C17 Lab

Head of GTM Engineering

Building out outbound plays for enterprise clients

Strategic GTM

Clay

Enterprise Partner

Monthly Unlimited Flows for Fixed retainer

Clay Certified Expert 

Unlimited Custom clay workflows for you for a fixed monthly price

24-72 hours delivery, one request at a time.

Free 3000 Credits - 

https://clay.com/?via=6f1999

Clay Creator

Instantly.ai

Certified Instantly Expert

Smartlead

Smartlead Certified Experts

Maildoso

Advisor

Persana AI

Monthly Flows on a fixed price


https://persana.ai/pros/utkarsh-rana

Persana Pro

Adyhere.com

Helping B2B SaaS Companies and Agencies Generate Leads while they sleep via AI-Powered Inbound + Outbound

If you are not from one of the above industries no issues, you just need to be a B2B business.

We do all the heavy lifting, you just attend the meetings!

$200,000+ in REV & $1M+ Pipeline generated for B2B clients via outbound

Website - https://www.adyhere.com/
Email - utkarsh.rana@adyhere.com

Founder

I help B2B SaaS Companies and Agencies Generate Leads while they sleep
$200,000+ in REV & $1M+ Pipeline generated for B2B clients

Unlimited Custom clay workflows for you at $2000/Month

I set content systems that:
-> Builds audience
-> Engage with them while heating their buying intent 
-> Converting warm leads with a high closing rate as the content did most of the work.

Then I use data from over 100+ sources to create smart strategies that find the right prospects. 

This helps your sales team connect with people who are looking for you.

Here’s what I do:
Build Content systems that build an audience
Build targeted lead lists
Set up and warm up inboxes
Write personalized emails & DMs
Manage full campaigns


The aim is to test 
OFFER-MARKET-FIT
TARGET TESTING
MESSAGE-MARKET FIT
PRODUCT-UNTAPPED MARKET FIT


--
If you're a B2B company that wants more demos/sales calls, go to https://www.adyhere.com/

Utkarsh Singh Rana

We don’t use Clay native waterfall.
Even though I love Clay
.
.
Why?

Because we needed full control

Especially around tools like Supabase, BounceBan (Verify risky emails without sending messages), and email domain filtering. 

So, I built a custom waterfall logic. 
We're now on Version 8 and it's been a game-changer for our GTM team.

Thanks to Enzo Carasso 🧲 for letting me spend $$$ on testing tools 😊 

🔁 Our Custom Enrichment Waterfall at C17 Lab:

1️⃣ Supabase First: 
Credit goes to 🦾Eric Nowoslawski and Bharatt Arorah for introducing me to SupaBase

We query by:
LinkedIn Handle (if valid)
OR Full Name + Domain
 This saves us 30–40% of our enrichment credits upfront.

2️⃣ Domain Filter Logic
 If Supabase gives us utkarsh@c17.ai
 but the real domain is c17.com → ❌ rejected.

 No mismatched domains. No noise in the pipeline.

➡️ What if Supabase fails?
We fall back to:
Apollo/CSV email (only if different from invalid ones)
Prospeo.io and Icypeas
But NEVER revalidate already-marked-invalid emails.

 🧠 That alone saved us 154,000+ verification calls last month.

3️⃣ Final Validation
 Every valid-looking email goes through:
✅ MillionVerifier
🚫 BounceBan (Verify risky emails without sending messages) (only if catch-all/invalid by MillionVerifier)

And we use request IDs to fetch final verdicts if needed as sometimes BounceBan gives you request ID

4️⃣ Bonus: ESP Detection
 We tag every email with Gmail, Outlook, etc., via EmailGuard.
 Helps in split testing emails as Outlook deliverability is bad.

5️⃣ Sync Back to Supabase
 Every enriched lead gets written back to Supabase with full data.

 No duplicates. No overwriting.

NOTE: When you cross like a Million records in Supabase, you'll get errors with LookUp as the data is too much

Use ChatGPT to figure out what schema you want with it.

