🎤 Full Interview: Royal Tomar, Co-founder @ Spur
"We’re not here to replace humans. Our AI takes care of ~70–75% of conversations and escalates to a human when it shouldn’t answer or doesn’t know."
Redefining AI Support for Modern Commerce
Spur’s path wasn’t a copycat sprint. It was a customer-led crawl-walk-run. The team first attacked a single loud pain, unanswered Instagram comments and watched “magical” auto-replies unlock pull into WhatsApp and Facebook. But scale met friction: onboarding was complex, numbers got banned, and support load ballooned. The answer wasn’t “more platform,” it was own the surface, add Live Chat + AI to any website and decouple growth from third-party approvals. One snippet in, value out.
Quick Background
Before code, Spur had 10 manual customers and one sharp insight: D2C brands drown in “price?” comments they can’t answer fast especially at night. V1 matched comment intent to exact product links; customers called it “magical.” Within six months, Spur expanded from IG comments to conversations across Instagram, Facebook, and WhatsApp, then shipped Live Chat with AI so any site could deploy an agent without platform handcuffs.
The Challenge
Instagram ≠ conversations: Comments and DMs spike, but re-engagement is limited; teams miss intent and timing.
WhatsApp friction taxes velocity: FB Business verification, phone provisioning, brittle rules, and number bans make onboarding support-heavy for a lean team.
Bootstrapped reality: 80% of revenue rode on a channel that slowed shipping; the team needed growth without platform drag.
The Solution
Own the surface: Add Live Chat + AI to your site with a single line of code, no approvals, no waiting.
Resolve first, escalate fast: Agents answer common intents, then route edge cases to humans via a shared inbox with full context.
Lean by design: A 7-person team with one core engineer ships safely by pairing AI-assisted coding in Slack with strict human review.
Multi-channel, minus the handcuffs: Keep WA/IG/FB where they help. Let owned chat carry adoption and speed.
Implementation
Phase 1, Find painful intent: Start with IG comment to product-link automations to prove value.
Phase 2, Follow the conversation: Add WA/FB where long-form chats live and re-engagement matters.
Phase 3, Escape platform drag: Ship on-site Live Chat + AI so any site can install and see value instantly.
Distribution that compounds:
Partners: Agencies serving your ICP. Simple rev-share (e.g., 15% for 10 referrals, 30% for 40+), plus monthly touchpoints.
Directories: Meta partner listing sends daily, high-intent leads “goated.”
Programmatic SEO: Outrank publishes daily content and trades backlinks, lifting DR without headcount.
Results
Bootstrapped & profitable with cash in the bank. Growth without ad spend.
~500 customers served by a team of 7 with one core engineer, enabled by AI-assisted workflows + human review gates.
ARR ≈ $300k and climbing.
Key Learnings:
Say “no” to platform gravity: Customer pull is signal, not destiny. Optimize for velocity and control.
Own the surface, own the pace: On-site chat turns adoption from approval cycles into a snippet.
One great engineer + AI > team sprawl: Slack-native codegen with human review protects quality at scale.
Directories + programmatic SEO quietly print intent: Meta listings + Outrank posts/backlinks move needles weekly.
Listen on Spotify | Apple Podcasts
Watch on YouTube
In this episode, we cover:
00:01 — AI Teammates That Win
02:24 — “Price?”, Checkout Moment
03:23 — WhatsApp Breakout
04:43 — Bootstrapped from Day One
06:53 — Partners That Produce
09:18 — 10-Min YC & the Spark
16:13 — Beat Platform Gravity
20:04 — One Snippet, Full Control
32:42 — $300k ARR, 7 Humans
For inquiries about sponsoring the podcast, email david@thehomabase.ai
Future Outlook:
Spur’s bet is simple and audacious: AI makes support human-scale—agents handle the routine with escalating grace, humans focus on judgment, and resolution rates climb without headcount creep. Owning the surface means faster installs today and faster iteration tomorrow.
Find Case Studies of all other episodes here.
