Youssef El Kaddioui

Starting my career as a sales at Amazon Web Services and Google, followed by Venture Capital, I excel at building and scaling high-growth B2B companies by architecting intelligent, repeatable Go-To-Market engines.

After founding and successfully exiting my first company, I'm now scaling my second, a B2B AI SaaS platform for the SME market.

My focus is on creating operational excellence that drives measurable revenue growth.

My Track Record as a GTM Builder:
✓ Founding & Exiting: Built and sold The Scalelab, a B2B outbound agency. Now scaling Scalelist towards $1M ARR.
✓ GTM Architecture: Designed and executed strategies generating over $150M in sales pipeline for high-growth FinTechs & SMEs.
✓ AI-Powered Sales Ops: Implemented AI across the sales stack to optimize everything from forecasting and territory planning to automated prospecting and pipeline reviews.
✓ Team Leadership & Enablement: Recruited, mentored, and led high-performing AE teams to exceed revenue targets. Codified my methods in a sales course used by 1000+ reps globally.
✓ Being recognized as a Forbes 30 under 30 honoree.

I am passionate about leveraging data and AI to solve complex revenue challenges and operate with the high-horsepower, founder-led intensity required to win in today's market.

Specialties: Go-To-Market (GTM) Strategy, Sales Operations, AI Integration, B2B SaaS, FinTech, Founder-Led Sales.

Co-Founder & CEO

www.scalelist.com

Create your email lists from LinkedIn.

Youssef Kaddioui

Founder @ Platinum Agency | Helped 20+ B2B Companies Scale Revenue through AI Powered GTM Systems | Podcast: GTM Advantage

Founder @ Platinum Agency | Building AI-Driven GTM Engines for fast growing Start-Ups & Scale Ups.

Most companies scale by adding headcount. The elite scale by adding infrastructure.

Having audited the go-to-market motions of 25+ companies, I’ve seen the same fatal flaw: the best "work" lives in people’s heads, disappears when they leave, and fails to scale. I believe the future of revenue is structuring elite knowledge into living code.

The Track Record
GTM Strategy: Optimized the growth motions of 25+ organizations.

Authority: Generated 8M+ organic impressions on LinkedIn.

Sales Depth: Closed $1M+ as a full-cycle AE (systems built by a seller, for sellers).

AI Expertise: Stress-tested 100+ AI sales tools to build the ultimate tech stack.

The Platinum Solutions
We solve for the three pillars of revenue stagnation: Inbound Authority, Operational Friction, and Outbound Scalability.

LinkedIn Content Engines: Turning profiles into high-signal inbound magnets.

AI RevOps Infrastructure: Productizing human expertise into automated, scalable workflows.

Automated Outbound Systems: High-volume, high-relevance outreach that actually converts.

The Vision: Stop hiring for tasks that should be code. We build the end-to-end AI systems that allow your revenue to grow exponentially while your overhead stays lean.

Let’s Connect
Insights: Follow me, Sönke Venjacob, for playbooks on AI-driven growth.

The Agency: Visit platinumagency.io to explore our end-to-end GTM systems.

Direct: DM me here or reach out at soenke@platinumagency.io for collaboration inquiries.

Sönke Venjacob

Sales is evolving faster than ever. Here's where I see it heading in 2026:
 
In the past 5 years I've been watching closely, and here's what's coming for SDRs:
 
1️⃣ The Go-to-Market Engineer emerges. 
 
This hybrid role will master email infrastructure, automation, data enrichment, lead scoring, and copywriting.
 
One person with this skill set could replace multiple traditional SDRs. It might become one of the highest-paying careers in tech sales.
 
 
2️⃣ AI becomes your copilot, not your replacement.
 
Tools like Clay, Instantly, and HeyReach will be essential. But they'll augment human skills, not replace them.
 
The SDRs who learn to leverage these tools effectively will outperform everyone else.
 
 
3️⃣ Content creation becomes non-negotiable. 
 