🔍 How We Fixed the Lookup Problem
We use GIN trigram indexes, which are special tools that help Supabase find text very fast, even in millions of rows. 

They let Supabase search company domains and LinkedIn handles without slowing down. 

These indexes act like shortcuts that guide the database to the right place instantly.

Indexes that make Supabase fast:
➡️ emaildb_companydomain_trgm_idx — helps find company domains quickly
➡️ emaildb_handle_trgm_idx — helps match LinkedIn handles fast
➡️ emaildb_handle_eq_idx — speeds up exact LinkedIn lookups
➡️ emaildb_email_key — keeps emails unique and easy to find


⚙️ Other Automations We Use
➡️ Emails are cleaned automatically before saving
➡️ LinkedIn handles are generated on their own
➡️ Full names and email domains are created automatically
➡️ Duplicate contacts are blocked before saving
➡️ "created_at" and "updated_at" update automatically
➡️ All new records become searchable right away

Utkarsh  Rana 🧲

Head of GTMs @ C17 Lab | Top Clay Enterprise Partner • Sales Tech & Revenue Systems Optimization •

I would still be spending 40+ hours weekly if it wasn't for these tools.
.
.
1. Serper
 Scrape Google Search, Maps, and Reviews.
 → Build targeted business lists
 → Monitor reviews to gauge activity
 → Pull company data fast

2. n8n
 Zapier’s smarter cousin.
 Great for cloud automations and AI workflows—especially if you're technical.

3. Apify
 Custom scraping powerhouse.
 → Grab Meta ads, Google data, TikTok profiles, tech stacks - whatever you need.

4. ZenRows
 Most reliable and cost-efficient scraper I've used.
 → Scrapes full websites (HTML + Text) cleanly.

5. HeyReach.io
 It's Smartlead, but for LinkedIn.
 → Automate connection and message campaigns at scale.

6. SmartProspect (by Smartlead)
 Massive lead database.
 → Easily download leads—top-tier for outbound.

7. Clay
 The glue.
 → Integrates with everything to automate lead enrichment, research, and outreach.

8. Taplio
 Content machine for LinkedIn.
 → Helps you ideate, write, and post consistently.

 If you're not stacking the right tools, you're stacking unnecessary hours.
 
Will it increase your cost? Yes
Will it save your time so that you can re-invest it into scaling your business? Yes

Tools I use everyday!

I used to burn $$$ on B2B lead tools that overpromised and underdelivered.
.
.
.
The worst part?
Even after dropping $1K+ per month, I still had to:

Clean up lists and have 2 verification tools - basic and catchall verification
Deal with bounce-backs

Guess who my real ICP was as list contained leads that didn't match the filters I added

AND somehow protect my domain reputation...

And that was called normal.

The real problem?
Most tools aren’t built to prioritize lead quality.
They bulk scrape, charge you upfront, and leave you holding a bag of outdated contacts.
Their job ends when you pay.

But your job (booking meetings) is just getting started.

Now imagine you're an agency owner or founder...

Every bad lead = wasted rep time.
Every bounce = damaged sender reputation.
Every wrong ICP = campaign fatigue.

When your pipeline depends on cold outreach, these things compound fast.

You’re not just burning ad spend - you’re burning trust, time, and deliverability.

Shared this issue with the Smartlead and next 2 weeks, they launched Smartprospect

✅ 300M+ verified B2B profiles with real-time enrichment
✅ Filters for role, company size, engagement, and more
✅ Multi-step verification waterfall built-in
✅ Push leads directly into your campaigns (no manual export/import)
✅ Flat $59/month fee - and no per-lead nonsense

The result?
Better data. Better replies. Better ROI - all without risking your sender health.

C17 Lab is a proud Smartlead Partner!

Last week: a lead from Samsung ➡️ https://lnkd.in/gE8Ja-Y4
This week: a booked call with Intel.
.
.
.

