0-14m ARR (and growing rapidly) in 2.5yrs w/ 6ppl and zero funding as Founder/CEO of Retention.com (formerly GetEmails). 

I build innovative solutions that help ecommerce brands rapidly grow abandonment revenues and first-party, owned audiences.

Retention.com is growing so fast because of exceptional product/market fit and incredible team.

Our solutions grow abandonment revenues and owned audiences exponentially faster than any other way with fantastic engagement metrics. 

We amplify existing monetization efforts by making it easy for brands to harness the power of Identity.

I have over 10 years experience at creating SaaS products, building go-to-market strategies, and building sales machines, all with the same core executive team. 

I also have deep marketing, client success, and customer support expertise.

I build capital-efficient, lean, high-growth, highly profitable, bootstrapped SaaS businesses. 

Before Retention.com, I bootstrapped Robly Email Marketing, an Email Marketing and Marketing Automation SaaS to an 8 figure exit as Co-Founder/CEO. 

Before that, I was a Credit Default Swap trader at Lehman Brothers and Barclay's Capital.

I also post twice daily on LinkedIn, write a twice-per-week newsletter, post a weekly video "Work In Public" update on our company page, and have a weekly podcast called "10 Years in the Making" where I interview our amazing DTC founder customers.

Follow me to learn about email, SMS, and audience growth, and to watch a unicorn get built in public.

Subscribe to my newsletter here: https://retention.com/join-my-newsletter/

Adam Robinson

CEO @ Retention.com & RB2B | Person-Level Website Visitor Identity | Push LinkedIn Profiles to Slack in Real-Time, 100% Free!

Founder/CEO of RB2B and Retention.com. 

rb2b.com: Identify your anonymous website visitors. Push their LinkedIn profiles to Slack. It's 100% Free.

Sign up today at rb2b.com.

6Sense, Demandbase, and Clearbit all stop at the company (or account) level.

You need to know the PERSON who visits your site to close the loop on ABM. 

DM me with any questions.



=============================================================================



Retention.com: $0-22M ARR in 4yrs w/ zero funding as Founder/CEO. 

We help ecommerce brands rapidly grow abandonment revenues, improve ad efficiency, and grow first-party, owned audiences in a cookie-free world.

We amplify existing monetization efforts by making it easy for brands to harness the power of Identity.

I build capital-efficient, lean, high-growth, highly profitable, bootstrapped SaaS businesses. 

Before Retention.com, I bootstrapped Robly Email Marketing, an Email Marketing and Marketing Automation SaaS to an 8 figure exit as Co-Founder/CEO. 

Before that, I was a Credit Default Swap trader at Lehman Brothers and Barclay's Capital.

I create content for LinkedIn, made a docuseries in 2023 called Billion Dollar Challenge, and am investing heavily in creating work-in-public content for our community space for R!B2B.

https://community.b2b.retention.com/

Billion Dollar Challenge: 
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=a7259jq1_1A&list=PLxUsfasmudU7fh5Q2C7InaG3EvDVemiU4

Follow me to watch us build a unicorn in public.

Member, CEO Pavilion

Everybody thinks Clay raised at a $3.1B valuation because they grew 300% in 6 months. They’re wrong. They raised at $3.1b because they built a culture of Customer Discovery and Product Iteration. Here’s what NOBODY knows about Clay: 

Varun Anand joined Clay in late 2021 as a GTM co-founder.

At the time, Clay had less than 20 customers paying $100-$200.

I have spoken to 100's of early-stage Founders over the past two years, and messaged with at least 1,000 more.

If they were in Varun’s position, 99% of them would have ran this playbook:

1. Made a list of people they thought was ICP
2. Created hundreds of throw-away domains 
3. Run an instantly or smartlead cold email campaign 
4. Run some LinkedIn ads, and 
5. PROFIT (somehow)

Varun did the exact opposite. 

Here's what he did:

1. For 12 months he sat on calls from 10am-5pm.

2. He did a “reverse demo”… Instructed a customer how to solve a problem with Clay.

3. He got incredible product feedback and brought it back to Eric Engoron, where they constantly improved the product

4. He lived in communities like Jesse Ouellette's SaaS Yacht Club where their ICP (LeadGen Agencies) hung out all day looking for people with problems Clay could solve (which was the source of the calls).

No cold email. No paid ads.

