The Agency Problem That Started Everything

Before HighLevel, Robin was running a local marketing agency serving about 200 customers with 25 people around the world. They worked with med spas, car customizing shops, dental offices, and other local businesses.

That's where they learned what every agency deals with: implementing different services and applications across different businesses.

"As an agency owner, you'd go in and you can talk to a business owner and in their mind when they sign on to a marketing agency they look at it as I'm giving you $1, you're supposed to make me $3 back and it's supposed to be completely hands free," Robin explained.

But there's a huge gap. As the agency, Robin could bring attention and interest to a business, but he didn't know how to deliver med spa services or pest control or car customization. He knew what made those businesses interesting for consumers.

"We could pick up customers but there was always this disconnect of like yeah but you gave me a whole bunch of leads and a whole bunch of people that's interested but no sales were actually driving in," Robin said.

They had to make a decision: just drive interest and brand recognition, or get into consulting and actually help businesses close deals.

The 15 Tool Nightmare

They chose consulting. But that meant duct taping together 10 to 15 different tools to make it work.

Auto dialers. Two-way texting. Lead management. Email tracking. Campaign systems. Calendaring. The list went on.

"We had to take 15, 20 different tools and run APIs and recreate it over and over again because once we figured out the system, it doesn't matter what business you serve, it's kind of the same concept," Robin explained.

By chance and fate, one of Robin's customers connected him with Sean and Varun (his future co-founders) who were implementing different software. They hit it off immediately.

"We started talking about what I was doing in the agency and what they were doing and we just joined forces. Seven years later here we are today," Robin said.

The First Few Months: Build What You Already Know

Getting started was easy in one sense: they were already using those 15 tools. They just needed to recreate them and integrate everything.

"The hardest part was duct taping it all together with APIs and Zapier. We said let's take all these tools, take the simplest ones, and recreate it," Robin explained.

They started with calendaring, CRM functionality, two-way texting. Created almost a turnkey system. That's where the concept of snapshots came from: when you launch a new customer, all the settings are already in place.

They built in a campaign system so when leads came in, you could easily trigger conversations and drive them through.

Coming up with it wasn't difficult because they were already doing it daily. Building it took a couple months. They launched it to a few internal customers first, found immediate success, then loaded it up to all customers.

Then Robin started making calls to other agencies in private circles and networking groups. Talked about the problem, offered the solution.

"The fun part about that journey is it took off by wildfire because it was all word of mouth. It was kind of the hidden secret for agencies of like hey you're delivering all these different services, how would you like to have a system to help implement it?" Robin said.

The Product Led Growth Model Nobody Planned

I had to ask about the insane growth. They started less than seven years ago and hit over $1 billion valuation. How?

Robin's answer surprised me: they've always been product led. While they do have an affiliate program, they don't think of it like other platforms.

"When you have a good product it should speak for itself. You need to deliver so much that you as the consumer feel obligated to be like wow, you've done so much for me I need to go tell five other people," Robin explained.

From the beginning, whenever they brought on a new customer, Sean, Varun, or Robin would get on a call, get them set up, and constantly check in to make sure they got success.

They delivered so much that customers found success and wanted to refer others. Eventually customers started asking: do you have an affiliate program? I have a really big audience and could promote this all the time.

"That's when we decided we don't need a sales team if we just deliver a great product. People will talk about how great it is and if they feel like they align with that, they'll come into our product," Robin said.

It wasn't planned. It just naturally happened. Birds of a feather flock together: get one person, they know four or five others. They saw the compounding effect, the snowball effect.

Once they started paying attention, they put more gasoline on it. They followed the trend of what was happening with their customer base instead of forcing some predetermined distribution model.

The Netflix Pricing Philosophy

I mentioned High Level feels like one of the few companies actually providing substantial value compared to price. Like the Netflix model: pay $20 a month and watch all the movies you want from a vast library.

Robin said it happened organically. They had foresight on it, but it naturally occurred through following what was working.

