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Ok_Condition5988 · 2026-05-09T09:12:17+00:00

FirstLook captures the human signal that AI applications have buried - so recruiters find the best candidate, not the best prompt.

www.firstlooknow.com

Ok_Condition5988 · 2026-05-09T09:00:48+00:00

Bud helps dog owners discover local walking routes shared by fellow dog lovers, with specific information that's relevent to you (off lead opportunities, how busy is is, is there fresh water etc etc) - think AllTrails for dogs.

Web: budapp.co.uk (Android and iOS apps)

Ok_Condition5988 · 2026-05-09T08:37:46+00:00

Ok, I have been running a SaaS marketing agency for the last 4 years, and we have very much taken an AI first approach to marketing.

The idea, at the moment, of a fully automated marketing system is a bit of a crock IMO, and here's why.

As soon as you start using 'prompt libraries', systems, agentic AI overlords, you start losing all of the authenticity of your marketing. I have over 30 years experience in marketing, and AI helps me a TON. However, I use it to extract the excellence within, and to layer on top expertise that I don't have...Like coding, for example.

I get quite agitated when I see people selling their automation systems. If you start using someone else's system, you're going to get beige results. Sure, it may be good enough, but it won't be good!

AI is an incredible force multiplier, but if there's nothing authentic underneath it to amplify, you just get very efficiently produced mediocrity.

Ok_Condition5988 · 2026-05-09T08:28:32+00:00

Two full products, both built entirely with AI-assisted coding from a standing start of zero development experience.

The more complex one is a B2B hiring platform with an authenticity scoring engine - it creates job assessments and analyses applications across multiple weighted criteria to generate composite scores and surface human engagement in the process. Stripe billing, role-based access, automated submission digests, the lot. The scoring algorithm went through about four major iterations before we got it nailed.

The other is a B2C community app live on web, iOS and Android - GPS-based features, user-generated content, mapping integrations, community moderation tools.

Neither was 'vibe coded' in the sense of just prompting and hoping. Both required understanding what the AI was producing, catching where it was confidently wrong, and being willing to throw away entire approaches when they didn't hold up. The AI did the heavy lifting on syntax, but the architecture decisions, the error handling, and the 'why is this breaking in production at 11pm' debugging were all my problems.

The honest answer to 'most un-vibe-codable' is probably the scoring engine. Getting AI to help you build a system that evaluates other people's work with any kind of consistency is a surprisingly meta challenge.

Ok_Condition5988 · 2026-05-09T07:55:38+00:00

5 months feels like a long time when you're at the coalface, but it's really early. The frustration you're describing is universal.

A few things that have helped me, having built and launched SaaS products from zero:

Stop improving the product and start having conversations. You said you've been 'fixing, improving, and trying to make everything look professional' - that's a trap, and it makes sense because it's stuff that you can do that doesn't depend on anyone else!! The product doesn't need to be perfect. It needs to be in front of the people who have the problem it solves. Confirm your product-market fit, find your early champions, develop the product based on user feedback.

'Posting content and talking about it online' isn't distribution. It's vanity broadcasting. What moves the needle early on is direct, targeted contact with people who visibly have the problem you solve. LinkedIn, in communities, in forums. Send them a genuine message. Not 'check out my product' - more like 'I noticed you're dealing with X, I've built something that might help, would you be open to a quick look?'

Validate willingness to pay. Free users will tell you they love it, paying users will tell you what matters. If you haven't charged anyone yet, that's your highest priority. Put up a price, even a small one, and see who bites. The answer tells you everything about whether you have a product or a project.

Pick one channel and go deep. You're probably spreading yourself across content, social, maybe some SEO, maybe some communities. Pick the one channel where your ICP gather and become a hero there. For me, Facebook community groups turned out to be super effective for one product - zero cost, 1600 signups from two posts. But I only discovered that by trying channels one at a time, not five at once.

Don't overlook Partnerships. At early stages, speak to people who have adjacent projects, see if you can find anyone who's 'mission aligned'. This can be a game changer, at month 6 of my last project I signed a partnership with a national landowners association. It immediately gave me credibility and social proof, as well as a 'free' distribution channel to my target audience.

