Target: $10M+ in launch revenue. Beta (May-Jul) → Controlled rollout (Jun-Aug) → MEGA LAUNCH (Sept 9, 2026). Last updated: May 28, 2026.
Sam at MVP = marketing only. Ads, organic social, design, promos. That is the whole product on day one.
Coming later (post-MVP): upsells, order bumps, downsells, digital product creation, email sequences, full business automation end-to-end.
~90% of the UI is a conversational chatbot. The user talks to Sam, and Sam does the marketing. Think AI marketing teammate with a dashboard underneath, not a dashboard with AI features bolted on.
Sam is NOT competing with SamCart. Sam is the AI marketing layer that sits alongside SamCart and feeds into it. SamCart sells checkout + business infrastructure. Sam sells the marketing work.
Complementary, not competitive. SamCart customers are Sam's first beta cohort and the bridge to the 1M-list audience.
Checkout, pages, products, upsells, business infrastructure. The committed pricing:
75K businesses, $7B processed, 12 years of conversion data.
An AI marketing employee that runs your ads, posts your content, designs your creatives, and engineers your promos. Powered by SamCart's $7B fine-tune.
Pricing: TBD (see Section 04).
Sam's first beta cohort: existing SamCart customers.
When anyone asks "which one do I need?"
SamCart
Where you SELL
Checkout, pages, products, business infra.
Sam
Where the MARKETING gets done
Ads. Social. Design. Promos.
SamCart sells the thing. Sam markets the thing.
| Risk | Likelihood | Mitigation |
|---|---|---|
| Market confusion about which product solves what | High | Strict rule: SamCart = sell. Sam = market. Every piece of copy passes that filter. |
| Sales team conflict (who owns the deal) | Medium | Cross-comp plan: any rep selling either gets credit on both attached. Justin to design. |
| Sam customers ignore SamCart for their checkout | Low | Sam needs a place to send buyers. SamCart is the default. Tight integration on day one. |
| Non-SamCart customers want Sam standalone | Medium | Allow it. Sam works on whatever stack the seller already has. Capture them, route to SamCart later. |
Source of truth: Notion "Sam Brain" context pack (id 3647556d-6ddc-81ed-aa9b-f9ed2e055828). The Positioning Layer System below is verbatim from there.
🔒 The Wedge · Locked 2026-06-08
Every other AI tool, ChatGPT, Claude, Gemini, Manus, Hermes, OpenClaw, Jasper, Copy.ai, stops at the output. They give you a draft. You still have to design it, schedule it, launch it, and optimize it. Sam doesn't stop until the work is live. Ads run in Meta. Posts publish to Instagram. Emails ship from your inbox. That is the wedge. Lead with it everywhere.
Rule 1
Done-For-You is the USP. Other tools draft. Sam ships.
Rule 2
Write for non-technical sellers. Zero jargon. No agents, prompts, workflows, MCP. They have a product. They want customers.
Rule 3
Arcads is the reference. Outcome-first headlines. Specific numbers. "Dominate your category" aspiration. Teardown owed by Marketing EOD 2026-06-08.
Use these against Claude, GPT, Manus, Hermes, OpenClaw, and any future AI tool. Picked for non-technical sellers.
🥇 Primary (locked)
"Other AIs hand you homework. Sam hands you results."
🥈 Runners-up (approved for A/B testing)
| Layer | Use | Line |
|---|---|---|
| L-1 SOUL | Internal north star | 1M creators making a living from their ideas. |
| L0 STORY | Hero line, ads, 30-second pitch | "Other AIs hand you homework. Sam hands you results." UPDATED 6/8 Backup: "Tell Sam what you sell. Sam handles the rest." |
| L1 CATEGORY | What category we're in | "The AI marketing platform that runs your ads, creates your content, designs your assets, and engineers your promos." |
| L2 EMOTIONAL | What it feels like to use | "Sam is an AI marketing employee. Tell it what you sell. It handles your ads, social, design, and promos." |
| L3 PROOF | Why believe us | Fine-tuned on $7B+ in real transactions. Creates copy AND design simultaneously. Built on top of 75,000+ businesses worth of conversion data. |
| L4 ACTIVATION | What to do right now | "Connect your store. Sam starts marketing it today." |
Sam learns your brand voice from the content you already have. Posts, emails, sales pages, ads. The more it sees, the more it sounds like you.
Fine-tuned on $7B+ in real transactions across 75,000+ businesses. It doesn't guess what converts. It knows.
Wrappers write text. Sam does work. See the wrapper-vs-agent breakdown in the Notion context pack section 6. Different layer of the AI stack entirely.
Kill Lines
"Other AIs hand you homework. Sam hands you results."
Backup: "Other platforms added AI to their tools. SamCart built an AI that replaces the tools."
