Why We Refused to Launch Our Software the Normal Way

[00:00:00] We at Wave are committed to providing you with visibility into how your clients are using your squads so you can budget accordingly and offering transparency into our pricing. That's a real decision, new tool, new monthly line item, the question of what happens to everything you've built elsewhere.

[00:00:20] Welcome to the next evolution of the podcast, Entrepreneur School (In the AI Era). We are here to figure out how to integrate AI into the business you've worked so hard to build in a way that still feels like you. I'm your host, Kelly Sinclair, award-winning marketer turned AI platform co-founder.

[00:00:41] AI has fundamentally changed how I thought about work, systems, and what's actually possible. This show is about navigating that new reality together. It's going to be a wild ride, my friend, but I truly believe there's a way to leverage AI in a way that's intentional, human-centered, and aligned. It's an ongoing evolution, so let's explore, because AI may just be the unlock you need to achieve the life-first business you truly desire.

[00:01:12] So here's a confession from someone who now co-owns a software company. I have bought at least a handful of softwares in my life that I have literally never logged into. I am not talking like set up an account and then forgot, but just like never logged in.

[00:01:36] There's probably an AppSumo deal from back in 2022 that I could genuinely not tell you the name of. And I know that I am not alone in this, but when Andrew and I have been getting ready to launch Wave to the public, I kept thinking about those tools because I will tell you what pattern that is bad for. Your cash flow. And what is bad for us is our testimonial page.

[00:02:02] So we decided not to launch Wave the normal way. And today I'm going to tell you exactly what we're doing instead because honestly, I think this might be the most coach-brained software launch that you have ever seen. So welcome back to Entrepreneur School. Okay, so if you're new here, the thing you need to know about me is that I am a marketing strategist and coach first and a tech co-founder second.

[00:02:33] Like very second. Like accidental, as I've mentioned many times. I've spent 15 plus years in brand strategy and communications. I've built launches. I've coached entrepreneurs. I've watched what happens when someone buys a thing and the thing just sits there. You might even say that's what started this whole journey. I was working with clients to help them with their visibility strategies.

[00:03:00] So basically we would determine how to put themselves out there so that they could attract clients. And of course, the strategy was great. Very on brand for the client. Very customized to them. But the implementation was not happening. So I started building AI tools that could help them. Custom GPTs trained on my frameworks and experience. What I now call expert-backed AI.

[00:03:26] And what we now help experts build and sell as bot squads. But I'll get more into that later. Because here's why the coach first part of me matters. When it came time to figure out how we would launch Wave, the traditional software playbook was right there. Open the doors. Run some ads. Create a free trial. Credit card required. Hope they convert. It's a volume game.

[00:03:55] Every coaching instinct and marketing instinct in my body said, absolutely not. Because I know what happens with software. We buy it with the best intentions. We poke around once. Life happens. And then it becomes this monthly line item that we feel guilty about. You've done it. I've done it. The entire AppSumo business model is built on us doing it.

[00:04:20] And Andrew and I did not want to build a company on people not using the thing. And one day, an idea came to me in the shower. Because, of course it did. Bot Squad Boot Camp. An intentional experience where the next 20 people who come onto our platform actually build something, actually launch it, and actually make money with it.

[00:04:46] So instead of just opening the doors to our software, we built a boot camp around it. It's called Bot Squad Boot Camp. Build and sell your first bot squad on WAVE in two weeks. And this episode is the full tour. What it is. Who it's for. What you walk away with. Why we structured it this way. So let's get into it. First, some context.

[00:05:14] Because if you've been listening to this show for the past couple of months, you've watched this story build in real time. A few episodes back, I talked about how free information is dead. Because AI commoditized the what. Anyone can get a decent answer to almost any question instantly for free. Which means the value of your expertise has moved. It's not in the information anymore. It's in the interpretation.

[00:05:43] Your frameworks and your judgment and how you apply that to what it is that you help people do. And if you're listening to this show, then my guess is you already figured that out. You already probably built something. A custom GPT for one part of your process. A clod skill for another. Maybe you started with a prompt doc for your students to copy from. And you were helping them use AI to help you teach.

[00:06:12] So let me say this clearly. Because most of the AI conversation is designed to make you feel behind. And you are not behind. You're early. You saw where this was going before most of your industry did. And you started building with it. But I want to describe what that building probably looks like right now. So if you're out on your walk, I'm imagining you nodding your head along as we go through this. Your tools work individually.

