C17 Lab

Head of GTM Engineering

Building out outbound plays for enterprise clients

Strategic GTM

Clay

Enterprise Partner

Monthly Unlimited Flows for Fixed retainer

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Unlimited Custom clay workflows for you for a fixed monthly price

24-72 hours delivery, one request at a time.

Free 3000 Credits - 

https://clay.com/?via=6f1999

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Certified Instantly Expert

Smartlead

Smartlead Certified Experts

Maildoso

Advisor

Persana AI

Monthly Flows on a fixed price


https://persana.ai/pros/utkarsh-rana

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Adyhere.com

Helping B2B SaaS Companies and Agencies Generate Leads while they sleep via AI-Powered Inbound + Outbound

If you are not from one of the above industries no issues, you just need to be a B2B business.

We do all the heavy lifting, you just attend the meetings!

$200,000+ in REV & $1M+ Pipeline generated for B2B clients via outbound

Website - https://www.adyhere.com/
Email - utkarsh.rana@adyhere.com

Founder

I help B2B SaaS Companies and Agencies Generate Leads while they sleep
$200,000+ in REV & $1M+ Pipeline generated for B2B clients

Unlimited Custom clay workflows for you at $2000/Month

I set content systems that:
-> Builds audience
-> Engage with them while heating their buying intent 
-> Converting warm leads with a high closing rate as the content did most of the work.

Then I use data from over 100+ sources to create smart strategies that find the right prospects. 

This helps your sales team connect with people who are looking for you.

Here’s what I do:
Build Content systems that build an audience
Build targeted lead lists
Set up and warm up inboxes
Write personalized emails & DMs
Manage full campaigns


The aim is to test 
OFFER-MARKET-FIT
TARGET TESTING
MESSAGE-MARKET FIT
PRODUCT-UNTAPPED MARKET FIT


--
If you're a B2B company that wants more demos/sales calls, go to https://www.adyhere.com/

Utkarsh Singh Rana

We don’t use Clay native waterfall.
Even though I love Clay
.
.
Why?

Because we needed full control

Especially around tools like Supabase, BounceBan (Verify risky emails without sending messages), and email domain filtering. 

So, I built a custom waterfall logic. 
We're now on Version 8 and it's been a game-changer for our GTM team.

Thanks to Enzo Carasso 🧲 for letting me spend $$$ on testing tools 😊 

🔁 Our Custom Enrichment Waterfall at C17 Lab:

1️⃣ Supabase First: 
Credit goes to 🦾Eric Nowoslawski and Bharatt Arorah for introducing me to SupaBase

We query by:
LinkedIn Handle (if valid)
OR Full Name + Domain
 This saves us 30–40% of our enrichment credits upfront.

2️⃣ Domain Filter Logic
 If Supabase gives us utkarsh@c17.ai
 but the real domain is c17.com → ❌ rejected.

 No mismatched domains. No noise in the pipeline.

➡️ What if Supabase fails?
We fall back to:
Apollo/CSV email (only if different from invalid ones)
Prospeo.io and Icypeas
But NEVER revalidate already-marked-invalid emails.

 🧠 That alone saved us 154,000+ verification calls last month.

3️⃣ Final Validation
 Every valid-looking email goes through:
✅ MillionVerifier
🚫 BounceBan (Verify risky emails without sending messages) (only if catch-all/invalid by MillionVerifier)

And we use request IDs to fetch final verdicts if needed as sometimes BounceBan gives you request ID

4️⃣ Bonus: ESP Detection
 We tag every email with Gmail, Outlook, etc., via EmailGuard.
 Helps in split testing emails as Outlook deliverability is bad.

5️⃣ Sync Back to Supabase
 Every enriched lead gets written back to Supabase with full data.

 No duplicates. No overwriting.

NOTE: When you cross like a Million records in Supabase, you'll get errors with LookUp as the data is too much

Use ChatGPT to figure out what schema you want with it.

🔍 How We Fixed the Lookup Problem
We use GIN trigram indexes, which are special tools that help Supabase find text very fast, even in millions of rows. 

They let Supabase search company domains and LinkedIn handles without slowing down. 

These indexes act like shortcuts that guide the database to the right place instantly.