MVP primary audience: people who already have something to sell. Sam supercharges their marketing. The product won't repel newbies, but it's built for existing sellers first.
PRIMARY · MVP TARGET
$2K to $99K/mo. Proven the model works. Leaving revenue on the table. Doing marketing himself badly or paying a freelancer too much.
"Sam just learned your business. It's running your ads, posting your content, designing your creatives, and engineering your promos. While you run the business."
SECONDARY
$100K to $20M+/yr. Has a marketing team she's overpaying for. Wants marketing that runs without babysitting.
"Your marketing team costs more than your mortgage and still misses deadlines. Sam never sleeps."
TERTIARY · WON'T REPEL
$0 to $2K/mo. Welcome, but not the MVP focus. She'll benefit from Sam once she has something to sell.
"Got something to sell? Tell Sam. It'll start marketing it today."
"When you're ready to sell, Sam is ready to market."
Free ($0) + Pro ($49/mo) + credit packs. LTD at $997 (5-10K units). Full details, value ladder, and revenue math are on the Strategy page.
MVP scope is marketing-only. The graduation criteria below reflect that. Anything that isn't ads quality, social quality, design quality, or promo planning quality is post-MVP and doesn't gate the launch.
| Surface | Beta = good | MVP = ready to ship |
|---|---|---|
| Ads (Meta + Google) | Generates copy + creative. Brian + Sam L approve output 7/10. | Output indistinguishable from a $5K/mo agency. Performance equal or better than human baseline on beta accounts. |
| Organic social | Writes + designs posts across IG/FB/TikTok/X/LinkedIn. Brand voice 7/10. | Brand voice 9/10. Scheduling reliable. Creators say "I'd post this" without edits. |
| Design (creatives, graphics, banners) | On-brand, readable, no obvious AI tells. | Designer-tier output. Picks up brand kit automatically. Variations are meaningfully different, not template re-skins. |
| Promo engineering | Builds a 7-day flash sale or BFCM plan with assets + timing. | Builds + executes a multi-channel promo (ads, social, email handoff) with calendar + assets ready to ship. |
| Onboarding / chat UX | Sam can learn a business in <15 min from URL + a few questions. | Sam learns a business in <5 min. New user has first asset created within 10 minutes of signup. |
Explicitly NOT gating MVP: page builder automation, checkout automation, email sequence automation, digital product creation. Those are post-MVP.
Scope decision: The website matches the MVP exactly. We are not marketing future capabilities (page builder, checkout automation, full business automation). Sam = AI marketing employee. That's what the site sells.
Meet Sam. Your AI marketing employee.
Tell Sam what you sell. Sam runs your ads, posts your content, designs your creatives, and engineers your promos. Fine-tuned on $7 billion in real online sales.
CTA primary: "Try Sam free" (chat-first interaction starts on the page) · CTA secondary: "Watch the 90-second demo"
| Menu item | What it shows | Status |
|---|---|---|
| Product | What Sam does (4 capability pages: Ads, Social, Design, Promos). Each with live demo clip + before/after. | MVP scope |
| How It Works | 3-step explainer: (1) Tell Sam what you sell, (2) Sam learns your brand in 5 min, (3) Sam ships work. Includes 90-second demo video. | MVP scope |
| Pricing | 3 tiers. Founders pricing badge if in launch window. | MVP scope |
| Customers | Beta case studies, before/after metrics, video testimonials. Filterable by vertical. | MVP scope |
| Resources | Brian Letter (newsletter signup), blog, founder story, comparison pages (vs Canva, Buffer, Kajabi, ChatGPT). | MVP scope |
| Login | Login button (right-aligned, secondary style). | MVP scope |
| Try Sam Free | Primary CTA button (right-aligned, accent color). | MVP scope |
Deliberately NOT in the menu: Platform, Solutions, Integrations, Templates, Affiliates (private to invited tier only). Keep the menu tight; we're selling one thing.
In 2014, I was a creator who couldn't sell anything online without duct-taping 6 different tools together. So my brother and I built SamCart in my kitchen. The idea was simple: one page, one checkout, just sell the thing.
12 years later, 75,000 businesses have used it to sell $7 billion. But when I looked at the data, I realized something that broke my heart: 60% of them never made a single sale. Not because their idea was bad. Because the marketing was too hard.
So we asked a different question. Not "how do we give them better tools?" but "what if they didn't need a marketing team at all?"
That's Sam.
This is the "why is Sam different from every other AI tool" section. Source: Notion brain section 5. Use these three cards as ad hooks, sales-page sections, and competitive talking points.
Sam's AI is not a generic model. It is fine-tuned on $7B+ in real transactions, the actual pages, prices, offers, and ads that generated real revenue across 75,000+ businesses.
It doesn't guess what converts. It knows.
Every other platform gives you a template and asks you to fill it in. Sam writes the copy and designs the creative at the same time, as a single connected output.