"We just organically saw that compounding effect, that snowball effect of more people coming in. Once we started paying more attention, it was like wow this is really working here, how do we put more gasoline on it?" Robin explained.

The Co-Founder Dynamic That Actually Works

I was curious about the three co-founder setup. It has to be some kind of dynamic trio, right? Some role model for success?

Officially, Sean's the CEO, Robin's the COO, Varun's the CTO. But Robin said they were just forced to have titles when they got to a certain size.

"The way that we've always looked at it is there's problems anywhere and everywhere that you look. We don't want to have boundaries. We don't want to wall things off because that's where partnerships really go aside, where it's like oh not my job, that's supposed to be yours," Robin explained.

They all have different parts of the business they're passionate about, so they lean into those areas. But that doesn't stop anyone from jumping in elsewhere.

"There's landmines everywhere that you go and it's whoever's available, can you jump on that landmine to solve it and put it out? You just can't let your ego take course," Robin said.

They're all hands on deck with hands in everything around the company.

Finding Co-Founders: Solve Problems First, Labels Later

Robin's advice on co-founders challenged my assumptions. Do you even need a co-founder?

It depends on the type of business. For them, the importance wasn't the label "co-founder." It was three people trying to solve a problem. Once it turned into a business, you put labels on it.

"You can run a business on your own and grow it. It's all about the supporting cast that you build. It doesn't matter from a hierarchy perspective on how you get there," Robin said.

When they started, it was just the three of them making decisions and trying to solve problems. No one was above the others. There was a problem, they were all trying to figure it out and keep going until something hit.

The biggest mistake? Spending more time figuring out the structure versus trying to solve the problem and get to the solution.

"You should just really have a dynamic of creating that supporting cast in really trying to solve the problem, not corporate structure and entities and percentages," Robin explained.

They didn't even figure out corporate structure until two or three years into the business. Every dollar that came in stayed in the business. They were just trying to grow it and see what happens.

The Affiliate Program Built on Fanboys

High Level's affiliate program has made some people millionaires. I had to ask what made it so successful.

Robin said they created a flywheel concept: really awesome product that makes sense for ideal customers. When you build it in a great way, people want to talk about it.

Some people organically talk about how it's helped their business. Others ask: can I get it to a greater audience? Will High Level pay me for that additional work?

"It's akin to Apple products. There's always the fanboys who will talk about how great it is. You'll talk about it with your friends, the green bubble concept," Robin said.

Some people convince friends organically. Others love it so much they'll spend additional time creating YouTube content if Apple pays them. That's what High Level did with their affiliate program.

They've had talented individuals make a lot of money because they have large audiences and shown the great value of what the product does.

What High Level Actually Does

For people unfamiliar, High Level took all the different tools most businesses need: CRM platform, lead automation, two-way texting, emailing, Facebook messenger, invoices, proposals, reputation management. Really taking all the tools businesses need.

They looked at it in two lenses. Every small business needs these tools. But who does the implementation?

"We work with the technology evangelists, generally marketing agencies, IT companies, in-house people. We put it in the lens of how do they implement these tools," Robin explained.

Because they work with agencies, the request was: how do we put our brand on it? You want to promote it as your own because of the customizations you put in.

If you work in pest control, you know the dynamics of what makes the system work for pest control. It's how you configure it that's special for the end user's application. That's your IP.

So you can brand it, resell it with your own brand. Plus the snapshot concept: deliver for one customer, the time to implement for the next customer can take forever. With snapshots, it's one click launch and you're ready to go.

Local Businesses Using It Too

High Level started for marketing agencies, but more and more small businesses found out about it and started leveraging it themselves.

Robin looks at it like a lot of them are building their own in-house marketing agency. Maybe they previously worked with a third party agency, built sophistication, hired internal people. Now they're leveraging it for their own business.

They may not use all the advanced tools agencies need, but they use a lot of core functionality.

