StartupGTM.com | I help b2b founders hack traction | Profitable founder (YC)

Transforming a startup from early to repeatable sales is HARD.

If you’re a B2B founder with early sales, then you've done many things right to win your first customers.

BUT - to raise a round A, your startup will need to have a product that's ready to scale because it can be 𝙨𝙤𝙡𝙙 𝙧𝙚𝙥𝙚𝙖𝙩𝙚𝙙𝙡𝙮 𝙖𝙣𝙙 𝙧𝙚𝙡𝙞𝙖𝙗𝙡𝙮.

To get repeatable sales - there are four blockers. 
 
You'll need to change each one from "not working" to "working": 
 
1️⃣ Consistently creating a 𝙨𝙩𝙧𝙚𝙖𝙢 of conversations with customers 
 
2️⃣ Converting these conversations into a 𝙨𝙩𝙧𝙚𝙖𝙢 of first meetings 
 
3️⃣ Converting these meetings into a 𝙨𝙩𝙧𝙚𝙖𝙢 of trials 
 
4️⃣ Converting trials into a 𝙨𝙩𝙧𝙚𝙖𝙢 of deals. 
 
These blockers need to be removed 𝙨𝙚𝙦𝙪𝙚𝙣𝙩𝙞𝙖𝙡𝙡𝙮 - i.e. one by one. 
 
💡 𝗙𝗼𝗰𝘂𝘀 𝗼𝗻 𝗖𝗥𝗔𝗖𝗞𝗜𝗡𝗚 𝘁𝗵𝗲 𝘀𝘁𝗮𝗴𝗲 𝘆𝗼𝘂'𝗿𝗲 𝗮𝘁 𝗥𝗜𝗚𝗛𝗧 𝗡𝗢𝗪. 𝗗𝗼𝗻'𝘁 𝗼𝘃𝗲𝗿𝘁𝗵𝗶𝗻𝗸 𝘁𝗵𝗲 𝗼𝘁𝗵𝗲𝗿𝘀.

—

I'm a former co-founder and CEO at ApolloShield - a profitable YC startup.

I work hands-on with B2B founders on turning their early sales into repeatable sales through a combination of disciplines:

1️⃣ 𝗠𝗮𝗿𝗸𝗲𝘁 𝗥𝗲𝘀𝗲𝗮𝗿𝗰𝗵 𝗮𝗻𝗱 𝗔𝗻𝗮𝗹𝘆𝘀𝗶𝘀: Understanding the market, identifying target customers, and analyzing competitors.

2️⃣ 𝗣𝗿𝗼𝗱𝘂𝗰𝘁 𝗣𝗼𝘀𝗶𝘁𝗶𝗼𝗻𝗶𝗻𝗴 𝗮𝗻𝗱 𝗠𝗲𝘀𝘀𝗮𝗴𝗶𝗻𝗴: Defining how the product fits into the market and crafting compelling messages to appeal to the target audience.

3️⃣ 𝗦𝗮𝗹𝗲𝘀 𝗮𝗻𝗱 𝗗𝗶𝘀𝘁𝗿𝗶𝗯𝘂𝘁𝗶𝗼𝗻 𝗦𝘁𝗿𝗮𝘁𝗲𝗴𝗶𝗲𝘀: Developing strategies for selling the product, including choosing sales channels and partnerships.

4️⃣ 𝗖𝗼𝗹𝗱 𝗢𝘂𝘁𝗿𝗲𝗮𝗰𝗵, 𝗖𝗼𝗻𝘁𝗲𝗻𝘁 𝗮𝗻𝗱 𝗖𝗮𝗺𝗽𝗮𝗶𝗴𝗻 𝗘𝘅𝗲𝗰𝘂𝘁𝗶𝗼𝗻: Creating and executing campaigns to build brand awareness and generate leads.

5️⃣ 𝗣𝗿𝗼𝘀𝗽𝗲𝗰𝘁𝗶𝗻𝗴 𝗮𝗻𝗱 𝘀𝗮𝗹𝗲𝘀: Managing discovery and commercial discussions with clients and partners to get their business.

5️⃣ 𝗢𝗻𝗴𝗼𝗶𝗻𝗴 𝗜𝗻𝗻𝗼𝘃𝗮𝘁𝗶𝗼𝗻 𝗮𝗻𝗱 𝗔𝗱𝗮𝗽𝘁𝗮𝘁𝗶𝗼𝗻 𝘁𝗼 𝗙𝗲𝗲𝗱𝗯𝗮𝗰𝗸: Gathering customer feedback and continuously adapting the product and strategies accordingly.