Ad copy + creative. Social post + graphic. Promo + landing page.
Every other platform added AI features to their existing tool. Sam IS the AI. You don't use Sam. Sam works for you.
Other platforms added AI to their tools. SamCart built an AI that replaces the tools.
Wrappers write text. Sam does work.
Most "AI marketing" tools are a chat box on top of ChatGPT. Sam is a marketing teammate that runs your ads, posts your content, and designs your creatives. The LLM is commodity. The product layer is where value lives. Sam is built at the product layer for one vertical: people selling things online.
Generic AI is good at everything and great at nothing. Sam is great at one thing on purpose: marketing the things you sell.
| Competitor | Sam Positioning |
|---|---|
| Canva | Canva gives you a blank canvas. Sam gives you finished creatives, in your brand, ready to post. |
| Buffer / Hootsuite | They schedule. Sam writes, designs, AND posts. |
| Meta Ads Manager | Need a degree to use Meta Ads Manager. Sam runs your ads. Just tell it what you sell. |
| Kajabi ($179/mo) | Kajabi gives you tools. Sam gives you an AI marketing employee that does the work. |
| Freelancers / VAs | $3K+/mo, weeks to deliver, needs managing. Sam: minutes, no babysitting. |
| ChatGPT / generic AI | ChatGPT gives you text. Sam gives you finished ads, designed social posts, and promo plans. Fine-tuned on $7B of real sales data. |
$40,000+ stacked value. Founders price: $997 LTD. Public price after launch: $49/mo subscription only. No LTD ever again.
The Founders LTD window is 5,000 units max, opening Sept 9 launch day, closing Sept 15 at 11:59 PT. Bonuses B6 through B8 are exclusive to the first 48 hours.
| # | Bonus | Stated Value |
|---|---|---|
| B1 | Sam Pro for life. Full Sam access, no subscription, never expires. The core product as a one-time purchase. | $1,176 |
| B2 | Sam ROI Calculator Pro, lifetime. Track hours saved, revenue attributed, ROI per workflow. Lifetime access. | $497 |
| B3 | $7B Marketing Playbook, private podcast. 12 episodes. The patterns we extracted from 75,000+ businesses and $7B of transactions. Members-only feed. | $997 |
| B4 | Sam Challenge entry + $25K prize pool eligibility. Run your marketing with Sam for 7 days. Top story wins $25K + Brian podcast guest spot. | $25,000 |
| B5 | Founders Affiliate consideration. 40% recurring × 24 months on every referral. Application review within 7 days of purchase. | priceless |
| B6 48h only | Quarterly Founders Zoom with Brian. Closed-door roadmap calls. Feature requests reviewed live. First 48 hours of launch only. | $5,000 |
| B7 48h only | Co-branded launch asset kit. Sam-generated ads + landing page + email sequence in your brand voice. Ready to deploy. | $2,000 |
| B8 48h only | Lifetime grandfathered pricing on future Sam tiers. When new tiers launch (Enterprise, AI Sales, AI Service), you get the original Founders rate forever. | priceless |
| Total stacked value | $40,000+ | |
| Founders LTD price | $997 | |
90 days. If you don't save 10 hours per week or 2x your money with Sam, full refund + 6 more months of Sam Pro free.
If Sam can't out-write your freelancer in 5 minutes, Brian personally hires a marketing employee for you for 30 days. APPROVED
No sale within 90 days using Sam-generated marketing? Sam Pro extends free until you make your first sale.
Target: 250 paying beta users by July 31, 2026. Sourced from SamCart customers first.
The waitlist isn't a list. It's a movement. Every signup gets a referral link. Every referral moves them up the queue. The leaderboard goes public. The hashtag goes everywhere.
| Refer | Unlock |
|---|---|
| 1 person | Jump 100 spots in the queue |
| 3 people | Priority access. Get Sam 14 days before everyone else. |
| 5 people | Lifetime Sam Pro free if you convert during launch window |
| 10 people | $500 cash + Founders Affiliate program consideration |
| When | Action |
|---|---|
| Day 0 | Welcome from Brian. Referral link assigned. Leaderboard rank shown. |
| Weekly | "What Sam Shipped This Week" with demo clips + your current rank. |
| T-90 (Jun 11) | Personalized Sam Score Quiz invite (segmented by persona). |
| T-60 (Jul 11) | 5-Day AI Marketing Crash Course launches in inbox. |
| T-30 (Aug 10) | Sam Challenge invite, free 7-day access. |
| T-14 (Aug 26) | Founders Pricing reveal. Stack value + scarcity rules. |
| T-7 (Sept 2) | Final referral push: "Last week to lock lifetime Sam Pro free." |
| T-0 (Sept 9) | Launch alert. SMS-opted-in fire 12 hours earlier. |
Four free assets that feed the waitlist. Trust ladder. Each one demonstrates Sam's capability before the visitor ever sees a price.
