of you are saying hey that might work, It might… I’m just human…)
The big secret here is to do what most agencies do in a month in a single day without relying on someone else to do it.
If your big task for the day is to create a post you’ve lost. You need to have some sort of pipeline. If you’re not an influencer that drives traffic don’t try to be one right now. Find the people that hold the influence of an audience that needs your offer.
This concept is not much different from traditional marketing, the core difference is speed to a precise activated audience.
Be creative… This is where your AI Growth Hacker needs to take over.
How do I send out 100,000 Emails this week?
How do I create 100 posts in a day?
How do I reach 1,000 targeted people this afternoon?
How do I run ads at $.02 per click?
Where can I spend 3 hours so that 1,000’s of people will see and hear about my app?
Remember you have to solve the hard things. If you’re competitor is reaching 1,000 people per day you need to reach 10,000 people per day. This is why you probably don’t want to play in the most competitive spaces for your first run (unless you have leverage) otherwise find the place you can put your elbow in and pry it open with sheer force.
The SaaS or Productized Service Reality
Process and fulfillment are boring. This part personally has always been the hardest for me. I enjoy building businesses and scaling brands. I get excited by taking ideas and turning them into real living entities.
But there’s a time in between when you’ll have to build offers, tweak user flow, test what offers are most responsive, build out the SOPs, put out the fires, implement AI in ways that remove friction. This form of mastery is heads down and can be tedious, don’t give up... No business is easy but a business with solid processes pay off.
Know Your Strengths, use AI and Operators to fill the Gap.
Too many times we focus on what we’re weak at and neglect our superpowers. AI can now fill those gaps now.
If you suck at customer service put your head down and create the most impressive AI customer service flow that only requires your intervention when necessary.
If we were in a different day and age I would say take your time move at your own speed and fix yourself but we honestly don’t have time for that.
Find people who are stronger at the thing you’re weak at and negotiate an exchange of value. As Tigz always says, there are more valuable things than money. Think outside of currency exchange if you don’t have it and find a way to make it happen.
There are people out there that need what you got.
Observation and Timing are Your Best Friends
The world’s biggest experts in your niche will tell you where your industry is moving. The earlier you can jump in front of something the better.
And everyone who doesn’t see it will think your crazy, don’t listen - Trust your intuition. People thought BTC and ETH were crazy a decade ago, the very fact that you’re reading this means you’re ahead of the game.
Understand there’s a difference between the two scenarios below. We do still have to market fast and wide but we can do it with focus and compounding in mind.
Scattered - Spread too Thin
Running 100 different business ideas all with different directions gives you very little brain time to actually observe what’s happening in your space.
Focused - Required Deep Understanding of the Landscape
Running 100 different businesses rooted in your market always makes more sense because it gives you more depth than the average person in that space.
Build to Fire Yourself
You know that song by Kenny Rogers, "know when to hold 'em, know when to fold 'em". One of the biggest and most painful lessons I’ve learned over the years is — gravity. What goes up must go down.
The benefit of moving fast is that you’ll be ready to sell or scale at the peak vs trough.
Build fast, fire yourself with process, and get out of the way. If you’re the cog in the machine a year from now you didn’t do your job right. The skills you need to know at minimum to move fast are very simple they simply require doing, selling, and moving forward.
Find Your Leverage
AI Coding aka Vibe Coding
AI Bulk Content Creation and Distribution
Lead Pipelines and Conversion Optimization
Speed and Experiment
Fire Yourself with AI - Once you know the process use AI to do it for you.
That’s the complete story, go out there and get it. Of course —- You know we’re marketers, right? So here comes the call to action.
We’re Building SaaS AI Businesses (End to End) in 4 weeks or less for our clients. These builds start at $10k you can book at call with us below. These are the types of companies we’d like to continue serving. If you’re not listed below tell us about your company and we maybe able to find an operator to help you.
A Local Venue or Brick and Mortar Business
Podcaster or Award Winning Artist more than 100k streams/mo
Medical Clinic or MedSpa Company
Fintech Company
Ed Tech Company
If I missed anything and you’re an AI Operator drop your thoughts in the comments. We’re all in this together.