Rescheduled — Friday 2026-06-05, 3:00 PM ET / 2:00 PM Central
Moved from Thursday 6/4 (the original "today the gate" framing). URL stays at /uj-discovery-2026-06-04 for inbound-link stability — content below applies to the new Friday session.
Status
🎯 The gate opened
Aspire Digital's first marine prospect
Door opener
$1.7M yacht close
Eric's first big UJ win, 5/29
Phase 1 scope
Website + SEO
UX overhaul, traffic, customer experience
Phase 2 (later)
Pre-qual + filtering
Budget-aware inventory flow
The frame — what this meeting is
First Aspire-as-Aspire-Digital conversation with the UJ team. This is discovery — understanding their pain in their language — not a pitch deck or scope-of-work walkthrough. Eric has already done the internal selling. Don't oversell.
The 3–8 week intro timeline collapsed to Week 4. Faster than 5/8 plan — which means Eric's internal credibility moved this. Honor that pace by not overcomplicating Thursday.
Win = a Phase 1 scope agreement (or a clear next-meeting commit with the right people in the room) + the start of a real Davis Haug relationship.
Who's in the room (and the gatekeeper move)
Aspire side
- ▸ Topher — strategy, F&I/finance instinct, founder voice
- ▸ Jaime — UX/design, the build credibility, "make filtering better"
UJ side
- ▸ Eric Fatkin — channel partner, internal advocate
- ▸ Jeremy (possibly) — owner's son, inside operator
- ▸ Davis Haug 🎯 — Beaver Lake sales (titular), inner-circle trusted, the gatekeeper
🎯 The Davis move
Davis is younger, smart, fast learner. He's trusted internally. Eric explicitly flagged him as the buyer-confidence gatekeeper. Build the relationship with Davis on Thursday. Ask his opinion, treat his read as load-bearing, don't talk past him to Jeremy. If Davis trusts the Aspire team, the rest follows.
Their stated pain (what Eric brought back)
- ▸"Just a whitelist page" — Topher's voice-note transcription, likely meaning the site reads like a static brochure. Confirm exact framing on the call but they feel the site doesn't pull traffic or drive customer experience.
- ▸SEO is the biggest stated pain. They want to be relevant and discoverable in the market.
- ▸Customer experience tailoring. Current site doesn't differentiate buyer journeys.
- ▸The slip blindspot: people buying boats at UJ are asking "do you have slips to buy?" — they don't know UJ provides a slip for every boat buyer. Slip-with-boat is a real differentiator and under-communicated. In an area where slips are scarce enough that buyers skip trailers entirely, this is potentially the headline story their site should be leading with.
- ▸Lightspeed weakness — current CRM. Eric: employees are "very terrible at getting information into Lightspeed." Don't lead with "rip out Lightspeed" but listen for whether it surfaces as Phase 1 or Phase 2.
The traffic-quality nuance (Eric's flag)
Some UJ salespeople are asking for "more traffic" generically. Eric specifically flagged the risk: unqualified traffic flood = wasted sales-time + lead quality drop. Volume-only SEO is the wrong frame.
Frame on Thursday: "We're going to chase the right traffic — buyers within your target price range, in your geography, with intent — not raw clicks. SEO is a quality strategy, not a volume strategy." This positions Aspire as strategic partner, not just a vendor running ads.
The economic picture (anchor every conversation here)
~200
boats/year (today)
~400
Eric's target (2x)
$1.7M
last week's yacht close
Eric's growth thesis is shared internally. Doubling unit volume isn't an Aspire ask — it's a UJ ambition. Aspire is the means. Every Phase 1 commitment should ladder up to "this helps us close 200 more boats/year."
Their stack (what we know going in)
| Layer | Current | Aspire posture |
|---|---|---|
| Website | DealerSpike (per M3) | Phase 1 build. Likely full replacement. |
| CRM | Lightspeed (data-entry weak) | Listen Thursday. Don't lead with rip-out. |
| Underwriting | App One (7–8 lenders, Eric routes) | Marine RouteOne equivalent. Stays put. Phase 2 surface. |
| E-sign / lenders | US Bank is the only DocuSign-capable | The SaaS wedge (from M3). Park for Phase 2. |
| Inventory filter | Basic filter exists | Jaime's improvement target — show in discovery as "we can do that better" |
Discovery questions (Topher + Jaime alternate)
Open-ended, their language, their pace. Use as prompts not a script.