No warm intros. No magic.
Just a clear offer, a sharp GTM motion, and a real solution to a real problem.

This isn’t luck - this is strategy.

Here’s what we know:
🎯 Who to target
 Enterprise teams feeling the pain - and the exact decision-maker responsible for fixing it.

🔍 What they care about
Not your product — their problem. Even giants like Intel have burning issues they want solved.

📞 How to reach them
 Right message. Right channel. Right timing.

Here’s what we did:
1. Refined the targeting
We reworked the ICP - especially headcount - to align with the client’s enterprise motion.

2. Rewrote the messaging
Enterprise-grade clarity, but still easy to digest and imagine in action.

3. Shifted personalization
We don’t care about their nearest KFC.
We care about their problem.
Messaging anchored in their challenges - not surface-level flattery.

The best GTM strategies don’t start with the product.
They start with pain - and offer a clear path to relief.

You’re not burning your TAM.
You’re not annoying anyone.

You’re stepping up with relevance and precision - and that gets responses.

If your offer can solve problems for Intel…
Why wouldn’t smaller companies take notice?

🚫 Stop playing small.
✅ Start executing like it’s enterprise.

That’s the C17 Lab way.

We made 40% fewer dials than usual for a client… 
And still hit the meeting KPI 🤯 for them
That’s not a fluke.
.
.


📅 On Nov 11, we dialed 40% less than our usual volume for this client.
 🎯 Still booked 4 meetings a day - exactly what we needed to hit target.

Here’s what I learned:
🚀 Quality wins if you don't have much quantity - especially when your data source is 🔥

BetterContact is turning out to be a total powerhouse for phone numbers.

I still remember Roman Hipp telling me they were rolling out Phone Number Waterfall.

 And I was like:
 💳 “This is gonna hit the credit card HARD.”

But nope.
💡 The quality, the hit rate, and the ROI we’re seeing - it’s totally worth it.

And I don’t even validate phone numbers manually.
Yeah, there are tools for that…
 But honestly?

📞 The only way to validate a phone number is by actually calling it.

Just like how Scrubby | Complete email validation validates emails by sending actual emails - max accuracy, no guesswork.

Cold + Warm Calls = 💘 
Cold emails + Cold Calls + Warm Calls = 👩‍❤️‍👩

Curious About Sales

Here's how I helped my clients:

+ TAM (Total Addressable Market) mapping
+ Building Clay workflows – automation lead gen & data enrichment
+ GTM strategy – customer interviews, market research, & outbound campaign strategy
+ Message-market fit – crafting relevant messaging that resonates
+ Deliverability – solid tech setup to ensure your emails land in the inbox
+ Data building – creating lists based on your ICS (ideal customer situation)
+ AI & automation – scaling outbound using AI (n8n, make.com)

If you're looking to build a GTM motion for your company, book a strategy with me.

PS. You will get a Clay workflow for free. Pinky promise :)

Clay Operator | GTM Engineer | Copywriter and Strategist

Want to generate sales-qualified leads for your B2B business? Here's how we do it:

1. Do in-depth research about the target audience and find their pain points.
2. Write email {icebreakers} in cold emails to make the reader feel connected.
3. Write hyper-personalized email copy that gets qualified leads and appointments.
4. Write Linkedin posts for founders to build a solid personal brand.
5. Optimize the cold email campaigns to ensure the email lands in the inbox.
I work directly with Yash Agrawal - co-founder of Curious About Sales.

Interested to know more? Let's have a chat!

Freelance Copywriter and Ghostwriter

growth.cx

As a copywriter, 
- I wrote landing page copy, service page copy, and website copy, which increased conversion rates by 43%

- I wrote an e-book as a lead magnet(front end offer), which can be used in ads to attract prospects.

Copywriter

The Coding Live

Generating leads for a new course is hard. Here's how I did it:

→ Created content marketing strategy to build brand awareness about the product.
→ Optimised the LinkedIn profile to get more conversions.
→ Created cold-outreach email campaigns.

