I thought AI was the product. It turned out the methodology was.
Hacknator started around three years ago, when generative AI was beginning to take off in Brazil.
I had already been working in growth for more than a decade, and I wanted to turn some of that experience into a product.
At first, I saw the methodology I had developed as something I would put inside an AI product.
AI was the product.
The methodology was what I would give it to work with.
Building Hacknator made me see that relationship differently.
What should the AI actually do?
Generate growth ideas?
That part is easy. It can already generate more ideas than anyone has time to execute.
Recommend tactics?
Also easy, as long as it does not need to explain why that tactic makes sense for this particular business, at this particular moment.
The difficult part comes before the recommendation:
Understanding the business well enough to know which movement actually needs attention.
My way of thinking about growth is based on movements from one point to another.
For example:
- Someone searching on Google becomes a website visitor.
- A visitor becomes a signup.
- A signup reaches activation.
- An active customer reaches recurring value.
Every growth initiative should affect at least one of those movements.
SEO is not useful simply because SEO is considered a good growth tactic.
It is useful when it helps the right people move from searching for something to discovering the right offer.
This sounds obvious when written down.
But growth work often starts in the opposite direction:
- “We need SEO.”
- “We should redesign the landing page.”
- “Let’s launch a referral program.”
The tactic appears before anyone has clearly identified which movement is weak, missing or broken.
That is where the methodology matters.
From methodology to product
While building Hacknator, I stopped seeing the methodology as background knowledge for an AI to consume.
It was the part that made the product distinct.
That does not mean AI is unimportant. Quite the opposite.
AI can make the experience conversational. It can interpret answers, adapt the investigation, explain what the system finds and make the methodology much easier to apply.
But it needs something valuable to amplify.
For Hacknator, that something is the methodology.
The name came from Akinator, the old web genie.
What interested me was not the character-guessing game itself. It was the interaction.
Akinator asks questions before trying to reach an answer. Each answer changes what becomes relevant next.
I wanted to bring that kind of guided investigation to growth.
Hacknator asks about the business, organizes the answers into a visual map and uses that context to surface gaps and opportunities.
The user experience is straightforward:
- Describe your business through a guided onboarding.
- See how its parts and growth movements connect.
- Receive a map and diagnosis of the gaps Hacknator finds.
You do not begin with a blank chat asking:
“How do I grow my business?”
Hacknator investigates the business first.
That was the shift for me.
I started by seeing AI as the product.
I came to see AI as the technology that could make the methodology accessible, adaptive and much more powerful.
The methodology is what makes Hacknator its own product.
I have just opened the private beta for founders who already have a product, service or business in operation.
You can go through the onboarding, receive your business map and diagnosis, and tell me where Hacknator was useful, generic or simply wrong.
