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

Mohan ‎Muthoo 💬 🇬🇧 🌍

Founder @ Spring Drive | Driving Growth for B2B SaaS/AI | Multi-Award Nominated | 4th Ever Official UK Clay Expert | 👉 springdrive.co

Hey there 👋 I'm the Founder at Spring Drive - we drive growth with GTM Engineering, AI & Outbound for B2B SaaS and AI companies.

This means:

- Running Scaled Outbound Campaigns (Email + LinkedIn) with GTM Engineered data
- PLG Self-Serve Motions to drive signs that turn to paying users
- Cold calling with GTM Engineered Signals and Intelligence

🛠️We've worked with B2B across industries, Y-Combinator backed startups, globally recognized SaaS brands featured in Forbes and the Apple Store, B2B ecommerce companies, and everything in between.

We have a ton of case studies and accolades, having been nominated twice for our work (Finalist in the Standout Use of AI category at the UK Digital Excellence Awards, and for the GTM10 Awards), plus been recognized as Official Expert Partners by numerous top companies in GTM and Outbound.

Head to 👉 springdrive.co ORDM me, I will reply 💬

Founder

Mohan ‎Muthoo 🇬🇧

Booking $13 billion company Grammarly for a client at Spring Drive.

Cold outbound.


We spend most of our time with clients on competitive differentiation, not automation (we do that too, its just not the point lol).

That's why we *resonate* for them with prospects, rather than saying the same thing as everyone else.

And actually generate meaningful pipeline.

Not...

"Just saw your got funded, here at Generic .ai we're flipping the script on..."


Only Becc Holland can flip the script (she is brilliant btw check her stuff out).


For everyone else there's Spring Drive.

Actually there's a few other great agencies too, not just us.

But if you do want to work with us, you can apply for a pilot at springdrive.co.


Or don't, do whatever you wanna do.

Mohan Muthoo

Founder @ Spring Drive | Driving B2B Sales Pipeline with Outbound & GTM Engineering | 4th Ever Official UK Clay Expert | Multi-Award Finalist 👉 springdrive.co

Most of our best clients at Spring Drive still book through strong email creative variants.


I can't tell you how many companies have spoken to us and said they've tried different AI SDRs and signal tools but that it's not generating anything.

The reason is fundamentally that GTM is a competitive sport, so tools that democratize outreach end up being used by everyone hence making certain messaging too common and thereby less effective.

You have to actually *think* (shocker I know) creatively about where your competitive edge is.

AI is now without question a fundamental layer in our system - no doubt.

But most teams are relying on it to produce quality rather than using it to assist in their strategy.

For pure automation this can be fine, but GTM is fundamentally competitive.

its not about automation or efficiency - thats just for us. its about differentiation and saying something interesting.

As a broad metaphor Clay talk about finding your GTM Alpha - taking that inch ahead of your competition creatively and strategically.

Using tools to *execute* is brilliant, you should.

But too many companies want to use tools to do the thinking for them and these companies are struggling as a result.


Here's a screenshot of us flooding our client with sales opps with clever outreach.

If you want to work with Spring Drive, Apply for a Pilot here:
https://tally.so/r/7R26PA

So far every month we've run outbound for ourselves at Spring Drive we've closed at least one deal from it.

But in truth, its because of how carefully and strategically we refine our closing process.


Too many companies expect outbound leads to come in the door like inbound leads - then get frustrated when they don't sign immediately.

Outbound closing requires a different skill entirely.

- Have you researched the market to understand what's happening in your competitors' demos?

- Have you uncovered what the experience is in other cycles?

- When someone ghosts or goes closed/lost, how thoroughly do you chase up to get the SPECIFICS on why it didn't close?

- How well are you articulating that you understand the prospects vs just slapping your templates on everyone?

- Do you get the next call booked in every single time or do you send info and wait for them to get back to you?

And a whole lot more.


Here's a screenshot of a contract we just closed, paid, for a 3 month pilot. Came in from our cold email campaign.

(no signal or trigger data used)

We have 3 other cold proposals out from Jan and I expect we'll close at least one of them too.


Outbound is far less expensive than ads - but the skill requirement is high.

Skill up - close deals.


If you want to work with Spring Drive, Apply for a Pilot here:
https://tally.so/r/7R26PA

Getting replies like this reminds us that we're putting out strong positions for our clients at Spring Drive.


Especially knowing the end stats add up too (getting 20-30 leads a day for this client).

But again, its a reminder that most saturation is around messaging not channels.

Before you move on to another channel, ask someone who works on your channel for a living what they think of your campaign.