6️⃣ 𝗜𝗧 𝗮𝗻𝗱 𝗢𝗽𝗲𝗿𝗮𝘁𝗶𝗼𝗻𝘀: Building support systems to holistically orchestrate and manage your GTM efforts.

7️⃣ 𝗥𝗮𝗽𝗶𝗱 𝗜𝘁𝗲𝗿𝗮𝘁𝗶𝗼𝗻: Developing a method to move forward quickly, iterate and get market feedback - doubling what works and tossing what doesn’t.

🚀 Let's connect and accelerate your startup together!

Nimo Shkedy

Dhruv Patel

Co-founder @ Saleshandy

Hey there,  

I'm a guy who wears many hats, and I like it that way! 

My marketing journey kicked off at a company where I managed a team of over 25 folks as the Marketing Lead and Operations Manager. 

But my itch for something more took me down the road of content and niche marketing. That's how I ended up co-creating Saleshandy, a place where I'm still enjoying the ride and helping the company grow.

I'm a marketing junkie and a business starter, and I get my kicks from companies that encourage teamwork and don't put up roadblocks to success. I live to meet and exceed what customers want. I keep a close eye on the results and always tinkering with my game plan based on what's needed. When things go south, I don't get bent out of shape; I see it as a chance to learn. I take a good, hard look at what went wrong, figure out why, and then cook up solutions based on the facts.

As a growth hacker and digital marketing buff, I thrive on the hustle and meet life with a never-say-die attitude. My constant grin shows my love for creating strong teams and my readiness to lend a hand at the drop of a hat.

So here I am, a Co-founder at Saleshandy, extending an invitation for you to join me on this wild ride as we take over the marketing world, one success story at a time. 

Let's get together and see how we can help each other grow. What do you say?

Co-Founder

Saleshandy is a cold outreach platform that helps B2B businesses automate and scale their outbound sales efforts. 

» I am the person responsible for
- majority of marketing stuff
- people management
- developing and implementing systems & procedures throughout the organization
- operations

I’m 32. Married. A daily 90-minute commute. A toddler at home. 

All while running a leading cold email outreach platform.

People usually ask me one thing:

“How do you manage everything?”

The honest answer?

I don’t.

> I don’t chase balance.
> I don’t try to win every day.
> I don’t pretend all weeks look the same.

What actually works for me:

• Hard boundaries, not perfect schedules

Some days work wins. Some days family wins. I simply decide which one it is.

• Energy over hours

I protect the few hours where I think clearly. Everything else is secondary.

• Fewer decisions

Same routines. Same defaults. Less mental noise.

• Letting go of guilt

You can’t be fully present everywhere. Accepting that changed everything.

Running a business isn’t about doing more.

It’s about choosing what not to do—consistently.

Take it from me.

If you pour everything into running the business,

Ten years from now you’ll have hundreds of proofs of success—

And countless gaps in your life you can’t explain to anyone else.

Co-founder @ Saleshandy | Automating cold emails to drive lead generation & sales

First big release of 2026: Saleshandy MCP is live!

Most of us start our day inside AI, so we brought Saleshandy right there.

You can now run your entire cold email workflow from the places you already work, 

ChatGPT, Claude, Cursor, n8n, and more...using the MCP server.

It takes just a few clicks to connect Saleshandy with your AI assistant.

Once connected, you can do everything from creating multi-step sequences to building full apps using real Saleshandy data through tools like Cursor.

The possibilities are exciting!

Huge thanks to the team for making this happen.

Really excited to see what you all build with it.

What’s the first thing you’d try with Saleshandy MCP? 👇

If I had a dollar for every sales rep chasing the wrong metric in outbound, I’d already be on the Forbes Billionaires list.

I’m not kidding. 

Many still run after metrics like they’re the finish line. 

But unfortunately, that’s just part of the game. 

>Open Rate doesn’t mean your prospect knows you—it shows the effectiveness of your subject line. 
>Reply Rate doesn’t mean you’ll close sales—only a small fraction show real interest. 
>Click Rate doesn’t mean your prospect is sold—it only shows they were curious enough to click. 
>Spam Rate doesn’t mean your message is bad—it just shows who’s annoyed, or which ISPs are watching you. 
>Deliverability doesn’t mean success—it only tells you your emails landed, not that they mattered. 
>Unsubscribe Rate doesn’t mean failure—it often signals your list is cleaning itself, and that’s not always bad.

