Day 3 update: 60+ cold DMs sent, 2 replies, 0 paying customers — here's what I've learnt and found.

The switch from Clutch.co to LinkedIn filtered search is a great insight — most people would've kept grinding the same channel. That willingness to pivot your sourcing method quickly is honestly more important than the DM copy itself.

One thing that worked well for me when doing cold outreach: instead of asking if they want the report, just send a 2-3 line summary of the worst findings directly in the DM. Something like "Your checkout page has 14 WCAG violations, 3 of which would fail automated compliance checks." When they can see the problem without clicking anything, the reply rate goes way up because you've already delivered value before asking for anything.

Also curious — have you tried reaching out to freelance web developers instead of agencies? They're usually more responsive to DMs, have more direct decision-making power, and often need accessibility tools because they don't have a dedicated QA team. Could be a faster path to your first paying customer.

the 23-day timeline is interesting because most people i talk to in the IH community (myself included) are stuck in the 'build more stuff' loop instead of the 'sell what you have' loop.

im 3 weeks into a cold outreach service and the biggest lesson has been that the product doesnt matter if nobody sees it. 26 products on gumroad, $0 revenue. but 79 IH notifications in one morning from people engaging with my building-in-public posts.

what was your distribution channel for those first sales? was it existing audience, paid ads, or cold outreach?

the 60 DMs to 2 replies ratio is actually not terrible for cold outreach - ive been tracking my own numbers and 367 emails got 3 replies which is basically the same conversion rate.

what changed my approach: instead of pitching the product, i started leading with something free. ran a scan on their site, found a specific issue, put that in the subject line. open rates doubled.

also - saw your reply on the accessibility post about combining our tools. still interested in that conversation. the data format overlap between SEO audits and WCAG violations is real and i think a combined report would be a much easier sell to agencies than either tool alone. vemtraclabs at gmail whenever youre ready to prototype something.

60 personalised DMs in 3 days at 15 years old is honestly more hustle than most adult founders I know 😄
The scan first approach is exactly right. You are not selling a tool. You are showing them a problem they did not know they had. That always lands better than generic pitch.
One thing from agency side — when you are DMing agency founders, the credibility gap is real but you can work around it. Instead of hiding your age, lean into it briefly. Something like "I am a student who built this because I kept seeing how many sites fail accessibility audits" is actually more memorable than a generic agency pitch.
The CEO who said I will test it — follow up today. Not tomorrow. Today. That kind of reply goes cold very fast.
Keep posting the numbers. This kind of honest build in public always gets attention 😄

60 personalised DMs in 3 days is solid. The scan-first approach is the right call — you're leading with their problem, not your product.

One thing on the CEO who said "I'll test it": don't wait. Offer a 15-minute call to walk them through the report. That phrase almost never converts on its own.

Also — being 15 and having built this is actually a hook, not just a liability. The right founder will find it memorable. Keep posting the numbers.

congrats on shipping this. getting something out the door is the hardest step and youve done it. my advice from going through a similar launch: focus on one channel and go deep rather than spreading across five platforms. for me IH content ended up working better than cold email, ads, or anything else. whats your top acquisition channel so far?