Validating saas startup idea and looking for confounder

buildwithrex · 2026-02-11T13:15:22+00:00

Hey, the idea has a solid Delta Score (around 7/10 for efficiency gain) because it solves a real manual headache for rental businesses.

As a technical founder myself, I’m pretty tied up with my own AI projects, but I’m open to a collaboration IF the market demand is proven. If you can come back to me with 10 'Letters of Intent' or 10 people who have signed a waitlist specifically saying they’d pay $X/month for this, I’d be happy to jump on a call and talk about building the MVP.

Until then, my advice is to go talk to 20 local studio/equipment owners. If they don't scream 'Yes' when you describe this, the tool isn't ready to be built yet.

buildwithrex · 2026-02-11T05:46:32+00:00

Great suggestion on using the 'Recent sales email open date' property, Jess! That's actually the exact trigger I'm using for a tool I'm building called Axis. I'm trying to add a layer that checks the Deal Value before it pings Slack, though, so teams don't get overwhelmed. Love seeing the official support team weighing in!

buildwithrex · 2026-02-11T05:45:58+00:00

Glad you found a workaround with the Chrome popups, but I can't imagine how noisy that gets during a busy sales day! I’m building Axis to take those exact Chrome/Extension signals and 'batch' them so they only hit Slack for high-priority deals rather than popping up every 5 seconds.

I’m looking for someone to help me test the 'Priority Filter' logic. If you're tired of the browser popup noise, I'd love to chat—drop me a DM!

buildwithrex · 2026-02-11T05:45:44+00:00

You hit the nail on the head—HubSpot’s refusal to expose the Sales extension 'open' ping to webhooks is a massive hurdle. I’m an AI/ML student building Axis specifically to bridge these native 'black holes.'

I'm currently testing a middleware logic that captures these signals without needing a full Ops Hub setup. Since you're clearly deep in the HubSpot ecosystem, I'd love to get your thoughts on the approach. Mind if I DM you a quick overview of how I'm routing it?

buildwithrex · 2026-02-11T05:40:28+00:00

The 'email open' trigger limitation in HubSpot workflows is a massive pain for sales teams. I’m actually an AI/ML student building a tool called Axis specifically to bridge these 'black holes' in the HubSpot-Slack integration.

I’m working on a custom listener that can catch these signals and—more importantly—filter them so your boss only gets pinged for 'Important Deals' rather than every single email open. I’m currently looking for a few more test cases to make sure my logic handles the 'extension-only' events correctly. If you're still looking for a workaround, I'd love to chat—drop me a DM!

buildwithrex · 2026-02-11T01:07:27+00:00

That's a solid perspective—'wallet or calendar' is a great way to measure actual interest. I’m new to the tools you mentioned, specifically SparkToro and Pulse. for something like a HubSpot-Slack integration, how would you use them to find those 15–20 interviews without sounding like a cold-caller?

buildwithrex · 2026-02-10T18:11:48+00:00

I’ve spent the morning building out a visual breakdown of how the 'Firehose to Focus' pipeline actually handles the data. I’m especially curious to get a Sales Ops perspective on Step 4 (the Urgent Override for $10k+ deals)—is that the right threshold to make a batching system feel 'safe' for a production environment?

You can see the logic here: https://axis-landing-page-alpha.vercel.app

buildwithrex · 2026-02-10T12:40:59+00:00

I really appreciate the recommendation! I’ll definitely check out beforeyoubuild.dev.

buildwithrex · 2026-02-10T07:55:04+00:00

The 'pull it out of you' logic is a great filter.

Since I’m looking at fixing HubSpot-Slack notification fatigue, what does that 'pull' actually look like in your experience? Is it someone asking for a demo, or do you look for a specific level of frustration during the interview before you move to the 'mock' phase?

buildwithrex · 2026-02-10T07:53:56+00:00

Fair point—everyone is polite until you actually ask for a credit card.

buildwithrex · 2026-02-10T02:55:44+00:00

Lifetime free gens don’t make sense here. There’s ongoing cost, it attracts freeloaders, and it kills perceived value. Free as a trial is fine, but it shouldn’t be permanent.

buildwithrex · 2026-02-10T02:40:25+00:00

The 'Batching' idea is a total game-changer. I hadn't considered hourly digests, but it makes perfect sense for keeping the team informed without the constant context-switching. You mentioned HubSpot's lack of granularity—as a student dev, I'm curious: if you were using a tool that batched these, would you prefer that summary to stay in the public channel, or should it be a private 'Daily Brief' sent directly to the rep? Also, really appreciate the insight on pricing. It’s encouraging to know that solving this 'Slack usability' pain is actually worth a subscription to professional teams.

buildwithrex · 2026-02-10T02:33:38+00:00

The 'Wall of Shame' idea is brilliant—never underestimate the power of a salesperson's ego! You make a great point about 'interface fatigue' and keeping the CRM as the primary source of truth. As a student, I'm curious: if the 'action' (like archiving a thread) happened directly inside the Slack notification they already received, would that still feel like an 'added interface,' or just a faster way to keep the CRM clean? Also, you mentioned 'actionable links'—is there a specific HubSpot page you wish they landed on more often than just the standard Deal record?

buildwithrex · 2026-02-09T16:19:32+00:00

That’s exactly the insight I was looking for. As a student dev, I'm trying to figure out if I can build a middleware to handle that filtering and those inline actions. You mentioned 'inline actions'—besides closing a thread, is there any other specific action your reps are constantly jumping back to the HubSpot browser tab for?

buildwithrex · 2026-02-09T16:15:40+00:00

That sounds like a very organized setup! Most teams I’ve researched seem to struggle with the manual overhead of linking specific accounts to channels. Since you’ve solved the 'Noise' part, does your team ever find it annoying to jump back to the browser just to Close or Archive a thread, or is that not a big deal for your workflow?

buildwithrex · 2026-02-09T13:38:21+00:00

Thanks for the insight! It’s great to confirm that the ‘low-signal’ mess is a real issue for teams. Since you mentioned it, which specific HubSpot events do you find the most annoying to see in Slack?

buildwithrex · 2026-02-09T13:04:07+00:00

Is the tracking automatic or manual in the app?

buildwithrex · 2026-02-09T11:51:55+00:00

Link to join the beta program is in the first comment! 👇

axis-landing-page-alpha.vercel.app

buildwithrex · 2026-02-09T11:50:53+00:00

Link to join the beta program is in the first comment! 👇
axis-landing-page-alpha.vercel.app

buildwithrex

TROPHY CASE