From services to products

About 21 episodes involve a move from services to products. In six, the founder turned to products because agency income was tied to time or had a ceiling, or because client work was unfulfilling (Jacob Seeger, Ivan Nedlekovski, Mike, Rob Hallam, Jack, Hunter Hammonds). The ideas usually came from the agency’s own pain, in seven episodes. Ivan’s agency spent about 10 minutes qualifying each Upwork job, which became Lancer. Zac’s email agency frustrations became Hiro, Vikash’s freelance script became a paid tool, and Jack’s client spreadsheet became Profit AI. Katie Keith’s plugin, Will Cannon’s Uplead and the Faceless Video internal tool followed the same path. The agency also provides the first customers (the existing client base or known brands as beta users) and the funding. Tom Holliday hired three staff before any revenue on agency hosting income, and Andre Haykal reinvested productized-service revenue into development. Guests disagree on timing. Hammonds treats services as a deliberate launch pad and Holliday kept his agency running, whereas Ivan says he should have jumped to software immediately rather than ‘optimise for income’. A cheaper path is to validate as a manual service first (Haykal’s productized SaaS, Colin McIntosh’s $200–400 résumé reviews before the AI version).

Key points

• Products come from the agency’s or clients’ own recurring pain — 7 episodes. (Ivan Nedlekovski · Ivan Nedlekovski (Mar 2026) ▶ 02:50) (Zac · Zac (Jun 2026) ▶ 03:07) (Vikash · Vikash (Feb 2026) ▶ 02:54) +5 more
• Founders leave services because income is tied to time or capped, or because the work is unfulfilling — 6 episodes. (Jacob Seeger · Jacob Seeger & Alex (Jun 2025) ▶ 02:49) (Ivan Nedlekovski · Ivan Nedlekovski (Mar 2026) ▶ 13:57) (Mike · Mike (Nov 2025) ▶ 02:29) +3 more
• Many product founders ran agencies for years first — 6 episodes. (Ben Leavitt · Ben Leavitt (Mar 2026) ▶ 01:59) (Zac · Zac (Jun 2026) ▶ 03:09) (Will Cannon · Will Cannon (Oct 2025) ▶ 02:04) +3 more
• Service cash flow funds the product build — 4 episodes. (Tom Holliday · Tom Holliday (Sep 2026) ▶ 05:50) (Andre Haykal Jr. · Andre Haykal Jr. (Jul 2024) ▶ 06:03) (Hunter Hammonds · Hunter Hammonds (Sep 2023) ▶ 12:09) +1 more
• Existing clients are the first users and the ideal customer profile — 4 episodes. (Zac · Zac (Jun 2026) ▶ 03:07) (Jack · Jack (Jun 2026) ▶ 01:14) (Andre Haykal Jr. · Andre Haykal Jr. (Jul 2024) ▶ 07:14) +1 more
• Validate as a manual or productized service before building software — 2 episodes. (Andre Haykal Jr. · Andre Haykal Jr. (Jul 2024) ▶ 03:55) (Colin McIntosh · Colin McIntosh (Jan 2025) ▶ 05:35)
• It can run the other way: an audience or info product reveals a service business — 2 episodes. (Thomas Smale · Thomas Smale (Apr 2023) ▶ 02:24) (Tim Stoddart · Tim Stoddart (Apr 2024) ▶ 05:11)

Where guests agree

• Client work is a rich source of validated product ideas (presenter · Andre Haykal Jr. (Jul 2024) ▶ 18:24) (Katie Keith · Katie Keith (Feb 2026) ▶ 04:29) (Vikash · Vikash (Feb 2026) ▶ 02:54) +1 more

Where guests disagree

Keep the service business running while building, or jump to product early? ⚠️

• Use services deliberately as a cash-flow launch pad and keep them running during the transition (Hunter Hammonds · Hunter Hammonds (Sep 2023) ▶ 11:58) (Tom Holliday · Tom Holliday (Sep 2026) ▶ 06:11) (Zac · Zac (Jun 2026) ▶ 03:07)
• Jump into building products as early as possible; optimising for agency income was a mistake (Ivan Nedlekovski · Ivan Nedlekovski (Mar 2026) ▶ 13:57)