[00:06:41] So you've like made a map for your clients. Do this over in bot one. Then copy the output. Take it to bot two. Paste it in. Start over. Where you're having to like give a tutorial on how your clients can be the connective tissue between your AI tools. And underneath all that duct tape, there's this like nagging problem that you try not to think about.

[00:07:07] Your frameworks, the intellectual property your entire business runs on, are sitting inside platforms you don't control. Someone else's servers, someone else's terms. You might be one policy change away from becoming someone else's training data. And that's like a real fear that we have. Oh, and then there's my personal favorite.

[00:07:34] Your clients need a ChatGPT account to access the thing they bought from you. Sit with that for a second. They paid you. And a third-party platform is standing between your client and your product. That creates friction. And I will never forget hosting a workshop full of people who are using my brand, BrandCalibrator GPT, for the first time.

[00:07:59] And then watching them all have to create ChatGPT accounts and hand 20 bucks over to OpenAI for something I built. That's the gap. Not your skills and not your effort. The infrastructure itself. It just didn't exist yet. And that is why we built it.

[00:08:21] Okay, so quick baseline, because I never want to assume that you follow every single episode and read all of my emails and have heard all of the wave updates. A bot. It's an AI tool trained to do one job using your materials and your method. And it still remains true that the more specific you can be with a bot's job, the better job that bot will do. So that's how you end up needing a team of bots to go through your full process.

[00:08:50] And so we call that a bot squad. Because cute. And that's what happens when those tools stop working alone. Here's the line I keep coming back to. Your methodology delivered as a guided experience instead of a pile of links.

[00:09:18] And the part that makes most people's jaw drop every single time we demo it, when bots share context, the answers get noticeably smarter. Your client doesn't have to repeat themselves. And that copy-paste nightmare ends. So if you want to hear what this looks like inside a real business, go back to last week's episode with Dr. Michelle Mazur, our very first beta creator.

[00:09:43] She built her squad that she calls Moxie, which is based on her three-word rebellion methodology. And her clients are doing messaging work in weeks. It used to take months. She goes from six sprints now down to three. She's cut her time in half. And it's amazing. And next week on the podcast, you're going to hear from Nicole Pearl.

[00:10:06] She is a journalist and PR coach who has built an entire pitch desk as her squad. She has research bots that look for client opportunities for podcasts and pitch bots that will write podcast pitches. And then she does the same with TV segments. So her client's pitches come out sounding like them on their best day aimed at exactly the right door.

[00:10:34] So totally different experts, totally different squads, same infrastructure. So whatever your method is, there's a bot squad for that. Now, here's the part of the episode that most launches would skip. And it's exactly why we built the bootcamp. So let me take you back to this time last year when I was dreading a decision I knew that I had to make.

[00:11:02] It was time to change email service providers. Goodbye, ActiveCampaign. Hello, Kit. It's no small feat to transition a major part of your tech stack that your business runs on. And long story short, I made it through while launching my first ever bundle with only minimal PTSD and absolutely no regrets. And now here I am selling software.

[00:11:28] So I want you to know I completely understand choosing to build a part of your business on Wave is not a small decision. And with that in mind, Andrew and I have been really intentional about designing a platform you can confidently embed your business into and share with your clients with pride. When you join the bot squad bootcamp, you're not just buying a two-week program.

[00:11:55] You're adding a layer of software infrastructure to your business. Your enrollment includes your first three months of a Wave creator account. And after that, the subscription starts at $129 US per month. And that covers you building squads and your clients using them. Your clients only pay you. And the more clients you get using your squad, the more the usage costs will go up.

[00:12:24] But you're also going to be making more money. So your monthly subscription will increase incrementally then. This is the crazy world of AI where inference costs, a.k.a. token usage fees, are changing all the time. They vary by LLM. And they're honestly unpredictable. And at this point, we're all starting to get used to topping up our quad account credits and hitting usage limits. Even if it is annoying.

[00:12:52] We at Wave are committed to providing you with visibility into how your clients are using your squads so you can budget accordingly and offering transparency into our pricing. That's a real decision.

[00:13:32] That's a real decision. So in the course of two weeks, from July 6th to 17th, Andrew and I, the actual founders, are available. We're in the room with you twice a week until your bot squad is built, ready to be tested and launched. There's no login and good luck. This is a build path with a graduation date and a very clear outcome. So what are we actually going to do in the boot camp? Let's break it down.

