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

Founder @ Slyleadz | I help startups build cold outbound systems that generate qualified meetings | 💌 slyleadz.us

STRUGGLING TO FILL YOUR PIPELINE WITH QUALIFIED LEADS?

I've been there. After testing 1000+ outreach campaigns, I cracked the code.

Now, I help B2B companies build outbound systems that:
→ Generate 20-30 qualified meetings/month
→ Convert cold prospects into warm conversations
→ Scale predictably without the spam tactics

Our secret?
- Multi-channel outreach that actually works
- AI-powered personalization at scale
- Follow-up sequences with 40%+ response rates
- Data-driven targeting that finds your ideal customers

Recent wins:
→ Helped a SaaS startup book 100+ demos in 60 days
→ Built a 7-figure pipeline for a tech company in 90 days
→ Generated 500+ qualified leads for enterprise clients

Want to stop guessing and start closing?
Book a strategy call: calendly.com/slyleadz/slyleadz-15-minute-meeting-clone

Nick Palasz

7 days to build a campaign and only 30 seconds to discover the contacts are stale

Let’s talk about the part nobody budgets for

We optimize messaging, channels and deliverability
then launch into humans that don’t actually exist

Let me ask you something:

How much of your outbound time is spent persuading buyers vs confirming they’re still at the company?

Here’s what slows the entire machine down:

Before anyone gets contacted, reps are:
 – Checking job changes
 – Verifying emails
 – Hunting for mobiles
 – Filtering who’s even in-market
 – Re-uploading CSVs just to see what’s missing

None of that creates pipeline

It just delays the conversations that do

Outbound isn’t bottlenecked at the mailbox
It’s bottlenecked at the contact layer

Here’s the fix…

Start with reachable humans not approximations

For this I use Prospeo.io to:
 → Search ICP
 → Filter buying signals (funding, hiring, tech stack, revenue)
 → Export verified email + mobile
 → Push directly into Smartlead, Instantly.ai, Salesforce or HubSpot

One upstream change makes downstream way less dramatic

We met 3 seconds ago, breathe

Outbound really skips every social step humans normally respect

No introductions
No context
No warmup conversation

Just a confident calendar request
And the assumption we’re already in a working relationship

Meanwhile I’m still trying to figure out who you are
What you sell
And how we arrived at “Thursday at 2pm?”

Sales has its own laws

And none of them involve pacing 😂

Follow Nick Palasz for more outbound anthropology disguised as professionalism

Who invented this sales advice anyway?

Because the execution never matches the brochure

- "Add value" turns into repeating yourself slower
- "Be consultative" becomes three warm-up questions
- "Personalize it" quick LinkedIn scroll and vibes
- "Follow up” means annoy vs disappear roulette
- "New angle" is just rewriting the first sentence
- And "trust the process" assumes there is a process

On paper it all makes sense

But the part where real buyers exist changes everything

P.S. What’s the worst sales advice you’ve ever gotten? 👇

sales advice we have all heard of

Peace lasts about eleven seconds in this profession

There’s always that brief window where you forget pipeline exists

You’re sipping coffee
Enjoying the sun
or pretending to be a normal civilian

Then pipeline quietly taps you on the shoulder
Asks you why opportunities are down
and whether you’ve considered sending 40 more emails today

It’s nothing personal
Just the ongoing negotiation between hope and math
that every rep experiences in silence

Pipeline doesn’t care about vibes
It only cares about coverage

Follow Nick Palasz for more sales psychology we didn’t exactly sign up for

What if the Friends cast ran your cold outreach again?

Outbound would be a lot less sales motion and more emotional damage control

Joey targets for vibes
Chandler follows up for jokes
Ross pivots for sport
Rachel soft-closes forever
Monica survives via process
Phoebe multi-threads like CIA

P.S. There’s a bonus character at the end 👀 swipe to check it out

If the friends cast did cold outreach pt2

10 SDRs, 870 lost hours and zero pipeline…

This is what nobody's talking about

Let me ask you something:

What do your SDRs actually do all day?