URL: samcart.com/sam-score
Hook: "How much is your bad marketing costing you?"
Format: 60-second diagnostic. 8 multiple-choice questions across revenue tier, channels used, hours spent, current outcomes.
Output: Personalized 1-page PDF with their Sam Score, estimated revenue leak, and the 3 specific things Sam would fix first.
Capture: Email + SMS. Auto-segments into Sarah / Mike / Victoria persona for downstream targeting.
URL: samcart.com/sam-audit
Hook: "Paste your URL. Get a gap audit in 90 seconds."
Format: Visitor enters their website or sales-page URL. Sam crawls, analyzes, and returns a 1-page audit with conversion gaps, messaging weaknesses, and channel opportunities.
Output: Branded PDF audit, email-gated.
Capture: Email required. SMS optional.
URL: samcart.com/7b-playbook
Hook: "What 75,000 businesses and $7B of transactions taught us about what converts."
Format: 30-page PDF. Patterns extracted from the actual SamCart dataset. The chapters become Brian podcast episodes (see B3 bonus).
Capture: Email gate.
URL: samcart.com/sam-course
Hook: "Five days. Five emails. Five things AI does for your marketing that you don't have to do anymore."
Format: Daily email course. Brian voice. Each day teaches a specific Sam workflow (ads, social, design, promo, analytics) and ends with a soft demo CTA.
Capture: Email gate. Builds Sam authority before the launch ask.
Rolling-thunder launch. Coordinated VIP affiliate wave, founder content, paid ads, PR, email blast to the 1M-list. Sales page goes live.
Separate effort from PR. PR is editorial (writers, podcasters, journalists). AI directories are distribution / discovery (high-intent search traffic from people actively looking for an AI tool).
Brian's ask: submit Sam to TheresAnAIForThat (TAAFT). Yes — do it, plus the other top directories. This becomes its own workstream because they each have different requirements, review cycles, and paid placement options.
| Directory | Why it matters | Cost | Timing |
|---|---|---|---|
| TheresAnAIForThat (TAAFT) | Largest AI tool directory. 5M+ monthly visitors. Brian's direct request. Featured placement drives meaningful signup traffic. Categories: AI Marketing, Ad Generation, Social Media AI, AI Copywriting. | Free listing $199-499 featured | Submit T-30 before launch. Featured boost on launch day. |
| Product Hunt | Day-of-launch traffic spike + tech audience. Top 5 finish drives 20-50K visits. Coordinated VIP/affiliate upvote push at launch. | Free | Schedule launch for Sept 9. Build hunter relationship pre-launch. |
| Futurepedia | 2nd largest AI directory. 2M+ monthly visits. Strong SEO authority on "AI marketing tool" queries. | Free + paid options | T-30 submit. |
| G2 | B2B SaaS review site. Drives high-intent traffic. Critical for the SMB persona doing comparison shopping. Pair with review-generation campaign from beta cohort. | Free profile Paid tiers $$$ | Create profile T-60. Push beta users to leave reviews T-14. |
| Capterra / GetApp / SoftwareAdvice (Gartner family) | Same playbook as G2. SMB decision-maker traffic. Free profile + paid lead-gen tiers. | Free + PPC | T-60 profile, T-14 review push. |
Most of these take 5-15 min per submission. Batch in a single afternoon T-14. Ophelia or a VA can own execution.
Owner TBD. Recommend Ophelia (already coordinating partner/influencer outreach) or a dedicated VA. Marketing bot can produce the submission kit assets. Studio bot can produce the demo video + screenshots.
Status: TAAFT submission link from Brian: theresanaiforthat.com/ai/apex/?ref=featured (this is a featured-placement reference link). Treat as P1 — submit this week.
Pitch to VIPs: "Promote the AI marketing teammate every seller wants." Not a full platform pitch. Sam is the AI marketing employee. Easy to explain, obvious value, recurring revenue for the affiliate.
