StartupGTM.com | I help b2b founders hack traction | Profitable founder (YC)

Transforming a startup from early to repeatable sales is HARD.

If you’re a B2B founder with early sales, then you've done many things right to win your first customers.

BUT - to raise a round A, your startup will need to have a product that's ready to scale because it can be 𝙨𝙤𝙡𝙙 𝙧𝙚𝙥𝙚𝙖𝙩𝙚𝙙𝙡𝙮 𝙖𝙣𝙙 𝙧𝙚𝙡𝙞𝙖𝙗𝙡𝙮.

To get repeatable sales - there are four blockers. 
 
You'll need to change each one from "not working" to "working": 
 
1️⃣ Consistently creating a 𝙨𝙩𝙧𝙚𝙖𝙢 of conversations with customers 
 
2️⃣ Converting these conversations into a 𝙨𝙩𝙧𝙚𝙖𝙢 of first meetings 
 
3️⃣ Converting these meetings into a 𝙨𝙩𝙧𝙚𝙖𝙢 of trials 
 
4️⃣ Converting trials into a 𝙨𝙩𝙧𝙚𝙖𝙢 of deals. 
 
These blockers need to be removed 𝙨𝙚𝙦𝙪𝙚𝙣𝙩𝙞𝙖𝙡𝙡𝙮 - i.e. one by one. 
 
💡 𝗙𝗼𝗰𝘂𝘀 𝗼𝗻 𝗖𝗥𝗔𝗖𝗞𝗜𝗡𝗚 𝘁𝗵𝗲 𝘀𝘁𝗮𝗴𝗲 𝘆𝗼𝘂'𝗿𝗲 𝗮𝘁 𝗥𝗜𝗚𝗛𝗧 𝗡𝗢𝗪. 𝗗𝗼𝗻'𝘁 𝗼𝘃𝗲𝗿𝘁𝗵𝗶𝗻𝗸 𝘁𝗵𝗲 𝗼𝘁𝗵𝗲𝗿𝘀.

—

I'm a former co-founder and CEO at ApolloShield - a profitable YC startup.

I work hands-on with B2B founders on turning their early sales into repeatable sales through a combination of disciplines:

1️⃣ 𝗠𝗮𝗿𝗸𝗲𝘁 𝗥𝗲𝘀𝗲𝗮𝗿𝗰𝗵 𝗮𝗻𝗱 𝗔𝗻𝗮𝗹𝘆𝘀𝗶𝘀: Understanding the market, identifying target customers, and analyzing competitors.

2️⃣ 𝗣𝗿𝗼𝗱𝘂𝗰𝘁 𝗣𝗼𝘀𝗶𝘁𝗶𝗼𝗻𝗶𝗻𝗴 𝗮𝗻𝗱 𝗠𝗲𝘀𝘀𝗮𝗴𝗶𝗻𝗴: Defining how the product fits into the market and crafting compelling messages to appeal to the target audience.

3️⃣ 𝗦𝗮𝗹𝗲𝘀 𝗮𝗻𝗱 𝗗𝗶𝘀𝘁𝗿𝗶𝗯𝘂𝘁𝗶𝗼𝗻 𝗦𝘁𝗿𝗮𝘁𝗲𝗴𝗶𝗲𝘀: Developing strategies for selling the product, including choosing sales channels and partnerships.

4️⃣ 𝗖𝗼𝗹𝗱 𝗢𝘂𝘁𝗿𝗲𝗮𝗰𝗵, 𝗖𝗼𝗻𝘁𝗲𝗻𝘁 𝗮𝗻𝗱 𝗖𝗮𝗺𝗽𝗮𝗶𝗴𝗻 𝗘𝘅𝗲𝗰𝘂𝘁𝗶𝗼𝗻: Creating and executing campaigns to build brand awareness and generate leads.

5️⃣ 𝗣𝗿𝗼𝘀𝗽𝗲𝗰𝘁𝗶𝗻𝗴 𝗮𝗻𝗱 𝘀𝗮𝗹𝗲𝘀: Managing discovery and commercial discussions with clients and partners to get their business.

