17 qualified meetings in 30 days on a startup budget — before hiring the first SDR
Seed-stage B2B SaaS startup, founder as sole salesperson, pre-SDR stage, average contract value $14,400 ARR
The situation
This founder had been running sales personally since launching 14 months prior, closing 11 customers entirely through their personal network and two warm introductions. To justify the Series A they were preparing to raise, they needed to prove the business could generate pipeline through cold outreach — not just through the founder's existing contacts.
They had a clear ICP (HR Directors and VPs of People at companies with 50–200 employees in high-growth industries) and a product with documented results from their existing customers. What they didn't have was a working outbound system, sequencing infrastructure, or the time to build it themselves while simultaneously closing deals and running the company.
What we did
We built the entire outbound function from scratch: ICP definition, contact sourcing and verification, sequence infrastructure, copy writing, and A/B testing across subject lines and opening lines. The constraint was budget — we built a lean single-channel cold email campaign rather than multi-channel to keep cost per meeting below $100.
The sequence was deliberately short (3 emails, 8-day cadence) with highly personalized first-line references to company-specific growth signals. We verified 380 contacts against the ICP criteria before launch. 312 passed verification. The copy was written to speak directly to the pain of manual HR processes at a company growing faster than its operational infrastructure.
The outcome
Seventeen qualified meetings in 30 days. Cost per meeting: $61. Days to first meeting from campaign launch: 11. Every meeting confirmed to be HR Director level or above with stated interest in the product use case.
The founder closed 4 of the 17 meetings into paid contracts within 60 days of the campaign — enough to demonstrate repeatable cold outbound traction in their Series A materials. They subsequently hired their first SDR and transitioned to a full LeadGeninja engagement.
"I needed to prove to investors that I could generate pipeline without relying on my personal network. In 30 days, LeadGeninja gave me 17 qualified meetings and the confidence that this business has a real go-to-market motion. We used those meetings to anchor our Series A deck."
Key Results
- 17Qualified meetings in 30 days
- $61Cost per qualified meeting
- 11Days to first meeting
- 4Deals closed from campaign
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