Don’t give your team a number to hit.

Give them a goal that actually matters: Real engagement.

The sole goal of outbound is to start a conversation.

Let’s keep the main thing the main thing.

I keep seeing outbound teams stuck in delulu.

They swing between two extremes:

• Blindly sending as many emails as possible
• Or over-personalizing emails for 20 people

Both think they’ve figured outbound.

Most haven’t.

Because outbound isn’t about volume vs personalization.

It’s about your TAM.

Volume-based makes sense when:

> I’m testing a new market or PMF
> My product has a short consideration cycle
> My deal size supports high-velocity sales
> I have proven templates that convert
> I need to fill an empty pipeline fast
> My market is broad and less sophisticated

Value-based makes sense when:

> I’m targeting enterprise or strategic accounts
> My product needs education and trust
> My deal size justifies deep research
> I’m in a competitive, saturated market
> I’m building long-term positioning
> My buyers are sophisticated and over-pitched

Nothing here is good or bad.

It’s not about what sounds right.

It’s about what works best for your market.

I don’t believe cold emails can always be taught through tutorials.

Sometimes…

memes teach better.

This carousel shows 6 golden cold email moments every cold email lived through:

If you’ve done outbound for a while,

you’ll probably nod at more than one slide.

It’s Friday.

So let’s keep it light.

But if one slide changes how you write on Monday,

it’s already worth the save.

Happy weekend.

6 Golden Cold Emails 

I would call this a principle rather than advice. Because it will help you survive in almost everything:

- Outbound
- Business
- Relationships
- Even life

 It is: Give before you take.

Most people say they want growth, but what they really want is output without input.

- Recognition without contribution
- Trust without proof
- Results without patience

But the sad truth is—
That equation never works.

Growth demands payment upfront.
 
 You give effort before you see momentum.
 You give clarity before you get alignment.
 You give value before people give you attention.
 You give trust before it comes back stronger.

This applies everywhere:

 In careers — you invest in skills long before titles show up.
 In leadership — you support people before they follow you.
 In business — you solve problems before revenue appears.
 In relationships — you listen before you’re understood.

So if you want growth, 

Ask yourself a harder question:

What value are you putting into the system every day that says what you’re trying to take out?

Because nothing meaningful is free.

Everything has a price,

And everyone has to pay it.

P.S. But this image tells a different story — my daughter ignoring the principle and going straight for my sunglasses.

In outbound, I’ve seen many teams panic after a few days of no replies.

But they’re reading it all wrong.

They try everything.
- New subject line.
- New copy.
- New sequence.

Nothing changes.

Because the issue wasn’t the email.

It was the assumption.

Not all silence means “not interested.”

Sometimes:
 • the timing is off
 • the message missed their world
 • the trust isn’t there yet

Understanding the type of silence makes all the difference.

If you count every quiet inbox as rejection,

You’ll never stop counting.

Outbound works when you respect where the prospect is—

not where you want them to be.

See silence as a signal, and outbound gets a lot easier.

The top 1% don’t expect replies. They engineer them.

Yes, replies are never luck or coincidence.

There’s a clear science behind them,

And it works in your favor when you understand it.

When outreach is designed without:

 • a clear reason to exist
 • a defined outcome
 • feedback loops

You don’t get signal — you get noise.

That’s why scaling outbound early feels random.
 
- One week it works.
- The next week it dies.
 
No one knows why.

Sometimes, frameworks like RAID help a lot.

They simply remove the guesswork from the equation.

Without guesswork, you can point to where something broke —

attention, intent, or measurement.

Now you can finally stop reacting and start correcting.

So the next time you refresh your screen for the 10th time, expecting replies from your outbound campaign,
 
Remember the first line of this post.

People ask me what my biggest cold email motivation is. It is this.

A simple experiment that brought home $13M.

You think the output is great?

Think again.

It is actually the input.
 
There was no clever copy.
 No personalization tokens.
 No growth hacks.

> a clearly defined audience
> a reason to reach out now
> a single, obvious next step

That’s it.

I know

 •  inboxes are noisier than ever
 • competition is brutal
 • deliverability isn’t optional anymore

But… believe me,

The fundamentals haven’t moved an inch.