- ▸For Davis: "When a customer walks onto the lot at Beaver Lake — what's the first thing that breaks down between them and the boat they actually want?"
- ▸For Davis: "What do you wish the website did before they get to you?"
- ▸For Jeremy/Eric: "If we doubled traffic tomorrow and 80% of it was wrong, what does that cost you?"
- ▸For Davis: "What's a competitor's site that you respect — and what specifically?"
- ▸For the room: "Tell me about the slip story — what should a buyer know that they don't?" (Tee up the slip-with-boat differentiator without claiming it for them.)
- ▸Decision frame: "If we did one thing in 90 days that doubled the right kind of lead, what would that even look like to you?"
What to bring · what NOT to bring
✅ Bring
- ▸ One or two relevant aspire build examples (Modern Maid, bowling alley) on a tablet — show, don't deck
- ▸ Jaime's eye + design instinct
- ▸ A notebook (literal or digital) — taking notes signals "we're listening"
- ▸ The slip-blindspot question, framed as their insight not yours
❌ Don't bring
- ▸ A slide deck
- ▸ Pricing (Phase 1 number lands AFTER discovery, in writing, between Topher + Eric)
- ▸ The DealerSpike rip-out narrative — Eric said they may already be there, let them say it
- ▸ The marine SaaS / boat-financing-saas pitch (Phase 2+, way past Thursday)
- ▸ "Ugly John" — only use it if explicitly invited or it's clearly normalized
Relationship hooks (worth knowing, use sparingly)
John "Ugly John" origin: college, bad haircut, girlfriend called him ugly, same day a marketing prof said he needed a brand → "Well, I'll go with Ugly John." 50+ years later it stuck. He was a national champion speedboat racer originally. Possibly has a car museum (future angle to surface organically, not Thursday).
Eric just closed his first big UJ deal — $1.7M yacht, 95% done by 5/29. He's coming into Thursday with capital. Acknowledge it briefly with the room ("congrats on the yacht close") — signals you're paying attention to his win, doesn't make it the topic.
Davis is younger. Treat him with peer respect, not "junior person at the table" energy. The trust path is through him.
Richard (CFO, ~80) isn't in this meeting but worth knowing — Eric thinks Richard may retire soon. The CFO succession isn't your concern Thursday, but if it comes up obliquely, listen.
Close — frame the next step
Don't try to close Phase 1 in this meeting. Try to earn the next meeting — one with the right people in the room (probably John or whoever signs).
"Here's what we'd want to dig into next: [one or two of their actual pain points]. We'll put a one-page summary together based on this conversation and walk it back through Eric in the next ~week. If that lands, we'd love to put a 90-day shape on it with John in the room."
That gives Eric a homework artifact to circulate internally, surfaces the next decision-maker, and doesn't ask for a commitment Thursday.
Pre-flight (before Thursday)
- ✓Date confirmed: Friday 2026-06-05, 3:00 PM ET / 2:00 PM Central (rescheduled from Thu 6/4)
- ☐Eric to confirm: Davis Haug's email + best contact channel (LinkedIn outreach on hold per Topher 5/30)
- ☐Topher + Jaime: brief sync — who leads which Discovery questions, who reads the room for Davis
- ☐Aspire side: pull 1–2 build examples (Modern Maid + bowling alley) on a tablet for show-don't-deck
- ☐Recording: if Teams/Zoom, record + transcribe. If in person, take notes — capture Davis's exact phrasing on pain points.
Post-meeting
Send Aria the transcript + your notes. Aria will:
- ▸ Write the one-page summary (their pain, their language, our framing) for Eric to circulate
- ▸ Update Davis Haug's profile entry with everything heard
- ▸ Draft the Phase 1 scope shape (not the pricing — that's a Topher+Eric backchannel)
- ▸ Surface Linear items for any specific build prep (Vegas brief, design exploration, etc.)
- ▸ Update the lane dashboard with the new state of play