Builder's Growth Lab

Charlie Hernandez
  • 5.0 (1)
  • TECHNOLOGY

The podcast where builders, founders, and investors talk AI marketing and customer acquisition for AI builders. Join us (Conor Douglas, Mallory Loar, Charlie Hernandez) as we talk about the latest AI coding tools, interview the creators building them, and share real builder stories with AI founders. From Claude Code to cutting-edge startups, how to acquire customers for your AI app, we talk about AI code and keep you informed and entertained. Perfect for builders who want to stay ahead of the AI curve without the hype.  New episodes weekly.

  1. 2D AGO

    From Zero to $1M ARR in 30 Days & Solo. Using Just AI - Ben Broca, Founder of Polsia | Episode #43

    What does it actually take to build a company in 2026? According to Ben Broca, not much more than a laptop, a stack of AI tools, and the willingness to trust the technology further than most founders are comfortable with. Ben is the founder of Polsia, an AI platform that builds and runs companies autonomously. You give it an idea and a team of AI agents handles the product, the marketing, the support, the competitive analysis, and the daily prioritization. All of it. Ben hit $1M ARR in his first month, tripled to $3M ARR within two months, and now has over 3,000 companies running on the platform. He did it without a single full time employee. In this episode, Charlie, Conor, and Mallory sit down with Ben to unpack how he got here, what he learned building under Travis Kalanick at CloudKitchens, and why he believes most founders are dramatically underestimating what AI can already do. What we cover: How Ben built Polsia in two months after nearly a year of building products he was not inspired by The Travis Kalanick lesson on hiring that shaped how Ben runs Polsia today Why Ben used an AI agent to field investor emails and built a live data room as a fundraising stunt How Polsia monetizes with a flat monthly fee plus a 20% revenue share on what companies earn Why Ben thinks AGI is already here and what that means for how builders should be thinking about their teams The moment Claude told him "six days, ship it" and became his most effective co-founder What Polsia looks like in two years and why Ben wants to democratize access to the American dream at scale Also in this episode: Charlie and Conor cover the Matthew Gallagher and Medvi story, the solo founder who built a GLP-1 telehealth company to $401M in revenue in its first year with $20,000 and a stack of AI tools, and what it means for the one person company era that Sam Altman predicted and Dario Amodei said would arrive in 2026. If you are building solo, thinking about building solo, or just trying to understand how far AI has actually come as an operating layer for real businesses, this one is for you. Find Ben: Twitter/X: @BenSrr Polsia: polsia.com Find us: Newsletter: buildersgrowthlab.ai   Presented by CampaignPilots

    1h 28m

  2. APR 2

    The Beehiiv Breakdown: SEO, Paid Ads, and What We Found | Episode #45

    Charlie and Conor go solo this week. No guest, no Mallory -- just the two hosts doing a live audit of Beehiiv's digital marketing presence. Conor breaks down their paid search strategy, and Charlie runs through their SEO setup. A raw, off-script episode that turned into one of the more practical ones yet. https://buildersgrowthlab.ai/

    49 min

  3. MAR 26

    From 0 to 150K, Building Communities That Actually Stick With Grace Ling | Episode #44

    Grace Ling built Design Buddies into a community of 150,000+ designers, cold-emailed 400 hiring managers to land her job at EA, got cancelled by people she trusted, was rejected from YC multiple times, quit her UX career to travel 21 countries, and came out the other side more unfiltered and more effective than ever. In this episode, Charlie Hernandez, Conor Douglas, and Mallory Loar sit down with Grace to unpack how she actually builds things: communities, audiences, brands, and a life on her own terms. What we cover: How Design Buddies grew from 0 to 150K+ members with steady, linear growth and zero viral momentsWhy Grace cold-emailed 400 hiring managers to get her job at EA, and why rejection posts outperform announcement postsThe real mechanics of building a cult following (her words) vs. just an audienceWhat happened when she got cancelled by ex-community mods, and why it freed herQuitting her "sexy" UX career, booking a one-way ticket, and hosting Design Buddies events across 21 countriesBuilding Fluffle AI, vibe coding daily on Twitter, breaking into acting, and why she sees herself as a holding companyHer actual LinkedIn strategy: live life, reflect on what you learned, post it, recycle what worked, repeatGrace is one of those guests who makes you want to close your laptop and go do something. Equal parts tactical and chaotic good. Episode brought to you by CampaignPilots. Find Grace: LinkedIn: gracelingInstagram: @irungracepaceX/Twitter: @gracepaceCommunity: designbuddies.com