| # | Name | Reach | Status | Angle |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Alex Hormozi | 8M+ | discovered | Aligns with Sam's "delete work" framing. Justin Welsh or Acquisition.com intro path. |
| 2 | Layla Hormozi | 1.5M+ | discovered | Softer ask than Alex. Operator angle. |
| 3 | Ed Mylett | 6M+ | VIP Day must-have | Personal friend tier. "10X productivity" story. |
| 4 | Lewis Howes | 5M | partner, personal | Podcast guest + endorsement. Close friend. |
| 5 | Mel Robbins | 5M+ | confirmed customer | TIME100. Customer story makes endorsement easy. |
| 6 | Tony Robbins | 8M+ | discovered (Jairek path) | Via Jairek. Highest reach unlock. |
| 7 | Jairek Robbins | Large | $486M whale, uncontacted | Personal touch immediately. Activate, then route to Tony. |
| 8 | Marie Forleo | 1.95M | partner, personal | VIP Day must-have. Already warm. |
| 9 | Amy Porterfield | 900K | partner, personal | VIP Day must-have. Course-creator royalty. |
| 10 | Codie Sanchez | 4M+ | partner, $30M lifetime | Via Dawn Andreas back-channel. |
| 11 | Nathan Barry (Kit) | 200K | partner, personal | Kit founder. Co-marketing AND endorsement. |
| 12 | Chris Do | 4.5M | partner, personal | VIP Day 2025 alum. Designer + creator hybrid. |
| 13 | Ryan Pineda | 2.5M | partner | Active SamCart user. Real-estate + AI crossover. |
| 14 | Sean Cannell | 4.2M | partner, personal | Think Media. Confirmed customer. |
| 15 | Charlie Houpert (Charisma on Command) | 9.5M | discovered | Highest-reach single channel still uncontacted. |
| # | Name | Reach | Why |
|---|---|---|---|
| 16 | Russell Brunson | 2M+ | ClickFunnels founder. Stretch, but Sam sidesteps Funnels competitively. Frame: "Sam runs the ops you don't want to." |
| 17 | Pat Flynn | 400K | Proven SamCart promoter. |
| 18 | Stu McLaren | 285K | 9-day-old DM unanswered. Fix this now. Membership king. |
| 19 | Neil Patel | 1.55M | SEO leverage + AI angle. |
| 20 | Frank Kern | mega | Marketing legend. AI angle is fresh meat. |
| 21 | Dean Graziosi | macro | Mastermind + courses. Tony-adjacent. |
| 22 | James Wedmore | 314K | VIP Day strong want. Business by Design. |
| 23 | Ryan Deiss (DigitalMarketer) | 500K | B2B marketer base = Sam ICP. |
| 24 | Todd Brown | partner | Funnel marketer. |
| 25 | Mike Dillard | warm | Direct-response veteran. |
| 26 | Justin Goff | warm | Copywriting + DTC list. |
| 27 | Justin Brooke | partner | Media buying. |
| 28 | Pedro Adao | discovered | Built launches on challenges. Natural Sam Challenge ally. |
| 29 | Nicole Walters | 190K | Proven SamCart revenue. |
| 30 | Noah Kagan | 1.38M | Built AppSumo on launches. |
| 31 | Jenna Kutcher | 1.1M | Female creator audience. |
| 32 | Kim Constable | 4.2M | $20.2M whale. Never invited. Fix now. |
| 33 | Amanda Tress (FASTer Way) | 300K | $47.5M lifetime. Top-10 customer story. |
| 34 | Alex Beadon | 550K | $10M lifetime, never warmed. Surfaced Apr 1. |
| 35 | Sam Ovens (Skool) | macro | Skool competes adjacent. Creator-economy ally. |
| # | Name | Reach | Niche |
|---|---|---|---|
| 36 | Dan Koe | mega | Solopreneur philosophy. Owns "one-person business" narrative. |
| 37 | Justin Welsh | 1.8M | LinkedIn solopreneurs. |
| 38 | Greg Isenberg | macro | Creator-agency angle. |
| 39 | Sahil Bloom | macro | Productivity + wealth. Newsletter-led. |
| 40 | Ali Abdaal | mega | Productivity + creator ed. "AI saves hours" is his lane. |
| 41 | Graham Cochrane | warm | Course creator. |
| 42 | Ryan Lee | partner | Community builder. |
| 43 | Mariah Coz | warm | Course creation. |
| 44 | Molly Mahoney | warm | Live video. |
| 45 | Kim Jimenez | warm | Content marketing. VIP Day alum. |
| 46 | Sunny Lenarduzzi | 697K | YouTube + courses. Cold but excellent ICP. |
| 47 | Donald Miller (StoryBrand) | macro | VIP Day aspirational. Brand-story leader. |
| 48 | Roberto Blake | macro | VIP Day aspirational. Creator-economy YouTuber. |
| 49 | Mike Michalowicz | macro | Small-business author. VIP Day strong want. |
| 50 | Tiffany Aliche (Budgetnista) | macro | VIP Day aspirational. Diversifies audience. |
| Tier | Who | Commission | Cookie | Trigger |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Founders | Hand-picked, ~30 max | 40% recurring × 24 months + $500 bonus per signup over 10 | 180 days | Brian invite only |
| Pro | Active promoter, 5+ refs/mo | 30% recurring × 12 months | 90 days | Application + 3-month review |
| Standard | Anyone | 20% recurring × 12 months | 60 days | Open signup |
Why recurring + long window: Sam is sticky AI infra. CAC payback is the easy part. The hard part is signing creators with $5M audiences who already have 10 affiliate offers. 40% × 24 months gets a Hormozi-tier person to actually post.
