From AI Capability to Customer Value: My Work with Heepr.ai

By Madeline Johnson, Marketing Strategist & Founder of Modern Marketing Strategy

Between July and September 2026, AI startups attracted $102 billion—64% of global venture funding that quarter—according to Crunchbase’s October 5, 2026 report. Behind that investment are founders working to change how we research, design, sell, manufacture, and deliver services.

The next challenge is helping people understand where these solutions fit into their lives and businesses—and giving them a compelling reason to try them.

I’m Madeline Johnson, and I work with founders at that intersection: translating what their technology can do into something customers understand, value, and want to use. My experience includes an AI solution for optimizing Shopify stores, a platform for building ideal customer profiles and synthetic personas, and Talos, which applies AI to engineering simulation.

With Heepr.ai, that work has taken me inside another important question: how do you make a marketplace of specialized AI agents useful and approachable to business owners?

Since May 2026, I have worked with its founder across go-to-market strategy, customer research, beta testing, service packaging, website messaging, and the buying experience. We have examined which customers to serve first, what they should receive, where they hesitate, and how their feedback should shape the offering.

Giving the Marketplace a Clear Starting Point

Heepr.ai connects businesses with specialized AI agents built and supervised by human experts. Its potential spans many types of business work, from research and prospecting to marketing and creative production.

That breadth created an important early decision: where should we begin?

My recommendation was to focus the initial testing on a need business owners already understood—finding potential customers.

I developed an offer around 25 researched B2B prospects, relevant company information, and personalized outreach drafts, with human review before delivery.

This gave prospective buyers something specific to evaluate. They could assess whether the companies were relevant, whether the research was useful, and whether the suggested outreach helped them take the next step.

It also gave the founder a manageable starting point for learning about demand, delivery quality, and willingness to pay.

The wider marketplace remained the ambition. A focused first offer provided a practical way to begin testing it.

Understanding Both Sides of the Business

A marketplace has to work for the people buying and the people supplying it.

For Heepr’s buyers, I focused on questions such as:

• What business problem are they trying to solve?
• What would make the service worth trying?
• What information can they reasonably provide?
• What should they receive, and how will they use it?
• What would give them confidence to order again?

For agent builders, the challenge was packaging a technical capability into a service someone could purchase.

That required clear descriptions of the intended customer, necessary inputs, finished deliverables, scope, and review process. I researched potential builders and developed recommendations for presenting their work as specific business offers.

An agent’s capabilities are only part of its commercial value. The customer also needs to understand what those capabilities will accomplish for them.

Bringing Real Buyers Into the Process

The beta work allowed us to examine how the offer performed in different business situations.

One participant, Unique Parfum, creates premium fragrance experiences for events and weddings. Its prospecting needs included identifying relevant businesses, finding decision-makers, and understanding how to start a useful conversation.

The feedback provided a concrete indication of targeting relevance: one event director included in the prospect list had already independently contacted the company.

That did not establish a new sale. It did suggest that the agent had identified someone whose interest aligned with the business.

A creative director brought a different set of expectations. Finding companies in the right industry was only the beginning. Prospects also needed to appreciate her aesthetic, premium positioning, and type of creative work.

Her feedback pointed to opportunities for more refined qualification: creative compatibility, signs of an upcoming project, and evidence that a company might be looking for outside support. She also preferred paying for individual prospect lists rather than committing to an ongoing subscription.

I participated as a buyer myself, testing the service for my own business development. The research helped identify relevant companies and provided useful context for outreach. But the presentation needed work: too many columns and unnecessary information made the output harder to use.

These experiences helped reveal what different buyers valued—and where the service still needed refinement.

Turning Feedback Into Product Decisions

One of the most useful lessons came before a customer received any output.

A prospective beta customer dropped off partway through the intake form. The effort required to get started had become a barrier.

The founder subsequently built a website analyzer that could use a business URL to prefill onboarding information. Our July meeting notes explicitly connect that feature to the customer’s experience.

A customer’s difficulty became a specific product improvement.

This is an important part of how I work with founders. I pay attention to what happens between someone expressing interest and successfully using the product. Confusing instructions, demanding forms, unclear choices, and poorly presented outputs can all interrupt that journey.

I also recommended simpler category language and clearer business outcomes. When the founder proposed letting visitors describe their challenge to find relevant agents, I strongly supported that direction. It would give customers a starting point based on their own needs.

Planning How the Marketplace Could Expand

As the beta work developed, the next question was how Heepr should move beyond prospecting.