    1h 53m

  4. MAR 19

    Copy Our AI Marketing Stacks | Episode #43

    No guest this week -- just Charlie, Connor, and Mallory getting into the weeds on the exact tools and workflows powering their agencies, their products, and this podcast. If you're an AI founder or indie hacker trying to figure out how to actually do marketing without a full team, this one's for you. What we cover: Connor's AI Content Flywheel -- Connor built a full content generation system using Claude Code and Railway that ingests your brand guidelines, competitor data, Ahrefs keywords, and voice/tone rules, then produces SEO-optimized blogs, email campaigns, and social posts -- automatically pushing drafts to Webflow and Mailchimp. He walks through how it works, what it took to build, and what's still in progress. Charlie's Claude Cowork + Slack Automation -- Charlie wired up Claude Cowork to a dedicated Slack channel so branded content drops in automatically every morning and afternoon -- complete with sourced images, overlaid pull quotes, and the BGL logo ready to post. He also shares how he's using project-level context to have Claude help build out Campaign Pilots, and why agent orchestration finally "clicked" for him. Mallory's Agency Workflow -- Six months into running her marketing agency and fully booked her calendar, Mallory breaks down how she uses Granola to capture discovery calls, NotebookLM to surface ICP patterns from research, and Claude to generate scopes of work, positioning docs, and launch playbooks -- all while keeping the human touch her clients actually hire her for. The bigger conversation -- Where does AI earn its place in brand, community, and creative work? And where does human judgment still win? This week's AI news: A vibe-coded app (Moltbook) sold to Meta in 42 days -- built without writing a single line of codeOpenAI drops GPT-5.4 with a 1 million token context window, re-entering the agentic coding raceSweden is being called the new Silicon Valhalla -- and Lovable's $400M ARR story is leading the chargeComing up next week: Grace Ling, founder of Design Buddies -- one of the largest design communities in the world with over 100,000 members.

    1h 39m

  5. MAR 12

    SEO and Content Marketing in the AI Era with Brendan Hufford | Episode #42

    What does it actually take to grow a SaaS company through content marketing when AI is reshaping search as we know it? In this episode, Charlie sits down with Brendan Hufford, head of marketing at Grow Sprints, to dig into the strategies that actually move the needle and the ones that don't. Brendan's path to marketing is anything but typical. A former teacher turned web designer turned SEO consultant, he now helps SaaS companies escape what he calls "checkbox marketing," the trap of going through the motions without a real strategy behind them. His framework centers on three pillars: discoverability, relationship, and viral loops. The conversation gets into the current state of SEO in an AI-driven world. Brendan is refreshingly direct: organic traffic is down across the board, but the audience that does show up is more targeted than ever. His answer is to stop chasing top-of-funnel volume and start investing in down-funnel content that speaks to people who are actually ready to buy. For early-stage companies wondering where to start, Brendan's advice might surprise you. Skip traditional SEO for now and focus on partnerships and customer-driven content first. He also shares his own marketing tech stack, including how he uses Claude and other AI tools, and why the key to winning with AI is what he calls "winning like stupid," meaning just actually implementing the tools while everyone else debates them. Whether you're building your first content strategy or rethinking an existing one, this episode is packed with practical, honest takes from someone who's been in the trenches.

