Automation For Agencies

Drew Rattray

Not every AppSumo deal is built for agencies. Automation For Agencies cuts through the noise, founder interviews, real talk, and an agency lens on every tool. If you're managing clients, white-labeling, or building at scale, this is the feed you've been missing.

Episodes

  1. Blip AI: The Solo Operator Tool That Sneaks Into Your Agency Stack

    May 12

    Blip AI: The Solo Operator Tool That Sneaks Into Your Agency Stack

    About the show: Automation For Agencies is the podcast where AppSumo founders meet agency owners. Host Drew Rattray scores every tool against the Agency Viability Score (AVS) rubric — white-label depth, multi-client management, reseller viability, integration flexibility, and roadmap confidence — so agency listeners know what's actually worth buying. Learn · Launch · Scale. Guest bio: Ayush Bansal is the founder of Blip AI, a voice-to-text productivity tool that converts spoken thoughts into ready-to-send text inside any application. Previously an engineer at Amazon and Microsoft, Ayush has built Blip with a focus on sub-second latency and high reliability — and held the top-three deal position on AppSumo for three consecutive weeks at launch. He is active on LinkedIn and contactable through the Blip AI website at blip.ai (or via the AppSumo listing). Key quotes: "Our eventual goal is to move into memory layer and do something more with voice. It would be like a voice operating system where you could do most of the stuff with your voice." Timestamps: 00:00 — Intro and what Blip AI does 01:06 — Why voice-to-text is the AI-era input layer 02:00 — Drew on switching from a competitor over mobile pricing 03:14 — Agency use cases: white-label, sub-accounts, API, team management 05:24 — Live demo of action mode and the shortcut library 09:24 — Tier 3 vs Tier 4 seat structure and word-pool allocation 13:46 — The white-label question and the agency invite-email gap 15:05 — Speed and reliability as Blip's primary differentiator 17:05 — Mobile beta walkthrough on iOS and Android 19:46 — The Gmail MCP integration on the roadmap 21:30 — Why this is reportedly the last AppSumo run Resources: Agency Playbook PDF: [FREE Playbook/Get the Playbook] Affiliate disclosure: Automation For Agencies may earn a commission if you buy Blip AI through our AppSumo link. Reviews are scored independently against the AVS rubric and are never adjusted based on commercial relationships.

    24 min
  2. Validating a Product Idea While the Agency Pays the Bills

    May 9

    Validating a Product Idea While the Agency Pays the Bills

    About the show: Automation For Agencies is the podcast where AppSumo founders meet agency owners. Host Drew Rattray scores every tool against the Agency Viability Score (AVS) rubric: whitelabel depth, multi-client management, reseller viability, integration flexibility, and roadmap confidence, so agency listeners know what's actually worth buying. Learn · Launch · Scale. Guest bio: Vesko Kolev is the founder of Icanpreneur, an AI co-founder platform that walks founders from "I have an idea" through customer validation, positioning, and the first version of a landing page and sales deck. Key quotes: "We don't help founders build faster. We help them pick the right direction and then accelerate." — Vesko Kolev Timestamps: 00:00 — Intro and what Icanpreneur actually does 01:30 — Why validation beats build-faster 03:40 — How the AI gets it right vs. generic LLMs 05:45 — White-label and the agency tier in development 06:50 — 1-click client transfer plus 15% revenue share 08:30 — The agency revenue model Vesko built using his own product 09:00 — API access and the LinkedIn integration ~12:00 — Multi-tenant question: workspaces, data isolation, tier limits 13:00 — Live demo: zero to landing page in five minutes 17:30 — Synthetic interviews running on five AI personas at once 24:00 — Generating positioning, sales deck, and Google Slides export 28:00 — Which LLMs power Icanpreneur (Gemini + Anthropic) 33:30 — The multilingual ship and the long-term coding-tool roadmap 38:00 — Why Vesko followed his own methodology to build the agency program Resources: Agency Playbook PDF: FREE Icanpreneur Playbook AppSumo deal: [affiliate link] Affiliate disclosure: Automation For Agencies may earn a commission if you buy Icanpreneur through our AppSumo link. Reviews are scored independently against the AVS rubric and are never adjusted based on commercial relationships.