Sequenced, not blanket. Each VIP gets the right asset at the right moment. The launch wave is choreographed across 60 days, not a single coordinated post on Sept 9.
| Phase | Date | Action |
|---|---|---|
| T-60 | Jul 11 | Brian sends personalized 60-second videos to each Tier-1 VIP, name-mentioned. Warm-up signal. |
| T-45 | Jul 26 | VIP Day event. In-person room. Demo, vision, the ask. (See full Day 1 agenda below.) |
| T-30 | Aug 10 | VIPs get private demo + Sam-generated personalized launch assets (their voice, their audience, their offer angle). |
| T-14 | Aug 26 | Coordinated "I tried Sam" tease posts. Don't reveal LTD pricing yet. Just the experience. |
| T-7 | Sept 2 | Final asset drop + coordinated 4-hour launch-day window briefed. Each VIP locks their post time. |
| T-0 | Sept 9 | Launch. Synchronized post wave within 4-hour window. Leaderboard goes live publicly. |
| T+1 to T+6 | Sept 10-15 | Daily "I just saved X hours with Sam" social proof posts from VIPs. Sustained momentum through cart close. |
| Rank | Bonus |
|---|---|
| #1 | $100,000 + lifetime Sam Enterprise comped + Aspen retreat for 2 |
| #2 | $50,000 + Enterprise comped |
| #3 | $25,000 + Enterprise comped |
| #4 to 10 | $10,000 each |
| #11 to 25 | $2,500 each |
| Every affiliate hitting 10 signups | Tesla Model 3 lease ($500/mo × 24 months covered) |
| Every affiliate hitting 50 signups | All-expense trip to next VIP Day 2027 |
Total bonus pool ceiling: ~$350K. Approval needed (see Section 20).
| Time | Block | Lead |
|---|---|---|
| 8:30 to 9:00 | Coffee + mingle | n/a |
| 9:00 to 9:30 | "Why this room" vision keynote | Brian |
| 9:30 to 10:15 | Sam live demo, uncut, real workflows | Sam Lemon + AI lead |
| 10:15 to 10:45 | Break, 1:1 with Sam (the AI) terminals | n/a |
| 10:45 to 11:30 | The numbers. SamCart 2.0 + Sam roadmap. $300M to $500M target. | Brian + Justin Bates |
| 11:30 to 12:15 | The ask. September launch wave. | Brian |
| 12:15 to 1:30 | Lunch (assigned seating, Brian curates pairings) | n/a |
| 1:30 to 2:30 | Founders Affiliate program walkthrough | Ophelia + Bridge |
| 2:30 to 3:30 | Breakouts: creators / coaches / agencies / software founders | Self-led |
| 3:30 to 4:00 | Q&A panel | Brian + Sam Lemon + Justin Bates |
| 4:00 to 5:30 | 1:1 booked slots. 15 min each with Brian. | Brian |
| 6:30 to late | Private dinner + experience | n/a |
| Day | Action |
|---|---|
| +1 | Personal thank-you video from Brian. Recap deck shared. |
| +3 | Founders Affiliate links go live in dashboard. |
| +7 | First promo asset drop: hooks, swipe copy, demo clips, thumbnails. |
| +14 | Weekly office hours with Brian + Sam Lemon. |
| +21 | Story bank: 3 customer case studies VIPs can repost. |
| +30 | Mid-prep check: who's on track, who needs coaching, who's quiet. |
| +45 | Final asset pack: launch-day swipe email, 5 social posts, 3 short-form video hooks. |
| +60 | Launch readiness call. Personal Brian check-in with top 10 VIPs. |
| Sept 9 | Coordinated drop. Founders post within a 4-hour window. |
Purpose: buy reach in audiences Brian can't access via warm rolodex. Pay for content, not for affiliate signups. Different incentive than the affiliate program.
