50xing value of MY company: Coco AI

🧠 Takeaways:

Today, we’re running through the gameplan of what we’d do with my biz Coco AI if I acquired it today.

1. Be more AI native.

2. Invest more in Success.

3. Triple down on what’s growing the pipeline.

+ I finally launched a Youtube channel!

LBAB Community: I launched a Youtube Channel!!!!

Love the content but want to read less of it and watch more? 

Well after 3 years of saying I’m going to launch a channel, I’ve finally launched a Youtube channel! 

On it, we’ll be taking our best converting content from here and LinkedIn and creating long-form  YT videos. + we have some new and exclusive content we’ll be launching on YT first.

We’ll cover:

• Major Brands’ Stocks + Turnaround stories.

• Special tactics of what the best brands are doing.

• Deep dives into WhatsApp and AI.

Please subscribe! 

I need 100 subscribers before I can customize the channel URL.

Let’s Examine This Biz

Note: As always, none of what follows is legal, tax, investing, financial, or any other sort of advice. And I was never here.

Coco AI, MY BIZ, the Klaviyo for WhatsApp, is helping 665+ Shopify brands drive revenue with an AI sales agent that recovers carts, runs campaigns, and holds real-time customer conversations inside WhatsApp.

After wrapping up our year’s financials, I’m going to walk through how I’d run Coco if I started with a clean slate and acquired it today.

Today, we’re going to re-acquire Coco AI + 5x it in the next 5 yrs to 50x the valuation.

Financial Summary

2025 Financial Statements (YoY Comparison)

Sales: +318% 🤤
Gross Profits: +225% 👍
OPEX: +210% 👍
Net Income: +2,159% 😍
EOY ARR Run Rate: +118% 💪

TLDR Analysis: Rapid Growth coming with costs.

• Rev 4x’d YoY, but COGS 6.6x’d. 😀😨

• Gross Profits 2x’d but fell too much as a % of Rev. 😏

• OPEX grew in line with Gross Profits leading to a big increase in Net Income. 🥳

Everything is trending the way it’s supposed to be, other than COGS. 

• Revenue Growth is exactly where it needs to be.

• OPEX is lower than I’d like but we’re lean mean and I’m pushing the team. 

• Net Income is right where it needs to be. As the numbers get bigger, it will grow nicely.

Let’s TLDR This Biz

Founding:

In 2023: 4 Entrepreneurs in France set out to recreate commerce inside of WhatsApp.

The "Aha" Moment:

• They realized that brands wanted to use WhatsApp as a marketing channel (similar to email/SMS).

Explosive Growth:

• Launching Automations and Campaigns, the biz took off + started seeing 20%+ MoM growth.

• I acquired the biz in Feb 2025.

The Model:

• We charge Shopify brands to send WhatsApp messages to their customers on a per conversation basis.

The Rise:

• I’m writing this chapter now.

Let’s Scale This Biz

Here are our 3 strategies to 2x Coco again in 2026.

1) Become more AI native.

I really think of Coco as an AI biz that sends WhatsApp messages. 

Our main differentiator is our AI Sales agent where we:

1. Scrape the brand’s website

2. Train an AI agent to respond to customers’ questions.

3. Power Campaigns + Automations with real-time responses, so customers get Marketing messages, have their questions answered, and buy within seconds.

Today, all of that happens within WhatsApp.

I unfortunately can’t get too specific into exactly what “AI native” means because all of my competitors and their mothers consume everything I put out.

But at a high level, I want to remove as much human work as possible to make WhatsApp as a channel work for brands.

Now that we have 80% of the expected retention feature set… 

2026 will be dedicated to reimagining how to manage a channel in the age of AI.

A LOT more to come here.

Takeaway: Everyone just wants ChatGPT to do their job for them.

2) Invest more in Services

AI, like all previous major tech booms, requires a massive amount of client education + hand holding in the earliest stages.

As standards emerge the Product will become more important, but today we’re still very early in the education curve.

Coupled with the fact that brands want all the benefits of a new channel (WhatsApp but don’t want to invest the time/resources to properly manage it. 

We need to be the bridge for both.

The biggest “aha” from 2025 is to invest more in services earlier.

The greatest needle mover of 2025 was hiring a CSM heading into the holidays.

The biz exploded once she ramped + was able to better activate accounts.

• Help them unlock the platform.

• Push them to send more messages.

• Build UXs with the AI they didn’t know they could.

For a good portion of 2025, I thought it didn’t make sense to hire someone first to expand existing Rev.

Boy was I wrong.

In 2026, we’re going to lead with investment here + improve how we:

1. Onboard Accounts, so they launch immediately (<7 days) with big wins.

2. Help them build/manage their Flows + Campaigns (For agencies as well).

3. Unlock new growth areas within WhatsApp.

This is + will continue to be a triple benefit to the biz where:

1. We make more money from making our brands more successful.

2. Create more wow experiences, which drive WOM.

3. Provide a service that competitors can’t or won’t provide. Creating a second differentiator.

Takeaway: The more our Customers win, the more we win. I’ll always invest in double wins.

3) Triple Down on what’s working.

Everyone thinks as they start to hit a meaningful scale (2xing in back-to-back years) that you need to do more to continue to grow. 

More channels. More tests. More Team members. 

That couldn’t be further from the truth. 

To grow faster + more profitably you need to do less, better.

Fewer channels.

Tighter grouped teams

Less throwing spaghetti at the wall. 

Ensuring the same team member can focus more on the 80–20 activities.

Our Top 3 Net-New pipeline generators for 2025 were:

1. Word of Mouth: 50%

2. Partnerships: 20%

3. My Founder Brand: 15%

Here’s how we’ll crush each of them:

• More wow Product Features + investing more in CSMs to provide awesome experiences.

• Hire dedicated Partner Managers to properly manage our Partner relationships.

• Launch a YT channel + personal brands for our Team.

It isn't that complicated. 

We just need to continue to nail the basics + layer on really skilled people take over what I managed in 2025.

My time was split across all of these channels. While managing the product. While Managing the business.

I basically ran each channel as a part-time job. 

This year is all about bringing on A players to spend all their time focusing on making these channels better.

My biggest regret in 2025 was researching new channels + tactics. Looking for that next edge.

What’s already working will continue to scale. 

We just need to properly invest in each.

Takeaway: When you hit an oil reservoir. Keep digging.

Final Thought - 2026 is actually going to be one of the toughest professional years for me. 

Not because 2x’ing the biz again is daunting, or the extreme pressure I’m under to make the finances of the biz work under such fast growth.

Don’t get me wrong. I’m excited about it, but it’s missing that new challenge that I crave when I work on a project.

Our success in hitting our massive growth goals this year = more of the same.

I’ve essentially already “figured out this puzzle.” 

Now, the challenge is 

1. Getting all the right pieces together 

2. Ensuring I have backup plans for when things don’t go to plan.

3. Putting my head down + staying focused long enough to execute.

It’s going to be a great, challenging year. 2026 will truly challenge my entrepreneurial skills.

I’m going to have a hard summit to climb.

But the real challenge for me will be:

Do I have the resiliency + patience to ride through the “boring parts” to accomplish my greater goals?