Get the basics right & the rest will fall in place.

Proven by history already.

And you know, “History repeats.”

First cold email that made $13M

You can give all the logic in the world to your buyer… 
but they won’t care a cent about it. 

Because humans decide emotionally first, then justify with logic. 

Yet most cold emails are written for rationality: 

>Features. 
>Processes. 
>Explanations.

Your prospect doesn’t wake up thinking about your product.

They wake up with pressure, doubt, and 100 unfinished problems. 

That's why: Emotion opens the door; logic closes the deal.

Keep cold emails 70% emotional:

• Time it—after industry changes, losses, or gains.
• Reduce effort at every line.
• Lead with “no” before explaining.
• Focus on one emotion.
• Leave the emotional portion unresolved.

Emotion shows in: Subject line, first line, pre-pitch bridge, problem framing.

Keep it 30% logical:

• Remove doubt, don’t add reasons.
• Prefer direction over detail.
• Explain mechanisms only when asked.

Logic shows in: Value proposition, proof, differentiation, CTA.

Small tweaks make a huge difference: 

>Mirror your prospect, 
>Name the pain, 
>Lower emotional cost, 
>And stick to one emotion per email. 

If your email makes sense but gets no replies

You didn’t lose on logic. 

You lost on emotion.

The first thing I tell users NOT to do when targeting a global audience: Using the same email for the US and the EU.

Every time I say this, the conversation goes the same way.

“No, Dhruv, I edited the email before sending it.”

Me: What edits did you make?

Them: Changed the spellings for the EU.

And that’s it.

Here’s the real problem:
 
When a high-performing US email fails in the EU,
 
It’s not an infrastructure issue.

What changes isn’t just the language or demographics.

The entire ICP mindset changes.

And if you don’t understand that,

Every click on “send” quietly burns your cash.

Comment “strategies” i will send you customized cold email strategies for both the demographics.

Most of the people I have ever met are eager to fix others' flaws. But not theirs. 

But growth waits on the other side. 

Where you find the cost of your strengths.

Yes. the cost of your strengths AKA your flaws 

We all have & know what our strengths are. 

But we hardly know 

What are the costs of it? 

It took me years to find out mine. 

Here are four exercises I keep coming back to:

1. The “If I were replaced” exercise
 Ask: If I left tomorrow, what would break immediately?
 That shows your strengths.

 Then ask: What would suddenly feel lighter?
 That shows your flaws.

2. Energy audit
 Track what drains you for a week.
 Energy loss is often feedback your brain already has.

3. Feedback triangulation
 Don’t trust one opinion.

Take it from me, 

The higher you climb in your career ladder. 

The lesser feedbacks you get 

And that’s not good news. 

Feedbacks are the great way to grow. 

Start asking for it. 

4. Negative Externality lens

 Every strength creates a cost somewhere else.

Here is a simple example 

Strength: You stay updated on news and trends. 

Cost: You get distracted, tasks take longer, or miss face-to-face interactions.

Don’t pay your strengths with your flaws. 

If it is not you who fix you 

It is nobody 


P.S: not all flaws needs to be fixed. Few makes you unique & few makes you pay for your strength.

There are two categories where a cold email fails.

Let’s talk about the second one—the least talked about.

It fails outside the inbox.

It fails outside the brain.

There are thousands of blogs, lectures, and tips on how to make it to the inbox.

But what about the emails that do land there—and still fail?

They fail because the brain never lets them in.

So the real question isn’t:
 “How good is my copy?”

It’s:
 “Did their brain decide this was meant for them?”

To pass that test, you need three things:

1. Anchor to something concrete

If you can’t point to one real thing that recently changed for them, wait.

2. Create a mental speed bump

When something feels slightly unexpected, the brain slows down.

Overlap, shared context, or a specific angle buys you a second.

3. Show you noticed, not that you researched

There’s a difference.
- One feels respectful.
- The other feels invasive.

If it wouldn’t sound normal face-to-face, remove it.

Simply put:

If you want to increase the chance of a sale,

Impress the brain you’re aiming for.

That’s what changes the game.

Rowan Atkinson once talked about a quote  that stayed in my head all day.

The quote is:

“Life is a tragedy in close-up and a comedy in long shot.”
 — Charlie Chaplin

That’s it.

And it says everything.

Most tragedies feel like tragedies because of the shot.

