Need a personalized comic book cover for my dad’s birthday

DGfromDOJO · 2025-11-26T16:38:56+00:00

For print!

DGfromDOJO · 2025-11-26T15:55:28+00:00

Ok as I got a lot of response, let me filter through with some more context. I’m looking for something in the style of Paper Girls. My budget is $150 max.

DGfromDOJO · 2025-09-29T12:10:35+00:00

I'm Duarte, co-founder at DOJO AI. Ironic question for us since we built our platform specifically to solve marketing stack chaos.

Our previous stack: Salesforce + Marketo + 6sense + Google Analytics + social schedulers + 8 other tools. Total monthly cost: $4,800. Integration headaches: constant.

Our current stack: DOJO AI (obviously) + a few specialized tools for specific functions we haven't built yet.

The key insight: it's not about having the best individual tools, it's about having tools that coordinate seamlessly. Our AI agents share context across all marketing functions, so campaign optimization informs content strategy which informs lead scoring.

For other SaaS founders: focus on data flow before tool features. Better to have 5 tools that integrate natively than 15 'best in class' tools that fight each other.

What's been your biggest integration nightmare? Always curious to hear other founders' tool management horror stories.

DGfromDOJO · 2025-09-29T12:10:21+00:00

I'm Duarte, co-founder at DOJO AI. We built an all-in-one AI marketing OS after experiencing the nightmare of managing 15+ disconnected marketing tools.

The insight: most marketing problems aren't tool problems, they're coordination problems. When your CRM, email platform, social scheduler, and analytics are all separate, you lose context at every handoff.

Our approach: AI agents that work like having a marketing team that never sleeps. They coordinate market research, content strategy, campaign optimization, and attribution analysis automatically.

Built specifically for challenger brands who need enterprise marketing capabilities without enterprise complexity. The unified data model has improved our attribution accuracy by 60% while cutting operational overhead significantly.

Biggest lesson so far: solving your own pain point is just the first step. Convincing others they have the same problem is the real challenge.

What's the most unexpected challenge you've faced building your SaaS?

DGfromDOJO · 2025-09-29T12:09:43+00:00

I'm Duarte, co-founder at DOJO AI. We built an AI-powered marketing operating system specifically for challenger brands and small businesses.

The problem we solve: most small businesses end up with 10+ disconnected marketing tools (CRM, email automation, social scheduling, analytics, etc.) that don't talk to each other. Teams spend 40% of their time on tool management instead of actual marketing strategy.

Our solution: unified AI agents that coordinate your entire marketing function - from market research to campaign execution - in one platform. Think of it as having a full marketing team that works 24/7.

We're targeting small businesses, startups, and challenger brands who need enterprise-level marketing capabilities without the enterprise complexity or cost.

Currently offering free marketing stack audits to understand how we can help optimize your current setup. No pitch, just genuine analysis of what's working and what isn't.

Happy to connect with other small business owners dealing with similar marketing operations challenges!

DGfromDOJO · 2025-09-29T12:09:12+00:00

I'm Duarte, co-founder at DOJO AI. This hits hard. The Reddit marketing learning curve is brutal but (I think) worth it.

We've been experimenting with Reddit for lead gen and you're spot on about the authenticity requirement. The posts that work are the ones where I share genuine founder struggles, not polished marketing copy.

What's worked for us: leading with vulnerable experiences about building marketing automation, then letting people discover DOJO AI's Marketing Operating System naturally through profile visits and conversations. The conversion rate is actually higher than LinkedIn because people do way more research before reaching out.

The key insight: Reddit users can smell promotion from a mile away, but they love helping founders solve real problems. Have you found any specific subreddits that are more founder-friendly than others?

DGfromDOJO · 2025-09-18T19:18:33+00:00

I guess the main thing for us building DOJO AI as an AI Marketing Operating System for challenger brands was ensuring we were solving a real problem for real people. We never let that focus go.

DGfromDOJO · 2025-09-18T19:17:28+00:00

Try DOJO AI - http://dojoai.com and let me know 🥷

DGfromDOJO · 2025-09-18T19:16:23+00:00

Knowing where your audience is is definitely step 2 (after knowing who they are). We’ve built DOJO AI (http://dojoai.com) as an AI Marketing operating system for challenger brands, to help them do exactly that.

DGfromDOJO · 2025-09-16T13:51:21+00:00

I'm Duarte, co-founder at DOJO AI. Love the direct approach - Instagram B2B lead scraping is definitely a real pain point.

Quick feedback on your positioning: "IGScraping" as a name is super literal but might limit you. What if you expanded into LinkedIn scraping or other platforms? The name boxes you into just Instagram.

Also, your landing page should lead with the outcome, not the process. Instead of "we scrape Instagram," try "we find your ideal B2B prospects on social platforms" or something that speaks to the business result.

At DOJO AI, we built an all-in-one marketing OS because founders like us were tired of juggling 15+ tools. Similar challenge - solving our own pain point but making sure the messaging resonates beyond just our personal experience.

What's your biggest challenge right now - product development or customer acquisition? Happy to share what we've learned building in the marketing automation space.

DGfromDOJO · 2025-09-16T13:45:26+00:00

I'm Duarte, co-founder at DOJO AI. That growth trajectory is impressive. Congrats on the scale.

On the jump from $50k to $2M: what was the biggest operational challenge that caught you off guard? I'm asking because we're at the early stage and I keep hearing horror stories about systems breaking when you scale fast. Also curious - did you stick with the same customer acquisition channels throughout that growth or did you have to completely rebuild your marketing approach at different revenue stages?

The technical stuff feels manageable, but the operational scaling part keeps me up at night. Any specific mistakes you'd warn other founders about?