    36 min
  3. Turning Client Data Into Deliverables Without Leaving the Sheet

    May 7

    Turning Client Data Into Deliverables Without Leaving the Sheet

    About the show: Automation For Agencies is the podcast where AppSumo founders meet agency owners. Host Drew Rattray scores every tool against the Agency Viability Score (AVS) rubric: white-label depth, multi-client management, reseller viability, integration flexibility, and roadmap confidence, so agency listeners know what's actually worth buying. Learn · Launch · Scale. SheetXAI David Souza is the founder of SheetXAI, a Google Sheets and Excel AI add-on that automates spreadsheet workflows for non-technical users. Before SheetXAI, David ran three agencies — most recently a customer success consultancy for SaaS companies, plus organic GTM at StartupHelpr and a Facebook ads shop for local businesses going back to 2018. He built the first version of SheetXAI overnight in December 2024 after one too many midnight VLOOKUP sessions on a client SEO project. Connect with David at sheetxai.com. Key quotes: "I would say, and in all honesty, I don't think it's probably the best app for white labeling. It's more an internal tool. Like it helps your company focus on the stuff that actually matters for your company rather than necessarily it being something you sell to people." — David Souza Timestamps: 00:00 — Intro 00:55 — What SheetXAI is and who it's for 03:21 — The agency entry point: cold email at scale 04:46 — Why David won't market this as white-label 05:14 — Live demo: 30 personalized cold emails in seconds 08:46 — Where the AI pulls its data from 10:18 — Multimodal: images, video, TTS, alt text 12:24 — The 100x integration partnership announcement 13:46 — "Clay for spreadsheets" — the design north star 14:07 — Roadmap: scheduled runs and automations 17:14 — The 80/20 pitch for agency owners 18:17 — Why "sexy UI" isn't the goal Resources: Agency Playbook: FREE Playbook Affiliate disclosure: Automation For Agencies may earn a commission if you buy SheetXAI through our AppSumo link. Reviews are scored independently against the AVS rubric and are never adjusted based on commercial relationships.

    24 min
  4. Skillplate: White-Label Course Platform, or Just Another LMS?

    May 7

    Skillplate: White-Label Course Platform, or Just Another LMS?

    About the show: Automation For Agencies is the podcast where AppSumo founders meet agency owners. Host Drew Rattray scores every tool against the Agency Viability Score (AVS) rubric: whitelabel depth, multi-client management, reseller viability, integration flexibility, and roadmap confidence, so agency listeners know what's actually worth buying. Learn · Launch · Scale. Guest bio: Dimitar Savov is the founder of Skillplate, an all-in-one business operating system combining a section-based website builder with native digital products, member areas, bookings, and marketing automation. Before Skillplate, Dimitar and his ten-person team ran Startup Masters, a full-service marketing agency that contributed to building two 9-figure businesses, more than ten 8-figure businesses, and over sixty 7-figure businesses across a decade of operating. Key quotes: "I don't think that the agency owner should purchase Skillplate. They should build accounts for others. They pay for skill plate. You don't pay for it. We can even pay you a commission for referring customers." -Dimitar Savov Timestamps: 00:00 — Intro and what Skillplate is 01:34 — Origin: from marketing agency to platform 03:26 — Building the academy that became Skillplate 06:40 — When Skillplate fits, when Shopify wins 07:04 — Marketing-first builder vs. developer-first canvas 10:21 — Branding propagation and the 2-minute styles panel 17:53 — Multi-client setup and the per-client subscription model 22:50 — Webhooks, API, n8n: the integration story 24:43 — Facebook Lead Ads → Skillplate → Telegram in seconds 27:25 — Why team permissions don't ship yet 30:53 — Funnels vs. customer journeys (the product taste) 36:48 — "Agencies shouldn't buy Skillplate — set clients up on it" 40:42 — The agentic AI roadmap, shipping in 2–3 weeks Resources: Agency Playbook PDF: FREE Skillplate Playbook Affiliate disclosure: Sumofied may earn a commission if you buy Skillplate through our AppSumo link. Reviews are scored independently against the AVS rubric and are never adjusted based on commercial relationships.