| # | Creator | Audience | Why | Budget |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Liam Ottley | AI for business | Direct Sam overlap | $15K to $25K |
| 2 | Wes Roth | AI news / explainers | Demo content | $10K to $20K |
| 3 | Matt Wolfe | AI + tech | Already partner. Paid + affiliate hybrid. | $20K to $30K |
| 4 | Matthew Berman | AI tools reviewer | Tools-comparison format | $10K to $15K |
| 5 | AI Advantage | AI for productivity | Hands-on demo | $8K to $12K |
| 6 | AI Unleashed | AI for ops | Workflow demo | $5K to $10K |
| 7 | Allie K. Miller | AI on LinkedIn | LI demo audience | $15K to $25K |
| 8 | Mark Tilbury | Wealth + biz | Wider biz audience | $10K to $15K |
| 9 | Charlie Chang | Side hustles | Course-creator audience | $8K to $12K |
| 10 | Humphrey Yang | Personal finance / biz | Mass-market explainer | $10K to $15K |
| 11 | Dan Martell | SaaS scaling | High-fit SaaS founder audience | $20K to $30K |
| 12 | Pat Walls (Starter Story) | Founder stories | "Founder uses Sam" case study | $8K to $12K |
| 13 | Sam Parr (MFM) | Biz + podcast | Sponsorship slot | $20K to $40K |
| 14 | Sahil Bloom | Productivity | Newsletter sponsor | $10K to $20K |
| 15 | Kallaway | Tech news (TikTok) | Gen Z creator audience | $5K to $10K |
| 16 | Wave Wyld | TikTok growth | "Save 10 hrs" angle | $5K to $10K |
| 17 | Keenya Kelly | TikTok + courses | Course-creator ICP | $5K to $10K |
| 18 | Adam Enfroy | Affiliate + biz | Affiliate audience, self-fulfilling | $8K to $12K |
| 19 | Justin Welsh | LinkedIn solopreneurs | Newsletter sponsorship | $15K to $25K |
| 20 | My First Million (podcast) | Biz + founders | Ad read | $30K to $50K |
Total paid influencer budget recommendation: $350K to $400K for Aug to Oct 2026 window. Approval needed (Section 20).
Concept: "Run your marketing with Sam for 7 days. Track your hours saved. Show your work."
Why it works: tangible, time-boxed, social-proof-generating, low-friction. Same pattern that built Whole30, Couch-to-5K, 75 Hard.
Launch: soft launch August 2026 with founders affiliates, big push Sept 1 with launch wave.
Primary channels: Brian's existing handles. He's the brand. The 1M-list and Brian's personal audience are the launch flywheel.
Secondary: new Sam product handles (IG, TikTok, X, LinkedIn). Demo-led, in Sam's voice. Built up alongside Brian's content.
YES on Brian Letter. Founder-voice newsletter, weekly. Builds the direct line to the audience and is the bridge to the 1M-list. Topics rotate through the 5 pillars above.
NO on Brian podcast. Time cost too high for the launch window. Brian on other people's podcasts (guest swap) is the right move for Sept. Revisit a Brian-hosted podcast post-launch.
SEO is NOT a launch priority. 70% of search-channel effort goes to AEO + GEO (Answer Engine + Generative Engine Optimization). Showing up in ChatGPT, Perplexity, Claude, Gemini answers about "best AI marketing tool," "Sam vs Kajabi," "AI marketing employee," etc.
The centerpiece angle: "We're using Sam to run Sam's ads."
Every Sam ad should show, in some way, that Sam itself made the ad. Screen recordings of Sam writing + designing in real time are the highest-converting format. Authentic, on-brand, and the strongest proof of product capability.
| Channel | Role | Format |
|---|---|---|
| Meta (FB + IG) | Primary scale channel | Reels, in-feed video, lead-gen |
| YouTube | Long-form demo + Brian founder content | Pre-roll, in-stream, Shorts |
| TikTok | Reach + Gen-Z seller audience | Native demo + UGC-style |
| Google (Search + YouTube) | Branded defense + high-intent | Branded search, comparison queries |
| Victoria persona | Founder-voice posts, retargeting |
$1M total launch paid ad budget. APPROVED
Ramp aggressively. Test in June, scale in July, push in August, max out in September launch week.
| Phase | Window | Budget | Focus |
|---|---|---|---|
| Test | June | $5K per week per creative concept (5 concepts × $1K) | Find winning hooks. CAC baseline. Eliminate losers fast. |
| Scale | July | $25K per week | Pour into top 2 winning concepts. Expand audiences. |
| Aggressive | August | $50K per week + paid influencer pushes | Sam Challenge promotion. Pre-launch warmup. VIP wave teasing. |
| Launch | Sept 7-15 | $100K per day cap for 7 days | Maximum saturation. All channels. Retarget every touchpoint. |
| Total launch budget | $1,000,000 across June through Sept | ||
Hook: "Your Sam Score expires soon. Lock in your free results before they archive."
Audience: completed Sam Score Quiz but no waitlist signup. Window: 7 days post-quiz.
Hook: "Sam Challenge starts in 7 days. You're already on the waitlist. Want first dibs?"
Audience: on waitlist, did not purchase. Window: T-30 through T-7.
Hook: "You ran the 7-day Challenge. Founders pricing closes in 48 hours."
Audience: started Sam Challenge but did not purchase. Window: T-2 launch week.
Hook: Brian founder video (the 60% number). Direct-to-camera, no pitch, just the story.
Audience: hit sales page, did not purchase, returned in 48 hours. Highest-intent audience.
