Unscripted SaaS

About Unscripted SaaS

I'm interviewing SaaS founders, solopreneurs, developers and marketers who are working with, or for SaaS companies. We're exploring what makes a SaaS tick, business models, pitfalls, hard lessons and huge victories in an unscripted interview format.

Publisher

Jeremy Rivera

Category

business

Language

en

Explicit

No

First episode

16 Jan 2025

Latest episode

16 Jul 2026

Latest episodes

9 episodes in the feed.

1. 

   16 Jul 2026

   "AI Is Confidently Wrong About Your Brand" — Closing the Loop with Stellarcast

   When someone asks ChatGPT, Claude, Perplexity, or Gemini "what's the best X?", a few brands get named — and most companies have never checked whether they're one of them. Somya Goyal built Stellarcast to change that: a platform that watches how your brand shows up in AI answers, diagnoses why you're missing, ships the fix, and then proves the needle moved. After 15+ years in quality engineering — eight of them at Accenture, then leading QA and building validation frameworks for AI systems — Somya is a first-time founder building Stellarcast in the open from India. In this conversation with host Jeremy Rivera, she breaks down why AI citations are a different game from search rankings, why "AI is confidently wrong" about so many brands, and how a continuous monitor-diagnose-execute-prove loop beats the one-time audit. In this episode The monitor → diagnose → execute → prove flywheel — and why most tools "stop at the dashboard" Why citations aren't rankings: AI answers overlap Google's top ten by only ~14% AEO in plain English — make your brand easy for AI to find, understand, and read Why "AI is confidently wrong", citing two-year-old pricing and reviews even after fresh data lands Treating LLM answers as a "liquid surface" — freshness, lag, and query-deserves-freshness in AI CMS integrations (WordPress, Shopify, Webflow) that turn diagnosed gaps into approved, shipped fixes Somya's leap from 15+ years in QA to first-time founder — and the exposure of shipping under your own name Market fit for SMBs and agencies, with the human always in the loop Chapters (00:00) Meet Somya Goyal & what Stellarcast does — a "system of AI records" (02:30) The four-agent loop: monitor, diagnose, execute, prove (05:45) CMS integrations & building in the open with pilot design partners (08:10) How the models behave differently — and why citations aren't rankings (~14% overlap) (12:20) Freshness, lag, and the "liquid surface" of LLM answers (16:05) AI as your least-trained support rep — the rogue knowledge base (19:15) Somya's background: fifteen years in QA to first-time founder (22:40) Market fit: SMBs, agencies, and the human-in-the-loop (25:30) Early access & pricing Notable quotes "Visibility in AI is simple. Make your brand easy for AI to find, understand, and read. That is the new name of AEO, in very simple English."— Somya Goyal"Ranking is different and citation is different. AI citations overlap Google's top-ten links by only fourteen percent."— Somya Goyal"Most brands have never read what AI says about them, and sometimes AI is confidently wrong. It cites data that's maybe two years old — the pricing, the reviews — even after a lot of fresh data."— Somya Goyal Resources & links Stellarcast — AI brand-visibility platform (monitor, diagnose, execute, prove) Somya Goyal on LinkedIn — where she's building in the open When AI is "confidently wrong" the fix is filling the gaps with human-certified, expert-sourced content Monitoring your brand's AI footprint and entities is exactly where SEO advisory...

2. 