Frameworks

• Productized SaaS — Sell a service that looks like SaaS on the front end but is fulfilled manually behind the scenes, then build the real software once it is validated and funded. (Andre Haykal Jr. · Andre Haykal Jr. (Jul 2024) ▶ 04:07)
  • Low cost: no development fees, reuse what the agency already does
  • Proves the idea and gathers market research on what customers want
  • Builds cash flow so the product can be built cheaply and correctly

Tactics

• Fund a new product from an existing business — Use recurring income from a previous business (agency hosting clients) to hire staff before revenue. (Tom Holliday · Tom Holliday (Sep 2026) ▶ 06:11)
• Raise service prices until demand justifies productising — Resume reviews went from a couple of hundred dollars to $300 then $400 until he wasn’t comfortable raising further, prompting the AI version. (Colin McIntosh · Colin McIntosh (Jan 2025) ▶ 05:35)
• Turn a planned internal tool into a SaaS — An automation for their own channels became a product sold to others. (Alex · Jacob Seeger & Alex (Jun 2025) ▶ 03:52)
• Beta test with brands you already know — At launch the only users were a handful of known brands with free access. (Jack · Jack (Jun 2026) ▶ 01:14)
• Fund your creative work with a service business — An animation agency that matches animators with companies provides cash flow for 10 in-house animators making their own shorts. (unnamed guest · Henry Belcaster & Dylan Jardon (Oct 2023) ▶ 02:01)

Stories & examples

• Lancer from agency pain: Ivan’s agency won clients on Upwork, where qualifying and writing a proposal took around 10 minutes per job across 200,000 jobs a month. An agent built as an internal tool worked so well that beta friends closed three five-figure clients within two weeks, and he launched it as Lancer. Lesson: Automate a repetitive task you already do on a big platform. (Ivan Nedlekovski · Ivan Nedlekovski (Mar 2026) ▶ 03:11)
• 1,800 mock-ups in 30 minutes: A client hired him to make 1,800 mock-ups for a print-on-demand store, expecting three or four days; his script did it in about 30 minutes and the client paid $300 for the tool. Lesson: When your internal tool stuns a client, you may be onto a product. (Vikash · Vikash (Feb 2026) ▶ 02:54)
• Post Table Pro from a client project: Their second plugin, which lists any WordPress content in a searchable table, came from a client project; they kept adding features and released it as premium. Lesson: Client work can surface productisable ideas. (Katie Keith · Katie Keith (Feb 2026) ▶ 04:29)
• From book readers to M&A clients: After college he wrote a book and course on buying and selling websites; readers who had gone through it asked him to sell their businesses, so he started brokering without putting up his own money. Lesson: Customers asking for a service you already understand can reveal the real business. (Thomas Smale · Thomas Smale (Apr 2023) ▶ 02:24)
• Hiring a team before any revenue: After the MVP he hired a lead designer, head developer and front-end developer with zero revenue, funded by his agency. Lesson: He doesn’t recommend it, but it gave confidence to sell to bigger companies. (Tom Holliday · Tom Holliday (Sep 2026) ▶ 05:33)

Numbers

• Payment from the first client for the script: 300 USD (self-reported) (Vikash · Vikash (Feb 2026) ▶ 03:01)
• Services MRR: 40000 currency unstated / month (self-reported, approx., currency unstated) (Jack · Jack (Jun 2026) ▶ 01:06)
• Manual resume review price range: 200-400 USD (self-reported, approx.) (Colin McIntosh · Colin McIntosh (Jan 2025) ▶ 05:27)
• Years running the email marketing agency: 6 years (self-reported, approx.) (Zac · Zac (Jun 2026) ▶ 03:09)
• Productized-service revenue reinvested monthly into product development (caption ‘the5 to $110,000’): ?–110,000 USD/month / month (self-reported, approx.) (Andre Haykal Jr. · Andre Haykal Jr. (Jul 2024) ▶ 06:03)

Caveats & warnings

• Running a profitable agency paid well but had a hard ceiling; in hindsight focusing on it over AI products was probably wrong. (Ivan Nedlekovski · Ivan Nedlekovski (Mar 2026) ▶ 14:31)
• He stopped raising manual review prices because many people going through a job search can’t afford it. (Colin McIntosh · Colin McIntosh (Jan 2025) ▶ 05:39)

How much to trust this

• Evidence: 21 episodes, 23 independent speakers (repeat guests counted once; Pat and Gus counted as one voice).

Blueprints that use this

• Services → productised → product