AI-Washing and Main Street Skepticism

In this episode of Mostly Growth, Kyle Poyar and CJ Gustafson sit down with Daniel Lang, CEO and co-founder of Mangomint, the vertical SaaS platform powering thousands of salons and spas across North America. Daniel shares how Mangomint scaled past $25M ARR in a crowded market by obsessing over product quality, sequencing, and customer trust. The conversation dives into why AI has not meaningfully arrived in Main Street businesses, what it actually takes to build agentic products for SMBs, and why systems of record, communication layers, and context matter more than hype.

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SPONSORS:

Tropic is an intelligent spend management solution that consolidates your spend data and processes into one unified offering, enabling insights and decisive action. From spotting hidden optimization opportunities to automating painful procurement workflows and giving you the best market data to turn vendor negotiations in your favor, Tropic combines smart insights with real human expertise to keep you ahead of the curve. Visit https://www.tropicapp.io/mostlymetrics to learn how.

HockeyStack is an AI platform for modern go-to-market teams that unifies sales, marketing, and customer data into a single system of action. With AI agents that prospect accounts, support reps, improve forecasting, and automate what’s already working, HockeyStack helps teams move faster without guessing. Trusted by companies like RingCentral, Outreach, ActiveCampaign, and Fortune 100 teams—learn more at https://www.hockeystack.com

RightRev is an automated revenue recognition platform built for modern pricing models like

usage-based pricing, bundles, and mid-cycle upgrades. RightRev lets companies scale

monetization without slowing down close or compliance. For RevRec that keeps growth moving,

visit https://www.rightrev.com

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LINKS: 

Mangomint: https://www.mangomint.com/

Daniel on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/daniellangnet/

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/

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RELATED EPISODES:

The End of LTV to CAC: Rethinking SaaS Metrics for AI

https://youtu.be/vh3AGdqlSxU

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TIMESTAMPS:

00:00:00 Preview and Intro

00:00:58 Sponsors — Tropic | HockeyStack | RightRev

00:05:01 Mangomint Hits $25M ARR

00:06:08 AI-Washing vs Real Value

00:08:05 Is AI Used by Small Businesses?

00:09:52 System of Record Wins AI

00:11:00 AI Belongs in the Core System

00:12:24 Why Salesforce Lacks Context

00:14:36 Systems of Action Explained

00:16:05 AI Use Cases in Beauty & Wellness

00:17:39 Why “AI Growth” Claims Fail

00:19:06 Labor as Automation ROI

00:20:21 Beating Switching Costs

00:22:03 Market Consolidation Ahead

00:22:22 Starting with Scheduling

00:23:19 No Contracts, More Trust

00:24:28 Narrow ICP Strategy

00:26:11 Shipping Less, Better

00:27:06 Communication as the Unlock

00:28:10 Product-Led Growth Motion

00:29:49 Why Field Sales Fails

00:32:02 Payback Beyond CAC

00:33:03 When Non-Scalable Breaks

00:34:23 Buying a Media Company

00:36:16 Audience as a Moat

00:38:21 Business Blunders Segment

00:42:46 Tools and AI Commoditization

00:44:31 Closing Thoughts and Outro

#MostlyGrowthPodcast #AI #SystemOfRecord #ProductLedGrowth #SmallBusiness