   2 Jul 2026

   Tobiloba Sulaimon (AuTrans) Transcribing Video/Audio For African Languages

   Jeremy Rivera sits down with Tobiloba Sulaimon, a self-taught software developer from Lagos, Nigeria, who built AllTrans — an audio-transcription SaaS that actually understands African languages like Yoruba and Igbo, where tools like Otter and Fireflies drop them as "noise." It's a candid founder story: solving your own problem, staying "African first," and resisting scope creep on the road from a weekend side project to a real product with its first paying customers.▎▎ ⏱️ Chapters▎ 00:00 Meet Tobiloba & AllTrans▎ 00:22 Transcription that understands African languages (Yoruba, Igbo)▎ 02:07 The "secret recipe" engine — keeping every language as-spoken▎ 03:39 Why so much of the ML world flows through English▎ 05:54 The origin story: a meeting the tools couldn't transcribe▎ 08:00 From personal tool to public SaaS — "African first"▎ 10:49 The scope-creep trap: horizon▎ 12:15 Jeremy's Raven Tools cautionary tale▎ 14:37 Self-taught from Lagos: HTML/▎ 17:00 Mentorship, X exposure & his first client gig▎ 20:40 First dev role at a game stud▎ 23:39 Building AllTrans in a weekend; launching Nov 10▎ 24:57 ~100 users and the first payi▎ 25:43 Selling a real cure for a real pain point▎ 27:19 The roadmap: mobile apps, mor▎ 31:35 Wrap-up▎▎ In this episode▎ • Why mainstream transcription tool▎ • Choosing a narrow vertical (one country's languages) before expanding▎ • Avoiding scope creep with a smallp▎ • Going from self-taught to shipping a SaaS in ~2 years▎ • What's next: Android/iOS apps, ~1▎▎ AllTrans▎ Website: https://alltrends.online ⟵ verify exact URL/spelling before publishing▎▎ ️ Unscripted SaaS▎ Listen: https://unscripted-saas.cas▎ More episodes: https://unscriptedsaas.com▎ Host: Jeremy Rivera — https://jerem▎▎ #SaaS #Startup #AfricanTech #Speecha #IndieHackers #FounderStory#UnscriptedSaaS

3. 

   14 May 2026

   Tom Girgash (Taproot): Building a Memory Layer for Solo AI Operators

   Tom Girgash quit his job two or three weeks before this conversation to build Taproot, a memory layer that keeps your knowledge in local files and pipes it into Claude, ChatGPT, Codex and Claude Code over MCP. Jeremy Rivera talks with him about grounding AI in your own work, finding words for a brand-new category, and building distribution without an ad budget. Follow Tom on X at @TGIRGS. Tom took the long way into software: an Ohio State degree, a sales role selling bearings and hoses in the field, an information-systems master's at the University of Cincinnati, and a short stint as an ERP consultant at an accounting firm. Taproot started as an MVP he built for one man named Tim, who wanted one place to hold and query all his knowledge. Read the full written recap: Tom Girgash on building Taproot, the memory layer for solo AI operators. What we cover Why "past chats" are not memory, and why you can't tell whether what surfaced is true One knowledge base, many tools: why MCP makes cross-tooling the point The mom test, and landing on "memory layer" after months of messaging that didn't land About 20 signups in the first couple of weeks, Mac-only for now The "firm brain" idea for teams, parked while he serves solo operators first Pricing to a pain point: the user about to jump from the $20 tier to $100-200 AppSumo-style launches as a paid feedback audience Why distribution, not code, is the hard part Distribution is the last moat Tom's open problem is the one most bootstrapped founders share: "I'm not in a position right now. I want to spend money on ads," so he needs an organic distribution engine. Reddit and forums help with validation but punish anything that smells like selling. He also names a trap of the moment: with AI you can do so much that it's easy to spend weeks tweaking a website instead of talking to users. We dig into that tension in Cracking distribution is the hard part, and Nick Eubanks makes the same case in distribution as the only moat. Jeremy brings lessons from running product at Raven Tools: the interaction between pricing and churn, why "they left because of price" is not actionable on its own, and why a launch platform like AppSumo can buy you a committed early user base. He also maps where marketers went after the Twitter exodus: Threads, Bluesky and Slack communities. Tom's line on where this is all heading: "I think being human, being as human as possible, connecting with your audience on a very human level, it's going to be something that's going to be pretty large going forward." More founder stories from the show: Founder stories and bootstrapping. Try Taproot free for 30 days at taproothq.com/pricing. Hosted by Jeremy Rivera.

4. 