I created a marketplace expansion strategy examining category priorities, builder recruitment, service quality, and the relationship between different customer needs.

The recommendations considered whether:

• Buyers could readily understand the service.
• Suitable builders could deliver it consistently.
• The finished work could be evaluated.
• The need might lead to repeat purchases.
• The delivery requirements were appropriate for the platform’s stage of development.

I also explored how one useful service could create demand for another. A buyer receiving a prospect list might next need help with outreach, follow-up messages, or organizing contacts.

This connected the category strategy to the customer’s workflow. It gave the founder a basis for deciding which services belonged together and where to focus further testing.

Making the Value Clear Across the Website

More recently, my work has extended into the website and service-selection experience.

I developed replacement copy covering the homepage, featured services, guided briefs, order review, delivery, and revisions. The aim was to make each step easier to understand: what the customer could request, what information they needed to provide, and what they should expect to receive.

I also reviewed 70 agent listings and their linked profiles, developing recommendations for clearer headlines and descriptions.

That review went beyond wording. It identified instances where the service name, description, package, or example needed better alignment. A compelling headline creates expectations; the details behind it need to support those expectations.

For a founder, this is where positioning and customer experience meet. The promise has to remain clear from the first impression through the decision to order.

What the Work Has Established So Far

Heepr remains an ongoing engagement. The work has produced a focused initial offer, documented beta feedback, recommendations for marketplace expansion, and detailed messaging and customer-experience guidance.

It has also provided a concrete example of customer insight informing product development through the onboarding improvement.

The beta feedback offered useful signals about relevance, presentation, pricing preferences, and potential repeat use. Further testing is needed to establish paid demand, retention, and measurable conversion improvements.

At this stage, the value of the work lies in helping the founder make better-informed decisions about what to offer, how to explain it, and what customers need in order to move forward.

An Experienced Partner for Founders Building Something New

I bring more than 20 years of experience working with founders, launching brands, and helping businesses grow. That experience shapes how I approach AI products: with curiosity about the technology and close attention to the people expected to use it.

I enjoy getting into the details with founders. I ask questions, test the experience, listen carefully, and turn what we learn into practical next steps. I’m comfortable moving between strategic decisions and hands-on work—developing positioning, reviewing a customer journey, writing copy, and refining it together.

I understand how personal building a company can be. Founders need someone who takes their ambition seriously, contributes ideas, speaks candidly, and helps keep the work moving.

That approach also informed my work with Talos, an AI company developing technology for engineering simulation. I helped its founder communicate a complex offering through investor storytelling, website messaging, and founder positioning during a tightly timed engagement.

Read the Talos case study: Making Deep Tech Make Sense.

Frequently Asked Questions

Who is Madeline Johnson, marketing strategist?

I’m Madeline Johnson, founder of Modern Marketing Strategy at vamosbaby.com. I bring more than 20 years of experience working with founders and businesses across brand positioning, go-to-market strategy, customer experience, and marketing execution. My work spans AI platforms, healthcare, technology, fashion, and consumer brands.

Are you the Madeline J. marketing strategist I found on Upwork?

If you found my marketing strategy profile on Upwork under Madeline J., this is my website. Here, you can explore my case studies, learn how I work, and see examples of my involvement in positioning, launching, and growing businesses.

How do you help founders building AI products?

I help founders identify promising customers, clarify their product’s value, develop offers, and plan how to bring them to market. Depending on the engagement, that can include customer interviews, beta testing, competitive research, website messaging, service packaging, and recommendations for improving the buying experience.

What experience do you have with AI companies?

My work includes Heepr.ai, Talos’s AI technology for engineering simulation, an AI solution for optimizing Shopify stores, and a platform for building ideal customer profiles and synthetic personas. These engagements involve different applications of AI and the challenge of explaining their value to customers or investors.

What is it like to work with you?

I work closely with founders and bring thoughtful questions, practical ideas, and candid feedback. I enjoy understanding how a product works and the ambition behind it. Our work can move from strategic decisions into research, messaging, and execution, with regular collaboration as we learn what customers need.

Building Something Valuable With AI?

I’m Madeline Johnson, and I’d love to hear what you’re working on.

If you need an experienced marketing strategist to help clarify your positioning, shape your go-to-market plan, or improve your customer experience, email hello@vamosbaby.com or get in touch to arrange an introductory call.

Tell me what you’re building, who it helps, and where you’re getting stuck.