Building your personal brand on LinkedIn isn't optional anymore.
SDRs who consistently share insights generate inbound leads while they sleep.
 
Your content opens doors your outreach never could.
 
 
4️⃣ The full-stack AE makes a comeback. 
 
As AI streamlines prospecting, we may see AEs handling the entire sales process again.
 
Finding talent who can manage both tech and closing? That's the real challenge. 
 
And it's where the biggest opportunities lie.
 
 
5️⃣ Personalization at scale becomes the standard Generic outreach is already dead. 
Tomorrow's GTM Engineers will blend AI-powered data with human creativity. 
 
The result? Hyper-relevant outreach that actually gets responses.
 
The winners in 2026 won't just be tech-savvy or people-oriented.
 
They'll be both.
 
What skills are you developing to stay ahead of this curve?

Founder @ Platinum Agency | Scaling Revenue through AI Powered GTM Systems | Podcast: GTM Advantage

Lots of people tell me cold email doesn't work in Germany. They're wrong. 

We just generated 9 opportunities for a new client — a German company targeting other German companies — purely through cold email. The screenshot shows one of the 18 micro campaigns. 

But here's what most people miss: German cold email is not American cold email. 

It's longer. 
More formal. 
More descriptive. 

Us Germans have a word for it: höflich. 

Get that wrong → instant delete. 
Get it right → you stand out immediately. 

Because 95% of cold emails landing in German inboxes are lazy English templates with a flag emoji slapped on top. 

The bar is low. 
The opportunity is massive. 

I know this because I sold into the German market before I ever started this agency. It's a different game.

If you are:

→ Founder or Head of Sales entering the DACH market 
→ Founder or Head of Sales in DACH who wants more pipeline

feel free to reach out to me, happy to share ideas with you.

Stop wasting money on the wrong GTM tools. Here’s my top 20 that actually grow revenue.

Too many founders buy tools that look shiny but don’t move the needle.

Seen it. Lived it.

Your stack should do one thing: help you close more deals, faster.

Here’s my working list after helping 25+ B2B companies scale:

Listbuilding:

- Clay(gent)
- DiscoLike
- Storeleads
- Open Mart
- Apollo & Sales Nav (evergreen)
- Octave

Data:

- Prospeo
- Icypeas
- Leadmagic

Sequencing tools:

- Instantly
- Smartlead
- HeyReach
- Lemlist (multichannel)

CRM:

- Hubspot
- BreakCold (Social Selling)
- Freckle (CRM Enrichment)

LinkedIn Content:

- Scripe
- Chat GPT
- Figma/Canva/Photoshop

Notetaking:

- Fathom (free)

Backend Automations:

- Zapier
- N8N

Every tool earns its spot.

No filler. No hype.

Each one solves a real problem I see in GTM every week.

- Sequencing tools help you run campaigns at scale.
- Listbuilding tools keep your outreach targeted.
- Data tools make sure you’re actually someone.
- CRM keeps your deals moving.
- Content and notes keep your message sharp and your team in sync.
- Automations save time and let you focus on closing.

No single tool does it all.

But together, this stack covers every base you need to grow revenue.

Stop stacking random tools.

Start building a system.

Your stack should prove your value, every day.

What’s in your GTM stack? Drop your favorite tools below.

19 Opportunities, $304K New Business Pipeline in 7 days.
And still, people tell me cold email doesn't work in Germany.

A German company targeting other German companies — purely through cold email.

But here's what most people miss: German cold email is not American cold email.

It's longer. 
More formal. 
More descriptive.

Us Germans have a word for it: höflich.

Get that wrong → instant delete. 
Get it right → you stand out immediately.

Because 95% of cold emails landing in German inboxes are lazy English templates with a flag emoji slapped on top.

The bar is low. 
The opportunity is massive.

I sold into the German market before I ever started this agency. It's why I know exactly what works and what gets you blacklisted.

