Waves

17 years old building a growth agency from scratch. Follow the journey. 🌊

[Waves @thewavesco]

I’m 17 and I just started a growth agency.
No clients. No experience. No excuses.
Most people my age are scrolling. I’m building.

No pitch, just real convos with founders.
What’s your biggest struggle right now? Drop it below.

Welcome to Waves 🌊

[Alex Herbert @alexherbert0]

Day 1 of beating @Jacob_Rhodes_ and @Layton_Gott to $10k MRR

Boom baby boom

Stay tuned to figure out how a 17 year old does this

[Alex Herbert @alexherbert0]

Had a call today with a founder who's been running his business for 13 years.

Within 10 minutes he listed 5 things he was genuinely good at. Without hesitation. Without thinking twice.

That's honestly a lot to me.

I sat there and could only come up with one thing about myself.

I'm good at talking to people.

That's it. That's all I had.

And honestly it humbled me. Not in a bad way. In a way that lit me up inside because that gap between where he is and where I am is exactly why I keep doing this.

There is nothing I love more than getting on a call with someone who is just better than me. It genuinely excites me in a way I can't fully explain. Like I'm getting handed something for free that feels priceless.

He threw out ideas like it was nothing. One after another. Some crazy, some brilliant, some both. And he wasn't attached to any of them.

Just kept moving.

I've been sitting on the same two or three ideas for weeks afraid to commit to the wrong one.

He's been doing this for 13 years and still doesn't know which idea is the right one. He just keeps moving anyway.

I'm 17, still figuring out what I'm building. But calls like this are the reason I haven't stopped. It brings me fulfillment.

[Waves @thewavesco]

Day 29.

Senior assassin starts today. College decision due in weeks. Homework that feels completely pointless.

Building a business in the middle of all of it.

This is hard. 🌊

[Waves @thewavesco]

Day 28.

The pattern I keep hearing from founders:

They built the thing. They just cannot get people to show up.

That is the whole problem. People do not talk about this enough.🌊

[Waves @thewavesco]

Three things I have learned from talking to founders for 27 days straight:

Everyone is building. Nobody is getting found.

The problem is not the product. It is the pipeline.

And that is exactly what I am building Waves to solve.

What are you solving?🌊

[Waves @thewavesco]

On my way home from an admitted students day at UNH.

Still doing outreach from the car.

College decisions, senior assassin starting Monday, and trying to close my first client.

This is what 17 looks like. Stressful, but mandatory for success. 🌊

[Waves @thewavesco]

@superscribeio 100%

[Waves @thewavesco]

Day 26.

Had a call today with a founder who has 60,000 users on one product and almost none on his new one.

He built something great. Nobody knows it exists.

That is the pattern I keep seeing. The build is not the hard part anymore.

Getting people to show up is. 🌊

[Waves @thewavesco]

@Jacob660245 For sure!

[Waves @thewavesco]

Day 25.

Still no clients. Still no revenue.

But I know my ICP. I know the problem. I know who has the pain and the budget to fix it.

25 days ago I had none of that.

Progress is not always visible. 🌊

[Waves @thewavesco]

Day 24.

Some days you are locked in.

Some days you are just tired and doing it anyway.

Today is the second one. 🌊

[Waves @thewavesco]

Day 23.

Things people in my life have said about Waves:

“That’s the stupidest idea I’ve ever heard.”

“What are you gonna do if you don’t even have something to sell?”

“Just get a degree.”

“You’re never gonna own a business.”

Still here. Still building. Just noise. 🌊

[Waves @thewavesco]

Day 22.

College decisions due in a month. LinkedIn premium runs out in 11 days. Barely any money to my name.

Still trying to build something real.

This is tough. 🌊

[Waves @thewavesco]

Day 21.

Nobody tells you how stressful the In between is.

Not the starting. Not the succeeding. The part where you have done the work but nothing has clicked yet.

That is where I am right now. Still building. Still figuring it out.

That is okay. 🌊

[Waves @thewavesco]

@lukmanAufbau So true! Crazy how this all works

[Waves @thewavesco]

Day 19.

The clearest thing I have learned talking to founders:

In a world full of AI, being human is what sells.

Generic messages get ignored.

Automated blasts get deleted. Real ones get replies.

AI did not kill outreach. It made authenticity more valuable than ever. 🌊

[Waves @thewavesco]

Day 20

Was at admitted students day today at RWU.

The dean of business said something that hit me.

“AI won’t take your job. But people who know AI better than you will.”

I am 17 and building around exactly that idea.

The victim mentality will kill your success. 🌊

[Waves @thewavesco]

Day 18.

Reached out to 10+ founders last night. Got 3 replies.

All 3 said some version of the same thing.

Outreach is broken. Generic messages get ignored instantly. LLM blasts kill trust. But nobody has figured out how to make it feel human at scale.

Getting answers. 🌊

[Waves @thewavesco]

Day 17 of building Waves in public

Still in high school

So not every day is “massive output”

Today was:

•School
•X posts
•Checking LinkedIn

Yesterday I jammed with another young founder on where to take Waves next

Long game only 🌊

[Alex Herbert @alexherbert0]

What’s the way to go for trying to grow your SaaS?

1. X
2. Reddit
3. LinkedIn
4. Other socials