# Soleo **From inbound ceiling to 21 qualified meetings in 40 days.** *AGENCY & SERVICES · LINKEDIN GHOSTWRITING* Sam built Soleo to $30K/month entirely through LinkedIn content, referrals, and word of mouth. Growth stalled. He tried cold email in-house, wasted months, and stayed stuck. In 40 days with BuzzLead, he booked 21 qualified sales meetings and signed 4 new high-ticket retainer clients. ## At a glance - **Industry:** B2B services / LinkedIn ghostwriting - **Engagement:** Ongoing - **Acquisition before BuzzLead:** 100% inbound + referrals ## Headline numbers - **40 days** — time to results - **21** — qualified meetings - **4** — high-ticket clients - **~2%** — bounce rate ## Client quote > Both the short, medium, and long-term provide a lot of benefit really quickly. Some converted directly, some referred me to other people who converted directly, some haven't converted yet but I still talk to them occasionally and probably will convert at some point. — Sam, Founder, Soleo ## Before BuzzLead **Solo founder. Revenue plateaued. In-house attempt failed.** Sam had built Soleo to $30K/month as a solo operator, signing every client through LinkedIn content, DMs, and referrals. He knew he needed outbound to break through the ceiling. He tried building a cold email system himself — buying Outlook accounts, setting up infrastructure manually — but it was too time-consuming and he lacked the expertise to make it work. Months passed. Revenue stayed flat. - 100% inbound, referral, and DM-dependent - Tried cold email in-house — wasted time and money - No outbound system, no expertise, no bandwidth - Revenue stuck at the same plateau for months ## What we built for Soleo. ### 01 — HIGH-INTENT LIST SOURCING **Recently funded SaaS founders — the highest-intent buyers in the market** Instead of blasting a generic founder list, we identified the specific signal that predicted LinkedIn ghostwriting intent: founders of recently funded SaaS, tech, and AI companies in the past 12 months. These founders had just closed a round, had investors to impress, and needed to build a public profile fast. We sourced company data via Crunchbase, then waterfall-enriched contacts across 15+ email databases to find verified addresses. - Recently funded SaaS/tech/AI companies (past 12 months) as the core signal - Founders and co-founders as the sole persona - Waterfall enrichment across 15+ databases - ~2% bounce rate on all lists ### 02 — TROJAN HORSE COPYWRITING (VALUE-FIRST) **Led with a free LinkedIn profile audit — never pitched on the first touch** Rather than leading with Sam's offer, we led with a specific observation about each prospect's LinkedIn profile and offered a free Loom video showing exactly how to fix it. No pitch, no ask for a call. Just value. The only CTA: 'Can I send you a video with three tips to optimize your profile?' This worked exceptionally well because Sam already had 250K+ followers — the Loom gave prospects a taste of his expertise before any sales conversation happened. - Zero pitch on the first email - Loom video offer as the CTA (profile audit only — not free content creation) - Messaging tailored by persona: investor attraction vs. lead generation - Sam's own brand credibility as social proof before the call - 4 copy frameworks tested simultaneously: poke-the-bear, likeability, named proof, CEO forwarded thread - Spintax applied across openers for deliverability variance ### 03 — INFRASTRUCTURE **Built the backend so Sam could focus on closing and delivery** Dedicated mailboxes, warmed domains, verified lists, and a clean sending setup Sam couldn't replicate in-house. The system handled everything. Sam's job was taking the calls. - Dedicated sending infrastructure with domain masking - Correct sender-to-inbox ratios - First campaign results within 7 days of launch - Bounce rate held at ~2% across all sends ## Real emails ### SENT · POKE THE BEAR *Subject: [First name] — quick LinkedIn observation* Many founders and CEOs tell us they know they should be more active on LinkedIn but just don't have the time or bandwidth. Justin Welsh recently teamed up with us for his LinkedIn strategy — with a few tweaks and adding carousels to his posts, he's now consistently bringing in $12-13K per day for his coaching service. Fairly confident we can do the same for your profile. Mind if I send over the case study on how we did it? PS. We're run by a top 0.01% LinkedIn creator. *Signal: Recently funded SaaS founder · Day 1* ### SENT · CEO FORWARDED THREAD *Subject: Re: reach out to [first name]* Our CEO asked that we get in touch — looks like you have a prominent LinkedIn profile. Briefly, we transform founders and CEOs into prominent industry voices on LinkedIn with our fully managed, tailored growth partnership. Justin Welsh recently teamed up with us — with a few tweaks and adding carousels, he's now consistently bringing in $12-13K per day. Sounds like Sam took a look at your profile and thinks we might be able to do the same. Are you free for a quick call next [day] at [time]? *Re-engagement thread · Day 14+* ### BOOKED *Subject: Calendar confirmation · [Prospect]* Founder of recently funded SaaS company. Responded to Justin Welsh case study. Reviewed Sam's LinkedIn profile, confirmed interest in ghostwriting partnership. Loom audit viewed before booking. *Routed to Sam · Day 4* ## After BuzzLead **21 meetings. 4 clients signed. A pipeline that compounds.** In 40 days, Sam went from zero outbound pipeline to a full calendar. Four converted to high-ticket retainer clients immediately. Others remained warm, ongoing conversations Sam expects to close over time. Cold email also gave Sam something referrals never could: transferable knowledge about how outbound works, what converts, and how to think about scale. | Metric | Before | After | |---|---|---| | Lead source | 100% inbound + referral | Cold email (systematic) | | Outbound system | None (failed in-house attempt) | Fully built and running | | Meetings/month | Unpredictable | Consistent, scalable | | Revenue trajectory | Plateaued at $30K/mo | Growing | | Sam's role in prospecting | Sporadic, manual | Zero — just takes calls | ## Timeline - **PRE-LAUNCH — List build:** Recently funded SaaS founders sourced via Crunchbase. Waterfall-enriched across 15+ databases. Bounce rate validated at ~2%. - **WEEK 1 — Go live:** First campaign launched. Results within 7 days of first send. - **DAY 40 — Outcome:** 21 qualified meetings booked. 4 high-ticket retainer clients signed. - **ONGOING — Compounding:** Warm leads still in pipeline. Referrals flowing from closed clients. Sam learning the system through osmosis. ## Technical details ### Infrastructure Dedicated mailboxes across secondary subdomains. Domain masking and correct sender-to-inbox ratios. Warmed domains before first send. Zero primary-domain risk. Built from scratch — Sam had tried to replicate this himself and couldn't. ### Signal sources Crunchbase for recently funded SaaS, tech, and AI companies (past 12 months). Founder identification via public data. Waterfall enrichment across 15+ email verification databases. Bounce rate validated at ~2% before launch. ### Copywriting approach Trojan Horse / Loom strategy. No pitch on first touch. Four frameworks tested simultaneously: poke-the-bear (pain acknowledgment), likeability (offer a free post), named proof (Byron Sorrells / Inc 5000 CEO), and CEO forwarded thread (pattern interrupt). Spintax applied across openers for deliverability variance. Loom profile audit offered as CTA in select variants — recorded review only, no free content creation, used to qualify interest before booking. ### Cadence Single-touch value-first sequence. Loom follow-up for interested replies. Discovery call booking for Loom viewers. Re-engagement thread (CEO forwarded) deployed at Day 14+ for non-responders. --- Source: https://buzzlead.io/case-studies/soleo