Growth Marketer

AMRYTT MEDIA LLC

→ I wrote 10+ long-form articles and blogs on topics like Guest posting, content marketing, and Landing page optimization.

→ I created a content marketing strategy to gain more traffic to the website.

→ I optimized the blog for On-page SEO.

Web Content Writer

Vrinsoft Technology Pvt. Ltd.

- Various off-page activities like creating social media posts, business listing, profile creation, podcast submission, building backlinks, and more.
- Writing social media copies, Quora answers, and SEO content.

Search Engine Optimization Executive

Punyam Academy Private Limited

Getting a business on the 1st page was my responsibility here.

• I did different on-page activities, like:
→ Creating meta descriptions, 
→ XML sitemaps
→ Content writing 
→ Writing blogs, 
→ Optimizing title and heading tags for SEO

• I did Off-page activities like:

→ Backlinks creation
→ Guest posting 
→ Social Media Optimization 
→ Social Bookmarking 
→ Directory submission
→ PR submission
→ And creating inforgraphic posts on Canva.

LearnToday.com

Marketing is the one of the foundational skills in today's age. I did an internship here to build a strong foundation in marketing.

Here are the skills I've learned from this internship:

1. Copywriting
→ I learned the basics of a landing page, email copy, and sales page.
→ I learned how to do market and competitor research.

2. Social Media Marketing 
→ I learned how create content on social media to create awareness about the product.
→ I learned how to build the audience and convert them into leads.

3. Email Marketing 
→ I learned how to create an email marketing campaign using Convertkit and Activecampaign.
→ I learned how to nurture the audience through emails.

4. Search Engine Optimization 

→ I did on-page SEO and off-page activities for my blog.
→ I learned ins-and-outs of SEO by implementing my learning on my blog.

5. Deep Marketing Automation 

→ I learned how to automate emails through deep marketing.

6. Facebook Ads 
→ I ran Facebook ads for my blog to generate leads.

7. Google Ads 
→ I ran search and display ads on Google to understand how it works.

Digital Marketing Intern

GTM Engineer | Clay Engineer + Specialist | I help B2B companies build Clay workflows | AI automation

Hey, I’m Anuj Patel – a mechanical engineer by pressure, but a GTM engineer by choice :)

I specialize in building GTM systems using Clay, AI, and automation to help B2B companies consistently generate leads, book better meetings, and scale their sales pipeline.

Here's how I can help you:

+ TAM mapping
+ Building Clay workflows – automation lead gen & data enrichment
+ GTM strategy – conduct customer interviews, market research, & outbound campaign strategy
+ Message-market fit – crafting relevant messaging that resonates
+ Deliverability –  solid tech setup to ensure your emails land in the inbox
+ Data building – creating lists based on your ICS (ideal customer situation)
+ AI & automation –  scaling outbound using AI 

Why work with me?

+ Helped 10+ B2B companies get qualified leads via outbound
+ Deep expertise in Clay who can run AI-driven outbound campaigns
+ No spray-and-pray approach. Big fan of Value-led campaigns!
+ I combine creativity + automation + data to solve problems.
+ Big believer of Execution > Theory

If you're still unsure if I'm the right fit? 
Just DM me and I will solve any problem you have for FREE.

BONUS: Get 1 FREE Clay table as per your requirement

PS. Book a FREE consultation call → anuj@curiousaboutsales.com

Anuj Patel

A quick story on how I became a GTM engineer 👇

I am Anuj Patel, and I work as a GTM engineer at Curious About Sales, where we help B2B companies build GTM systems using Clay and other tools.

How it started…

Back in 2022, I started as a copywriter (not a cold email copywriter).

Landing page copywriting, ad copywriting, and LinkedIn ghostwriting.

And I was quite active on LinkedIn back then, where I used to share my learnings, copywriting tips, frameworks, and all of that.

I got a few clients through inbound.

