Guiding early-stage SaaS founders to 7-figures | SaaS Coach & Advisor | Top 0.5% Global Podcast | 400+ SaaS Founder Interviews | Ex-Microsoft & Disney

There are two dangerous traps for SaaS founders today.🪤 Trap #1: The "Old School" Grind. Thinking you need to hire a massive team, burn VC money, or work 80-hour weeks to scale. 🪤 Trap #2: The "AI Hype" Illusion. Thinking ChatGPT will magically build a business for you while you sleep.I believe in a third way: Powered by AI. Guided by Humans.The fundamentals of business haven't changed. You still need product-market fit, a sales engine, and retention strategies. But the speed of execution has changed forever.I help bootstrapped founders use "Pragmatic AI" for leverage (to stay lean) while relying on time-tested strategies (to stay profitable).Where the insights come fromI host The SaaS Podcast (Top 0.5% globally), where I don’t just interview guests; I deconstruct their playbooks.After 450+ interviews with successful founders (and my background at Microsoft &amp; Disney), I’ve turned these patterns into actionable programs to help you cross the chasm from "building" to "scaling."How I can help youDepending on where you are in your journey, I have a specific roadmap for you:1. For Early-Stage Founders ($0 to $10k MRR) You have a product, but you need traction. Stop guessing. 👉 SaaS Club Launch: A proven program to help you find your ideal customers and reach $10k MRR faster.2. For Scaling Founders (6-Figures to 7-Figures) You have revenue, but you want to scale without breaking the business (or yourself). 👉 SaaS Club Mastermind: A private community where I work with you directly to optimize your funnel, operations, and strategy to hit $1M+ ARR.3. For Listeners &amp; Builders Get weekly SaaS insights, founder case studies, and actionable strategies delivered straight to your inbox. 👉 The SaaS Club Newsletter &amp; PodcastReady to start?You don't have to build alone. Choose the path that fits your current stage here: ⬇️ https://saasclub.io/join-community/

Omer Khan

Gavin Hammar

I build and grow bootstrapped SaaS businesses with low overheads and high profits. 

Building human-centric solutions for an AI future with Swarm, StoryPrompt, and Sendible (acquired 2021). 

Side hustle: Taking founders from idea → $$$ in 90 days (no coding knowledge needed). 

Founder

StoryPrompt brings your customers, teams, and community closer than ever before through asynchronous video messaging. Starting a face-to-face conversation, capturing responses, and boosting engagement is as simple as sharing a link. No meetings necessary.

I CANNOT MAKE THIS UP. I signed up for Circle yesterday. A competitor of ours.

Just wanted to see what's new in their platform.

This morning I get an email from their SDR.

Personalised.

About Swarm. My company.

Here's what they said:

"I've been following Swarm's impressive growth, especially your recent acquisition by Inveniam and your leadership in the AI and ESG space with events like the Human + AI Symposium."

Sorry? Acquisition by WHO?

Human + AI Symposium??

ESG SPACE???

Not a single fact is correct.

THE IRONY IS KILLING ME.

I signed up using my actual company email. 

And their AI agent just completely hallucinated an entire version of Swarm that doesn't exist.

This is exactly what I've been warning about.

Everyone's using AI to scale outreach. Nobody's checking if it's actually true.

We're all just spraying AI slop everywhere and hoping something sticks.

This is why real human connection stands out.

This is why we built Swarm to be HUMAN-FIRST.

Because when you automate everything, you get emails congratulating your users on acquisitions that never happened.

A human would never make that mistake. 

Right? 😉

Founder: Swarm, StoryPrompt, Sendible | Sharing no-BS frameworks to escape your 9-5

I miss the Sendible office.

We had pool tournaments that people took WAY too seriously. Table tennis matches that got genuinely heated.

Friday morning donuts. Gone by 10:15 AM.

Friday evening happy hour. Different teams would deliver drinks to our desks.

Now I'm home staring at my laptop.

Can't challenge someone to pool over Zoom.

Can't hear someone yelling "REMATCH" across the office.

Can't feel that energy when 40 people are just... around.

And yes, I know. I built a video platform used by remote teams.

But that's exactly because I know what we lost.

WELL THIS IS EMBARRASSING.

I just launched an Instagram account.

12 followers. 

My wife refused to follow me. Said my profile photo looked like a "mugshot from 2009."

She's not wrong.

My goal? 0 → 25K views in 8 weeks.

And I'm posting about it HERE so I can't back out.

Smart? Probably not.

Right now I'm that guy posting Reels to an audience of crickets.
The algorithm hates me. My watch time is terrible. My hooks need work.