Just manual, brutal sourcing of prospects and one-to-one conversations.

For 12 whole months!!!

I asked Varun why he thinks their valuation more-than-double from $1.25b to $3.1b.

What did he say? 

“It’s because we have a culture that is still doing EXACTLY what I did for that entire first year. We are all constantly talking to customers and using that feedback to improve our product, every single day.” 

TAKEAWAY:

Clay is the hottest company in B2B right now. 

They have INCREDIBLY strong product-market fit. 

Not only do I think it’s because they actually DID an insane amount of customer discovery to get there… 

But they built that process into their culture and are STILL doing it today.

Want to raise at $3.1b someday? 

You MUST start where Varun started. 

Because unicorns are born slowly… 

One discovery call at a time.

CEO @ Retention.com & RB2B | Person-Level Website Visitor Identity | Identify 70-80% of Your Website Traffic

Yesterday I dropped a free 90-minute course on how to bootstrap your startup from $0-10M ARR. We got 1,000 views the first 24 hours. Here's the course lesson breakdown (and where to watch it):

PART ONE: $0-1M ARR Secrets

Lesson 1: Why 90% of Startups Fail
Lesson 2: The Sell-Before-You-Build (SBYB) Framework
Lesson 3: Tactics - How You Find Your Early Adopters
Lesson 4: Bonus Lesson

PART TWO: $1M-$10M ARR Secrets

Lesson 1: Why You Need 10X Fewer Resources Than You Think You Do
Lesson 2: Why You Should Absolutely Commit to Bootstrapping $10M ARR
Lesson 3: How You Get UNSTUCK between $1M-10M ARR
Lesson 4: How To Hire The Ideal Team Once You Have Traction
Lesson 5: How to Create an Inbound-Led Outbound GTM Motion
Lesson 6: How (and Why) to Avoid Venture Capital

Most people charge $5,000+ for this type of course.

You can watch it here for free: https://lnkd.in/gY_ESF6E

Keep building!

CEO @ Retention.com & RB2B | Person-Level Website Visitor Identity | Identify 70-80% of Your Website Traffic | Helping startup founders bootstrap to $10M ARR

33 things people hate about me:

1. Inbound-Led Outbound is complete bullshit
2. I am a drama queen, just looking to stir up shit with people
3. My content is inconsistent, I say one thing and do another
4. I am full of shit, full stop (this is a theme)
5. I have never carried a quota, but act like I know sales
6. I say outbound is dead, but it’s not
7. My content is 90% clickbait
8. I’ve never scaled a sales org past 20 people
9. I’ve never scaled a SaaS past $25m ARR
10. I shitpost, take the “low road”, am despicable and disrespectful
11. I only care about my personal brand
12. I have no idea how to actually run a business (two layoffs in 14mo)
13. I shit on VC but don’t understand how it actually works
14. I made an inflammatory Facebook ad campaign in 2020
15. I’m bad for the sales profession - I’m saying it’s over
16. I’m bad for demandgen – I shit on the intent data vendors
17. I say I’m a bootstrapper but I’m not eating ramen
18. Anywhere I go I have a video camera with me
19. I am an arrogant narcissistic egomaniac
20. I work in public but am out of touch with my own company
21. I have zero respect for data privacy
22. I say things like “cookies didn’t go away b/c that is the internet”
23. That RB2B is actually working so well
24. How obnoxious I am
25. How I act like anybody could do what I’m doing
26. How much money I spend on founder brand
27. They hate how self-indulgent making a reality TV show is
28. They hate that I don’t know how much money we spend on RB2B
29. They hate how I can spend 4 days a week on founder brand
30. They hate my ugly website, and how I want to make it even uglier
31. They say I don’t understand GDPR
32. They hate that my hair is too good
33. They love 6Sense

What am I missing???

Trying to compile a comprehensive list.

My therapist keeps asking.

Senior Manager of Brand Marketing at Newswire | Copywriter | Mom x2

I ghostwrite LinkedIn content for executives and founders. 

Think of LinkedIn Ghostwriting as a content partnership. 

I know it sounds unnecessarily mysterious, but it’s pretty straightforward. 

I turn your expertise, insights, and ideas into engaging posts that sound like you because they are from you…I just use my experience to craft them into posts people want to read. 

