Francisco Hernández didn’t start by building a product. He built a consultancy.
As founder of Menhir, an AI consulting firm serving enterprise clients, he spent years automating workflows for large institutions. Later, he expanded into logistics, customer service, and other sectors. One problem kept appearing.
Funnels were bleeding revenue. Quietly. Constantly. Expensively.
The Silent Revenue Drain
Online banks: 70% of users abandon KYC before opening an account
Dental practices: 58% of booked patients never show up
Mortgage brokers: 40% of applicants drop off before speaking to an advisor
Marketing teams obsess over the top of the funnel. But the real loss happens in the middle, where interest turns into inaction.
That is what Doppel is built to solve.
Why Menhir Failed to Ship
Menhir launched in 2019 as a boutique AI consultancy. The idea was to use high-margin services to fund internal product experiments. Smart on paper. Unworkable in practice.
“It’s not just economic margins you need. It’s focus margins. You can’t half-do both.”
Over six years, they built and killed multiple MVPs. The lesson was clear. Product development cannot be a side project. Doppel is the full-time bet.
Doppel’s Playbook: Save the Middle
Doppel recovers lost revenue through automated follow-up.
It uses voice AI, WhatsApp, SMS, and conversational flows to activate stalled leads:
A digital sales rep calls back a user stuck during onboarding
An AI agent rebooks a missed appointment
A message thread that feels real, not robotic
Early results show AI can match human conversion rates. But there is a catch.
Rebooked users via AI are more likely to no-show. The commitment feels weaker. A yes to a bot is not the same as a yes to a person. This is not just a technology problem. It is psychological.
Shipping at the Speed of AI
Today’s tooling changes the game. Francisco is building faster than ever:
Vercel’s V0 replaces Figma-to-dev handoffs
Supabase powers backend and authentication
Custom frameworks outperform brittle early scripts
Iterations now happen in days. But speed means nothing without adoption.
“Prototypes live or die inside client workflows,” Francisco says. “Not in isolation.”
Hard Calls, Harder Lessons
One painful realization. The moment you question a teammate’s fit, the trust is already gone.
“Once you lose trust, you work differently. Like spotting a typo in a report. Now you doubt the whole thing.”
Another lesson. Optimism distorts timelines. It helps you push harder, but burns teams if not kept in check.
Life Looks Different Now
Before kids, Francisco coded late into the night. Gym at 8 p.m. Work until 3 a.m.
Now, mornings are his only deep-work window. He divides his day between CrossFit, climbing, and raising two children under two, all while scaling a startup in Portugal.
What Founders Are Missing
Execution friction. Most AI pilots fail because integration is messy, not because the tech fails
Societal consequences. “We underestimated the effects of social media. We will do the same with AI”
Success, Redefined
“A fisherman with his family can be more successful than a YC founder.”
Francisco is not chasing an exit. His definition of success is staying in his zone of gifts — the intersection of capability and purpose — for as long as possible.
His Superpower: Optimism
Optimism got him in the door at CaixaBank at age 24. It helped him pitch non-performing loan solutions to major banks. It still fuels his team today.
“Sales is not a math problem. It is a trust problem. Optimism creates trust.”
Doppel is still early. But the goal is clear.
If AI can recover lost intent in the middle of the funnel, it will not just save revenue. It could change how companies think about customer behavior.
Have you ever run the numbers on how much your funnel is silently losing in the middle?