    42 min

  6. MAR 5

    Government Money Is Sitting There - Here's Why Most Founders Ignore It | Episode #41

    Most founders building AI products are ignoring a $700B+ market sitting right in front of them: government contracts. In this episode, Charlie, Conor, and Mallory sit down with Maurice Harari, co-founder and CEO of BidLab, to break down how small and mid-sized businesses can actually compete for and win government RFPs. Maurice shares how his company evolved from a hands-on consulting operation into Bid Banana, an AI-powered platform that matches businesses to relevant bids, estimates ROI, and cuts the time it takes to write a winning proposal. We get into why most people use AI wrong when writing RFPs (and how that tanks their win rate), the story of a client who bet his last $5,000 on a government contract and walked away with a multi-million dollar deal, and what human oversight actually looks like inside an AI-assisted workflow. We also cover the hosts' takes on OpenAI's Pentagon deal, Jack Dorsey's 40% layoffs at Block, and why 2026 is shaping up to be the year of the AI agent. If you've never thought about government contracting as a distribution channel, this episode will change that.

    1h 34m

  7. FEB 26

    The GTM Strategy Most Founders Skip - Interview With Josh Lowman | Episode #40

    Most AI companies are not losing on product. They are losing on positioning. And Josh Lowman says they are solving the wrong problem entirely. Josh runs Goldfront, a category design studio in San Francisco, and has worked with over 150 companies including Uber, Qualtrics, and Robinhood on one thing: helping companies stop competing inside a crowded category and start owning a new one. In this episode, Charlie, Conor, and Mallory sit down with Josh to unpack why AI companies all sound the same and what to do about it. Mallory joins fresh off a trip to the Philippines, Conor is deep in building AI-powered content systems, and Charlie is in the middle of validating agent capabilities in Campaign Pilots.  Busy week for the BGL crew. Josh breaks down his framework for diagnosing broken positioning, explains the difference between category design and traditional positioning, and shares moves founders can make right now without a big brand budget. If you build AI products and feel like you are doing everything right but still not breaking through, start here. Connect with Josh: https://www.goldfront.com/ Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/joshlowman/

    1h 52m

  8. FEB 19

    Andy Crestodina's Organic Growth Playbook for the AI Era | Episode # 39

    Andy Crestodina has spent 25 years building Orbit Media into one of the most respected content marketing agencies in the game. No paid ads. No outbound sales team. Just organic content that generates 900+ leads a year. In this episode, Andy breaks down exactly how he does it and why his approach still works even as AI reshapes search. We dig into what actually matters for SEO right now, how to create content that ranks on Google AND gets cited by AI models like ChatGPT, and why backlinks and deep research still beat shortcuts. We also get into AI personas, custom GPTs for content audits, the real data on ChatGPT traffic vs. Google traffic, and why Andy thinks human-written content still has a serious edge. Plus: the crew reacts to OpenAI acquiring OpenClaw, what it means for builders, and our latest experiments with AI agents in real workflows. If you're an AI founder or builder trying to get users without burning cash on ads, this one's for you. Hosts: Charlie Hernandez, Conor Douglas, Mallory Loar  Guest: Andy Crestodina, Co-Founder & CMO, Orbit Media

    1h 43m
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About

The podcast where builders, founders, and investors talk AI marketing and customer acquisition for AI builders. Join us (Conor Douglas, Mallory Loar, Charlie Hernandez) as we talk about the latest AI coding tools, interview the creators building them, and share real builder stories with AI founders. From Claude Code to cutting-edge startups, how to acquire customers for your AI app, we talk about AI code and keep you informed and entertained. Perfect for builders who want to stay ahead of the AI curve without the hype.  New episodes weekly.

Information

  • Creator
    Charlie Hernandez
  • Years Active
    2025 - 2026
  • Episodes
    47
  • Rating
    Explicit
  • Copyright
    © 2026 Builder's Growth Lab
  • Show Website
    Builder's Growth Lab