6d • General discussion
Rebuilt a $15k/month Zapier automation in 12 minutes. Client's jaw dropped when I showed the invoice.
Rebuilt a $15k/month Zapier automation in 12 minutes. Client's jaw dropped when I showed the invoice.
Fellow agency owners - this is how we compete with the overpriced players:
THE DISCOVERY CALL
Tech startup founder, Marcus:
"Our automation costs are killing us"
Me: "What are you running?"
Marcus: "Customer onboarding sequence. 847 Zaps."
Me: "Eight hundred and... what?"
Marcus: "The last agency built it over 18 months"
🚩 Red flag: 847 Zaps for one process
THE ORIGINAL MONSTER
What the "enterprise automation experts" delivered:
- 847 individual Zaps
- 23 different apps connected
- 156 webhooks firing constantly
- 67 Google Sheets as "databases"
- Monthly Zapier bill: $15,000
- Monthly maintenance: $8,000
- Failure rate: 23% (1 in 4 customers had issues)
Marcus: "It takes 6 hours to onboard one customer"
Their agency charged $180k for this nightmare.
THE NIGHTMARE SCENARIO
Customer signs up → 847 Zaps start firing
- Zap #1 creates Slack message
- Zap #2 updates Sheet #1
- Zap #3 checks Sheet #1
- Zap #4 updates Sheet #2
- Zap #5 checks if Zap #3 worked
- ...and 842 more steps of madness
When it broke (which was daily):
- 4-hour debugging sessions
- Customer stuck in limbo
- Multiple duplicate emails sent
- Refund requests
THE 12-MINUTE REBUILD
I opened Skada.ai and typed:
"Build customer onboarding automation: payment confirmation → welcome email → account setup → course access → Slack notification → CRM update"
12 minutes later:
✅ One clean workflow
✅ All 23 apps connected properly
✅ Built-in error handling
✅ Automatic retry logic
✅ Real-time status tracking
THE PERFORMANCE COMPARISON
Old System (847 Zaps):
- Success rate: 77%
- Processing time: 6 hours
- Monthly cost: $23,000 total
- Maintenance hours: 40/month
- Customer satisfaction: 6/10
New System (1 workflow):
- Success rate: 99.2%
- Processing time: 8 minutes
- Monthly cost: $47 total
- Maintenance hours: 0/month
- Customer satisfaction: 9.8/10
THE PRICING STRATEGY
My quote: $8,500 rebuild + $1,200/month management
Their old system: $23,000/month total cost
Marcus saves $13,300/month
I make $1,200/month recurring
Win-win scenario
THE MIGRATION
Switched over on a Tuesday afternoon.
Wednesday: 47 customers onboarded flawlessly
Thursday: Marcus sent this text at 2 AM:
"I just watched 23 customers get onboarded while I slept. This is magic."
THE COMPETITIVE ADVANTAGE
Monthly savings for client: $13,300
My profit margin: 94% (after hosting costs)
Time to build: 12 minutes
Time to sell: 1 discovery call
While other agencies are building complex Zapier monsters, I'm delivering better results in minutes, not months.
THE PATTERN I'M EXPLOITING
Every week I find companies paying $10k-50k/month for "enterprise automation" that's really just:
- Overcomplicated webhook chains
- Unnecessary app connections
- Zero error handling
- Built by agencies billing hourly
Current pipeline of similar opportunities:
- SaaS company: $31k/month spend → quoted $2,800/month
- E-commerce store: $18k/month spend → quoted $1,500/month
- Marketing agency: $12k/month spend → quoted $900/month
THE BUSINESS MODEL
1. Find companies with expensive, broken automation
2. Rebuild in 10-15 minutes
3. Quote 30-40% of their current costs
4. Deliver 10x better performance
5. Collect recurring revenue
Current MRR from this approach: $28,400
Time investment: ~3 hours/month total
THE LESSON FOR AGENCY OWNERS
Stop competing on build time. Start competing on results.
Speed + reliability + cost savings = unstoppable value prop.
Who else is finding these overpriced automation goldmines? 💰
5
2 comments
Rebuilt a $15k/month Zapier automation in 12 minutes. Client's jaw dropped when I showed the invoice.
skool.com/brendan
Learn How To Build AI Agents🤖
- 40+ Free AI Agent Templates
- 60+ Free AI Course Videos
(N8N, Make, Vapi, Voiceflow)
- AI Software Discounts 💰
Leaderboard (30-day)
1
+40
2
+36
3
+34
4
+26
5
+24
Powered by