If you're a Founder or Head of Sales entering or scaling in the DACH market, DM me "DACH" and I'll send you the exact email structure we used to build this pipeline.

We’ll build your outbound system for 30 days.

For free.

If you’re a B2B founder.

Or a sales leader with budget.

And you have an offer you want to test or scale in 2026.

We’ll run a 1 month outbound pilot on our AI-powered GTM engine.

→ Signal-based targeting (not spray and pray)
→ Your ICP mapped and enriched across 20+ data sources
→ Pre-warmed mailboxes ready to send same day
→ Proven copy and structure (the same assets YC founders use)
→ Real pipeline data, not vanity screenshots

No long contracts.

No 6 month commitment.

Just a proper system test.

If it prints pipeline.

We roll into month 2.

If it doesn’t.

We stop. You still keep the strategy, the data, and the assets.

We are confident you’ll want to continue.

That’s why we are offering it.

We have two pilot spots left this quarter for tech and agency teams that take sales seriously.

If you want one.

DM me “PILOT”.

We’ll see if it’s a fit for your GTM.

Email vs. LinkedIn is the wrong debate.

The real winners are using Email + LinkedIn as one synchronized system. 

No more "spray and pray." 
No more random DMs. 
Just one clean flow.

This Thursday, I'm diving deep into the "how" with Instantly.ai and HeyReach.io

The Playbook:
- Segmenting accounts (Tier 1-3).
- Routing logic (Email vs. LinkedIn).
- The Instantly/HeyReach tech stack.

Hosted by Hans Dekker. 
+ FAQ at the end of the session

Grab your spot here: https://lnkd.in/dreiV8xe

Most SDRs need 3 months to ramp. I hit 100% on Day 1 at  Personio.

I had a secret playbook. A repeatable, high-performance sprint used by sales teams at fast-scaling startups. This is for SDRs, AEs & Sales Leaders. 

Here’s how it works from a bird's eye view:
Day 1 → Forget the UI. Learn the logic of your product so deep you could pitch it blind.
Day 5 → Build discovery scripts that instantly reveal deals that are dead.
Day 9 → Design your Revenue Mix—Big Deals, Fast Deals, Ever Deals.
Day 14 → You’re not shadowing anymore. You’re closing.

The results? 
Teams using this sprint cut onboarding time by 40% and start generating pipeline within two weeks.

Want the full 14-Day “A-Player” Sprint playbook? 

I’ll send you the Notion template + Example Breakdown (software company).

Comment “A-Player” and I’ll DM you the full sprint.

Most startups think they need more leads.

What they actually need is to look inside their CRM first.

I had a great conversation with Lucas Maliczak 🧪 - RevOps specialist and former founding team member at Peakora - and one story really stuck with me:

A client hired him to build a lead generation engine. During a parallel CRM enrichment project, they discovered that 1 in 3 of their existing 10,000 contacts fit their ICP perfectly - and had simply been forgotten.

They paused the entire lead gen project for 3 months to re-engage their own database.

Here's what Lucas says most early-stage teams get wrong about CRMs:

1. Structure before scale Even a basic CRM forces discipline. Discovery → Demo → Negotiation → Close. That simple flow changes how founders sell.

2. Track everything, even when it feels pointless That lead who said "bad timing" 12 months ago? You won't remember the details. Your CRM will.

3. Automate the boring stuff first Follow-up templates. Deal stage transitions. Task reminders. Small wins that compound fast.

4. Get sales reps involved early Don't build workflows for them. Build them with them. Adoption is a design problem, not a discipline problem.

5. Your CRM gets more valuable over time — but only if you maintain it Enrichment and data hygiene aren't one-time projects. They're ongoing revenue levers.

The companies that master RevOps aren't just more efficient — they're better at selling, because they free up time for actual human relationships.

Full episode is live now: https://lnkd.in/d-fbSTjF

In a world obsessed with “Claude Code” and rapid-fire SaaS launches, retention is the quiet metric that decides who wins.