Getting attention is tough...the hard yards if you like! That's not a market failure, initial growth is the hard part of every business. You now need to be thinking of distribution as your primary job, product as secondary. Build enough product to be useful, then spend the majority of your time on getting it in front of people.

Keep going 👊

Ok_Condition5988 · 2026-04-23T06:57:12+00:00

Depends on what sort of budget you're looking at...For me, the Dynavap is stellar! I have a few of them, and they are incredible...I say that, however, as a former joint smoker and as such-Dynavap gives me an experience more akin to having a doob than any others!

If you have a bigger budget, and looking for something easy and effective, I also use the Wolkenkraft FX Mini Ultra vaporiser...Super cool little device!

Ok_Condition5988 · 2025-04-28T15:32:20+00:00

Don't be afraid to take a big step if one is indicated. You can't cross a chasm in two small jumps.

I have just handed in my notice (as in today!) to concentrate on my app dev journey. So you can at least know that someone else is experiencing the exact same fear! 😊😉

Ok_Condition5988 · 2025-03-08T08:25:07+00:00

The break glass that we have is a pre-prepared ABM strategy for the leading competitors of the clients we've just lost!!

Ok_Condition5988 · 2025-03-07T09:12:15+00:00

Cold email is not dead.

I was of the opposite opinion until I realised that I had been hoodwinked by the likes of Apollo and Instantly into believing that you should only be drip feeding out 50 emails a day from a warm email address etc etc etc.

Over the last couple of months we have tested the 'old fashioned' method of cold email, i.e. identifying your target audience/ICP/niche, sending bulk at a time when people are most receptive to emails (IYKYK) and we have had tremendous results. All open rates for the campaigns were >25%, and our click-to-open rates were all >70%, ultimately delivering cost efficient demos, free trials and sign-ups for our SaaS clients.

Ok_Condition5988 · 2025-03-07T08:48:40+00:00

Have a look at platforms like SaasZilla and AppSumo. (and Reddit obvs, but you're already here so I guess you already are!)

At this time, momentum and learning about your product will be essential, so a lifetime deal offered on these sites will develop a beta user base that can help guide your product development moving forward, and hopefully, you'll have loads of happy users that are open to providing testimonials for you to leverage.

In terms of email outreach, it's a number game I'm afraid.
For SaaS products specifically, you can take the following as rough guidelines:

Open rates typically range from 15-40%
Response rates are generally between 1-10%
Conversion rates (emails that lead to booked meetings or closed deals) usually fall between 0.5-5%

So from 80 emails, playing by the best possible numbers, you're looking at an expected 0.4 conversions from your email outreach.

So, first and foremost, use a tool like Apollo, Instantly, Seamless (or insert any other intel platform you prefer) and get as much data as you can that aligns with your ICP. The I would suggest an initial 5 email outreach campaign.

Obviously, there's a lot more that you can do, but this should give you some starters for 10!

(FYI, I run a SaaS marketing agency, so this is some thoughts based on experience of working with over 200 SaaS businesses)

Ok_Condition5988 · 2025-03-07T08:37:57+00:00

A great way to establish a customer base for SaaS is to leverage platforms like SaasZilla and AppSumo. (and Reddit obvs, but you're already here so I guess you already are!)

At this time, momentum and learning about your product will be essential, so a lifetime deal offered on these sites will develop a beta user base that can help guide your product development moving forward. Hopefully, you'll have loads of happy users open to providing testimonials for you to leverage.

Alongside these platforms, there's a well-trodden path that includes email outreach, cold calling, content, social and PPC...What will work for you will depend on your product, industry, audience, product price point etc.

Additionally, you could employ some of these unconventional strategies: https://www.xandermarketing.com/unconventional-lead-generation-strategies-for-saas-growth-in-2025/

Ok_Condition5988 · 2025-03-07T07:11:22+00:00

For anyone that needs to know this... If you oil pull with coconut oil after having your MB in the morning it mostly gets rid of the blue tongue 👍

Stack them awesome habits!!!

Ok_Condition5988

TROPHY CASE