The fun part? The growth on the small business side is because they're not only building in-house marketing but going from one location to 20 locations as they turn into franchises or licensing structures.

The AI Employee That Actually Works

One feature Robin was most excited about: the AI employee.

Let's say you have someone running the front desk all day. After hours, no one's there. They used to say do missed call text back. Now you can load up an AI agent that actually takes the phone call and gets people to close on the call, whether that's booking an appointment, closing a deal, or accepting payments.

I had to ask: is the technology actually there? I've heard it's still developing, with delayed wait times.

"It is there. About a year ago there was this concern of delays and stuff. All of that has gotten way better. The technology has improved," Robin said.

Where he's seen most success: people who are upfront about it being an AI bot trying to help, not trying to make it as human as possible.

"When you go in with that mental receptiveness of like oh I am talking to an AI bot and I'm just trying to get through the system, those are the ones that have the highest success rate and those are doing phenomenally well," Robin explained.

Small businesses are super receptive. The other option is working with a third party company to pick up calls, which becomes costly and you can't control what happens. With a bot, you control the outcomes and you're cutting edge.

He saw someone create one for a pizza shop doing a full order on the phone. Instead of pulling someone from cooking pizza to take calls, they have a whole automated system. They gamified it: "this is just a bot, we're your pizza ordering bot and we're going to help you get your order."

The Core Principles That Scaled to 1,600 Employees

I asked about the principles and core values that allowed them to grow to this size (1,600 employees across 21 countries).

First: bias to action. The crumpled paper analogy: when you see paper next to a trash bin, some people think "is it my job to pick that up?" and walk away.

"For us, the bias to action is when you see something, say something. Try to bubble it up, let's get it knocked out. Why do we have to wait? Why can't we just get this solved now?" Robin explained.

They break down barriers. Talented individuals sometimes have baggage from other jobs. They break that mentality: it's okay to break things, roll things out quickly. But when you roll something out and it's broken, you have to go fix it. You can't let it sit.

Many companies have the model where you put out perfection, which might take three years. The problem? You wait three years and the world has shifted so fast that what you put out doesn't even matter anymore.

Second principle: don't create anything from scratch. Listen to customers and they'll tell you exactly what needs to be done.

"We didn't have to create this spunk group of trying to figure out where the trends are going. Our customers tell us day in and day out what's new, what's around the corner. We just listen and watch and once we see a little bit of success, we start building," Robin said.

Where They Actually Listen

They listen everywhere. An ideas board that all product managers pay attention to, collating different details of what people ask for. A very engaging Facebook group with close to 100,000 people giving feedback on issues, problems, and ideas.

But the genius move is Town Halls. They have about 35 product managers who own different aspects of High Level. Each schedules town halls.

If you're interested in CRM functionality, you can jump in and get on a call where they go through the road map, what they're seeing, what they're building, where they're going.

"It gives you the opportunity to not only ask questions but give your ideas and suggestions on where they should go. You're saying yeah you put that in the road map, that's really not what people are asking for, you kind of missed the mark there," Robin explained.

It gives them the opportunity to readjust as well.

None of this was planned. They would do Town Halls once a month thinking it was community building. Over time they realized people wanted them to talk about specific products. High Level is so vast, they figured out how to scale it and give customers what they want.

Zero Experience Required to Start

I asked the elementary question: if someone's looking to start the next huge project like Go High Level, how can they go about that?

Robin's answer was direct: "You need zero experience. What you need to be doing is immediately going to talk to customers or potential customers or just business owners and asking what their problems are."

Talk to a handful of businesses. You'll start realizing the questions you're asking and the problems you're hearing have consistency. Chase how to solve that problem.

Before you do it, ask each business: you told me this problem, if I were to solve it what would this mean for your business? They'll tell you the value extracted, how much you'll save them in dollars or time.

Then follow up: if I solve it, what would you pay me for this?

