# The Agency Incubator Model: How to Fund SaaS Products Through Clients Instead of Investors with David Carnes | Ep #904

Page: https://stenobird.com/podcast/smart-agency-masterclass-with-jason-swenk-podcast-for-digital-marketing-agencies-391378/the-agency-incubator-model-how-to-fund-saas-products-through-clients-instead-of-investors-with-david-carnes-ep-904
Text version: https://stenobird.com/podcast/smart-agency-masterclass-with-jason-swenk-podcast-for-digital-marketing-agencies-391378/the-agency-incubator-model-how-to-fund-saas-products-through-clients-instead-of-investors-with-david-carnes-ep-904.md
Podcast: [Smart Agency Masterclass with Jason Swenk: Podcast for Digital Marketing Agencies](https://stenobird.com/podcast/smart-agency-masterclass-with-jason-swenk-podcast-for-digital-marketing-agencies-391378)
Published: 2026-05-10T11:00:00+00:00
Episode link: https://jasonswenk.libsyn.com/the-agency-incubator-model-how-to-fund-saas-products-through-clients-instead-of-investors-with-david-carnes-ep-904
Audio file: https://traffic.libsyn.com/secure/jasonswenk/riverside_david_carnes_wix_ad_12_43_herringbone_ad_22_15_smart_agency_master.mp3?dest-id=181644
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Duration seconds: 1949

## Resource

Would you like access to our advanced agency training for FREE? https://www.agencymastery360.com/training Are you running multiple things at once and wondering why none of them are moving as fast as they should? Are you still the one every project, every client, and every decision routes through, no matter how many people you have on your team? Over nearly three decades, today's featured guest didn't just run an agency. He turned it into an incubator, spinning up multiple SaaS companies, a mobile app, and an accessibility tool, all funded and validated through a model most founders have never tried. In this episode, he'll get into how he built products without outside investors, why the bottleneck is always at the top of the bottle, and what it actually took to step out of the operator seat after 28 years in it. David Carnes is the co-founder of Arcstone , a digital agency based in Minneapolis that has been operating since 1997. Over the course of his career, he has launched multiple companies from inside the agency, including a SaaS platform for associations built as early as 2000, a document management system called Wonderfile that was acquired by Blue Tie in New York, and NC, an accessibility scanning tool built initially for Arcstone's own quality assurance needs. His wife now runs Arcstone as CEO. David currently sits in the CFO seat, operating across all three businesses as an advisor and strategic layer rather than a day-to-day operator. In this episode, we'll discuss: Creating the structure to run several businesses and not be in the middle of everything Why the founder bottleneck is a trap you can learn to avoid Understanding the importance of creating dedicated AI roles Subscribe App le | Spotify | iHear t Rad io Sponsors and Resources This episode is brought…

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