The untapped power of cold email - your secret weapon

I scaled PressPulse to a $6k/mo business in under 6 months completely using cold email.

However, the biggest takeaway for me is not a business that’s potentially worth 6-figure. It’s having a glance at the power of cold emails in the age of AI.

It’s a rapidly evolving yet highly-effective channel, but no one talks about how to do it properly.

That’s why I’m starting this newsletter, to share what I learned with more entrepreneurs like you and my past self.

Below is the what I needed 3 years ago, when I was stuck with 40 free users on my first app. An app I spent 2 years building into the void.

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Entrepreneurship is lonely.

Especially when you are just starting out.

Launching a startup feel like shouting into the dark.

You pour your heart out. You think you have the next big idea, but no one cares.

You write tweets, write blogs, build features, add tests.

You talk to some lukewarm leads on Twitter. You do your big launch on Product Hunt. You might even get your first few sales.

But after that, crickets...

Then, you try every distribution channel out there.

• SEO
• Influencers
• Facebook ads
• Affiliates
• Newsletters
• Social media
• PPC
• Tiktok
• Press releases

The reality is, none of them are that effective for early-stage startups.

Because, let's face it, when you're just getting started, you have no clue what your customers truly desire.

Without understanding their needs, you cannot create a product that resonates with them.

It's as simple as that.

So what’s the best distribution channel when you are doing a cold start?

Cold emails.

I know what you're thinking, but give me 10 seconds to change your mind:

When I first heard about cold emailing I was like:

“Hell no! I’m a developer, ain’t no way I’m talking to strangers.”

That all changed on Jan 1st 2024, when I actually started sending cold emails to grow PressPulse.

Over the period of 6 months, I got over 1,700 users to sign up for PressPulse and grew it to a $6k/mo rapidly growing business.

All from cold emails.

Look at the following 3 charts, you’ll see a direct correlation between the number of emails I sent, number of signups I got, and the number of paying users I had.

36k emails sent

1700 total signup

75 paying user

Mastering Cold Emails = Your Superpower

I might not recommend cold emails 3 years ago, but in 2024, I'd go all in with it.

It used to be an expensive marketing channel bootstrapped startups can’t afford. You need to hire many assistants, build a list, research the leads, find emails, manage the mailboxes, email the leads, reply to emails, do meetings. follow up, get rejected...

You had to hire at least 5 people just to get the ball rolling.

The problem? Managing people sucks, and it doesn’t scale.

That all changed with AI.

Today, GPT-4 outperforms most human assistants.

You can build an army of intelligent agents to help you complete tasks that’d previously be impossible without human input. Things that’d take a team of 10 assistants a week can now be done in 30 minutes with AI, at far superior quality with less headaches.

Below is the flow chart of my pipeline for PressPulse that researches the leads and writes the email copy.

AI-powered pipeline researches the lead and writes the email copy

You can throw 5000 names with website url at this pipeline and you’ll automatically have 5000 personalized emails ready to fire in 30 minutes. How amazing is that?

Beyond being extremely accessible to developers who are already proficient in AI, cold email's got 3 superpowers that no other distribution channels can offer.

Superpower 1/3 : You start a conversation with every single user.

Every. Single. User.

Let that sink in.

This is incredibly powerful in the early stages, as it helps you establish rapport, bounce ideas off one another, offer 1:1 support, understand their needs, build personal relationships, and ultimately convert users into long-term fans of your product.

From talking to 1000 users at the early stage, I had 20 users asking me to get on a call every week. If they are ready to buy, I do a sales call. If they are not sure, I do a user research call. At one point I even had to limit the number of calls I took to avoid burnout.

The depth of the understanding of my customers’ needs is unparalleled. Using this insight, I refined the product to precisely cater to their requirements.

Getting tons of user feedback every day

Superpower 2/3 : You choose exactly who you talk to

Unlike other distribution channels where you at best pick what someone's searching for, with cold emails, you have 100% control over who you talk to.

Their company

Job title

Seniority level

Number of employees

Technology stack

Growth rate

Funding stage

Product offerings

Competitive landscape

Social activity

(Marital status - well, technically you can, but maybe not this one…)

You can dial in this targeting to match your ICP exactly.

The result is super low CAC and ultra high conversion rate.

For example,

My competitors are paying $10 per click for the keyword "HARO agency".

I pay $0.19 per email sent, and $1.92 per signup

At around $500 LTV, you can see how the first means a non-viable business. And the second means a cash-generating engine.

Superpower 3/3 : Complete stealth mode

Unlike other channels where competitors can easily reverse engineer or even abuse your marketing strategies, cold email operates in complete stealth mode.

Every aspect is concealed from end to end:

Your target audience

Lead generation methods

Number of leads targeted

Email content

Sales funnel

This secrecy explains why there isn't much discussion about it online. Everyone is too focused on keeping their strategies close and reaping the rewards.

That's precisely why I've chosen to share my insights on leveraging cold email to grow a successful SaaS business. More founders need to harness this channel to its fullest potential.

In addition, I've more or less reached every user within my Total Addressable Market (TAM). So, if any competitor from PressPulse is reading this, don't bother trying to replicate it. The majority of potential users for this AI product are already onboard.

To recap, the three superpowers of cold emails:

• You start a conversation with every single user → Accelerate to PMF
• You choose exactly who you talk to → Super-low CAC
• Complete stealth mode → Doesn’t attract competition

By combining the three superpowers I helped PressPulse reach product-marketing-fit quickly and scale it to $6k per month while staying fully bootstrapped.

I don't believe this was a coincidence. It's a replicable strategy for any startup. The blueprint is actually straightforward:

• Engage with a handful of customers
• Validate the idea
• Engage with numerous customers
• Scale to $5k/mo and beyond

That's why I'm starting a Cold Start Blueprint newsletter, where I'll breakdown every aspect of my cold email system for you to use as a blueprint.

Some might ask why would anyone do that. Because sure, I could stay silent, let PressPulse thrive, and leave my competitors scratching their heads. But where's the fun in that?

Also, I know I can scale multiple ventures with this exact blueprint, and I’m geared up to play the game.

More early-stage founders should leverage cold emails for validation, and as their first distribution channel.

Let me show you how.