C17 Lab

Head of GTM Engineering

Building out outbound plays for enterprise clients

Strategic GTM

Clay

Enterprise Partner

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Unlimited Custom clay workflows for you for a fixed monthly price

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

Free 3000 Credits - 

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Smartlead

Smartlead Certified Experts

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Persana AI

Monthly Flows on a fixed price


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

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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 = 👩‍❤️‍👩

Clay Expert & Creator

Aisisted

Professional Genius

Operations Manager

The RealTalk Blog

A new and dynamic platform aimed at challenging the status quo of blogging and creative writing!
www.therealtalkblog.com

Editor

Royal Bank of Scotland Business

Customer Service Representative

Teleperformance

At AIsisted, we build custom growth systems that combine cold outbound strategies, AI, and automation to accelerate your business.

David Walker-Dobson

Cursor just raised $2.3B.
Yes… raised. That’s not a valuation. 

That’s actual capital😭

A few things worth noting:

- Backed by Accel, a16z, Coatue, Thrive, Nvidia, and Google.

- Already at $1B+ in annualised revenue.

- Producing more code than any other AI agent in the world.

This isn’t hype - it’s the clearest signal yet that AI engineering isn’t the future… it’s the present.

But even with that being said, what dos this mean for junior developer roles and the industry all together?

David Walker-Dobson 

Founder @ Tentt | Buying Signals, CRM Automation, Lead Enrichment and Outbound

Most founders think they need a big team, a $20k ZoomInfo license, and a full-time SDR to scale outbound.

But that’s outdated thinking.

You can build a fully automated, signal-driven lead gen machine on a startup budget.

Here’s the exact stack:

Smartlead  – $94/month

The sequencer. Cold email campaigns with up to 30K active contacts. Easily scale outreach without burning domains.

Porkbun - $155/year

Porkbun are a great provider for domains for cold email infra, this is a yearly cost and they sometimes run flash deals too

ScaledMail  - $269/month

A 50/50 Outlook + Gmail split lets you safely send almost 2K+ emails/day. 

This gives you serious volume without sacrificing deliverability.

BirdDog  - (Contact them for price)

Build powerful signal-based audiences using buyer intent and trigger events. 

Birddog’s coverage has been known to outperforms Clay, ZoomInfo, and others - it’s elite.

Their pricing isn’t public but I’ve spoken to them, for what they offer they are worth it

Clay  - $349/month

Your data command center. Scrape, enrich, dedupe, and filter your ICP in one place. 

Clay turns messy lists into gold.

LeadMagic  - $259/month

The enrichment layer. Email validation, direct dials, company research—it plugs into anything and gives you full context on your prospects.

n8n - self hosted $50

Connects all the dots, your workflow automation layer, this will allow you to connect you your tools together and route leads to your CRM, SDRs etc 
 
Total = Under $2K/month

For less than the cost of one freelancer or SDR, you can build a scalable, targeted, outbound engine that:

✅ Tracks buyer signals
✅ Enriches contacts in real-time
✅ Sends thousands of personalized emails
✅ Books calls

If you’re trying to grow pipeline without blowing your budget, this is your playbook.

Want something like this? Just shoot me a DM

86% of LinkedIn outreach fails before the message is even opened.

 Why?

 Because people treat LinkedIn like a cold email inbox.

They pitch on the first message.
 Drop Calendly links.
 And send sales scripts disguised as intros.

But here’s the thing:

LinkedIn is not email. It’s social media.
So treat it like a conversation.

Your first message shouldn’t be a pitch.

 Ask a question.

 Start a real conversation.

 Keep it casual, open-ended, and not salesy.

But here’s what most people miss:

It's not just what you say.

It's who you say it to.

That’s where everything changed for me.

I used to blast generic outreach and got basically 0 replies.

Then I switched to focusing only on people who were already showing interest in topics relevant to what I sell.

And instead of building complex Clay workflows, I kept it simple.

I use Aimfox to automatically connect and message:

People who liked or commented on posts in my industry

Attendees of specific LinkedIn events

Members of niche, relevant groups

These people already have context - they’ve engaged, they care, and they’re active.

 My acceptance rates shot up, replies doubled. And I booked 4 meetings last week from this alone.

If you’re doing LinkedIn outreach, targeting warm signals beats cold lists every time.

