Jannik Lindner: From Affiliate Empire to AI SaaS with rawshot.ai and careertrainer.ai
"Happy Bootstrapping" Volume #57
Jannik Lindner from Austria has tried more things than most. Together with his co-founders Flo and Alex, he built a six-figure affiliate network under the Global Commerce Media GmbH. OMR covered it. Amazon brought them in as beta partners for its On-Site Publishing program.
Then came an acquisition offer – which they turned down. The cash reserve went into a meeting software called ZipDo. Not a single license was ever sold. In Episode 168 of Happy Bootstrapping, Jannik reflects on what he learned – and how he rebuilt with rawshot.ai and careertrainer.ai.
This is a summary of Episode 168 of the “Happy Bootstrapping” Podcast (German).
The rise – and why it couldn’t last
At its peak, Global Commerce Media was running sites like Supplementbibel.de and Luftking.de, ranking for thousands of keywords, with a tech team in El Salvador and up to 15 full-time employees plus freelancers. Monthly revenue ran between 200,000 and 250,000 euros.
“We actually knew pretty early on that this was a dying space. We knew before the wider market did.”
They still turned down the acquisition offer. Not out of strategic conviction – Jannik simply didn’t know what he’d do next. So the cash cushion went into ZipDo, a tool for structured meeting agendas. The idea was solid. The market didn’t want it. After months of development and zero sales, they pulled the plug.
rawshot.ai: AI product photos without prompting
The restart began with a simple lesson: no more generic products – pick a clear vertical. Jannik and his co-founders Flo and Alex chose fashion and e-commerce, a space with high image demand and obvious pain points.
rawshot.ai generates AI product photos for online shops and fashion brands. Consistent models across hundreds of images, no prompt field, scalable from ten to ten thousand products. Launched in late January, within less than two months the tool had around 100 paying customers and over 3,000 registered users. Pricing starts at $9 per month.
“Pricing for AI products is just really hard. People upload the most complex piece of jewelry – and use that as their benchmark.”
Growth runs entirely through SEO and visibility in ChatGPT and other AI search tools. No paid marketing, no outbound. Jannik applies the same technical playbook he built during years of affiliate SEO – this time pointed at his own product.
careertrainer.ai: Practicing difficult conversations before they count
In parallel, Jannik and his second co-founder Markus are building careertrainer.ai – an audio-based platform for AI role-plays. Managers practice difficult feedback conversations. Sales reps rehearse cold calls. A separate LLM evaluates at the end how well the defined conversation goals were met.
Large companies came knocking early – before the product was ready. Today, careertrainer.ai grows primarily through white-label partners: organizational development consultancies that run leadership training for corporations and deploy the technology under their own brand.
“Apparently it’s a huge topic – I only ever hear about it during sales calls.”
What Jannik does differently now
Jannik once wanted to go solo. He quickly realized it wasn’t for him. Today he values the different perspectives in his teams – Flo as the technical deep thinker, Alex as the systems builder for prompt pipelines, Markus as the developer behind careertrainer.ai. At the same time, he tries to set up processes so that AI handles most of the routine work.
What drives him isn’t an exit. Not a full-time founder title. Just the feeling of working on products that people actually use.
The full episode is now also on YouTube (German only):
5 takeaways for founders from Episode 168:
Pick a clear vertical – being generic was the core mistake with ZipDo
SEO skills transfer: what works for affiliate sites works for SaaS landing pages too
ChatGPT visibility is buildable – and often comes before Google rankings do
White-label partners can be a stronger growth lever than direct sales
Passive income is a myth – even at six-figure monthly revenue
Happy Bootstrapping is a German podcast where I interview bootstrapped founders, indie hackers, and solopreneurs about their startup journeys.
Over the years, I’ve connected with many successful entrepreneurs who have built e-commerce shops, SaaS platforms, mobile apps, content businesses, or hybrid models.
Furthermore I am a bootstrapper myself and growing my DevOps-as-a-Sercice and Web Operations Company “We Manage”.