5️⃣ 𝗢𝗻𝗴𝗼𝗶𝗻𝗴 𝗜𝗻𝗻𝗼𝘃𝗮𝘁𝗶𝗼𝗻 𝗮𝗻𝗱 𝗔𝗱𝗮𝗽𝘁𝗮𝘁𝗶𝗼𝗻 𝘁𝗼 𝗙𝗲𝗲𝗱𝗯𝗮𝗰𝗸: Gathering customer feedback and continuously adapting the product and strategies accordingly.

6️⃣ 𝗜𝗧 𝗮𝗻𝗱 𝗢𝗽𝗲𝗿𝗮𝘁𝗶𝗼𝗻𝘀: Building support systems to holistically orchestrate and manage your GTM efforts.

7️⃣ 𝗥𝗮𝗽𝗶𝗱 𝗜𝘁𝗲𝗿𝗮𝘁𝗶𝗼𝗻: Developing a method to move forward quickly, iterate and get market feedback - doubling what works and tossing what doesn’t.

🚀 Let's connect and accelerate your startup together!

Nimo Shkedy

Founder @ Slyleadz | I help startups build cold outbound systems that generate qualified meetings | 💌 slyleadz.us

STRUGGLING TO FILL YOUR PIPELINE WITH QUALIFIED LEADS?

I've been there. After testing 1000+ outreach campaigns, I cracked the code.

Now, I help B2B companies build outbound systems that:
→ Generate 20-30 qualified meetings/month
→ Convert cold prospects into warm conversations
→ Scale predictably without the spam tactics

Our secret?
- Multi-channel outreach that actually works
- AI-powered personalization at scale
- Follow-up sequences with 40%+ response rates
- Data-driven targeting that finds your ideal customers

Recent wins:
→ Helped a SaaS startup book 100+ demos in 60 days
→ Built a 7-figure pipeline for a tech company in 90 days
→ Generated 500+ qualified leads for enterprise clients

Want to stop guessing and start closing?
Book a strategy call: calendly.com/slyleadz/slyleadz-15-minute-meeting-clone

Nick Palasz

People warn you about different substances but no one warns you about choosing sales as a career

Where your entire emotional stability depends on

• A reply that says looks interesting	
• A calendar notification
• Or someone typing…

It can be exhausting at times

But it’s also the kind of challenge that keeps you coming back, and I still wouldn’t trade it for anything else

Send information is all I needed to start believing again

That’s it. Two words

There’s no timeline, no budget, no actual commitment but I closed the laptop like something meaningful just happened

I’ve already replayed the call in my head and decided they liked me.
Now I’m imagining how I’ll structure the follow up
And I’m slightly nicer to everyone for the next 20 minutes.

They didn’t promise anything
But I emotionally adapted to the deal anyway

Now I’m checking my inbox like we’re in a long distance relationship

Sales reps don’t get attached to closed deals
We get attached to the possibility of one

Follow Nick Palasz for more

At some point, waiting becomes a personality trait in sales😅

You’re not even anxious about it anymore
You’ve kind of made peace with it

It’s just part of the routine now
Drink your coffee
Send those emails
Randomly think, huh… whatever happened there?

You don’t talk about it but you know it’s there

Sales doesn’t always humble you in big dramatic ways
Sometimes it just trains you to sit in silence and call it normal

If one hire was supposed to save your pipeline, read this

You made the expensive hire
With a higher salary, higher expectations, and a bigger quota.

This was supposed to change everything.
Finally bring in the deals.

But the targeting didn’t change
The CRM is still half-filled
Handoffs are still unclear
Data is still messy

The name on payroll is different but the friction inside the engine isn’t.

And then the quiet disappointment starts.

“Maybe they’re not as senior as we thought.”

But senior reps aren’t magicians.

They don’t create structure out of thin air
They amplify the environment they walk into

If the inputs are clean, they look elite
If the backend is messy, they look average

Before you question the rep, question the process.

P.S. If your top performer looks stuck, look at what’s sitting behind them not in front of them

Follow Nick Palasz for more

5,000 emails daily… on how many domains exactly?

I’ve learned not to get excited by volume anymore because I’ve burned domains before 😅

Not in one dramatic crash, but in slow fatigue like:

• Replies thinning out
• More emails landing in spam
• Campaigns that used to work suddenly feeling average

And the worst part is you don’t immediately connect it to volume

You think it’s the angle, the copy, or even the market being weird this week.

