The Untold Story of ClickFunnels: Todd and Ashley Dickerson on Building, Sacrifice, and AI

Last updated on March 26th, 2026 at 02:16 am

Russell Brunson tells the ClickFunnels origin story often, and it’s a good one. But there’s a whole other perspective you probably haven’t heard.

While Russell was on stage growing the community, his cofounder, Todd Dickerson, was behind the scenes building the software. And while Todd was flying to Boise, his wife Ashley was home raising their daughters. 

Todd and Ashley’s perspective on how it all happened will give you a whole new appreciation for what it took to build ClickFunnels.

This is that story.

The Third-Grade Entrepreneur Who Never Stopped

Todd Dickerson started his first business in third grade.

He called it “Todd’s Tips,” a photocopied magazine filled with video game cheat codes and hand-drawn illustrations. He got one friend to draw, another to contribute codes, and he compiled everything into stapled booklets. Then he sold them at school.

When you ask him why he did it, he’ll tell you he doesn’t really remember. But Ashley, his wife, knows exactly why.

“He wanted money to buy computer parts.”

By high school, Todd was flipping Toyota Supras. Not just one or two. He bought and sold 57 of them before he graduated. He’d find one for a good price, clean it up, and flip it. That became his income through college while he studied computer science.

At the same time, he was building websites. Lots of them.

He eventually built a portfolio of 1,500 websites. Most of them were simple: slap some content on a page, get it ranked in Google, make money from advertising. One of his biggest earners was MySpace layouts.

People wanted custom HTML and CSS for their MySpace pages. Todd’s site offered Hello Kitty themes and other templates. Copy the code, paste it on your page, done. At its peak, that single site made $10,000 a month.

Todd was methodical about building systems that made money while he focused on the next thing. And that’s exactly what caught Ashley’s attention.

How Todd and Ashley Met

Todd met Ashley in the year 2000 at a Mexican restaurant after a basketball game. Even though they were both dating other people, they stayed in touch through AOL Instant Messenger.

Todd was always online late at night playing video games, so that’s when they’d talk. They built a friendship for three years before they started dating in 2003.

Ashley grew up watching her dad do physical labor. He was a carpenter who lifted 400-pound equipment and worked all week to make a certain amount. Then she saw Todd use his brain for a day and make the same amount.

“Todd was the first person who taught me there are different types of hard and different types of work,” Ashley said.

She grew up believing that unless you were struggling with physical labor, you weren’t working hard. But Todd showed her a different path. They started reading books like Rich Dad Poor Dad by Robert Kiyosaki and completely rewired how they thought about money.

When Todd told Ashley he wouldn’t get engaged until he made a million dollars, she pushed back.

“I don’t care about you achieving the million dollars. I want to be with you on that journey as your wife, not a girlfriend.”

The marriage came before the million.

And that dynamic, that willingness to sacrifice short-term comfort for long-term vision, became the foundation of everything that came next.

The Free Year That Built a $100M Partnership

By the time Todd met Russell Brunson, he’d already built and sold multiple businesses. He had experience running software at scale, but nothing like what was about to happen.

Russell reached out to Todd about a project. Todd agreed to help, but on one condition.

“I don’t want a salary. I want equity in whatever we do.”

From day one, Todd made it clear he wasn’t interested in being an employee. He wanted to be a partner.

So Todd started flying to Boise. Seven to nine days at a time, leaving Ashley and their oldest daughter at home. He worked for Russell for free for over a year.

During that time, Todd turned down job offers constantly. Multiple times a day, companies would email him six-figure salaries with signing bonuses. He didn’t even open most of them.

Ashley remembers what that season felt like.

“We were broke. We had accumulated debt from our first delivery. Todd was getting these incredible offers, and we were counting dollars to buy groceries.”

But Todd wasn’t evaluating opportunities the way most people do. He wasn’t just looking at the paycheck.

Looking back now, Todd describes ClickFunnels as a level 10 opportunity. The concept comes from a conversation Russell had in Africa, where someone told him, “You probably have a level 10 skill set, but you’re working on a level 2 opportunity.” 

That framework stuck with both of them, but Todd says there’s no formula for spotting a level 10. It’s something you recognize when you have enough experience to know.

Todd had that experience. He’d been building the root ideas behind ClickFunnels for years. When he finally pitched it to Russell, Russell’s reaction was honest.