If you’re worried this is an inauthentic way to play the LinkedIn game, don’t worry. It’s not. That’s because I record our Q&A calls and turn your answers into posts. This keeps your voice intact and maximizes impact. 

I'm not here to manufacture viral moments or push topics you (and your audience) don’t care about. 
I'm here to help you build a consistent, authentic presence on LinkedIn.

As your LinkedIn Ghostwriter, I’ll:

✅ Create content your audience wants to read. 
✅ Make our partnership hassle-free so you can focus on running your business. 
✅ Help you build genuine connections through strategic storytelling. 
✅ Handle community engagement to attract attention back to your profile. 

“This is one of the smartest business decisions I’ve made. On one end, you only have so much time in the day. But the most important thing is knowing your own strengths and weaknesses. Maria is exceptional in this field, and it made perfect sense to ask her for help.” - Andrew Moncur, Founder/CEO, Capital Markets Dad

"I've never had so many people mention how much they enjoyed my LinkedIn content before working with Maria." - CEO, Advertising Industry

If you want to see my work in action, browse my LinkedIn profile to see how I consistently create content that invites real connections and delivers real results. 

If you’re ready to build your LinkedIn presence without the stress of managing it alone, I’m here to help. 

Send me a DM to get started!

Maria Marchewka

I've been building my newsletter, The Lunch Break🍴 on beehiiv, for over a year now.

I have 350 subscribers. I'm proud of that, but I don't want to be passive anymore. 

I want to kick this into high gear!

If you have 500 - 1k+ subscribers, what's been your best secret to growth?

Please share ⬇️

LinkedIn Ghostwriter for execs & founders who are too busy to write but too smart not to post | Mom x2 | Runner 🏃‍♀️ & Reader 📚

Don't mind me....I'm just sitting here at my kitchen table with TWO screens!

Barry Weston sent me a Plugable Portable Monitor, and let's just say, I'm obsessed. 

1. It weighs next to nothing, and it's sleek. It'll be perfect to pack in my backpack when I travel. 

2. I do a lot of work from my kitchen table and the occasional coffee shop. My biggest complaint was losing my second screen at my desk. Not anymore! 

3. It's so easy to use. Seriously. Unravel the chord and connect it to the screen and your computer. DONE. 

Thanks again, Barry and the team at Plugable!

I’m a beehiiv stan (is that still cool to say?)

Anyways, it’s what I use to not only build my newsletter, The Lunch Break🍴
but the Capital Markets Dad newsletter, also.

It's user-friendly. I don't consider myself super tech-savvy, and I’ve built everything from automations to a complete redesign of my newsletter. 

I love the built-in ad network. Morning Brew, HubSpot, and The Marketing Millennials have all sponsored my newsletters. 

They have excellent support. Their chat feature is actually helpful lol 

And, last week at their Winter Release Event, they unveiled a whole lineup of brand-new features their users *ACTUALLY* wanted. 

The one that stole my attention was the digital products option. Now you can sell digital products right from the platform. You keep 100% of the profits. Seriously. They won't even take a soon-to-be-extinct penny from you!

If you’re thinking about starting a newsletter, I highly recommend it!

See for yourself ➡️ https://lnkd.in/eWWM7K_K

Just a reminder you don’t have to accept every connection request.

Yes, it’s tempting to want to increase your connection count.

But if that person isn’t even in the realm of what you’re doing or where you want to go, what’s the point? 

A large connection count might look good to some on paper, but if those people are irrelevant to your industry and will never engage with your content, what purpose do they serve?

The best connections happen when there’s a mutual benefit.

When you learn something from them and they learn something from you.

It’s OK to be selective.

“LinkedIn doesn’t like it when you just say ‘Congratulations!’ On someone’s post about their new job.”

Cool. Leave the comment anyway, especially if you’re just getting into commenting.

Those simple comments are confidence builders for you to leave more on other people’s content.

You have to start somewhere!

If you have a long-form piece of content and 15 minutes, you already have a LinkedIn post.

You don’t need to reinvent anything. You just need to pull from what’s already there.

Here’s how I do it:

1. Start with the intro.
Find the core message.
What’s the one thing this piece is really trying to say?

2. Go into the body.
Pull the takeaway.
What’s the part someone should remember if they only read one paragraph?

3. Look at the close.
Decide on the purpose.
Are you teasing the full piece or making this post standalone?

If it’s a teaser: hint at what’s inside and drop the link in the comments.

