If there was one problem that you would pay to have fixed, what would it be? From my standpoint the CRMs are becoming something many don't need and have fidured out on their own. Like what is a boring, quiet problem no one is really wanting to make a solution to that you would potentially invest in and suggest to others?
Curious what’s worked best for people here when it comes to getting early users and traction for a SaaS product.
I’m currently building Vellum, an AI communication assistant for service businesses that helps automate customer replies, follow-ups, and lead management while owners are busy working.
Right now I’ve mainly been experimenting with Reddit, TikTok, LinkedIn, and direct outreach, but I’d love to hear what channels actually brought meaningful users/customers for other founders early on.
I’ve been building an AI tool for service businesses and recently started sharing the landing page around to get feedback. A decent amount of people say things like “I’ll check it out” or “I’ll try it later,” but then I never really hear anything back after that.
Not sure if that means:
For people who’ve built products before, how did you get from passive interest to actual user feedback/conversations? Curious what worked for others early on.
The deeper I get into building software for local service businesses, the more I realize how many owners are basically running 5 jobs at once.
Sales, scheduling, customer support, quoting, follow-ups, operations… all handled by the same person while still doing the actual work in the field.
Makes sense why speed of response becomes such a huge competitive advantage once business starts picking up.
Launched the first landing page for the AI automation tool I’ve been building for service businesses.
Still rough around the edges, but getting real feedback from operators has already changed a lot of how I think about the product. If interested and want to share feedback I will leave the link in the comments.
Been thinking about this a lot recently. Every mobile detailing business seems to hit a wall at some point — whether it’s getting consistent leads, dealing with no-show clients, scheduling, follow-ups, managing reviews, employees, slow seasons, or just wasting hours answering the same customer questions every day.
So I’m curious:
If there was a tool/service/software that could completely solve the biggest problem in your business by tomorrow, what problem would you want solved first? And realistically, how much would that solution be worth to you monthly if it genuinely saved you time, stress, or made you more money?
For example:
I feel like a lot of people outside the industry think detailing is “just cleaning cars,” but the business side seems way harder than most people realize. Interested to hear what actual detailers think the biggest bottlenecks are right now.
I’ve been thinking about getting deeper into the pressure washing business, and one thing I keep hearing is that dealing with clients can either make the business easy or turn it into a headache fast. For the people already running pressure washing companies, what are the biggest problems you run into when handling customers?
Is it mainly things like unrealistic expectations, late payments, constant rescheduling, people trying to negotiate prices, complaints after the job, or just communication in general? I’m also curious about how you personally deal with difficult clients without hurting your reputation or losing future referrals.
What situations have caused you the most stress, and what systems or lessons helped you fix them?
For people running window cleaning businesses — how are you guys managing customer replies, scheduling, and follow-ups once you start getting more clients?
I’ve noticed a lot of smaller service businesses end up replying late because they’re out working most of the day, and I’m curious what systems people actually use to stay organized.
I’ve been hearing some people still use Excel spreadsheets while others are starting to use AI tools like Vellum for automated replies and follow-ups.
Do you mainly use:
Would love to hear what’s actually working for people right now.
Vellum is Live. Visit the Next Generation of AI within Service businesses at : Vellum-Ai.base44.app
After weeks of building, redesigning, testing AI workflows, and learning way more about automation than I expected… the Vellum landing page is finally live.
Vellum is an AI assistant built for service businesses to help automate customer replies, follow-ups, and lead capture so businesses stop losing customers from slow responses.
The goal is simple:
Reply instantly.
Book more jobs.
Never miss another lead.
Still improving it daily, but I’d genuinely appreciate feedback from business owners, developers, or anyone interested in AI automation.
After weeks of building, redesigning, testing AI workflows, and learning way more about automation than I expected… the Vellum landing page is finally live.
Vellum is an AI assistant built for service businesses to help automate customer replies, follow-ups, and lead capture so businesses stop losing customers from slow responses.
The goal is simple:
Reply instantly.
Book more jobs.
Never miss another lead.
Still improving it daily, but I’d genuinely appreciate feedback from business owners, developers, or anyone interested in AI automation.
Site: Vellum AI App
After weeks of building, redesigning, testing AI workflows, and learning way more about automation than I expected… the Vellum landing page is finally live.
Vellum is an AI assistant built for service businesses to help automate customer replies, follow-ups, and lead capture so businesses stop losing customers from slow responses.
The goal is simple:
Reply instantly.
Book more jobs.
Never miss another lead.
Still improving it daily, but I’d genuinely appreciate feedback from business owners, developers, or anyone interested in AI automation.
Site: Vellum AI App
Any quick thoughts or feedback will be great.
Many businesses love to just talk about their AI systems they use to help people like yall. Here is a quick video showing how a crucial feature makes life easier.
[supprimé]
Over the last few months, I have been researching why so many service bsuinesses struggle to grow even when they're genuinely good at what they do.
I started by looking into the car detailing indusrty, but after talking to people in landscaping, pressure washing, cleaning businesses, and other local services, I realized they all deal with almost the exact same operational problems.
The biggest issue was't poor service quality, since that is a necessity to be a good business, but it was speed, organization, and follow-up.
Studies have shown that businesses that respond to leads within the first few minutes are dramatically more likely to convert customers compared to businesses that take hours to reply. Most small business owners already know this- the problem is they physically can't respond fast enough while they're out doing jobs all day.
The same issues kept coming up repeatedly:
One stat that really stood out to me was that many customers will simply move on to the next business if they don't hear back quickly enough which is crutial. In competitive local markets, response time alone can determine who wins the custome on top of many other factors.
That's what pushed me to build Vellum AI (Vellum-ai.base44.app)
The idea wasn't to build "AI for hype" I wanted to see if AI could actually help service businesses handle repetitive communication, organize leads better, respond faster, and save time during the day.
After building it, one thing became really obvious to me: A lot of service businesses don't necessarily need to work harder, they need better systems to make it easier.
What I have seen is that the businesses growing the fastest are usually the ones that:
I honestly think AI tools are eventually going to become normal for service businesses the same way websites, online booking, and social media eventually became standard.
Still learning as I go, but building in this space has been interesting because almost every service business owner I have heard connects to the same operational challenges regardless of industry unless they are paying top dollar for someone to take care of it for them.
Curious what everyone thinks looking for feedback on my website and my approach and also looking for tips on anything to help me out.
My name’s Mason, and over the last few months I’ve been building an AI platform called Vellum AI focused on helping service businesses save time and operate more efficiently. I originally started by looking at the car detailing industry because I noticed a lot of talented detailers spend hours every week answering DMs, sending quotes, following up with leads, scheduling customers, and handling repetitive business tasks instead of focusing on actually growing their business.
The more business owners I talked to, the more I realized this problem exists everywhere across service businesses. Detailers, cleaners, landscapers, pressure washers, and other local businesses all deal with the same thing — missed leads, slow responses, and getting overwhelmed trying to manage everything alone while also doing the actual work.
That’s what led me to create Vellum AI. The goal behind it is simple: help service business owners save time, stay organized, respond faster, and look more professional without needing a huge team behind them.
What interests me most is seeing how AI can support skilled business owners instead of replacing them. I think a lot of small businesses are going to start using AI the same way businesses once started using websites and social media — not as a luxury, but as something normal that helps them compete and grow.
The platform is officially live now, and honestly I’m just excited to see real business owners try it and give feedback. I’ve spent a lot of time trying to make it actually useful for real-world service businesses instead of making another generic AI product that sounds cool but doesn’t solve anything.
Curious what other business owners think about AI becoming part of local service businesses over the next few years.