Shaun Clark Interview: How HighLevel’s Co-Founder Built Go HighLevel for Agencies
I interviewed HighLevel co-founder and CEO Shaun Clark. HighLevel also featured me on its own show.
Here is what Shaun told me about building HighLevel for agencies only, the night five apps cost a roofer a lead, and why I run every client system on Go HighLevel.
The Night Five Apps Failed Me
At 11:42 p.m. a Colorado roofer called me, swearing the phone tree ate his $75-per-click Google lead.
Turns out lead #188 had been forwarded, zapped, tagged, abandoned somewhere between Calendly and the CRM-du-jour.
Five apps, one lost roof, zero excuses.
That was the moment I went looking for one platform that could do it all. It is the same problem Shaun Clark set out to solve.
How Shaun Clark Built HighLevel
Before HighLevel, Shaun ran an answering service for about 12 years and then built InvoiceSherpa, an accounts receivable automation tool. Selling software to small businesses one at a time was hard, and that pushed him toward agencies. In 2018, Shaun Clark, Varun Vairavan and Robin Alex founded HighLevel, an all in one, white label platform built for agencies. They bootstrapped it before taking minority growth investment in 2021 and 2024.
Today HighLevel says it supports more than 120,000 customers and over 1 million small businesses in 150+ countries. It ranked No. 426 on the 2024 Inc. 5000 and No. 516 on the 2025 list.
How a Roofing Crew Became a Case-Study Legend
I slammed HighLevel into that roofer’s duct taped stack:
Missed-call text-back = +38 % quote requests
Review automation = 97 new 5-star reviews in 30 days
Pipeline triggers = $1.3 M revenue lift in 60 days
My Interview With Shaun Clark on The Purpose Chasers (EP. 88)
In this episode, “Why Go HighLevel Said No to Everyone but Agencies,” Shaun and I talk about:
Why he built HighLevel
A community that polices itself and grew past 5,000 members
Being a second time SaaS founder
Why they stopped selling to lawyers and dentists and went all in on agencies
Shipping new features every week
Taking the risk, and what entrepreneurship asks of a marriage
Building an onboarding team so agencies stop getting burned
Listen on Apple Podcasts or read the full episode recap on The Purpose Chasers.
Beats, Bars, and a CRM
When Produced by Nef swapped Google Sheets for HighLevel, every Instagram DM paired to a beat-store funnel. He sold out two exclusive tracks in 48 hours, then cloned the snapshot for other producers at $297/mo.
Featured on HighLevel Spotlight Sessions
HighLevel invited me onto Spotlight Sessions, its own show on the official HighLevel YouTube channel, after I shared how Codie Sanchez’s Contrarian Thinking mastermind rewired my approach to scaling. The episode is “Mark Crandall On Taking Equity In Your Market.”
On that same platform, I mapped out the Testimonial Waterfall and automation sequence behind a $5.1M offer to buy a company I built, an offer I ended up walking away from. (Proof that owning your tech stack creates options you never saw coming.)
See it all in one place: Mark Crandall, Go HighLevel expert.
What a Go HighLevel Build Looks Like for a Client
Sarah Jones had wanted to get her business online for a long time and did not know how to start a landing page. We built two full landing pages and every automation in Go HighLevel, then recorded a walkthrough so she was comfortable running it herself. In her words:
"He did a great job and I'll definitely be using him again."
More real stories on the Happy Check client results page.
Mindset Check, App-Hopper vs HighLevel Operator
App-Hopper HighLevel Operator
Tool Count 5 to 12 “best in class” apps 1 white-label dashboard
Monthly SaaS Spend $600, $1,200 $97, $497
Data Flow Zap spaghetti, fingers crossed Native objects, no leaks
Client Perception “Tech stack chaos” “You built proprietary software?!”
Owner’s Time Support tickets & debugging Selling & scaling
Action Steps, Rip & Deploy in 14 Days
Day What to Do & Why It Matters:
1 Spin up the Agency Snapshot Instant funnels + automations
2 to 3 Import contacts; tag by source Cleaner reporting, smarter ads
4 Turn on Missed-Call Text-Back & Reputation Manager Recapture & review snowball
5 to 7 Build a 3-Email / 2-SMS nurture per service line Turns tire-kickers into booked jobs
8 Customize the mobile app with your logo Sell “your software” at $297/mo
9 to 10 Layer Testimonial Waterfall SOP triggers Clients sell for you 24/7
11 to 14 Measure pipeline velocity; prune dead automations Speed beats pretty dashboards
Still using Linktree? Here is why it is killing your assets.
Keep Listening on The Purpose Chasers
Two Ways to Put This to Work
1. Build it yourself on Go HighLevel. The follow ups, testimonial requests, nurture sequences and pipeline I talk about here all run on Go HighLevel. Start your free trial of Go HighLevel here.
Disclosure: the Go HighLevel link above is an affiliate link. If you sign up through it, I may earn a commission at no extra cost to you.
2. Have me build it with you. If you would rather have your happy customers selling for you without figuring out the tech, book an organic marketing audit call with me. We will look at where your proof is hiding and what it would take to put it to work.
Not ready for a call? Get the free Happy Check book and learn who to ask, when to ask and how to use what they say.
Keep reading on The Happy Check: Shaun Clark on The Purpose Chasers and how I collect video testimonials.