If it stands alone: deliver the punchline here and use a soft CTA like, “I share more like this every week in my newsletter.”

It's not always about creating more. It's about doing more with what you already created.

The battle of keeping my focus while my son destroyed the room behind me was on.

The long and the short was you don’t have to start from scratch every time you log onto LinkedIn.

One of my favorite things to do (and what I do for my clients often) is scroll through their high-performing posts, pick one, and:

• Update the hook
• Trim or refine a few sentences
• Add a little more depth or detail. Typically an action step.

The main message stays the same, but it gets another at bat.

Chances are, a lot of your audience missed it the first time. 

Give it another run by refreshing and republishing.

I have a confession to make. I've never watched a full episode of "Seinfeld."

BUT, Jerry Seinfeld might be one of the best writing teachers. 

I watched a New York Times video of him sharing his joke-writing process, and the overlap with writing LinkedIn posts is shockingly similar.

Here’s what stood out to me:

1. The first line carries all the weight.

Seinfeld says the opening of a joke has to land, or the whole bit falls apart.

Good LinkedIn posts work the same way. If the first line doesn’t pull you in, nothing else matters.

2. Description is a superpower.

His Pop-Tarts joke includes a line comparing shredded wheat to “wrapping your lips around a wood chipper.”

That’s vivid, unexpected, and holds your attention. Memorable posts carry that same energy. 

3. Every word serves a purpose.

Great jokes feel tight because he trims everything he doesn’t need.

Good writing is a byproduct of strong editing. 

4. Ideas need connectors.

Seinfeld talks about finding “connective tissue” between setups.

We can call it "flow," and it's the difference between scattered thoughts and a smooth read.

5. Simple takes time.

His punchline, “They can’t go stale because they were never fresh.” took him ages.

Clean writing is a skill that takes time and reps to strengthen. 

I put the full clip in the comments ⬇️

Here’s the 3-question gut check I use before I hit publish on a post. 

I call it The Mirror Test 🪞

Because if a post doesn't move me, it's not going to move my readers.

Before you post, ask yourself three questions:

1. Would I want to engage with this?
2. Am I showing them how, not just telling them what?
3. Does this feel human?

If it passes these three checks, I'm good to publish. 

I shared a deeper breakdown (with an example) in this week’s Lunch Break 🍴

Link is in the first comment ⬇️

Last week, I posted something I thought would take off… and it didn’t.

At least, not right away.

A few likes trickled in. A comment here or there.

The ink was about to dry on me, writing it off as a dud, but a few hours later, it picked up steam.  

It made me realize that "slow starts" aren't always bad news anymore.

I broke it all down in this week’s Lunch Break 🍴

If you’ve ever hit publish and watched your post stall, this one’s for you: https://lnkd.in/e6cyqmME

Spanx is worth $1.2 billion. 

And yet, when Sara Blakely started out, she didn’t sell her product. 

She sold what her product *did* for other people. 

When Spanx finally landed in department stores, she went to the morning rallies to educate the four-person hosiery team. 

She knew she needed to reach more people, so she started handing out free product to other departments. 

But the freebies weren't what sealed the deal. 

It was how she answered the one question everyone was secretly asking:

“What’s in it for me?” 

When she walked into the shoe department, she didn’t pitch Spanx. 

She told them her product would help women feel confident enough to wear strappy sandals and styles they’d never tried before.

In that moment, Spanx wasn’t just shapewear. It was a sales driver for shoes. 

Her product became the catalyst for someone else’s commission.

When you’re writing a LinkedIn post, keep that same mindset.

Don’t just focus on what you’re saying. Focus on what they’re reading. 

Spell out how your product or service helps them and answer the question “What’s in it for me?” before they ever ask it.

Don't let rules and "best practices" stifle your creativity and connection. 

Sure, they help, but the more you write for the algorithm, the more predictable your content gets. 

People aren't following you because you've mastered the perfect posting cadence or use strategically placed emojis. 

They follow you because you show up as yourself, talking about the things that interest you. 

Write the post you’d actually want to read.
Comment on the ideas that genuinely interest you.

One honest post and personable comment a week does more for your growth than ten “optimized” ones.

I can’t control the job market, but I can help you control how you show up on LinkedIn.

I put together my free Job Seeker Toolkit to help you turn your LinkedIn into your living, breathing portfolio.