Indexes that make Supabase fast:
➡️ emaildb_companydomain_trgm_idx — helps find company domains quickly
➡️ emaildb_handle_trgm_idx — helps match LinkedIn handles fast
➡️ emaildb_handle_eq_idx — speeds up exact LinkedIn lookups
➡️ emaildb_email_key — keeps emails unique and easy to find


⚙️ Other Automations We Use
➡️ Emails are cleaned automatically before saving
➡️ LinkedIn handles are generated on their own
➡️ Full names and email domains are created automatically
➡️ Duplicate contacts are blocked before saving
➡️ "created_at" and "updated_at" update automatically
➡️ All new records become searchable right away

Utkarsh  Rana 🧲

Head of GTMs @ C17 Lab | Top Clay Enterprise Partner • Sales Tech & Revenue Systems Optimization •

I would still be spending 40+ hours weekly if it wasn't for these tools.
.
.
1. Serper
 Scrape Google Search, Maps, and Reviews.
 → Build targeted business lists
 → Monitor reviews to gauge activity
 → Pull company data fast

2. n8n
 Zapier’s smarter cousin.
 Great for cloud automations and AI workflows—especially if you're technical.

3. Apify
 Custom scraping powerhouse.
 → Grab Meta ads, Google data, TikTok profiles, tech stacks - whatever you need.

4. ZenRows
 Most reliable and cost-efficient scraper I've used.
 → Scrapes full websites (HTML + Text) cleanly.

5. HeyReach.io
 It's Smartlead, but for LinkedIn.
 → Automate connection and message campaigns at scale.

6. SmartProspect (by Smartlead)
 Massive lead database.
 → Easily download leads—top-tier for outbound.

7. Clay
 The glue.
 → Integrates with everything to automate lead enrichment, research, and outreach.

8. Taplio
 Content machine for LinkedIn.
 → Helps you ideate, write, and post consistently.

 If you're not stacking the right tools, you're stacking unnecessary hours.
 
Will it increase your cost? Yes
Will it save your time so that you can re-invest it into scaling your business? Yes

Tools I use everyday!

I used to burn $$$ on B2B lead tools that overpromised and underdelivered.
.
.
.
The worst part?
Even after dropping $1K+ per month, I still had to:

Clean up lists and have 2 verification tools - basic and catchall verification
Deal with bounce-backs

Guess who my real ICP was as list contained leads that didn't match the filters I added

AND somehow protect my domain reputation...

And that was called normal.

The real problem?
Most tools aren’t built to prioritize lead quality.
They bulk scrape, charge you upfront, and leave you holding a bag of outdated contacts.
Their job ends when you pay.

But your job (booking meetings) is just getting started.

Now imagine you're an agency owner or founder...

Every bad lead = wasted rep time.
Every bounce = damaged sender reputation.
Every wrong ICP = campaign fatigue.

When your pipeline depends on cold outreach, these things compound fast.

You’re not just burning ad spend - you’re burning trust, time, and deliverability.

Shared this issue with the Smartlead and next 2 weeks, they launched Smartprospect

✅ 300M+ verified B2B profiles with real-time enrichment
✅ Filters for role, company size, engagement, and more
✅ Multi-step verification waterfall built-in
✅ Push leads directly into your campaigns (no manual export/import)
✅ Flat $59/month fee - and no per-lead nonsense

The result?
Better data. Better replies. Better ROI - all without risking your sender health.

C17 Lab is a proud Smartlead Partner!

Last week: a lead from Samsung ➡️ https://lnkd.in/gE8Ja-Y4
This week: a booked call with Intel.
.
.
.

No warm intros. No magic.
Just a clear offer, a sharp GTM motion, and a real solution to a real problem.

This isn’t luck - this is strategy.

Here’s what we know:
🎯 Who to target
 Enterprise teams feeling the pain - and the exact decision-maker responsible for fixing it.

🔍 What they care about
Not your product — their problem. Even giants like Intel have burning issues they want solved.

📞 How to reach them
 Right message. Right channel. Right timing.

Here’s what we did:
1. Refined the targeting
We reworked the ICP - especially headcount - to align with the client’s enterprise motion.

2. Rewrote the messaging
Enterprise-grade clarity, but still easy to digest and imagine in action.

3. Shifted personalization
We don’t care about their nearest KFC.
We care about their problem.
Messaging anchored in their challenges - not surface-level flattery.

The best GTM strategies don’t start with the product.
They start with pain - and offer a clear path to relief.