“Oh, that’s cool. I have no idea how to sell that. That’s really sophisticated. I can barely get people to build a funnel at all.”

But Todd saw what Russell didn’t see yet. He saw the level 10 opportunity.

On Mother’s Day (a detail Ashley still brings up), Todd and Ashley flew to Boise to meet Russell and Collette. Todd had been working on a prototype. He’d mapped out what he thought the next generation of online business tools needed to look like.

When he showed Russell and Dave Woodward, ClickFunnels’ CEO, they got it immediately.

“This is the thing. This is what everyone needs.”

They were all on the same page. The mission was clear, and Todd made his position clear too.

“I want to be partners. Let’s do this thing together.”

Russell agreed.

And that partnership became the foundation of ClickFunnels.

The Three Crises That Almost Ended ClickFunnels

By 2019, ClickFunnels had been running for five years. They had 100,000 paying customers, hundreds of employees, and rocket-ship growth. Then three things happened almost simultaneously.

First, Todd had a vision for what ClickFunnels 2.0 needed to be.

He’d been working on it quietly. He’d mapped out a platform that could solve not just the funnel problem, but all the stumbling blocks customers hit after they got their first funnel working. It was ambitious, and it required Todd’s full attention.

Second, Dave Woodward was diagnosed with brain cancer.

He went in on a Friday for a scan. By Monday, he was in surgery. Dave was the CEO, the face of Funnel Hacking Live, and the biggest cheerleader for the community. Suddenly, he was fighting for his life.

Third, they started getting acquisition offers.

They’d been getting emails from people wanting to buy the company for a while. Eventually, Todd, Russell and Dave responded to one to see what was possible. The conversation started with ClickFunnels buying other companies, but then flipped when the buyer asked, “What if we just bought you guys?” 

With so much happening simultaneously, they needed a concrete plan on what they were going to do, especially about the acquisition offer.

So Russell and Dave flew to Todd in Georgia to talk through it all. And that’s when Todd shared what he’d been building for 2.0.

Russell got excited all over again.

“This is the thing that will transform the industry,” he said.

But the acquisition offer was real, and it was substantial. Todd and Russell had to seriously consider what came next.

For Todd, he thought about what his life would look like if they took the offer. He’d probably just start another business anyway. But he’d be starting from scratch without the team, partnership, and mission.

And he thought about what would happen if they kept going.

“I want to build cool stuff. I want to see what problems we can solve for people.”

They ultimately turned down the offer.

Ashley remembers the decision clearly.

“Saying yes to the check would have meant saying no to all of that hard work and the reason why we had even gotten there.”

It wasn’t about the money anymore. It was about the mission.

The Rocky Launch Nobody Talks About

Russell Brunson is known for a lot of things, but staying calm and measured about new features isn’t one of them.

At Funnel Hacking Live, Russell announced ClickFunnels 2.0 before it was ready. He was operating on the original aggressive timeline Todd had set, but Todd knew they were behind. The announcement created pressure, expectations, and scrutiny the product wasn’t ready for.

When it finally launched, the reception was mixed. Some people loved it. Others were frustrated by bugs and missing features.

Todd and Russell owned it publicly and got back to work.

This is where most companies fall apart. When the launch doesn’t go as planned, when expectations aren’t met, when the pressure mounts, teams fracture.

But ClickFunnels did something different.

They leaned into the mission harder.

The Rebrand and What Came Next

By mid-2024, ClickFunnels dropped the “2.0” branding and went back to just being ClickFunnels. The platform stabilized, the team rebuilt trust with users, and something started happening in the market.

People at events started saying the same thing over and over: “ClickFunnels is back.”

Todd had spent years building the foundation. Now it was time to make it beautiful, fast, and easy to use. The technical architecture was rock-solid. The user experience just needed to catch up.

At the same time, Ashley stepped into a bigger role.

She’d always been behind the scenes, supporting Todd, raising their four daughters, holding down the home front while Todd traveled and worked late nights. But when the rebrand happened, she saw an opportunity.

ClickFunnels is a remote company. Culture is hard in any company, but especially when teams are spread across time zones. Ashley took on culture and employee experience.

She started the fireside chats, bi-weekly meetings where the entire company gathers virtually. They celebrate wins, share updates across departments, and play music to kick things off (because starting a meeting in silence is awkward).