Every week, shiny tools rise and fall. But the products that endure, the ones that survive pivots, bugs, and broken APIs, build compounding trust and lasting value.

I’ve used Maildoso for over a year.
It’s not flashy. It just works, exceptionally well.

Our deliverability is top notch, and our inboxes (literally) age like fine wine.
At Platinum, we blend Google and Microsoft, but Maildoso remains our anchor SMTP partner - the part of our tech stack we don’t rethink every quarter.

The market rewards novelty.
But real ones measure durability.

If you’re scaling and crave infrastructure that lasts, focus on retention.

What if your SDRs had an extra set of hands that never sleeps? 
For years, I built outbound engines the classic way.
More headcount. More tools. More chaos.

Then Smartlead showed me something different:
GTM operators you do not hire.
You deploy them.

SmartAgents.

They are AI-powered GTM operators that run your outbound across:
→ Email
→ LinkedIn
→ Your CRM
→ Your analytics

No code. Just commands.

You say what you want:
“Qualify all new replies and push ICP to HubSpot.”
“Monitor mailbox health and pause risky inboxes.”
“Find low-performing campaigns and fix them.”

The SmartAgent does the work:
→ Executes the task end-to-end
→ Connects tools like HubSpot, Slack, HeyReach
→ Learns from patterns across your data
→ Runs 100s of tasks in minutes

Examples we would use at Platinum:
- Reply Agent: reads replies, tags intent, updates CRM, alerts in Slack
- Campaign Performance Agent: scans stats, finds weak links, ships fixes
- Lead Qualification Agent: scores leads, routes hot ones to sales
- Mailbox Health Agent: watches deliverability and protects domain

Your GTM team, on autopilot.

AI where it scales.
Humans where it matters.

You keep your closers and strategists.
You turn the busy-work into code.

If you run outbound at any real scale, you should at least test a SmartAgent inside Smartlead.
Experience the future here: 
https://lnkd.in/eFCV5mJv

Most cold email advice is focused on the wrong thing.

People obsess over copy. Subject lines. Personalization tactics.

But Otto Tatton — AE at Instantly — made something very clear in our latest episode:

If your infrastructure is broken, none of that matters.
Your perfectly crafted email isn't landing in the primary inbox. It's hitting spam. Full stop.

Here's what Otto says to leave behind in 2026:

❌ "Hey, I saw you liked [person]'s LinkedIn post" openers — oversaturated, irrelevant, instantly deleted
❌ High-volume spray-and-pray blasting — the inbox gods have changed the rules
❌ Surface-level personalization that references the obvious

And what's actually working:
✅ Obsessing over email infrastructure first — it's cheap, it's doable, and it pays off long-term
✅ Going deep on research — if your prospect thinks "how did they know that?", you've won
✅ Building a LinkedIn presence now — Otto believes we're in a LinkedIn gold rush, at the same stage Instagram was years before it exploded

One thing that really resonated: the best outbound doesn't feel like outbound at all. It feels like the right message, at the right time, from someone who clearly did their homework.

Full episode live now: https://lnkd.in/d7z6udmm

95% employee coverage from 20+ sources.

One search replaces your entire Frankenstein data stack.

For the last years, every serious outbound team I know ran the same broken setup.

One tool for company data.
One tool for emails.
One tool for mobiles.
One for org charts.
A few scrapers on top.

Plus endless CSV imports and exports between all of them.

Slow.
Fragile.
Expensive.

Today, FullEnrich flips that script.

On February 9, 2026, FullEnrich Search went live.

The same waterfall engine that powers elite enrichment is now a full-scale B2B list builder.

You start in one place.
You stay in one place.
You leave with a clean, enriched, ready-to-sell-to list.