But then, after 3-4 months, there was a time when I had no clients.

And I had no idea about cold outreach.

So, getting clients was the biggest problem I needed to solve.

Started watching YouTube videos and reading blogs on ‘how to get clients as a freelancer’.

A few YT creators explained about getting clients via cold outreach.

And they shared cold email templates and strategies.

As a complete newbie, I used those email templates. Tweaked them.

And reached out to B2B agency founders offering LinkedIn ghostwriting.

Got my first 2-3 clients through cold outreach. And I was like - wait, this actually works? 

That’s when I started learning more about cold outbound.

Then one day…

I sent a connection request to 🦾Eric Nowoslawski (the outbound legend) on LinkedIn. And he reached out to me the next day for copywriting help.

I made a Loom video sharing how his videos helped me learn cold outbound.

He shared discovery call recordings and a few resources about the client.

I tried creating the cold email sequence, but it was horrible. Because I was not good at cold email copywriting. I didn't send the sequence.

Of course, I didn’t get a project. 

But that’s where the real journey began. I started learning like crazy. Reading his LinkedIn posts. Watching his YouTube videos.
 
And then, in Oct 2022, I joined Curious About Sales, where I met 2 amazing people who’ve shaped so much of how I work today - Yash Agrawal💡 & Hetasha. 

They’re my amazing mentors who helped me learn everything about cold outbound from the basics - list building, tech setup, cold email copywriting, campaign strategy, and everything.

A year later, I discovered Clay through Eric’s YT videos.

That opened up a whole new world.

And now in 2025 - I’ve worked on some really fun projects, launched my own YouTube channel, and I’m back to creating content around GTM, workflows, and cold outbound. 

Thanks for being here ❤️

PS. I'm sharing the Loom video link I sent to Eric in the comments.👇 It's funny 🤣

GTM Engineer | Clay Engineer | I help B2B companies build Clay workflows | AI automation | Clay Creator

1 question I hear often from GTM & Sales leaders: 


Where should I start - Inbound, CRM enrichment, or Outbound?

Because if you start in the wrong order, you might be spending money and effort for no return.

Last week, I spoke to GTM & Sales leader who asked exactly that.

She was running outbound campaigns but getting very poor response rates. 

At the same time, inbound leads were coming in via website, events and other channels, but the lead qualification was off and conversion was low. 

When I dug in the root cause became obvious: bad and outdated CRM data. 

Here’s what I suggested:

1. Start with CRM enrichment in Clay 

Most CRMs are filled with problems:

- Missing phone numbers or emails
- People who’ve changed jobs
- Contacts without a LinkedIn profile
- Records with only first names
- Companies that are no longer active

Your goal is to clean up and enrich your CRM so it becomes a reliable base.

i. Audit & standardise your data
→ correct formats, remove duplicates, validate emails/phones

ii. Enrich missing field
→ company size, LinkedIn profile, job title, seniority, industry, tech‑stack.

iii. Automate ongoing hygiene
→ schedule weekly workflows to refresh data, catch role changes and aging records in HubSpot

2. Run an outbound sprint 

Once your data is solid, you can run hyper‑personalised outbound.

i. Pick your high‑value accounts
→ find the signals and triggers that matter (funding, hiring, etc.) 
→ score and tier into T1/T2/T3
→ identify the right contacts (champions, decision‑makers, users)

ii. Use a multi‑channel approach 
→ email + LinkedIn + cold calls (depends on your TAM)
→ run value‑based campaigns that speak to their pain points

Tech stack you need:

Email finding: Prospeo.io 
Email sequencer: Smartlead
LinkedIn outreach: HeyReach.io
Personalization + scoring: Clay

3. Build your inbound engine

Now add the inbound machine alongside

i. Content + SEO (now AEO) 
→ build lead magnets aligned with your ICP’s real pain

ii. Nurture your inbound leads
→ enrich and segment traffic (ToFu, MoFu, BoFu) 
→ score leads using your scoring criteria (use Clay)
→ push them into outreach sequences

In short:

1. Clean & enrich first
2. Launch outbound campaigns next
3. Build your inbound engine concurrently

PS. Where are you in this sequence today?

