Client Background
The client ran a small agency recovering lapsed leads for service businesses over email and WhatsApp. They wanted to productise it but had no clear positioning, no defensible moat, and no plan that would survive an endorsement panel.
The Objective
To turn a service business into a scalable AI SaaS with a defensible position in a crowded martech market.
Step 1: Ideation
We sharpened the wedge: not generic outreach, but at-risk lead recovery tied directly to revenue recovered. That framing separated RetainIQ from the noise of generic AI SDR tools.
Step 2: Business Plan Development
The plan covered ICP, channel strategy across email and WhatsApp Business API, compliance, and a usage-based pricing model linked to recovered revenue.
Step 3: Product Development
We built a working prototype with a lead scoring layer, recommended actions, and a recovered-revenue dashboard, demoed live during the endorsement interview.
Step 4: Financial Strategy
Projections were built bottom-up from the agency's existing recovery rates, giving the founder hard numbers to defend rather than market-size hand-waving.
Step 5: Interview Preparation
We focused mocks on defensibility, WhatsApp compliance, and how the product behaves when the AI is wrong.
Outcome
The application stood out due to:
- A sharp, revenue-tied product wedge
- A working prototype with a real dashboard
- Bottom-up financials grounded in existing client data
- A clear answer to the defensibility question
Final Result
- — Endorsement secured
- — First three paying SaaS customers migrated from the agency
- — Roadmap toward a UK-based seed raise