Here is what I like most as a GTM builder:

→ 95% employee coverage across 20+ sources (not a single vendor gamble)
→ Build company and contact lists in one UI
→ Filter by title, location, seniority, tenure, industry, headcount
→ Reverse upload a CSV of companies and find all key decision-makers in minutes
→ One click to enrich everything with verified emails or mobiles

No more:

→ Sales Nav + scraper + enrichment tool combo
→ SDRs stitching sheets until midnight
→ Ops teams guessing who the actual buyer is in each account

You pick your ICP.
You define your buyer persona.
FullEnrich Search returns the people inside those companies that match it.

And because it is built API-first, you can wire it straight into your GTM engine:

New account hits your CRM → FullEnrich Search builds the buying committee → FullEnrich enriches with verified contact data → Outreach kicks off with zero manual work.

If you care about scaling revenue through systems instead of headcount, this is the kind of infrastructure that actually moves the needle.

You can run a free search and see your own market through FullEnrich Search: https://lnkd.in/duhUy-Zb 

#FullEnrichpartner

Seven years. 10,000+ users. Then she sold.

I sat down with Bethany Stachenfeld, co-founder of Sendspark, and a conversation like that was a first for me. 

A few things that really stuck with me:

On competition: Don't get distracted by every small startup doing something similar. Focus on being 10x better for one specific group. All the competitors Sendspark had at the start? Most of them don't exist anymore.

On content: Stop talking to "the masses." Imagine one real person — your ideal customer — and write directly to them. Then post it publicly. That's the whole strategy.

On hiring: A players don't wait to be told what to do. They see a problem and they fix it. That's the filter.

On the exit: "I don't have a perfect answer. You just kind of know." She felt like they'd done what they set out to do. The market was changing. It felt like the right time to land the plane.

On life after: "I wake up and I'm not stressed. I didn't know that was possible."
That line hit different.

Building a company is addictive. But there's something to be said for creating space to breathe, explore new tools, and remember what it feels like to not be on fire every single day.

Full episode is live now: https://lnkd.in/d438S8rD

Most “personalized” outreach dies before the first sentence. In this webinar, I tear down real examples live.

If you send cold email or LinkedIn outreach, you feel this pain. More tools. More sequences. Fewer replies.

The problem is not volume. The problem is signal.

Generic copy gets filtered out before the brain even reads line one. Your prospect never gives you a chance.

In this live session I walk through how top outbound teams structure outreach that wins replies and still feels human:

→ Why most outreach fails The signal-to-noise problem How your first line kills you before you “pitch” anything
→ Copy framework stack Five proven outreach frameworks When to use each one based on intent and context
→ Sequence architecture How to design Email 1 / 2 / 3 logic How to build threads the right way How to write CTAs that make replies easy
→ AI personalization at scale How teams use Clay + AI workflows to add real context How to keep messages short, specific, and human
→ Testing methodology What to A/B test in outreach How to read results When to kill a losing variant fast

Plus: live copy teardowns. We take real outreach, break it apart, and rebuild it on the spot.

If you & your team send outbound and you own the number, you want these systems.

Register via the link and bring one example from your own sequences: https://lnkd.in/eK5sYdma

Google just proved the new GTM rule:
Distribution > model quality > everything else in AI.

The new Google Maps update is the clearest example I have seen.

AI is now built straight into how 2B+ people move through the world.

No new app. No onboarding. No “try our AI beta.”

Immersive Navigation turns Maps into a live spatial engine:

→ 3D buildings, overpasses, terrain
→ Lanes, crosswalks, lights, stop signs highlighted
→ Smart zooms and transparent buildings for tricky turns
→ Voice guidance that sounds like a friend
→ 5M traffic updates processed every second

As a self-proclaimed power user, I’m excited for this update. 

Ask Maps turns search into a real-world agent:

→ Complex, contextual questions in plain language
→ “My phone is dying, where can I charge it without a long coffee line”
→ Personalised results from your history
→ Book, save, share inside Maps
→ Powered by 300M+ places and 500M+ contributors

Both run on Gemini.

Here is the GTM punchline:

Google owns the maps, the imagery, the traffic feeds, the distribution.
No startup can rebuild that stack.