Meanwhile, the domain’s just tired

There’s too much load on it and not enough support.

That’s why before I scale anything, I check the math.

If I want to send 5,000 emails a day, I want to know exactly how many domains and mailboxes that actually requires.

I’ve been using Warmy’s domain calculator for that.

It shows me the setup I need before I touch the dial

👉 So before you turn the dial up to 5,000, plug your number into the calculator and see what your setup actually needs (https://lnkd.in/gHJ3cf5a)

5000 Emails a Day?

The way you talk to AI says a lot about how you sell

I’ve seen a lot of reps blame AI for average results
But when I look at what they’re typing, it’s this:

 -Give me pain points
 -Write a follow-up to this conversation
 -Help with objections

And then they’re confused when it reads like everyone else’s email

That’s not an AI issue
AI is not here to think for you. It responds to the prompt you give it

So instead of vague requests, here are 8 prompts every seller should actually be using for:

• ICP research
• Personalised icebreakers
• Pain hypotheses
• Objection handling
• Strong CTAs
• Smart follow-ups
• Case study rewrites
• Multi-threading inside accounts

Go through them

♻️ Repost it and audit your prompts today
 Follow Nick Palasz for more tactical outbound breakdowns like this

I’ve heard next quarter more than my own name

And somehow I still act surprised every time 😅

It’s always delivered gently
“Everything looks good but we’ll just push this to next quarter”

You pause for half a second
Not long enough to be noticeable but long enough to recalculate your life

First thought: that’s fine
Second thought: that’s not fine
Third thought: this is actually strategic

By the end of the call, you’ve professionally agreed, emotionally protested, logically justified it and already rebuilt your confidence.

Sales is wild like that
One calm sentence and you’ve already gone through five emotional plot twists while saying it sounds great

If you’ve mastered the art of smiling through a delayed close, you’re officially seasoned

Follow Nick Palasz for more outbound reality checks

There should honestly be a cooling-off period before anyone is allowed to send Quick question

Like a small warning that asks, do you really want to be this person today?

Because nothing good has ever followed these two words

We see it in the subject line every day.
We already know it’s going to ask for something.
Still, we open it 

Just in case this one is relevant.
Maybe this one actually did their homework.

It didn’t

Most of these subject lines aren’t bold. They’re exhausted.
You read the first sentence and your brain is already reaching for the delete button.

Swipe the carousel and tell me the worst subject line that needs to go away.

9 Subject Lines That Should Be Banned From LinkedIN

There’s no confidence like 9:47 PM confidence 👀

All week you were aligned
Clear strategy
Strong angle
Everyone approved

Then you reread it once 
And suddenly you’re convinced this entire sequence is personally responsible for slowing your company's growth 

So, you delete it and rewrite everything:
New positioning
Stronger hook
Different CTA

Launch is in 8 minutes but it feels like the perfect time to reinvent outbound

Because salespeople don’t avoid chaos

We just book it right before it goes live

Follow Nick Palasz for more

P.S. If you’ve ever renamed a doc “FINAL_final_v9,” you’re part of the problem too

I’ve always had a soft spot for movies about sales, business or big deals

There’s something about watching negotiations and pitches play out on screen that is just so entertaining

So, I compiled a list of my top 20 movies that everyone should watch

Some of these are classics, some are a bit chaotic and a few are probably more cautionary tales than inspiration but they’re all fun to rewatch

P.S. Is there any movie I’m missing from this list? 👀

I spent 4+ years and 1000+ outreach campaigns building what most teams never finish a full outbound strategy system.

Not a template. Not a swipe file. A real system.

📌Today, I'm giving away the entire Outbound Strategy System (2026 Edition) for free.

Built for B2B companies that want predictable meetings, not random spikes.

What's inside:
→ A decision framework to know if outbound is even right for you
→ Unit economics guardrails (where most teams quietly fail)
→ Channel portfolio breakdown cold email, LinkedIn, paid, partnerships
→ Lead demand vs SDR capacity math that actually makes sense
→ The 3 stages of outbound maturity (Chaos → Structure → Infrastructure)
→ Domain scaling model so you stop burning mailboxes
→ Deliverability checklist to run before every single launch
→ Realistic ramp timeline (if you expect full pipeline in 30 days, you're gambling)

I'm keeping this free for the next 7 days only.