It covers:

- Headlines that help you show up in searches
- About sections that feel confident, not desperate
- How to reframe employment gaps into strengths
- Posts that showcase how you think
- 12 plug-and-play prompts
- A 4-week posting calendar

It’s 100% free. 

Here’s the link: https://lnkd.in/e4BzqSvP

I’m a beehiiv stan (is that still cool to say?)

Anyways, it’s what I use to not only build my newsletter, The Lunch Break 🍴 but also the Capital Markets Dad newsletter.

It's super user-friendly. I don't consider myself super tech-savvy and I’ve built everything from automations to templates. 

I love the built-in ad network. Morning Brew, HubSpot, and The Guru Conference have all sponsored my newsletters. 

And they have excellent support. Their chat feature is actually helpful lol

If you’re thinking about starting a newsletter, I recommend it!

One of the most fun parts of the Capital Markets Dad brand is learning from the marketing genius of Maria Marchewka.

Collaborating and brainstorming with her on a daily and weekly basis has taken months maybe even years off my entrepreneurial journey for the brand.

One of the runaway hits has been the newsletter in the beehiiv community. 

I will admit I had never even heard of it until Maria brought it up. But I’m glad she did and then took charge of getting everything in place and does a fantastic job running it.

Work with amazing people and do amazing things. 

If you love the newsletter let Maria know, if you are curious what it’s all about you can subscribe using this link.

https://lnkd.in/gxH8pcXk

I love this analogy from David Perell.

“Think of your writing like a Jenga tower. If you can pull out a word or sentence without the tower falling, do it.”

The problem usually isn't that your writing is too short. It's that it's too bloated. 

Here’s what this looks like in practice ⬇️

Original:

“Maria ran down the stairs, rounded the bend into the kitchen, swiped her backpack off the chair, slung it over her right shoulder, spun around toward and out the front door just in time to catch her bus as it was slowing down in front of her house.”

Rewrite:

“Maria ran to the kitchen, grabbed her backpack, and made it out the door just in time to catch her bus.”

It's the same story, I just used fewer words and created a cleaner read. 

Good writing is about knowing what blocks to pull while keeping the tower intact. 

PS here's a throwback Jenga commercial, just because 😂

https://lnkd.in/eHkwNcGH

Open video: Jenga 1987 Commercial | 1980s & 1990s Commercials on youtu.be

Jenga 1987 Commercial | 1980s & 1990s Commercials

If your LinkedIn posts aren’t performing as well as you think they should, look at your first two lines. 

Your hook earns the next sentence, and it’s the most underrated skill in LinkedIn writing. 

So I built a guide to help you write better ones. 

In "11 Hooks That Get People to Actually Read Your LinkedIn Posts," you'll learn: 

🪝 11 hook types that consistently stop the scroll 
🪝 33 real examples to spark ideas 
🪝 Plug-and-play templates 
🪝 Mini explanations so you understand the why, not just the what 

Swipe them. Study them. Make them your own. 

It's 100% free. 

DM me and I'll send you the link. Seriously, just the link. NOT a sales pitch.

Tomorrow's Lunch Break🍴is all about the makings of a save-worthy post. 

Yes, reactions and impressions feel great, but recently, I've been paying a lot more attention to saves because it's not a passive action. 

It's someone saying, "This is helpful. I'll need this later."

So in tomorrow’s newsletter, I break down the three elements every save-worthy post has:

- A teachable moment
- An easy-to-read format
- A meeting point with your readers' reality

The issue hits inboxes at Noon EST!

Click the “View my newsletter” button under my name to grab your seat at the table.

taplio

The Battle

Adam Robinson

Maria Marchewka

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Performance ScoreAdam Robinson's LinkedIn Performance

Performance ScoreMaria Marchewka's LinkedIn Performance

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taplio

The Battle

Adam Robinson

Maria Marchewka

Followers

Posts

Engagements

Likes

Performance Score.css-goub6s{font-size:var(--chakra-fontSizes-md);font-weight:500;color:var(--chakra-colors-gray-600);display:block;margin-top:var(--chakra-space-1);}Adam Robinson's LinkedIn Performance

Performance ScoreMaria Marchewka's LinkedIn Performance

Ready to grow your LinkedIn presence?

Performance ScoreAdam Robinson's LinkedIn Performance