   8 May 2026

   Building a Privacy-First Client Reporting SaaS with Malith Gamage of Zapdigits

   About Malith Gamage Malith Gamage is the co-founder of Zapdigits, a privacy-first client reporting and marketing dashboard platform built for agencies. Originally from Sri Lanka and based in the Netherlands, Malith brings 15+ years of SaaS product development experience, including time at Brevo (a European unicorn) and an InsureTech company. He bootstrapped Zapdigits with his fiancée — a UX/UI designer — after identifying a gap in affordable, white-labeled reporting tools for small and mid-size marketing agencies. What We Cover How a personal pain point — sharing data with a non-technical co-founder — led to the founding of Zapdigits Why white labeling on every plan (not just premium tiers) is Zapdigits' core differentiator against Agency Analytics and Looker Studio The current state of AI SEO reporting: what's trackable, what's not, and why the same query returns five different answers from the same LLM How European GDPR concerns shape product decisions around AI features and data handling — and why self-hosted LLMs are part of the solution The four-tier value pitch framework Jeremy uses to help SaaS founders move beyond 'we save you time' to identity-level positioning Bootstrap vs. investor funding: when to take the money, and what happens to product direction when you do Episode Highlights Malith originally built Zapdigits as an internal tool to solve a specific frustration: his non-technical co-founder kept asking for Stripe revenue and campaign data, and Malith didn't want to hand over full platform access. That internal dashboard became the seed of a full product — one that now serves over 90% SEO-focused marketing agencies, with Search Console, Google Analytics, and Google Business Profile as the three most-requested data connectors. "White labeling — normally, competitors put it on the highest plan. We are focused on offering it on any of our plans." On the AI SEO reporting front, Malith is candid about how messy the space is right now. Zapdigits currently aggregates brand visibility data across multiple LLMs — ChatGPT, Gemini, and others — to produce averaged visibility scores for agency clients. But as he explains, "domain authority doesn't seem to matter — sometimes it's a very new blog they pull from." He even found his own zero-DA Zapdigits AI domain being surfaced in responses after he'd never promoted it. The full breakdown of how they're approaching this is in their blog post on monitoring ChatGPT visibility at scale. One of the most practical discussions in the episode centers on why shipping a bad AI feature is worse than shipping no AI feature. Malith's approach: before any feature goes live, he recruits the user who requested it for beta testing. That feedback loop — built from lifetime deal buyers and direct email conversations — has shaped the Zapdigits public roadmap, which users can vote on directly. "Your AI is only as smart as your schema. As long as you give the correct data and the correct description, you will get good answers back." Jeremy and Malith close with a rich conversation about when (or whether) to take venture capital. Malith observes that most of his direct competitors — including Agency Analytics — are bootstrapped. Jeremy shares a first-hand account of how Tap Clicks' investor-driven priorities reshaped...

5. 

   15 Sept 2025

   Kevin Urrutia & Magic Rinku's Internal Linking SaaS

   Guest Bio Kevin Urrutia is a software engineer turned serial entrepreneur with 20+ years of experience building tech products. He's worked at Silicon Valley companies including Mint.com and Zaarly, and founded Voy Media, a digital marketing agency that has generated over $50 million in revenue. His latest venture, Magic Rinku, tackles one of SEO's most persistent challenges: automating internal link building at scale. Connect with Kevin: Email: kevin@magicrinku.com Twitter: @danest Website: Magic Rinku Episode Summary In this unscripted conversation, Kevin shares the journey of building Magic Rinku from personal frustration to SaaS solution. We dive deep into the technical challenges of WordPress integration, the strategic use of AI versus traditional algorithms, and unconventional marketing approaches that are actually working in 2025. Kevin reveals how he discovered 350 out of 400 articles on his own site had zero internal links, the technical nightmare of supporting multiple WordPress page builders, and why cold email and Reddit still outperform traditional SaaS marketing for developer tools. Key Topics Covered The Genesis Story How Kevin's personal pain with internal linking across 8-10 affiliate sites led to Magic Rinku The validation process through Reddit and direct customer conversations Why most SEO professionals are missing huge linking opportunities due to broken manual processes Technical Deep Dive WordPress ecosystem challenges: Supporting Elementor, Beaver Builder, Gutenberg, and Classic Editor The 30-second delay problem and why bulk operations are complex in WordPress Database structure differences across page builders and how they affect plugin development Error handling and retry systems for WordPress API integration AI Implementation Philosophy Strategic use of AI vs. traditional algorithms (RAKE, ENG tagger) Two specific AI use cases: contextual understanding and smart sentence generation Why 30% of AI suggestions are perfect, 50% need tweaking, and 20% are unusable The explainability problem and showing confidence scores to use...