BUT I'M DOING IT ANYWAY.

Here's the deal: I'm doodling frameworks on Instagram for people who want to escape their 9-5 and hit $10K/month.

No guru BS. No courses. Just free frameworks drawn on a whiteboard.

Everything I wish someone showed me when I was planning MY escape.

So if you know someone: 
- Stuck in corporate hell 
- Building something on nights and weekends 
- Dreaming about quitting 

Send them here: @startupdoodler

I need ALL the help I can get.

And if I fail? At least it'll be entertaining.

I'll post updates every week. You can watch me either figure this out or completely bomb.

8 weeks. 25K views. Starting from 0.

Let's go.

PS. If you're reading this and thinking "this guy is crazy"... you're probably right. 

But I've done crazier things. Like spending £12,000 buying back my own company from investors who tried to steal it.

That worked out pretty well.

A coach we work with made $21,000 in 48 hours. One pricing change.

He WAS trapped doing one-time calls all day. $499 each.

His calendar was packed. His income capped.

Then he added a $549/year membership option.

THAT'S IT.

The membership looked like a steal next to the one-time call.

Basic anchoring. Psychology 101.

And it printed $21K in recurring revenue in under 48 hours.

Now his days aren't filled with back-to-back Zoom calls.

He's actually scaling his business instead of trading time for money.

I know this sounds like one of those cringe "coach makes $$$$" posts.

But I literally watched this happen in Swarm.

Sometimes the simplest tweak changes everything.

“QUIT YOUR JOB AND GO ALL IN.” That’s terrible advice. 

Here’s what actually works: 

The Income Staircase.

You don’t jump. You climb:

STEP 1: Hit $1K/month

One client. One tiny product. Whatever. Still working your day job. Zero pressure. Just prove you can make money doing your thing.

STEP 2: Get to $2.5K/month

NOW you know it’s real. Not a fluke. Double down on whatever’s working.

STEP 3: Match your salary

This is where it gets interesting. Most people quit here. DON’T.

STEP 4: Hit 50% ABOVE your salary

Build a buffer. Bad months happen. You need runway. This is the part everyone skips.

STEP 5: NOW you can quit

You’ve got proof. You’ve got buffer. You’ve got momentum. Now the leap isn’t scary.

Here’s what nobody tells you:

The people who “just quit and figure it out”? Most of them fail.

The ones who climb the staircase? They build real businesses.

I spent 13 years building Sendible as a side project before selling it. Climbed every single step.

No VC funding. No dramatic leap. Just consistent progress up the stairs.

My 8-year-old just walked into my office while I was recording a Reel.

"Dad what are you doing?"

"Making a video for Instagram."

"How many people will see it?"

"...100 maybe."

"Oh. Can I have a snack?"

Nothing humbles you faster than building in public with your kids as your audience.

I just watched someone build an entire app in Lovable. Took them 3 days. Know how many users signed up? 

FOUR.

And one of them was their mom.

Here's what happened:

They discovered Lovable. Got excited. 

"HOLY &$%! I CAN BUILD AN APP WITHOUT CODE!"

Spent 72 hours prompting AI. Making it beautiful. Perfect animations. Dark mode. The whole thing.

Launched it.

Nobody cared.

Because they skipped the ONLY step that matters:

FINDING OUT IF ANYONE ACTUALLY WANTS IT.

Listen. I love that you can build apps now without writing code. It's incredible. 

Lovable is insane. 

But it made the problem WORSE.

Because now instead of wasting 6 months building something... you waste 3 days building 10 things nobody asked for.

Here's how the smart ones do it:

1. Get specific: "project managers drowning in Slack notifications"

2. Find their pain: "I miss important messages in 8 different channels"

3. PRE-SELL: "Would you pay $10/month for this?" Get 10 yeses.

4. THEN open Lovable

If they won't pay BEFORE you build it? They definitely won't pay after.

What's your app idea? SELL IT TO ME!

I asked Claude to help me write a LinkedIn post yesterday.

It came back with something that started with "In today's rapidly evolving landscape..."

I said "NO. Delete that. Start over. Write like a human."

It apologized.

Now I feel bad for being mean to an AI.

What a time to be alive.

taplio

The Battle

Omer Khan

Gavin Hammar

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The Battle

Omer Khan

Gavin Hammar

Followers

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Engagements

Likes

Performance Score.css-goub6s{font-size:var(--chakra-fontSizes-md);font-weight:500;color:var(--chakra-colors-gray-600);display:block;margin-top:var(--chakra-space-1);}Gavin Hammar's LinkedIn Performance

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