The 1M-list is the single biggest launch asset. Bridge sequence positions Sam as the AI marketing employee that lives alongside whatever the recipient is already paying for.
"Sam markets what you already sell on SamCart."
Already-paying base. Highest convert rate. First beta cohort.
"Sam designs your assets and runs your ads while Typeset handles your content."
Complementary positioning. Not a replacement.
"You learned the marketing. Now have Sam do it for you."
Education base. The "I know what to do but no time" segment.
The 1M-list does not get 7 emails. It gets 53. Four monthly blocks. Foundation → Authority → Activation → Launch Week. Each block compounds the last.
Total: 53 emails across June through September. Up from 7 in the previous version. Brian Letter holds the weekly cadence. Everything else stacks on top.
18 SMS across Aug 15 → Sept 15. Salesmsg as primary, Twilio as fallback. Opt-in only. STOP/HELP compliant. Throttled per carrier limits.
APPROVED 18 SMS to ~50K opt-ins via Salesmsg. $5-15K throughput cost.
| Date / Time | Message Hook |
|---|---|
| Aug 15 | Welcome to the SMS list. "You'll hear from Brian first." |
| Aug 17 | Sam Challenge starts today. Free 7-day access link. |
| Aug 19 | Mid-challenge motivator. "Still on the challenge? Here's what others are reporting." |
| Aug 21 | Last day of challenge + bonus stack tease. |
| Aug 24 | "Sam launch in 16 days. Here's what's coming." |
| Aug 28 | Beta case study #1. Time saved + revenue impact. |
| Sept 1 | "8 days. Founders LTD details next week." |
| Sept 4 | Founders LTD reveal. Stack value, unit count, deadline. |
| Sept 7 | "48 hours. Affiliates posting." |
| Sept 8 | "Tomorrow. Sales page goes live at 9am ET." |
| Sept 9, 9am | LAUNCH. Link to sales page. |
| Sept 9, 1pm | "First 100 units gone." |
| Sept 9, 6pm | "Day 1 close, 487 sold." (number placeholder) |
| Sept 10, 10am | "Bonus tier B6-B8 expires in 24 hours." |
| Sept 11, 10am | "B6-B8 GONE. Stack still at $40K value." |
| Sept 13, 9am | "48 hours left." |
| Sept 15, 12pm | "12 hours. 612 units remaining." (number placeholder) |
| Sept 15, 11pm | "1 hour. Final call." |
Brian runs the Challenge himself, in public, with a real product he sells (Brian Letter or a course). Generates 7 days of "Sam did this for me today" content. Reinforces the dogfood angle from Section 14.
10,000 paid Sam users by end of Year 1. Revenue target TBD pending pricing decision (Section 04).
Onboarding spec is owned by Scott. Live in Notion.
Onboarding success criterion: new user has their first Sam-generated asset (an ad, a social post, a designed creative) ready within 10 minutes of signup.
Sales enablement: Justin's team builds the playbooks for inbound Sam demos (Victoria persona is the biggest sales-led segment). Demo scripts, objection-handling docs, ROI calculator.
Sam's value is obvious in the first 60 seconds. A no-card free email signup probably out-converts a 14-day-CC trial for this product. Worth testing in beta.
The single most important asset for the launch is the 90-second Sam demo. If anything is going to make a VIP affiliate post and a stranger sign up, it's that video. Don't cheap out. $50K minimum.
The "Sam got promoted" bridge story is internally clever but doesn't translate outside the SamCart bubble. Lead public copy with "AI marketing employee / teammate." Save "Sam got promoted" for the founder-told version inside Brian's content.
Per the banned-words list. "Creator" makes Mike (the Scaler, the MVP target) feel like he's not the customer. "Seller," "founder," "course creator" (specific) are all better than the generic "creator."
If/when Sam has a founders pricing tier, cap it at the middle tier (whatever the equivalent of SamCart Pro ends up being). Lifetime Founders deals on the highest tier are a slow-bleed margin killer.
Every workstream, every week, one view. Ten parallel motions across twenty-two weeks, leading to MEGA LAUNCH Sept 9 and cart close Sept 15.
Color codes: ■ lead-gen / build-up · ■ product / beta · ■ influencer / affiliate · ■ paid / scale · ■ launch / deadline
| Date | Milestone | Phase |
|---|---|---|
| Jun 1 | Lead-gen kickoff. Audit Tool live, waitlist page open, paid testing begins. | Foundation |
| Jul 26 | VIP Day event. Tier-1 affiliates in the room. The ask. | Authority |
| Aug 17 | Sam Challenge starts. 7-day public challenge. Hashtag movement. | Activation |
| Sept 9 | MEGA LAUNCH. Founders LTD opens. VIP wave fires. $100K/day ads on. | Launch |
| Sept 15 | Cart hard close at 11:59 PT. 5,000 unit cap. No second chances. | Launch |