You’re not burning your TAM.
You’re not annoying anyone.

You’re stepping up with relevance and precision - and that gets responses.

If your offer can solve problems for Intel…
Why wouldn’t smaller companies take notice?

🚫 Stop playing small.
✅ Start executing like it’s enterprise.

That’s the C17 Lab way.

We made 40% fewer dials than usual for a client… 
And still hit the meeting KPI 🤯 for them
That’s not a fluke.
.
.


📅 On Nov 11, we dialed 40% less than our usual volume for this client.
 🎯 Still booked 4 meetings a day - exactly what we needed to hit target.

Here’s what I learned:
🚀 Quality wins if you don't have much quantity - especially when your data source is 🔥

BetterContact is turning out to be a total powerhouse for phone numbers.

I still remember Roman Hipp telling me they were rolling out Phone Number Waterfall.

 And I was like:
 💳 “This is gonna hit the credit card HARD.”

But nope.
💡 The quality, the hit rate, and the ROI we’re seeing - it’s totally worth it.

And I don’t even validate phone numbers manually.
Yeah, there are tools for that…
 But honestly?

📞 The only way to validate a phone number is by actually calling it.

Just like how Scrubby | Complete email validation validates emails by sending actual emails - max accuracy, no guesswork.

Cold + Warm Calls = 💘 
Cold emails + Cold Calls + Warm Calls = 👩‍❤️‍👩

Co-Founder & CEO @ Ruley, the E-Referee | Start Up Business Expert | Entrepreneur

After 25 years building successful companies I found myself at a crossroads. I had built companies that helped people and families. I was proud of that legacy, I knew it was time for a new chapter.

In my early 50s, I sold my third company just a year behind schedule from a personal goal I set at 34. 

During COVID, I had the space to explore ideas that truly energized me. I enrolled in a six-month coding bootcamp to learn Python and deepen my understanding of the technologies shaping our future.

Now I’m the Co-Founder of Ruley, an AI powered smart sports E-Referee API  designed to help federations, sports media and consumer brands gain fans, players and spectators by being the go to venues for sports rules and insights.

My personal mission is to fuse decades of my experience and strategic thinking with modern tech to bring people together through playing sports and watching sports.  By working with these existing sports entities we can grow sports and all the good that comes with them.

At the heart of my work is this belief: we all deserve unbiased, instant information, and we all deserve to enjoy life like we did as kids. 

These ideas aren’t mutually exclusive. With the right tools, we can help provide knowledge in unique ways and inject more joy into everyday life.

Explore Ruley and our API rollout (and more) for sports:
🌐 ruley.ai

📸 Instagram: @ruley_ereferee
🎥 YouTube: @ruleythee-referee
📘 Facebook: @ruleytheereferee

🎾 Just Ruley it!

Cassandra Toroian

I had a call this week with a major sports equipment brand.

They’re integrating our Rules API into their app
because they see what’s really happening.

Parents shouting from the sidelines.
Coaches under fire.
Games falling apart over confusion.

They’re not waiting for someone else to fix it.
They’re stepping up.

That’s what great leadership looks like.

It’s not about selling more gear.
It’s about protecting the integrity of the game.

That’s recognition. That’s progress.
And it’s exactly the mindset sport needs right now.

The ones who act early
Won’t just stay relevant,
They’ll redefine what leadership in sport looks like.

If you see the problem,
You’re already part of the solution.

The only question is,
Are you doing something about it?

Progress doesn’t come from watching trends.
It comes from leading them.

#RuleyAI #Sportstech #Leadership #JustRuleyIt

We can't clean the ocean, but AI can.

Not someday.
Now.

The Ocean Cleanup uses AI-powered sensors
to spot where debris gathers..
Then directs cleanup vessels straight to it.

No wasted time.
No wasted effort.

It’s already happening off Florida’s coast,
Where every current brings back what we’ve
thrown away.

Bottles.
Bags.
Microplastics.

AI is doing what we should have done
tracking the damage,
and fixing it.

Not to make headlines.
To make progress.

Because real innovation isn’t about noise.
It’s about outcomes.

If AI can clean our oceans,
Imagine what it could clean up next
If we pointed it at the right problems.

The tech isn’t the challenge anymore.
The intention behind it is.

What would it feel like to play tennis If you were color-blind?