6. 

   10 Mar 2025

   Angshuman Rudra (TapClicks) on Data Pipelines and Market Inflection Points

   In this conversation, Jeremy Rivera of Community Clean Links and SEO Arcade interviews Angshuman Rudra, a product manager at TapClicks, discussing the company's marketing operations platform, the intricacies of ETL processes, and the challenges of product management in a SaaS environment. Angshuman shares insights on customer needs, market trends, and the importance of sales feedback in shaping product development. The discussion also touches on the evolving terminology in marketing technology, the role of AI in data management, and the future roadmap for TapClicks, including new features and integrations.

7. 

   26 Feb 2025

   Bryan Shankman

   In this conversation, Jeremy Rivera interviews Bryan Shankman, co-founder and CEO of Tool Desk and LeadTruffle discussing the origins of their SaaS products, the challenges of pricing and customer support, and the strategies for marketing and future-proofing their business. Bryan shares insights on building a successful startup in the home services industry, the importance of customer engagement, and the risks associated with relying on a platform like Jobber. In this conversation, Bryan Shankman discusses the evolution of his SaaS product, Tool Desk AI, focusing on the challenges and opportunities presented by platform dependencies, the innovative features of their AI-driven lead qualification tool, and the streamlined onboarding process for home service businesses. He also shares insights on marketing strategies and offers valuable advice for aspiring SaaS entrepreneurs.takeaways Tool Desk started with a focus on home services and lead qualification. The initial product was inspired by a need for ringless voicemail systems. Pricing is strategically set at $149/month for the Jobber plug-in. Customer support is highly personalized, with direct communication from founders. The company is 100% bootstrapped, allowing for thoughtful financial decisions. Cold outbound marketing has been effective for customer acquisition. Building a product that fills gaps in existing platforms is crucial. Platform risk is a significant concern for businesses relying on third-party services. Future-proofing involves diversifying product offerings and reducing dependency on a single platform. The founders prioritize building something people want and scaling thoughtfully. The value proposition of Tool Desk AI is to fill marketing automation gaps. Platform dependency can pose significant risks for SaaS businesses. Tool Desk AI acts as a 24/7 sales representative for capturing leads. AI technology is being utilized to enhance lead qualification processes. Onboarding for home service businesses is designed to be frictionless and quick. The AI is trained on each customer's website to provide tailored interactions. It...

8. 

   3 Feb 2025

   Vooz's Jeremy Cohen: Bootstrapping & Innovation With An Annonymous Video Platform

   In this conversation, Jeremy Cohen, founder of Vooz an Omegle alternative in the anonymous video chatting space, discusses the journey of creating bootstrapping and self-motivating. He shares insights on the unique selling propositions of Vooz, including AI moderation and user engagement features. The discussion covers the challenges of bootstrapping a startup, marketing strategies for user acquisition, and the importance of building a strong team. Jeremy also emphasizes the significance of taking action and starting with design, as well as the potential for monetization and growth in the SaaS space.Take Aways Vooz aims to innovate in the anonymous video chat space with AI moderation. User engagement features like screen sharing and games are key to Vooz's strategy. Bootstrapping has been essential for Vooz's development and team formation. Finding motivated co-founders can be challenging but crucial for success. SEO and PPC are primary marketing strategies for user acquisition. Influencer partnerships can drive initial traffic but should be complemented by SEO efforts. Monetization opportunities are abundant once a user base is established. Starting with design helps in attracting talent and building a vision. AI moderation is a significant technical achievement for Vooz. Taking action and starting somewhere is vital for aspiring entrepreneurs.

9. 

   16 Jan 2025

   Interview With Also Asked Founder: Mark Williams-Cook

   I'd recorded this interview with Also Asked founder, Mark Williams-Cook, who had killer insights to share about the nature of search right now, his recent work on exploring a google exploit and explaining how his SaaS tool functions when it comes to surfacing PAA data for SEOs to leverage in their campaigns.

Podcast Authority Score: 16 / 100

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