Episode 764 | Finding Hockey Stick Growth with an A.I. Wrapper (with Jordan Gal)

Startups For the Rest of Us

Rob Walling

Management, Entrepreneurship, Business, Marketing

4.8 • 792 Ratings

🗓️ 11 March 2025

⏱️ 40 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

How do you build an MVP for an AI-enabled SaaS? In episode 764, Rob Walling interviews Jordan Gal, co-founder of Rosie, to learn about how he pivoted from Rally to build an AI-driven product for small business owners. Jordan shares insights into the challenges of finding product-market fit, the importance of trial and error, and the rapid growth Rosie has experienced since its launch. They delve into the significance of effective onboarding, and how building an MVP changes in the face of AI. Topics we cover: (2:38) – From CartHook to Rally to Rosie (6:28) – Deciding to pivot and feeling product-market fit (12:55) – Coming up with a feature set (16:50) – Building an MVP quickly (19:29) – Competition when developing with AI (24:52) – Removing features and flexibility in software (29:59) – Incredibly fast onboarding (33:22) – Balancing a “better business” with a “faster business” Links from the Show: Applications for MicroConf Mastermind Matching are Open through March 31st SaaS Institute Rosie Jordan Gal (@JordanGal) | X Rosie (@heyrosieai) | X Episode 549 | Hiring vs. Outsourcing, E-commerce SaaS, and More Listener Questions with Jordan Gal If you have questions about starting or scaling a software business that you’d like for us to cover, please submit your question for an upcoming episode. We’d love to hear from you! Subscribe & Review: iTunes | Spotify

Transcript

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0:00.0	You're listening to Start Up for the rest of us. I'm Rob Walling. I'm your host this week and every week.
0:05.4	And in this week's show, I talk with Jordan Gall, the founder of Rosie at Hey Rosie.com.
0:12.2	Jordan and his team have been building this AI answering service for your business calls.
0:17.4	And he has pivoted the company from what was an e-commerce headless checkout.
0:23.1	And this is all after raising quite a bit of money in venture capital.
0:28.6	And so you will hear Jordan in this interview mention that they had a few million dollars left in the bank.
0:33.8	And he kind of flippantly says it.
0:35.0	And I think that's funny because when you're in that game, you know, he meant I only have a few million left in the bank. And he kind of flippantly says it. And I think that's funny because when you're in that game, you know, he meant I only have a few million left in the bank. But obviously, having that
0:42.6	much money in your bank account gives you some optionality. And that's what Jordan takes advantage of,
0:47.6	as you'll hear in this interview. As you listen to it, what I don't want you to think is,
0:51.8	oh, well, Jordan is making it work because he has a bunch of money in the bank. Because money doesn't solve your problems. What solves your problems is trial
1:00.0	and error, gut feel, execution, finding that gap in the market, being committed, doing a lot of
1:07.0	things quickly and having most of them work out. And that's what Jordan Gall has done both
1:12.4	with this company and his prior effort, cart hook. You'll hear that in the first three, four minutes,
1:17.8	the story of growing that to millions in ARR and then getting squashed by Shopify. It's a great
1:25.1	conversation. We cover all manner of topics ranging from getting started to
1:30.0	what it feels like to build a, and I'll put in quotes, an AI wrapper moving very quickly and what it
1:35.9	feels like to have product market fit. Jordan has signed up to be one of our founding coaches of the
1:42.5	SaaS Institute. That's at SaaS Institute.com, and it's for B2B SaaS founders doing a million or more in ARR.
1:51.0	He's a phenomenal founder, and we are lucky to have him as one of our coaches.
1:55.0	If you're interested in potentially being part of a mastermind, getting one-on-one coaching,
2:02.4	having an amazing community,
	...

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