Comment "system" below and I'll send it over.
 (Make sure we're connected)

Are you trusting Sales Nav data a little too much?

I did.

If the filters looked right, I assumed the emails were right.
-Good titles.
-Funded companies.
-Recent hiring.

So I’d export it, load it into the sequencer and hit send. It felt quite efficient.

Then bounce rate would creep up by 3%

Not enough to freak me out but enough to slowly mess with deliverability.

And every time replies dipped, I did what everyone else does

Rewrite it with:
-New subject line.
-Stronger opener.
-Different CTA.

I wasn’t fixing the problem. I was just avoiding it

The real issue was the step I barely respected
That middle layer between Sales Nav and send, where emails are enriched, verified, and filtered before they ever touch a sequence.

Once we tightened that using Icypeas, things took a turn for the better

Bounce rate dropped under 2%
Replies started coming from actual decision makers
And I stopped rewriting emails every week.

If you’ve been tweaking copy more than your data process, this might be the reason why

Sales Nav and Send

There’s a version of me that closes deals very fast

Mostly in my head though 👀

I move it to Closed Won
Tell myself the month is saved
And start acting slightly less stressed

Nothing is signed
Nothing is confirmed

But somehow I’m already relaxed about it

Sales really lets you celebrate things that haven’t technically happened yet 

P.S. Do you wait for the signature or just the feeling?

📌 Save this

Most teams think subject lines are all about creativity

They’re not. They’re about timing.

You can have a great offer, clean copy, solid targeting and still get ignored if the subject doesn’t match what’s happening inside the company right now.

That’s why these 25 subject lines are built around real situations companies are already in 
Hiring SDRs
Just raised
Switching tools
Missing targets
Expanding territory.

When the subject reflects something that actually changed inside their world, the email lands differently. It feels connected to what’s going on, and that alone shifts how it’s read

P.S Before sending the next email, ask yourself what actually changed inside that account

If I asked your team to explain exactly where outbound breaks
Would the answer be clear or would it depend on who’s in the room?

I’ve noticed something over the years

Outbound doesn’t fail because people aren’t trying. It struggles because no one can clearly explain how it works end-to-end.

-Who owns what
-Where deals slow down
-What really counts as intent
-Which channels are producing pipeline

That’s why I put together these 10 outbound system questions every team should be able to answer without hesitation

If you’re not fully confident in the answers, send me a message

Follow Nick Palasz for more

I’ve audited enough outbound campaigns to know the breakdown is rarely where people think 

And once you see where it breaks, it becomes painfully obvious

When outbound starts underperforming, the reaction is almost always the same

Rewrite the email
Change the subject line
Test a different opening

But the problem isn’t always sitting inside the message.

It’s happening somewhere earlier

Sometimes the list is never tight enough to begin with.
Sometimes completely different prospects are pushed into the same sequence.
Sometimes the timing is off or the follow-ups stop too early.

None of these mistakes look dramatic when you’re running the campaign but stack a few of them together and your entire system breaks.

That’s exactly what this breakdown shows.

♻️ Repost this so your team can audit their outbound system.

Follow Nick Palasz for more tactical outbound insights.

Here’s the cold email framework I use to generate 20–30 qualified meetings a month.

It’s not complicated.

• Start with a real trigger (funding, hiring, product launch)
• Personalise the first line so it feels relevant
• Keep the email short
• End with a simple CTA

That’s the visible part of outbound but there’s a layer behind it most teams forget.

That’s deliverability. You can write the perfect email and still get zero replies if it never reaches the inbox.

Before launching campaigns now, I check the deliverability layer first.
 -Are the sending domains warmed up?
 -Is the reputation stable?
 -Are emails landing in the inbox?

And for this part I use Warmy. It warms up my domains and monitors inbox placement so I know emails aren’t getting filtered out before they reach the inbox.

I wish I had this when I first started running cold outreach, would’ve saved a few burned domains 😅 
If you’re just getting into it, worth checking out  https://lnkd.in/gHJ3cf5a

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Nick Palasz

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The Battle

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Nick Palasz

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