Here's a 8-min. signal-based recruitment workflow I built using Clay 👇

0:00 — Introduction & Use Case
0:30 — Ideal Customer Profile (ICP)
1:09 — Step 1: Scraping Job Openings
2:02 — LinkedIn Jobs Setup in Clay
2:49 — Indeed & Glassdoor Scraping
3:25 — Step 2: Extracting Company Info
3:45 — Step 3: Enriching with Apollo
4:06 — Step 4: Filtering by HQ Location
4:42 — Step 5: Brazil Employee Count Trick
6:25 — Step 6: Funding History Lookup
7:17 — Step 7: Finding Decision Makers
8:48 — Final Thoughts & Use Cases

Hope you find it useful :)

Built a signal‑based lead flow for a recruitment firm snagging international companies hiring in Brazil - here’s how👇

A little bit of context here:

I was working with a recruitment firm that targets international companies posting job openings in Brazil. 

The ideal profile we looked for:

a. HQ outside Brazil
b. Hiring senior/strategic roles
c. Role requiring English or Spanish fluency
d. First hires in Brazil or only a few postings so far
e. Operating in industries like Tech, SaaS, or Energy

These signals often mean the company is entering or testing the Brazilian market. 

It means they’ll soon need help with recruitment, payroll, and compliance.

Here’s the workflow I built (using Clay):

1. Find job openings

- Scrape data from LinkedIn, Indeed, Greenhouse, etc…
- Apply filters matching our criteria 

2. Enrich the company
- Fetch HQ location, no. of employees, LinkedIn, industry, etc…

3. Filter out companies already established in Brazil
- We only want ‘new-to-market’ firms

4. Estimate Brazil presence
- Exclude companies that already have 100+ employees listed in Brazil

5. Find the funding history
- Funding date, round type, & funding amount in $$$
- It indicates the capacity to expand hiring/payroll infra

6. Identify decision makers
- Target relevant stakeholders (hiring managers, country heads, etc..)
- Reach out to them via cold email + LinkedIn + cold call

Why it works:

+ You’re not chasing any “job post”, but you’re targeting companies with intent

+ Instead of cold calling the world, you build a signal-based pipeline.
---
Have you tried building this type of signal-based workflow? 

PS. I’ll be releasing a detailed video on YouTube tomorrow.

The secret to being useful to the world is solving your own problems and sharing the solutions freely.

Here’s how to spot companies opening new offices before everyone else:

1) Track news‑feed in Clay (via Google News)

Set up a list of search queries — things like:

- “expands to Brazil”
- “Brazil market entry”
- “opens office in São Paulo”
- “launches in Brazil”
- “enters Brazilian market

2) Use a date filter
If you want companies weekly, search for news from the “past week.”

3) Double‑check signal relevance 
Use Claygent to visit the article and pull out:

- City where they’re expanding
- One‑line evidence of “market expansion”
- Company name

4) Get the company website + LinkedIn using Claygent

5) Enrich the company (using Icypeas)
Extract the fields you need:

- Company description
- Industry
- Location
- No. of employees (Brazil headcount must be <100)

6) Get funding info
Look for startups or scale-ups (Series A/B/C funding) testing Brazil — ideal candidates for expansion support or recruitment help.

What This Signals (and why it matters):

- Company is possibly expanding into Brazil → may need recruitment, compliance, payroll support soon.

- Early stage = higher chance they don’t have an entity yet, perfect for EOR.

- If growth stage: likely need payroll, PEO, recruitment support — high‑intent opportunity.
---
Have you tried tracking expansion signals (via news, hiring posts or funding alerts) to find high‑intent leads before? 

PS. I’m dropping a full walkthrough YT video tomorrow

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