"You start asking more and more businesses and it starts compressing into: here's the problem, here's the solution, here's what people are willing to pay for it. I have a list of 10 companies I've spoken to. Let me go start figuring out how to build a solution," Robin explained.

Then go back to them: I solved it, you try it out. Remember how you said if I can solve it you'd pay me? Well I solved it, you agree I solved it, time to pay me.

The Business Card Trap

Robin calls it the business card concept. There are two types of people who start businesses.

Someone who's like "yeah I'm starting a business" but really trying to help a problem and get a solution to that problem.

Or you have the other one: "I like the idea of starting a business" but they spend the next couple weeks formulating getting a really awesome business card, focusing on the website.

"Well you're not helping anybody. No one cares about your business card. Everyone wants to know how you're going to solve their problem," Robin said.

The most successful people are constantly striving to solve people's problems.

The Lesson That Keeps Repeating

I asked about the biggest lesson Robin's learned in the past few years.

"It doesn't matter what size business that you have, the problems are still the same problems. You need to make sure you're constantly solving your customers' problems and getting them great solutions. You need to make sure you have great talent and supporting cast to help you. You want to make sure everybody's happy along the way," Robin explained.

It doesn't matter the scale. At the core, it's still the same issues.

He constantly has to remind himself, especially when having challenging decisions or moments. Peel the onion back: it's not as complex as you think. It's still the same problems you dealt with years ago when you were a smaller team of three. Now there's 300 people impacted within the company, but it's still the same problem.

"Breaking it down into small little nuggets makes it a lot easier. But it doesn't change based on the scale that you're at," Robin said.

My Main Takeaway

The biggest lesson from talking to Robin is that the best software companies don't start with wanting to build software. They start with people so frustrated by a real problem that building the solution becomes the only option.

Robin wasn't trying to build a billion-dollar SaaS company. He was running an agency, frustrated by duct taping together 15 different tools just to deliver what clients actually needed. The solution became High Level because the problem was so painful and so universal across agencies.

The product led growth model wasn't some brilliant strategy they planned from day one. It happened organically because they delivered so much value that customers felt obligated to tell five other people. They didn't need a sales team because the product spoke for itself.

The affiliate program that made people millionaires? That came from customers asking if High Level would pay them because they loved it so much they wanted to create content anyway. Like Apple fanboys who would promote iPhones regardless, but if you pay them they'll put in extra effort.

The co-founder dynamic works because they don't have boundaries or egos. There are landmines everywhere. Whoever's available jumps on it and solves it. They didn't figure out corporate structure or percentages until two or three years in. They just kept every dollar in the business and focused on solving problems.

Their core principles scale: bias to action (when you see something, say something, get it solved now), it's okay to break things as long as you fix them quickly, and never create from scratch when you can listen to customers who tell you exactly what to build.

The Town Halls with 35 product managers each owning different aspects and sharing roadmaps is genius. Customers can tell them "you missed the mark there" and they readjust in real time.

And the most powerful insight? You need zero experience to start the next big thing. Talk to businesses, find consistent problems, ask what they'd pay to solve it, build it, then collect payment. Don't spend weeks on business cards and websites when nobody cares. Everyone wants to know how you're going to solve their problem.

The lesson Robin keeps coming back to: it doesn't matter if you're three people or 1,600 people across 21 countries. The problems are still the same. You're solving customer problems, building great supporting cast, making sure everyone's happy. The scale changes but the fundamentals don't.

High Level hit $1.3 billion valuation in seven years by staying focused on that simple truth.

Want to learn more from Robin? Search Robin Alex on Instagram, Facebook, and LinkedIn. Email him at robin@gohighlevel.com (he's generous with his time). Check out gohighlevel.com for a free demo of the platform. Follow their very active Facebook group with close to 100,000 members where they share feedback, ideas, and upcoming features.

Listen to the full episode to hear more of Robin's insights on building product led growth companies, creating supporting casts that scale, and why solving problems beats having fancy business cards.