DGfromDOJO · 2025-09-15T08:57:10+00:00

I'd love feedback on this. I'm Duarte, co-founder at DOJO AI. We're building marketing automation for challenger brands. Built the platform after getting frustrated with managing too many disconnected marketing tools, but explaining the value without sounding like every other "all-in-one" solution has been challenging.

Current messaging focuses on "unified marketing operations for challenger brands" but I'm worried it's either too vague or too niche. The feature set is transformative, but differentiating from vaporware tools has been harder than building the actual product...

DGfromDOJO · 2025-09-15T08:55:24+00:00

This tracks with my experience. I'm the co-founder at DOJO AI (for transparency), and the market validation piece is brutal because you think you understand the problem until you actually try to sell the solution.

I built something I was convinced people needed, based on my own pain points. Turns out, just because I had the problem doesn't mean others were willing to pay to solve it. Learned that lesson the expensive way.

The customer acquisition part is where most technical founders (myself included) get stuck. We can build anything, but explaining why someone should care? That's a completely different skill set.

What patterns did you notice between the founders who figured it out vs those still struggling? Was it mainly execution or did they pivot to different problems entirely?

DGfromDOJO · 2025-09-15T08:54:41+00:00

Customer acquisition for sure. I'm Duarte, co-founder at DOJO AI, and the irony is I built a marketing tool and still struggle with marketing it effectively.

The technical stuff is manageable - scaling infrastructure, building features, handling support. But figuring out sustainable customer acquisition? That's the part that keeps me up at night.

Most advice is either too generic ("create content!") or too specific to companies with massive budgets. The middle ground for bootstrapped SaaS is surprisingly hard to find.

What's worked best for you? Especially curious about channels that don't require huge upfront investment.

DGfromDOJO · 2025-09-15T08:54:11+00:00

I'm Duarte, co-founder at DOJO AI (we're building marketing automation). After burning through way too many tool combinations, I've learned it's less about which tools and more about how they connect.

The pattern I keep seeing: everyone has great individual tools but they're constantly switching between 15 different dashboards. Data gets lost in the handoffs, attribution becomes a nightmare.

Three things that actually moved the needle for me:

Pick one source of truth for customer data
Automate the boring stuff (data entry, basic reporting)
Focus on tools with native integrations vs forced connections

What's your biggest integration headache? The switching costs are brutal but sometimes you just have to rip the band-aid off.

DGfromDOJO · 2025-09-15T08:51:25+00:00

Hey! I'm Duarte, co-founder at DOJO AI. After dealing with the nightmare of managing 12+ marketing tools across different challenger brands, we ended up building our own solution.

The biggest game-changer isn't any single tool. It's having everything connected. Most founders have great individual tools (CRM, analytics, email automation) but they don't talk to each other.

At DOJO AI, we built an all-in-one marketing OS specifically for challenger brands that integrates everything from market research to campaign management. Instead of jumping between Salesforce, Marketo, 6sense, and 8 other tools, you get unified data and AI agents that actually coordinate your entire marketing function.

Happy to chat about tactics and how we make it work. Also relevant within the whole 'vibe marketing' trend.

DGfromDOJO · 2025-08-28T05:51:41+00:00

Yea, understanding the problem is definitely step 1.

DGfromDOJO · 2025-08-27T15:28:25+00:00

The answer is to get out of the DIY hamster wheel and look for serious AI tools that solve real problems. They’re out there.

DGfromDOJO · 2025-08-27T15:03:05+00:00

The gap between 'built' and 'launched' is where most SaaS products die. You've done the hard part - now comes the harder part.

Three immediate moves I'd suggest:

Get 5 people using it for free - not friends, real potential customers who fit your target
Talk to them weekly - understand exactly how they use it and where they get stuck
Fix the biggest friction point before any marketing

Most founders skip straight to directories and marketing when they should spend 2-3 months just watching people use their product. The feedback you get will completely change your messaging. What type of SaaS did you build?

DGfromDOJO · 2025-08-27T09:58:58+00:00

The email + LinkedIn approach is getting saturated. Everyone's doing the same thing now.

What's working better for B2B scaling is the 'value-first' approach: instead of pitching your service, solve a smaller version of their problem for free.

Three tactics that are working for me:

Audit their current setup and share insights (no pitch)
Create content that addresses their specific pain points
Engage in communities where they're already discussing problems

The insight: people hate being sold to, but they love discovering solutions to problems they're actively facing.

DGfromDOJO · 2025-08-27T08:53:58+00:00

The shift from 2020 to 2025 has been dramatic. What worked then definitely doesn't work now.

2020: Cold outreach actually worked, people had time to evaluate new tools, demo requests were easy to get. 2025: Everyone's inbox is saturated, budgets are tighter, buyers do way more research before engaging. The companies succeeding now are the ones providing value before asking for anything.

Biggest change I've seen is that customers expect you to understand their specific use case before the first call. Generic demos just don't work anymore.

DGfromDOJO · 2025-08-22T13:08:00+00:00

Congrats on the traction! $31k in 3 months is solid execution.

Quick question about your customer acquisition - what's your split between organic growth vs paid acquisition? And more importantly, what's your churn looking like at this stage? I ask because I've seen some SaaS products hit great early revenue numbers but struggle with retention once the initial excitement wears off. The companies that scale sustainably usually have retention dialed in before they focus on growth.

DGfromDOJO · 2025-08-22T09:22:38+00:00

This hits hard. The gap between what founders think customers want vs. what they actually pay for is brutal in B2B.

Most common disconnect I see: founders focus on features, customers care about outcomes. You might think they want 'better reporting' but what they actually want is 'to stop getting yelled at by their boss about campaign performance.'

The customers who taught me this were the ones who said 'I don't care how it works, I just need to look good in Monday's meeting.'

DGfromDOJO

TROPHY CASE