Would there be a struggle with depth perception? 
To follow a game where the lines
And the ball looks the same shade?

VR technology is now letting athletes experience
exactly that. Simulating visual impairments in real time.

It’s confronting.
Because once you’ve felt the limitations,
You start to question how the game is designed,
and who it truly includes.

That’s where technology can shift the conversation.
Not to replace sport, but to expose blind spots
in how we design it.

If AI or VR can help athletes, coaches, and officials
understand those perspectives,
It doesn’t just build better tech.
It builds better empathy.

And maybe that’s what the next era of sport looks like..
one built on awareness as much as performance.

What ChatGPT gets wrong about sports rules.

Here’s a fun experiment.
Ask AI a niche tennis rule.
Wait for the confident wrong answer.

I tried it this week.

My question:
“I accidentally double hit in tennis. Do I lose a point?”

ChatGPT’s answer:
“No. Any double hit is an automatic point loss.”

Sounds firm.
Sounds correct.
And it’s completely wrong.

Here’s the real rule:
If the ball hits your racket twice in one
continuous motion, unintentionally,
It’s legal.

The only time it’s illegal is:
If the player intentionally hits the ball twice.

Unintentional double contact, which is what actually
happens in real rallies, is allowed.

This is straight from the ITF rules.
One tiny detail. Massive difference.
 
And this is the bigger issue with AI in sports:
It predicts common answers.
It doesn’t understand nuance.
It doesn’t know how players actually argue on court.
It doesn’t know the rules the way the sport requires.

Sports don’t run on “close enough.”
They run on precision.

And this is exactly why Ruley exists.
Not to replace humans. But to replace confusion.
Sports deserve better than “close enough.”

If it hits the kitchen line it’s out… right? Or is it in?



That’s always a big controversy,
especially in college pickleball.

But Brooke and Ava from
University of Miami use
Ruley, the E-Referee
So they don’t worry!

And when Brooke’s parents play,
it stops those classic “I know best”
moments that cause family feuds.

Rules made simple with our
proprietary API, so your players
can play on and enjoy the game.

#JustRuleyIt

Thanksgiving football isn’t just a warm living-room ritual. It’s a tradition steeped in real history and it teaches us something about the power of rules, legacy, and how things become meaningful over time.

Here’s the origin story:

The first college football game on Thanksgiving was in 1876, when Yale beat Princeton, 2‑0, in Hoboken.

By the 1880s, that annual matchup had become a major social event, with thousands of fans gathering in New York City.

But the modern NFL Thanksgiving tradition really took off in 1934, when the Detroit Lions hosted the Chicago Bears in a nationally broadcast game.

That wasn’t just a game, it was a masterstroke of promotion. The Lions’ owner used his radio connections to make Thanksgiving football a national spectacle.
 

Why does this matter, especially if you care about more than just touchdowns?
 
1. Tradition is not born, it’s built. What started as a college holiday game became a cornerstone of professional football through deliberate vision, not accident.

2. Legacy amplifies value. The Lions’ Thanksgiving move wasn’t just about selling tickets, it was about building identity and a long-term franchise reputation.

3. Clarity of rules matters. Football may feel chaotic, but traditions like these survive because there is a shared understanding, and respect, for how the game works. That very principle is why technology that clarifies rules (in sport or business) can be so powerful.
 
As someone who builds in the space of sports clarity, I find this intersection, history, tradition, and precision, endlessly inspiring.

What part of Thanksgiving + football tradition is most meaningful to you?


#Thanksgiving  #NFL  #Tradition  #SportsHistory  #Leadership

My recent trip to the airport was shocking.

Apparently there is a trend where some people purposefully dress inappropriately when air travelling,

Why?

From what I surmise it’s because they want to actually cause a problem or create a scene in the hopes maybe the get kicked off a plane.  

Then they can file a lawsuit. And maybe the airline writes a check!

This seems to be another example of how society has degraded.  

It’s not ok. 

Particularly since the intent behind this choice to wear an outfit that borders on socially unacceptable is to MAKE havoc.

This has to stop. 

But how does it stop when clearly so many aren’t getting taught some basic social norms?

Fortunately we have an administration that has some cajones and recognizes that some helpful hints in civility may have to be part of their job.

They put out a statement encouraging people to dress appropriately for air travelling and not show up at the airport in night clothes.

