Empowering Community Builders with Murtaza Bambot

In this episode of the CLG Journal Podcast, David talks with Murtaza Bambot, the CEO of Heartbeat.

1. Capture customer stories in a simple, tangible way: Murtaza’s biggest immediate takeaway from the CLG conference was to stop overcomplicating customer storytelling. A casual tip from someone — just book a local podcast studio and invite customers in — led him to immediately execute on it. The lesson: remove friction from things you know you should be doing.

2. Vibe coding is empowering non-technical community builders: AI tools are now allowing people who’ve never written code to build real apps. His point: community builders are exactly the right people to hand this power to, because their entire purpose is helping others.

3. AI is transforming how software is built and used: Heartbeat shifted to being a fully AI-native product in August 2025, allowing users to talk with the platform to build courses, automations, and workflows — without needing to define rigid logic. The key insight: AI lets software go beyond predefined button-and-menu interactions, replacing the need to watch hours of tutorials with a simple conversational interface.

4. Word-of-mouth can be a product strategy, not just a marketing tactic: Heartbeat grew to 20,000+ customers almost entirely through referrals, with no marketing team. The philosophy: if you build something genuinely remarkable, users will remark on it. Prioritizing product quality over marketing campaigns was a deliberate strategic bet.

5. Community builders consistently underprice their work: One of the most resonant themes: people who build valuable communities chronically undercharge for them.

6. The right room changes the quality of your thinking: Murtaza noted that he asked the same questions at CLG that he’s asked at other founder events — but got fundamentally different answers, because the room was full of people who care deeply about people, not just revenue. The environment and values of a community shape the quality of ideas you walk away with.

And much more that you can listen to here!

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Thanks again to Murtaza for this conversation and for coming to CLG!

-David and Zach