    43 min
  5. The Calendly Killer for Agencies Tired of Generic Booking Pages

    May 6

    The Calendly Killer for Agencies Tired of Generic Booking Pages

    About the show Automation For Agencies is the podcast where AppSumo founders meet agency owners. Host Drew Rattray scores every tool against the Agency Viability Score (AVS) rubric: white-label depth, multi-client management, reseller viability, integration flexibility, and roadmap confidence, so agency listeners know what's actually worth buying. Learn · Launch · Scale. Luncal Pranshu Kacholia is the Founder/CEO of Lunacal, an AI-aware scheduling and booking platform for service businesses, consultants, and appointment-driven professionals. Lunacal launched on AppSumo and has shipped multiple major release waves since — Beautiful Booker themes, full workflow automation, and outbound voice-agent meeting reminders. Pranshu is hands-on across product, support, and beta testing (he was running 3am QA the week of the voice-agent launch). He walks through the architecture of what is arguably the best-looking booking page on AppSumo — and the reasons Sumofied verdicts it a Solo Pick instead of a Buy. The booking page is a 4.3/5 product. The reseller math is a 3.1/5. This episode covers the agency-specific dimensions in order: White-Label Depth (booker side fully branded, admin side still Lunacal), Multi-Client Management (30 workspaces on Tier 4, but no full-workspace templates), Reseller Viability (no formal program, public LTD pricing, no white-label billing layer), Integration Flexibility (strong webhooks and native CRM coverage, no public API), and Roadmap Confidence (outbound voice agents shipped two weeks ago, inbound voice agents in early build). Pranshu also walks through Beautiful Booker — the embeddable, themable booking widget with industry-specific animations — and the workflow engine that automates pre- and post-meeting touchpoints. According to Sumofied's Agency Viability Score, Lunacal scores 3.1/5 for agency viability and 4.3/5 for product quality, earning a Solo Pick verdict. Which means: buy it if you run a 1-to-5 person agency with 5–15 service-business clients in non-regulated verticals; pass entirely if you're scaling toward 30+ deployments or need to mark up tool resale margin. Built for solo operators and small agencies in service-business verticals — coaches, consultants, design studios, fractional executives, B2B advisors. Resources: Agency Playbook: FREE Playbook Timestamps 00:00 — Intro: first guest on the new YouTube launch 01:49 — How Lunacal started: scheduling page as marketing landing page 03:45 — White-label setup: workspace per client, 30 seats on Tier 4 04:54 — How a client logs into their own isolated workspace 05:10 — Service-then-provider routing for hospitals and law firms 06:30 — Round-robin event types and balanced lead distribution 08:04 — Webhooks, Zapier, and the booking-event triggers that matter 09:11 — Built-in Stripe and PayPal payments at 0% platform commission 10:13 — Where the white-label stops: backend stays on app.lunacal.ai 13:03 — The Beautiful Booker reveal and Drew's reaction 16:23 — Live walkthrough: themes, animations, industry-specific embeds 19:04 — Email embed: pre-selected time slots inside an email 19:48 — Pranshu, candid: "We have done a bad job at product analytics" 20:22 — Voice agents: outbound reminder calls live, inbound in early build 23:04 — Tech stack under the voice agent (LiveKit + LLMs, not VAPI) 26:19 — Workflows: realtor, tattoo studio, and post-service follow-up 30:14 — AI credits, paid extras, and keeping the business sustainable Key quotes "Let's say I am an agency. I have 30 seats. I can bring five individual clients. Each of those clients can have, let's say six seats of their own. Every service business that you can think of can be parallely managed within LunaCal." — Pranshu Kacholia "We actually launched voice agents very recently. I think it's been a few days. Last Saturday is when I was doing beta testing. It was probably 3 a.m. in the night for me when I made that video." — Pranshu Kacholia Affiliate disclosure Automation For Agencies may earn a commission if you buy Lunacal through our AppSumo link. Reviews are scored independently against the AVS rubric and are never adjusted based on commercial relationships. Read the full methodology at sumofied.com/avs.

    25 min

About

Not every AppSumo deal is built for agencies. Automation For Agencies cuts through the noise, founder interviews, real talk, and an agency lens on every tool. If you're managing clients, white-labeling, or building at scale, this is the feed you've been missing.