If you say ‘send emails and book meetings,’ you're only half right

The other half says they're stuck in spreadsheets

Here is reality

Before your rep can even send one email, they're:
-Hunting down contact info
-Validating job titles
-Checking if emails are real
-Finding phone numbers
-Updating CRM fields

It feels like work, but let's be honest, none of it creates pipeline

One SDR loses about 87 hours a month doing this
You have 10 SDRs… that's 870 hours gone

Here is the fix…

Stop letting reps enrich data manually

Fix the data layer before outreach ever starts

Automate the boring stuff and that's where automation actually matters

Enrich and verifiy using Lusha's API and connectors

Then let Make handle the boring logic (routing, scoring, updating CRM, triggering sequences) automatically, so nobody has to stop mid outreach to fix data

That’s how you turn those 870 lost hours back into pipeline without hiring another SDR.

If your reps are spending more time prepping than selling, you’re scaling frustration not pipeline.

P.S. What’s stealing your team’s time right now: data work or actual selling?
#Lushapartner

Brand partnership • Founder @ Slyleadz | I help startups build cold outbound systems that generate qualified meetings | 💌 slyleadz.us

How sdrs lose 87 hours/month to manual enrichment

Modern sales reps wear too many hats

At this point the job description needs a sequel

-Research agent
-Personalization agent
-Cold email agent
-Meeting prep agent
-Deal monitoring agent
-List builder agent
-Follow-up agent

All of this is done by one rep who didn’t sign up for half these tasks but still shows up and finds a way to make it work

P.S. What hat should reps stop wearing? 👇

Follow Nick Palasz for more

5 pre launch checks for your next cold email campaign

If you are sending emails without any safety measures… this is for you

I’ve experienced lots of issues while running email campaigns including
- Domains getting flagged
- Replies are stuck
- Campaigns burning out in 2 weeks

Everything would be decent, but the setup? Completely overlooked.

So I worked on some safety measures

Here they are…

1. Infrastructure Check

Make sure you're not using your primary domain, Gmail workspaces, or random SMTP boxes.
One mistake and your main brand email is done. You need dedicated mailboxes built for outbound. Maildoso helped me with it

2. Domain + DNS Check

Verify DNS propagation, correct records, no blacklists, and zero abuse history before sending
Because anti spam systems are watching from day one

3. Volume & Ramp Check

Start at 10 emails per mailbox on day 1, then slowly increase them
Sending a massive volume can trigger spam filters

4. Targeting & Relevance Check

Confirm you're emailing the right ICP with messaging that actually fits their world.
Deliverability means nothing if you're hitting the wrong person.

5. Sequence & CTA Check

Keep your CTA simple, don't pitch in email #1, and format for mobile readability.
People like to skim emails.

Cold email isn't complicated but it does require respect for the basics

Let Maildoso handle the infrastructure and make sure your campaign setup doesn't damage what the tech is built to protect

Run these checks, then hit send with confidence

January is just December’s revenge tour 😅 

Because now you’re chasing every prospect who confidently said “circle back next year” like they were making actual plans with you

But fast-forward to the new year and suddenly:

-Budgets are “still being finalized”
-Priorities got “reshuffled”
-And half the deals quietly migrated to Q2 without informing anyone

Reps are basically DM’ing ghosts
Leaders are refreshing dashboards like it’s a coping mechanism
And buyers are still “waiting on finance” because apparently finance runs the entire universe

P.S. What excuse are your buyers using this month?

SDRs are the power grid of the revenue org

Ask any AE
Nothing downstream works without upstream energy

Research → sparks
Support → stabilizes
Training → compounds
Quick wins → boost morale
Resilience → sustains output

You don’t get predictable revenue without powered pipeline, and you don’t get pipeline without SDR energy

When leaders invest here, everything downstream benefits

Follow Nick Palasz for more

This is what “taking it well” looks like internally

Immediately after saying “Totally understand”

Clients are calm
polite
and reasonable

On the other hand
Sales reps are reconsidering their career choices
And the structural integrity of their laptop

Because patience is optional

But quota is not 😂

Follow Nick Palasz for more sales honesty

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The Battle

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