
Growth AMA with YC Partner Gustaf Alströmer - craigcannon
https://blog.ycombinator.com/growth-ama-with-yc-partner-gustaf-alstromer/
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mbesto
> _Do you have any tips for leadgen / growth, for B2B SaaS startups? Right now
> all the available leadgen tools out there, costs thousands of dollars, which
> is expensive for startups!

Create a Google Spreadsheet, put 100 linkedin profiles in the spreadsheet that
fit the profile of the potential buyings, then use a tool like Hunter to
figure out their email-addresses. You can check the email format on their
website if there is no response.

Email them a plain-text email saying you are the founder of your company and
you are reaching out a small group of people who you think would be perfect or
the product you are building and you ask them to try it. You could also
include a short gif/video (like really short) of how it works.

Use an email software that allows you to check open-rates and click-through
rates. If your email is opened many times it means its being forwarded
around/getting attention. Email again if no-one responds.

Expect about 40% to open your email. 5-10% to click on whatever link you
included and less than 5% to try your product. If that works, then you just
have do the same thing 20x and you have 100 users. The biggest mistake people
use when doing this is sending too few emails._

So nice to see a partner at YC advocating for spamming businesses and never
mentioning the compliance issues and potential fines (up to $41,484 per
email):

[https://www.ftc.gov/tips-advice/business-
center/guidance/can...](https://www.ftc.gov/tips-advice/business-
center/guidance/can-spam-act-compliance-guide-business)

Probably just an oversight though.

~~~
cm2012
No one in the history of US law has ever been fined for manually sending out
pitch emails. I think he's okay.

~~~
threeseed
He is advocating sending out at minimum 2000 emails.

Pretty sure you will be automating that.

~~~
personjerry
Or use BCC