When I was in school,

Math felt like a huge tragedy.

When I look at it now,

It feels like nothing.

Every “tragedy” in close-up becomes a turning point in long shot.

- The feature that failed.
- The product rebuild that felt like wasted time.
- The customer who left angry.

What changes when you zoom out is not the problem—
 
It’s the perspective.

- You stop catastrophizing.
- You realize this moment—
 
No matter how painful— is just one frame in a much longer story.

And often, the frames that hurt the most

are the ones that redirect you toward something better.

When you’re in the close-up, feel it.

Don’t pretend it’s not hard.

But also remember:

You’re not watching the whole movie yet.

The tragedy you’re living through

Might be the setup for the comedy you’ll laugh about later.

What “tragedy” are you living in close-up right now?

It's Day 3 of 2026, and my LinkedIn feed is flooded.

"10 Skills to Learn in 2026" 
"12 Books to Read This Year" 
"5 Goals to Achieve"

But I won’t suggest 10 or 5. 

Just ONE skill.. 

Cold email 

It is not new, not trendy

But here's what I know after 10 years:

Most people still don't understand the power cold email holds.

- They think it's dead. 
- They think it's spam. 
- They think it's for salespeople only.

Wrong.

Cold email is for:

- Founders who need their first 10 customers
- Consultants who need clients beyond referrals
- Recruiters who need candidates who aren't on job boards
- Partnerships people who need intros without warm connections
- Startup owners who need funding 

It's not a "sales skill." 

It's a business survival skill.

Trends that you follow will change. 

But the ability to generate your own opportunities?

That's timeless.

The real problem in outbound isn't low replies. 

It’s misreading what replies mean.

I’ve noticed something simple:

Replies are no longer a decision signal.

They’re a filtering signal.

People reply to sort their inbox:
yes / no
now / later
me / not me

That’s useful.

But it’s not interest.

Interest shows up differently.

You see it when someone:
- corrects you
- adds nuance
- pushes back thoughtfully
- takes time to explain their situation

Those replies take effort.

And effort is the signal.

This changes how outbound should be written.

Not to get a reply,

but to invite thinking.

Emails that work now:
- make a specific observation
- leave room to disagree
- ask something that can’t be answered with one tap

When someone has to think before replying,

you’re no longer doing outbound.

You’re starting a conversation.

The goal isn’t more replies.

It’s better effort from the right people.

That’s the shift most teams haven’t made yet.

You won't believe me for saying this, but you do need luck in outbound.

Luck in cold emails is not anything random.

It’s the side effect of showing up often enough, in the right places, with enough relevance.

Don’t treat outbound like lottery tickets.

> One big send.
> One version.
> One moment in time.

But buying decisions don’t happen on your schedule.

- Budgets open unexpectedly.
- Priorities shift quietly.
- Internal pressure shows up without warning.

The teams that “get lucky” didn’t predict any of it.

They just stayed visible long enough for timing to work in their favor.

Here’s the real split:

You can’t control when someone is ready.
 
But you can control how often you’re present when that moment arrives.

Consistency does three things most people underestimate:

 • It multiplies timing overlap.
 • It builds passive familiarity before intent exists.
 • It removes pressure from any single email to be perfect.

So the next time you see someone “getting lucky” in outbound,

Remember—they didn’t get lucky fast.

They stayed long enough to get lucky.

There’s one skill you can’t avoid—no matter your role.

Selling.

- Not sales targets.
-  Not cold calls.
- Not pipelines.

Selling means this:

Can you get someone to say yes to your idea?


Because that’s what decides outcomes every day.

A founder doesn’t win by being right.

They win by getting others to believe.

An engineer doesn’t ship the best solution.

They ship the one the team aligns behind.

A designer doesn’t lose to bad design.

They lose when they can’t defend good decisions.

If you can’t sell, you don’t lead.
 - You don’t influence.
 - You don’t move things forward.

I’ve seen average ideas win—purely because they were explained well.
 And I’ve seen great ideas die—because no one fought for them.

Ideas don’t fail on quality.

They fail on conviction.

Real selling isn’t manipulation.

It’s understanding what someone cares about—and connecting your idea to that reality.

You’re already selling.
  - Every email.
  - Every meeting.
  - Every conversation.

The only question is:

 Are you doing it deliberately or leaving outcomes to chance?

taplio

The Battle

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Dhruv Patel

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