Most founders are terrified of "Red Oceans" or markets saturated with massive competitors. They think the only way to win is to find a completely untapped "Blue Ocean."

In this episode of the ProductLed 100 series, Wes Bush sits down with Patrick Thompson (CEO of Clarify.ai) and Esben Friis-Jensen (Co-Founder of Userflow) to discuss why entering a crowded market is actually the smartest move a founder can make if you have the right strategy.

Patrick reveals how he spent six months interviewing potential customers before writing a single line of code for Clarify, an autonomous CRM designed to disrupt the industry giants. Together with Esben, they break down the exact framework for validating problems, the power of business model disruption through pricing wars, and why "feature parity" is not the goal.

Whether you are building a new startup or trying to carve out space in a competitive category, this episode offers a masterclass in customer discovery, positioning, and Go-To-Market execution.

Key Highlights:

02:15 : Why Patrick spent 6 months on discovery before writing a line of code

06:53 : The "Red Ocean" Advantage: Why crowded markets are easier than Blue Oceans

10:10 : How to differentiate when features are commoditized

12:34 : Using price and ease of use as a wedge against incumbents

18:31 : The 3-Step Framework for building what people want: ICP, Channels, and Business Model

23:12 : Which acquisition channels actually work (Product Hunt vs. Founder-led Marketing) 30:04 : Why complex products still need human onboarding, even in PLG

36:49 : How to operationalize customer feedback for engineering teams

Resources:

📧 Clarify.ai : The Autonomous CRM

💼 Connect with Patrick Thompson on LinkedIn

💼 Connect with Wes Bush on LinkedIn

📝 Founder Therapy : Patrick's Substack

💼 Connect with Esben Friis-Jensen on LinkedIn

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AI and PLG are two of the most transformative forces in SaaS today and when combined, they can multiply growth faster than any traditional go-to-market model.

In this episode, Wes Bush sits down with Aakash Gupta, one of the leading voices in product and growth (and the creator of the largest newsletter in the space with 200,000+ subscribers), to explore how AI is revolutionizing every layer of product-led growth - from activation and onboarding to pricing and expansion.

They break down exactly how top SaaS companies are using AI to reduce time-to-value by 10x, build smarter pricing models, and even automate their internal processes using agents like Claude, NotebookLM, and Relay.

Whether you’re a founder, product manager, or growth operator, this episode is packed with real use cases, tools, and frameworks that will help you stay ahead of the curve in the AI + PLG era.

Key Highlights

02:15 – Top LLMs for product and growth teams

05:07 – Why every PLG practitioner should create a “copilot” inside Claude

07:29 – How AI projects can act as your chief of staff or people ops assistant

11:46 – Building AI executive assistants that replace (or supercharge) your EA

14:26 – Why marketers need to rethink their jobs in the age of AI automation

26:47 – The 10x practitioner mindset: how to become exponentially more effective

27:35 – AI-driven activation: how to reduce time-to-value by 90%

28:56 – Using AI evals and profiling questions to personalize onboarding

31:22 – Rethinking SaaS pricing for AI products

36:01 – How to design sustainable AI free tiers and reverse trials

41:08 – AI-assisted expansion and PQLs

Resources

🚀 Follow Aakash on LinkedIn - https://www.linkedin.com/in/aagupta/

📘 Get the ProductLed Playbook for free

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Most signup pages try to convince users with emotional imagery and persuasive copy. But what if the secret to higher conversions is actually showing people less—not more?

In this episode clip, Will Royal, founder and CEO of Promo Tix, reveals how one counterintuitive design change led to an 8% increase in signups. He shares the psychology behind "The Promised Land Effect" and explains why a blurred screenshot of your dashboard can outperform your best marketing copy.

This is just one tactic from the full conversation where Will shares three low-effort, high-impact strategies that helped grow Promo Tix to $25,000 in monthly recurring revenue.

Key Highlights:

• 01:19: What is the Promised Land Effect - showing a blurred dashboard beats emotional imagery
• 02:17: Testing 29,000 users led to an 8% conversion increase with just an image swap
• 02:53: Why conversion math matters (4% to 6% = 50% more revenue, not just 2%)
• 03:42: The psychology behind it - creating a curiosity gap that makes users feel "almost there"
• 06:27: Bonus win: Changing "Next" to "Finished" added another 1-2% conversion
• 07:17: Why micro-copy and small details often get overlooked but drive results

Resources

🎙️ Full Episode: Episode 266 - 3 Low-Effort, High-Impact Tactics That Took PromoTix to $25K MRR

📖 Read The Product-Led Playbook for free!

🧠 Sign up for the ProductLed Newsletter