PS: Aimfox just launched their Black Friday deal (50% off). 

If you want to try the same targeting method I use, check the link in the comments

It doesn't matter if you're at $100m firm or a scale-up, every top-performing sales team should be:

Not just score your leads.

But your signals too.

Let me explain:

First-party Signals:

These signals are gold.

These come from your own ecosystem:

Website visits
Email clicks
LinkedIn engagement
Product usage (for PLG teams)

They're warm. They're specific. And most teams are ignoring them or treating them equally.

You should score them dynamically based on:

✅ Recency (last 24 hours > last 30 days)
✅ Frequency (one page view ≠ multiple return visits)
✅ Intent (pricing page > blog post)

Second-party signals:

Context you can track, but don’t control.

 → Hiring for roles tied to your solution
 → Raised funding (aka budget unlocked)
 → Tech stack changes
 → Competitor product launches
 → Data breaches, layoffs, restructures
 → Competitor social engagement

These signals give you insight to whats ghoing on within your market

Great teams use Clay and similar tools to detect and score:

Timing (how fresh is this signal?)
Relevance (is this tied to your pain point?)
Intensity (is it a strong or soft signal?)

Signal Scoring = Sales Timing.

You’re not just asking who’s a fit, you’re asking:

 → Who’s warm?
 → Who’s vulnerable to change?
 → Who’s showing movement worth reacting to?

If you’re still relying on job titles + industries to build lists…

You’re flying blind.

Thoughts?

“We generated 20 leads from just 2000 emails.”

You’ll see posts like this all over LinkedIn.

But what they don’t talk about?

0 of those leads actually booked a call.

I want to be super clear...

There’s a massive difference between marketing for leads

 vs. 

Marketing for booked calls.

Most campaigns are built to get replies and not conversations.

They throw out CRAZY offers, and yeah, it gets attention.

But it also attracts time-wasters.

People who want something for nothing.

That’s marketing for leads.

When marketing for leads, the copy is focused.

→ You speak to pain
 → You qualify with your messaging
 → You attract people ready to solve

It’s not about how many leads hit your inbox.

It’s about how many show up ready to buy.

Big difference.

Who agrees?

There are 100,000s of cold email tools to use out there…

…and most of them are a waste of time 

 So here’s my no BS cold email stack after testing dozens of tools:

Infrastructure

Smartlead → Keeps your deliverability high with warmup and smart inbox rotation.

ScaledMail (50/50 GSuite/Outlook) → A serious sending setup to scale outreach safely.

EmailGuard → Monitors and protects your sending domains to keep you out of spam.

Data & Enrichment

Clay → Your nice, warm home for the whole tech stack

BirdDog → So you can track your highest value accounts for real buying signals(not the fake stuff you see over linkedin)

LeadMagic → One of the most targeted enrichment tools I’ve used.

AI & Automation

OpenAI  → Powers smart, contextual outreach content at scale.

Make → No-code automation to link everything together—Clay, CRM, inboxes, and more.

This is everything you need to make it work in my opinion, what am I missing?

We ran two outbound campaigns. One crushed the other by 3x. 

Guess what made the difference?

Not the subject line.
Not the CTA.
Not even the offer.

It was the relevance of our targeting.

You can use tools like Trigify.io for topic-based intent.

And they are great - letting you trigger outreach based on what your ICP is engaging with.

But here’s the kicker:

You can achieve similar results without the high cost.

Here’s what we did instead:

Used ScrapeLi to pull LinkedIn company pages where our ideal buyers already hang out:

Competitor company pages
Complementary tools or integration partners
Niche communities relevant to our industry

Then we enriched the leads using Clay:

Job titles, tech stack, hiring signals
Filtered for decision-makers
Contextual data to personalise our messaging

This way, the cold emails didn’t feel cold because they were hyper-relevant from the start.

Why it works:

→ Topical relevance creates natural intent
→ No tracking and tools
→ Campaigns feel tailored, not templated

ScrapeLi + Clay = a deadly combo for precise, affordable outbound that converts.

We ran one internally by scraping HubSpot, and it was one of our best performers

Who else has done this?

taplio

The Battle

Utkarsh Singh Rana

David Walker-Dobson

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taplio

The Battle

Utkarsh Singh Rana

David Walker-Dobson

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