4 ms·

Growth AMA with YC Partner Gustaf Alströmer

67 points by craigcannon 8y ago

mbesto 8y ago
> Do you have any tips for leadgen / growth, for B2B SaaS startups? Right now all the available leadgen tools out there, costs thousands of dollars, which is expensive for startups! Create a Google Spreadsheet, put 100 linkedin profiles in the spreadsheet that fit the profile of the potential buyings, then use a tool like Hunter to figure out their email-addresses. You can check the email format on their website if there is no response. Email them a plain-text email saying you are the founder of your company and you are reaching out a small group of people who you think would be perfect or the product you are building and you ask them to try it. You could also include a short gif/video (like really short) of how it works. Use an email software that allows you to check open-rates and click-through rates. If your email is opened many times it means its being forwarded around/getting attention. Email again if no-one responds. Expect about 40% to open your email. 5-10% to click on whatever link you included and less than 5% to try your product. If that works, then you just have do the same thing 20x and you have 100 users. The biggest mistake people use when doing this is sending too few emails. So nice to see a partner at YC advocating for spamming businesses and never mentioning the compliance issues and potential fines (up to $41,484 per email): https://www.ftc.gov/tips-advice/business-center/guidance/can-spam-act-compliance-guide-business https://www.ftc.gov/tips-advice/business-center/guidance/can... Probably just an oversight though.
- koolba 8y ago
  If you include the usual disclaimer what part of the law are you violating?
  - mbesto 8y ago
    > the usual disclaimer When you say "usual disclaimer" what are you referring to? The unsubscribe and physical address part? I would venture to say that only 10% of the spam emails I get include both of these.
    - koolba 8y ago
      I’m not saying that most contain that info, I’m saying it’s not hard at all to include it. It’s just a “Let me know if ...” line and the usual “Made with love at 123 Blah Street, Foobar, Elbonia” footer.
- cm2012 8y ago
  No one in the history of US law has ever been fined for manually sending out pitch emails. I think he's okay.
  - threeseed 8y ago
    He is advocating sending out at minimum 2000 emails. Pretty sure you will be automating that.
    - personjerry 8y ago
      Or use BCC
- dbuder 8y ago
  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=T9ikpoF2GH0 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=T9ikpoF2GH0 Full of dark patterns and other stuff I don't like and he doesn't touch on the why for most of it, decent talk tho.

67 points by craigcannon 8y ago

> Do you have any tips for leadgen / growth, for B2B SaaS startups? Right now all the available leadgen tools out there, costs thousands of dollars, which is expensive for startups! Create a Google Spreadsheet, put 100 linkedin profiles in the spreadsheet that fit the profile of the potential buyings, then use a tool like Hunter to figure out their email-addresses. You can check the email format on their website if there is no response. Email them a plain-text email saying you are the founder of your company and you are reaching out a small group of people who you think would be perfect or the product you are building and you ask them to try it. You could also include a short gif/video (like really short) of how it works. Use an email software that allows you to check open-rates and click-through rates. If your email is opened many times it means its being forwarded around/getting attention. Email again if no-one responds. Expect about 40% to open your email. 5-10% to click on whatever link you included and less than 5% to try your product. If that works, then you just have do the same thing 20x and you have 100 users. The biggest mistake people use when doing this is sending too few emails. So nice to see a partner at YC advocating for spamming businesses and never mentioning the compliance issues and potential fines (up to $41,484 per email): https://www.ftc.gov/tips-advice/business-center/guidance/can-spam-act-compliance-guide-business https://www.ftc.gov/tips-advice/business-center/guidance/can... Probably just an oversight though.

koolba 8y ago
If you include the usual disclaimer what part of the law are you violating?
- mbesto 8y ago
  > the usual disclaimer When you say "usual disclaimer" what are you referring to? The unsubscribe and physical address part? I would venture to say that only 10% of the spam emails I get include both of these.
  - koolba 8y ago
    I’m not saying that most contain that info, I’m saying it’s not hard at all to include it. It’s just a “Let me know if ...” line and the usual “Made with love at 123 Blah Street, Foobar, Elbonia” footer.
cm2012 8y ago
No one in the history of US law has ever been fined for manually sending out pitch emails. I think he's okay.
- threeseed 8y ago
  He is advocating sending out at minimum 2000 emails. Pretty sure you will be automating that.
  - personjerry 8y ago
    Or use BCC
dbuder 8y ago
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=T9ikpoF2GH0 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=T9ikpoF2GH0 Full of dark patterns and other stuff I don't like and he doesn't touch on the why for most of it, decent talk tho.