We turned a cold LinkedIn DM into €17,000 in 14 days - 100% outbound, 1 demo, no fluff

Hey indie hackers 👋

Wanted to share a recent win (and break it down transparently in case it helps someone else):

We’re building Topliner - an AI-powered copilot for executive search. Think: market mapping, done by AI instead of weeks of manual research.

A few weeks ago, we ran a cold outreach test on LinkedIn. Here’s how it went:

🚀 The Timeline:
Day 0: Cold DM to a hiring manager

Day 2: Quick 30-min demo call

Day 3: Closed a €2,000 pilot project

Day 8: Delivered async in 5 days

Day 14: Client came back and prepaid €15,000 for 10 more projects

Total: €17,000 closed in 14 days, 100% from outbound.
This is our biggest deal so far - and we’re just ~6 weeks into selling.

🔍 Why it worked (we think):

• The offer was simple and scoped: €2k, fixed delivery, fast timeline
• We talked directly to a pain point (exec search firms hate slow market mapping)
• Delivery was async and fast — and showed real value
• The first project sold the rest. No chasing needed.

We’ve now done ~€24k in sales from outbound since late April.
No ads. No product-led growth. Just cold DMs, clear value, fast delivery.

If you're working on something similar (outbound, service-as-product, vertical AI) - I’d love to swap notes.

Also happy to:

• Share the DM script we used
• Walk through how we run + deliver projects
• Talk tools we use for ops / fulfillment

Let me know what you’re building and what’s worked for you 👇