Upleveling from productized services to tech-enabled services and hitting $5M/yr
Sam Shepler started his entrepreneurial journey by building a generalist agency. After it got acquired, he moved on to productized services and, more recently, tech-enabled services.
Now, Testimonial Hero is making more than $5M/yr. And Product Hype, which only launched a month ago, is already at $50k/mo.
Here's Sam on how he did it. 👇
The entrepreneurship bug
Like many people, I originally got the entrepreneurship “bug” after reading Tim Ferriss’ book, The Four Hour Workweek, during my senior year of college. After reading that book I was hooked on the idea of entrepreneurship as something that could provide me freedom and flexibility, challenging and fun intellectual problems to solve, collaboration with a like-minded team, and a way to hit my financial goals.
At the time, I didn’t have a ton of marketable skills, but one thing I did have was decent video production skills and a knack for marketing — I was studying communications and film in school, so essentially, video production and advertising were what I was thinking about daily.
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Really loved the honest breakdown here. The shift from generalist agency to tech-enabled services hits home — especially the part about only building custom tools once you’re sure of the need. That lean, iterative approach is what keeps things scalable without adding unnecessary complexity. Great inspiration for anyone building in this space. 🙌
Incredibly real and insightful post, Sam. The journey from generalist agency to productized and now tech-enabled services is inspiring. Loved the bit about “100 golden BBs” — so true in today’s noisy marketing world. Also appreciate your lean approach to tech and gross margin mindset. Definitely following along from here! 👏
Impressive leap! Transitioning from productized to tech-enabled services is a game-changer—scalability meets smart execution. Your $5M/year milestone proves that innovation + efficiency = serious growth.
Impressive journey! Transitioning from productized services to tech-enabled offerings is a significant leap. In our experience at Touchlane, focusing on mobile-first solutions has been pivotal. For instance, integrating mobile applications into service models can enhance client engagement and streamline operations. Additionally, leveraging tools like React Native or Flutter has allowed us to develop cross-platform solutions efficiently, catering to diverse client needs. It's also crucial to maintain a balance between automation and personalized service to preserve the quality and trust established with clients.
Would love to hear more about the tech stack and tools you've adopted during this transition.
This is a fantastic achievement. What were the biggest operational hurdles you faced when transitioning from a pure service model to a tech-enabled one? I'm curious about the scaling challenges.
Great one. What was your one marketing channel you focused on to get to $1M annual revenue?
Thanks for sharing so openly — definitely bookmarking this.
Great great post and the simplicity behind the approach here.
Really appreciated the breakdown of how you moved from services to a tech-enabled product — the progression felt super relatable. The part about validating through real client pain before going full product especially hit home. We’re in the early stages of building something similar (lean team, niche problem), and this gave me a helpful mental model for staying focused without overbuilding. Thanks for sharing so openly — definitely bookmarking this.
Really solid breakdown on the evolution from services to product. Currently bootstrapping a personal finance app that automates expense categorization, and your point about staying focused on one core problem instead of trying to build everything at once is exactly what we needed to hear. The transparency around the pivot decisions is refreshing too.
Definitely bookmarking this for when we hit our next growth phase.
learn from you
This was an awesome read, especially the shift from generalist ..agency ..productized ..tech-enabled. Super relevant as we're building something in the same mindset: a privacy-first assistant that organizes people’s digital clutter in the background. Early days for us, but this gave me some serious clarity on how to stay lean and iterate fast.
Thanks for sharing all this so transparently, Sam. Inspiring stuff.
interested story, now my motivation is at its peak, I also want to rank and sell my gaming website to generate revenue
Can anyone help me rank it higher?
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Great insights here — gross margin focus and starting with services really resonate. At CompliAssistant, we’re building an AI-powered HIPAA compliance assistant that’s a tech-enabled service designed for SMBs. Like you said, combining tech with service to solve a real pain point and drive sustainable growth is key.