Can an AI avatar simulate a founder's expertise usefully?

In this high-energy episode of Mostly Growth, CJ Gustafson, Kyle Poyar, and Ben Hillman dive into the hidden levers of SaaS growth and what truly separates startups that scale to $20M+ ARR from those that stall out. They explore eye-opening data from 6,500 companies, revealing how the best improve net retention, raise pricing, and re-engineer their revenue models over time. Alongside the metrics, there’s plenty of playful chaos—like a naming debate over “Yoshinobu Yamamoto Gustafson,” a rapid-fire game of “Founder or Pop Star,” and CJ’s accidental IPO embargo break. It’s part insight, part inside joke, and 100% for SaaS operators and C-suite climbers.

—

LINKS: 

Mostly Metrics: https://www.mostlymetrics.com

CJ on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/cj-gustafson-13140948/

Growth Unhinged: https://www.growthunhinged.com/

Kyle on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/kyle-poyar/

Slacker Stuff: https://www.slackerstuff.com/

Ben on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/slackerstuff/

https://www.growthunhinged.com/p/the-compounding-startup

https://www.growthunhinged.com/p/the-odds-of-making-it

https://www.superme.ai/kylepoyar?conversationId=VgDXTOl2Z89mW7UYXstU0b

https://a16z.com/anatomy-of-an-enterprise-platform-company/

https://www.investopedia.com/terms/h/hhi.asp

https://navan.com/

https://www.mostlymetrics.com/p/navan-ipo-s1-breakdown

https://x.com/amendandpretend/status/1983588137453416763?s=46

https://x.com/ryan_c_walsh/status/1983705182371475630?s=46

https://www.reddit.com/r/TwinCities/comments/z6hxp8/how_much_are_people_paying_for_residential_snow/

—

RELATED EPISODES:

Getting fired 4 times made me a founder | Sam Jacobs of Pavilion

https://youtu.be/8X-JVOF-1A0

Why Founders Are Posting Sad Dinners

https://youtu.be/Zl6NSIHF2Gk

—

TIMESTAMPS:

00:00:00 Preview and Intro

00:01:20 Sponsors Pulley and Metronome

00:03:24 Welcome Back Dodgers Banter

00:05:03 SaaS Founder or Pop Star Game

00:07:08 Growth Levers Report Overview

00:08:33 Building for Expansion and Retention

00:10:11 Figure It Out and ICP Discussion

00:11:47 Monthly Growth and Compounding

00:13:44 Pricing Lessons Fat Joe Quote

00:14:46 AI Avatars Introduction

00:15:35 CJ Tests the Kyle Chatbot

00:16:39 AI Costs Beta and Power Users

00:17:54 Using AI for Writing and Research

00:19:52 Cannibalizing Content and Platform Talk

00:21:28 A16z Platform Discussion

00:23:49 Herfindahl Hirschman Index Explained

00:24:33 HHI Applied to Market Entry

00:26:13 CrowdStrike Datadog Multi Product Models

00:29:17 Business Blunders and Navan IPO

00:33:08 Snow Removal Pricing in the Real World

—

SPONSORS:

Metronome is real-time billing built for modern software companies. Metronome turns raw usage events into accurate invoices, gives customers bills they actually understand, and keeps finance, product, and engineering perfectly in sync. That’s why category-defining companies like OpenAI and Anthropic trust Metronome to power usage-based pricing and enterprise contracts at scale. Focus on your product — not your billing. Learn more and get started at https://www.metronome.com

Pulley is the cap table management platform built for CFOs and finance leaders who need reliable, audit-ready data and intuitive workflows, without the hidden fees or unreliable support. Switch in as little as 5 days and get 25% off your first year: https://pulley.com/mostlymetrics

—

#MostlyGrowthPodcast #SaaSGrowth #StartupStrategy #B2BTech #RevenueRetention