“Celebration,” Ashley said. “That’s the word. When you celebrate people, you also practice gratitude.”

She makes sure people feel seen by calling out names, asking fun questions, and giving the team space to feel like they’re part of something bigger than a Slack channel.

And it worked. At the next hackathon, people showed up and immediately started collaborating. The culture Ashley built remotely translated into how the team works together when they’re finally in the same room.

Where ClickFunnels Is Now: The AI Shift

In January 2026, Todd called the team to the ClickFunnels office in Georgia. 

When everyone arrived, Todd stood up and delivered an hour-long presentation that started with news that made people shift in their seats.

“Your job does not exist like it does today in a year from now.”

He had a countdown. 900 days until AI could replace knowledge workers across the board. The presentation felt heavy at first, but then Todd said something that changed the energy completely.

“Whether we’re able to keep you on board in six months or a year from now, you will be one of the top AI experts at your craft. You’re going to be given every opportunity to do that here at ClickFunnels. If you need three $200-a-month tools to experiment, it doesn’t matter. We’ve got your back.”

Todd had been leading by example. He’d already been spending $5,000 to $10,000 a month on AI tokens out of his own pocket, doing 100% AI coding since summer 2024, long before most engineers even tried it.

The energy shifted after that meeting. Engineers who’d been skeptical two weeks earlier were suddenly building features in an afternoon that used to take six weeks. 

One engineer completed a project that had been scoped for six weeks and launched it live into ClickFunnels production that same afternoon.

Todd built an AI assistant named Jimbot. Jimbot has his own email address, phone number, and Zoom account. He transcribes calls, creates content, builds plugins, and remembers everything. 

When Todd’s in the car, he voice messages Jimbot with ideas. Jimbot researches, builds decks, and runs sessions where he audits ideas against everything experts have said on the topic. By the time Todd gets to the office, he has a presentation ready to show Russell.

The speed is hard to comprehend if you’re not living it.

And Todd’s teaching his kids to use it too. His 15-year-old daughter is launching a bathing suit company. During their morning drive to school, she and Todd brainstormed with AI. Within days, they’d found a manufacturer in Bali who could customize fabrics exactly the way she wanted. She’s learning that the question isn’t “how do I solve this problem?” anymore. The question is “what problem should I solve?”

What This Means for Your Business

Todd’s advice is clear.

The world is shifting from specialist to generalist. Knowing how to code in one programming language isn’t valuable anymore. Knowing how to identify the right problem, test it, and validate it with customers is everything.

“There will not be a job that exists by the end of this year that is just ‘I ship code,'” Todd said. “You have to be broadly generalized across a number of different topics.”

That applies to everyone, not just engineers.

If you’re waiting to see how AI plays out, you’re already behind. Because the people who win in the next decade are the ones embracing it right now.

Todd recommends starting simple. If you’re brainstorming, ChatGPT works fine for $20 a month. If you’re writing copy or creating presentations, Claude is better. If you’re automating work in spreadsheets or building prototype websites, try Manis AI.

But the key isn’t the tool, it’s the mindset.

Todd doesn’t try to keep up with every new AI release. He looks for exponential leaps, not incremental improvements. When something fundamentally changes how work gets done, he goes deep. Everything else, he ignores.

The Lesson Todd and Ashley Want You to Know

Todd and Ashley’s part in building ClickFunnels wasn’t about chasing every opportunity. It was about recognizing what ClickFunnels could become and saying no to everything else, even when those other options looked really tempting.

Todd worked for free for over a year because he knew ClickFunnels was going to be massive. Looking back now, he calls it a level 10 opportunity. They turned down a significant acquisition offer because they weren’t done building yet. And they rebuilt after a rocky launch because they believed in what they were creating.

If you’re building a business right now and it feels overwhelming, you’re in good company. What kept Todd and Ashley going through all of it? They knew what they had.

You probably have opportunities in front of you right now. Some will pay faster. Some will feel safer. Some will be easier to explain to your family.

The question isn’t which one is easiest. The question is which one do you believe in enough to say no to everything else?

Because that’s the one worth saying yes to, even when the path gets harder than you expected.

Ready to build your own funnel? Start your free ClickFunnels trial and see why thousands of entrepreneurs trust the platform Todd built.