8/10 times, mistakes are being made that, if corrected, would well actually start reaping success.


Cold email is just another channel and everyone reads their emails.

Don't forget it.

Really cool to see ProntoHQ put Spring Drive at the top of their list for the Best Outbound Agencies in the UK.


Thanks to Nico To Market for reaching out and interviewing me for it - good guy too btw, was nice to chat about what's going on in the industry at the moment.


And shout out to the other agencies doing great work in that list too.


Outbound is a difficult space - I think the perception has taken a beating because its natural accessibility means that anyone who can send a message believes they've sized it up and know what works and what doesn't.

The truth is, its a bit more complex than that in reality.

We've built and sent over 300 campaigns, worked with a myriad of B2B industries from SaaS, to services, to retail...across regions - USA, UK, Europe...delivered pipeline at SMB level for small 3-4 figure subscriptions all the way up to 6 and 7 figure contract opportunities with Enterprise companies.

And in a huge list of different industries too.

I can tell you with some surety, the market changes often and fast, and I learn something new every quarter.


Link to their article is in the comments.

If you'd like to work with Spring Drive, you can Apply for a Pilot here:
https://tally.so/r/7R26PA

From my experience, you need at least 1 of these 3 things for a outbound to work in 2026:



1. Truly differentiated offer

This is hard because it has to tie in fundamentally to your product or solution.

But, you should work this in your GTM Messaging Strategy by thinking about compartmentalized offers.


2. Outstanding social proof

Outstanding is the key, not just 'some' social proof.

Again, difficult because if you don't have it, well, you dont have it.

But you should work with in your GTM MS by thinking about social proof matching which you can layer at granular levels in Clay.


3. Creative lead magnet strategy


This is where most companies should be because they don't have 1 or 2.

If you dont have 1 or 2, and your top of funnel is an ebook or whitepaper about something they'd find in about 3 mins from a Google search...

Get more creative.



Btw, if you want to work with Spring Drive on your outbound, you can apply for a pilot at springdrive.co.

Something I've been noticing more and more lately - the teams that are crushing outbound aren't necessarily better at writing emails or picking better leads.

They're just better at operating.

They've figured out how to monitor campaigns, swap what's not working, keep mailboxes healthy, and follow up at the right time, without it eating their entire day.

That's partly why what Smartlead just released with SmartAgents caught my attention.

I've been playing around with it and there are a few things that stood out:

1. There's a campaign optimizer agent that monitors all my active campaigns every 6 hours. If reply rates dip below 4% after enough sends, it swaps out underperforming mailboxes, and shifts send times.

2. A mailbox health agent that tracks domain health, figures out when I need new ones, buys them from SmartSender, and sets up warmup. 

3. A meeting booking agent that catches intent in replies, books through Calendly, drops prep notes into HubSpot, and pings me on Slack. That whole flow used to be 4-5 manual steps.

What I like is how you build them too. no code, no complex workflow builders. You describe what you want the agent to do in plain language and it deploys. That matters for teams that don't have a technical ops person.

You still need to review, tweak, and make the actual decisions. But the repetitive operational stuff that eats up a few hours a day? That's where these are useful.

Worth looking at if you're running any kind of volume:

https://lnkd.in/ern_wwSJ

Trigger data is not a messaging strategy.

I see this mistake constantly - companies think knowing someone just hired a new marketing manager or posted a job opening means they're somehow automatically interested in what you might be offering.

I get it, these are contexts where, sometimes, the need is higher.

But its such a generalization, and even when true you need to be going a lot deeper for anyone to care.


Prospects don't care about information they already know.

The 'I've done my homework' badge doesn't differentiate in 2026 at all in my opinion.


Assumptions from trigger data are often wrong too.

Hiring for a position doesn't mean interest in your service. A new funding round doesn't mean they're ready to buy what you're selling.

Trigger data is just context - it's not causal.


Plus, not all in-market companies have public trigger data.

A company that needs marketing help but prefers agencies because they don't want to train someone inhouse probably won't have a job vacancy posted.

A company that hates marketing agencies and definitely wants an in-house person they can nurture, will have a job vacancy posted.

And all the marketing agencies should target the second company, because of the trigger/signal data?

My thumb is up right now.




Signals and triggers should accelerate a strong bid, not create one.

Without a differentiated message that actually matters to your prospect, all the trigger and signal data in the world won't save your campaign.


It's true, the capability to create a more contextually relevant message is available to us now and triggers and signals can help with that, and so should play a role in our strategy.


But I guarantee 9/10 companies are about to slap an undifferentiated offer behind a signal and then get confuse when nobody cares.

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