[00:14:01] Before we start, so you're going to have an onboarding week, week of June 29th. This is where you're going to get organized. That's the whole assignment. We're going to give you a bot squad to start walking you through the process to gather every piece of your program into one place. We're going to need access to your curriculum, your frameworks, your worksheets, maybe GPTs or clawed tools that you've built.

[00:14:25] And this is going to be like something you probably been meaning to do for three years, back up all of your materials. We're going to do it. And then week one is design week. You're going to map where AI actually belongs in your client experience. And fair warning, this may reshape how you deliver your program. And in the best way, you're going to sketch out your squad like an org chart. Which bots exist? What jobs they hold?

[00:14:54] Who sits in the same boardroom? That kind of idea. Then we are going to have bot building day where you turn your first bots on. And I can't wait to watch that happen. It's going to be so fun. Week two is building week. So your bots become a squad. And you get that shared context moment with your own tools.

[00:15:19] You'll see what happens when all of your bots now have access to the same information and can talk to each other in a very cohesive way. Then we do the fun not fun part, which is testing. So you're going to test everything as your own subscriber. Understand exactly what your clients will experience when they go through and start using your squad. And we'll help you set up access for payment, to receive payment.

[00:15:48] And I even want to talk to you about launch messaging for however you're going to sell this. And then we graduate. Your squad is live. You have a testing plan. You know how you're going to incorporate this into your fall cohorts. Fall launches, maybe you're super ahead of the game and you're already doing Black Friday prep. You're changing the value of your program.

[00:16:16] And that is the real benefit here. And the other thing I want to mention is the rhythm of how we're implementing this is really built for summer. We're doing async trainings that you can watch on your own schedule. Five live labs that are all recorded so we can gather questions in advance if you can't attend. You can watch replays. There's a support community. And the last part is Splash.

[00:16:46] I haven't told you about Splash yet. She is our resident platform expert who lives inside Wave. She never sleeps. She never makes you feel silly for asking a question. And she will give you like copy-pastable fixes for your bot instructions at like 9 p.m. on a Tuesday or whenever it is that you're actually working on this. So she is a team member that we are so glad that we built for you to use.

[00:17:17] So it's about an hour or two a day. That's the commitment. And then you have all of the rest of July and August to test with your real clients. Maybe roll some of your alumni or your private clients in to start using these tools. Get some testimonials for yourself. And then September you walks into launch season, your Black Friday promo prep or whatever it is,

[00:17:43] with an AI upgraded offer, testimonials from your summer testing, and proof your competitors don't have. So let's talk about who this is for because we capped it at 20 spots on purpose and one is already gone before I'm recording this. This is for you if you have a real framework program method that your clients pay for.

[00:18:08] If you've already experimented with AI, you have some custom GPTs, possibly clod skills, all of that counts and that can come with you. And if what you really want is for your IP to be protected and your client experience to happen under your brand. This is not for you if you're new to building AI. You need a basic orientation first. You don't have an offer yet. There's no shame there.

[00:18:36] I just don't want to overpromise what we're working with you on. It's not a course that you watch. It's a build that you finish. And with both founders beside you and a date on the calendar, I'm so excited for how this is going to roll out. You can find all of the details at grabbiastudio.com slash bootcamp. And the link is in the show notes.

[00:18:58] I'm also offering a private strategy call for anyone who decides to pay in full because our startup thanks you for helping our cash flow. And because this is a real decision about your business, I'm doing something I would coach any of you to do. If you're not sure if this is the right fit, book a quick call with me. 20 minutes together, we'll look at what you've got and we'll figure it out honestly.

[00:19:26] The link for that call is in the show notes too. So doors are closing on June 28th because we need time to onboard everyone properly before we kick off on July 6th. We're intentional about this experience. That is the whole point. I would love to see your name on that list. Let's get your bot squad on.

[00:19:47] And if you are hearing this after the doors have closed, we are probably cooking up another cohort or a version of this that you can jump into and use Wave and start building your bot squad. So reach out to me directly at kelly at graviastudio.com to learn more. Bye for now. Thank you for listening.

[00:20:09] If this episode got you thinking about how AI is impacting your business and what it might look like to integrate it in a way that actually fits, I'd love to help you think that through. You can book an AI strategy chat using the link in the show notes. It's a space to talk about where you are, what's shifting and how to move forward with intention. And if this episode was helpful, please share it with another business owner who's navigating this evolution too.

[00:20:37] And make sure you're subscribed so you don't miss what's coming next.