It causes disruption. It causes delays. It causes rage inside planes and people get kicked off.

We used to be a society where people would tell their neighbor or friend they looked funny, remind them to take off their cap when they go to a restaurant.

This is just yet another example of the degradation of rules in society - rules that are mean to help keep some basic order. Tradition perhaps. But also it just works.

Sad that the government has to give this basic advice. 

If you don’t like that, then please, feel free to be a good neighbor or friend and start gently point out things that you see.

Do it in a nice way. 

Do it in a helpful way.

But do it.

We all have to be part of re-elevating civility in our society again.

Do you agree?

Someone asked where I learned to be resilient.



Resilience doesn’t just happen.
It’s trained through experience.

Was it through sports? Or from
growing up as an only child?
For me it was both.

When you playing solo sports
you learn early that no one’s
coming to rescue you.

→ You problem-solve.
→ You stay resourceful.
→ You make things work.

Sports simply reinforced it.

In tennis or golf, there’s no one
to hand off the pressure to.
It’s just you, your decisions, and
how you respond to setbacks.

That mindset stayed with me for life.
Through building and selling several
companies, and now through building
something completely new.

I’ve learned resilience isn’t about
pushing harder. It’s about adapting.
Seeing patterns, solving problems,
and moving forward even when the
rulebook hasn’t been written yet.

There’s a strong link to resilience
and innovation, they’re two sides
of the same coin.

Right now, as I always have been,
I’m learning the rules and then
redefining how they’re played.

What about you?

Do you see yourself as resilient?

Most people still think Ruley is “that sports rules app.”

And sure, that’s where we started.
Because the fastest way to prove accuracy is to
Put it in someone’s hand.

Let them test it.
Let them see it works.
Let them try to break it.

The app was never the endgame.
It was the demo. What we’re building now is
bigger. Much bigger.

APIs.
The quiet engine behind every great product.

That’s where Ruley belongs.
Because if you want to transform sports at scale,
you don’t build another app. You build the
system everyone else can plug into.

Sports apps.
Sports Websites,
Equipment manufacturers,
Sports Federations,
And so, so many more.

Emerging sports trying to standardize their rules.
Recreational programs that need consistency.
Even niche sports nobody’s ever heard of yet.
That’s where the impact lives.

We realized that if we wanted Ruley to actually
fix the rule-accuracy problem, we had to stop
thinking just about players first and start
thinking about the entire ecosystem.

So we pivoted. On purpose. With clarity.
Ruley IS designed and developed
to sit inside any sports related platform.

It’s an API designed to sit inside
any sports platform, anywhere.
Instant rule explanations.

Unbiased.
Consistent.
Sport-agnostic.

This solution grows fans, spectators
AND player knowledge.

This is how you cultivate the next generation of players and fans

We are becoming the rules sports engine infrastructure

We started small so we could prove we were right.
Now we’re expanding so every sport can benefit.

If your platform needs clarity, plug us in.
Fair play starts here.

The future of sports tech isn’t standalone. It’s integrated.


For years, the sports technology world
has been driven by the same playbook:

→ build another app,
→ build another platform,
→ build another way for fans to “engage.”

But innovation has never meant
building something completely new.
It means taking what already exists,
and improving on it in a way that people
think “why hasn’t this always existed?”

Look at Airbnb. They didn’t invent hotels.
They invented a way for people to earn
money from renting out their own space.

Look at Uber. They didn’t invent taxis.
They invented a way for people to get a
taxi really conveniently, from anywhere.

Look at Ruley, the E-Referee. We didn’t
invent another tech product competing
for attention. We created Ruley as the
connective tissue that strengthens
the entire ecosystem of sports itself.

Our proprietary API integrates directly
into existing tech, apps and systems,
making it easy for organizations, fans,
and players to understand in real time.

Just like Uber integrating with your cell
and Airbnb integrating with your home,
the future of sports tech is integration.

When people understand the rules,
they’re connected, confident, and loyal.

→ For our partners, that means higher trust.
→ For their users, it means a better experience.
→ For the industry, it means progress that scales.

Ruley’s mission was never about
being the next big sports app.

It’s about being the trusted layer
of intelligence powering fairness
and understanding across sport.

That’s what real integration looks
like, and why the future of sports
technology will be built together.

Do you agree?

Or are we better off with 100’s
of independent systems?

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