2B people are about to change how they navigate without changing behavior at all.

From a GTM view:

→ They did not sell “AI”
→ They upgraded an existing habit
→ They shipped value to where users already live daily

For AI products in B2B, the same rule applies.

Your “model” is not the moat.
Your distribution and integration into existing workflows is.

Would you trust people to log into a new AI dashboard every day, or can you plug your product into what they already open 20 times per day?

$1B valuation. $96M in fresh capital.

While marketers focus on visibility, Profound is building the foundation for how AI systems understand and trust brands.

The paradigm of "tools" is shifting to "teammates." Just as Engineers have Cursor and Lawyers have Harvey, Marketers now have Profound.

Discovery has changed forever. It’s no longer just about being found; it’s about being the answer. Massive congrats to the Profound team on the Series C. This is just the beginning of the AI-first marketing era.

Profound has raised $96M at a $1B valuation from Lightspeed alongside Sequoia Capital, Kleiner Perkins, Evantic Capital, Saga Ventures and South Park Commons. 

In exactly 18 months, Profound has gone from an idea to serving 10% of the Fortune 500 and becoming the #1 leader on the G2 Grid for our category, and now unicorn status.

We’re building technology around two fundamental beliefs about where marketing is heading:

1/ Every company will care deeply about how AI talks about their brand.
2/ Every marketing team will use AI to do their job better and faster.

And, today we’re announcing:

• Profound Agents: Customizable AI workers that take marketing teams from campaign concept to execution, without cutting corners. 
• Profound University: Courses, certifications and cohort-based programs for marketers who want to lead in the AI era.

To every customer and partner who believed in this when it was just a thesis, thank you.

If you want to try Profound, comment “AGENT” below for free access to one of our most popular agents. No account required. No strings attached.

YC founders get 700+ emails a day.
They still reply faster when they already know my name.

I see this every week right now.

I ran an internal campaign to YC founders.
Pure value.
No pitch first.

They get hit from all sides:
- investors
- tools
- agencies
- random “growth hacks”

No one gets more noise than these guys.

When they see my email, many of them do one simple thing:
they open my LinkedIn profile.

Now they see:
- I am Founder of a real agency
- I ship daily on GTM and AI
- I work with tools they already use
- I have long term skin in the game

Trust goes from 0 to “worth a reply” in 20 seconds.

That is the whole point of a personal brand.
It amplifies every action you take.

Cold outbound with:
- no website
- no social proof
- no content
- no clear POV

Hard mode.

Not impossible.
If you have a crazy good offer, you can still win.

But most people do not have a crazy good offer.
They have a decent offer.
In a crowded inbox.

A personal brand gives that offer a chance.

You choose the game:
blind cold email
or
cold email backed by proof, history, and a clear signal of who you are

If you want replies from people who get 300+ emails a day, start where they start: your linkedin profile.

Join us next Thursday 🤞🏼 I'll be showing some cool Multi-Channel plays using 2 of my favorite GTM tools // Instantly.ai & HeyReach.io

Scaling outbound without losing relevance is the real challenge. 

Hans Dekker and Sönke Venjacob, certified Instantly and HeyReach.io expert, will share how they structure multi-channel outreach, from account segmentation to deciding when to use email versus LinkedIn.

You’ll also get a behind-the-scenes look at how the workflow connects end to end.

Register to attend 👇

HeyReach x Instantly: The 2026 Multi-Channel Outbound System

I just saw this, honoured to be mentioned there. Thank you HeyReach.io fam ❤️‍🔥

HeyReach empowers 5,000+ companies to 10x their GTM outbound and fill their calendars with qualified meetings at scale.

Better outreach = more qualified meetings = more revenue.

Try it free. No credit card needed.

taplio

The Battle

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Sönke Venjacob

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The Battle

Youssef Kaddioui

Sönke Venjacob

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);}Sönke Venjacob's LinkedIn Performance

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