How Operatana Booked 400+ Positive Replies and 100+ Meetings for Startups with Smartlead

Key Highlights

• Sent 1.2 million+ cold emails in 6 months
• 400 positive replies and booking several hundred meetings
• 100+ meetings from 4 clients in just 4–5 months
• Multiple startups now run 20+ meetings/month in-house
• Can manage 6,000+ inboxes via Smartlead

Company Background

Operatana, co-founded by Sascha Lang and Fabian—both Y Combinator alumni and former startup CEOs—specializes in B2B lead generation for SaaS companies and digital-first businesses, especially early-stage startups. 

Drawing on years of hands-on outbound experience, they set out to help startups unlock cold email as a scalable, predictable channel for growth, moving beyond their own founder-led experiments to a proven, repeatable system.

Challenge

• Startups, despite abundant advice online, struggle to make cold email work at scale due to complexity, deliverability, and a noisy market. 
• Manual sending and browser-based tools couldn’t scale campaigns or maintain quality efforts. 
• Startups had trouble even starting, let alone measuring, iterating, and building a reliable meetings pipeline.

Solution & Approach

With Smartlead as their core infrastructure, Operatana ramped from sending 10–100 manual emails a day to managing campaigns at immense scale with over 1.2 million emails sent in six months. Here are a few things Sascha emphasized:

API-First Ecosystem

Every feature in Smartlead is accessible by API, enabling Operatana to automate internal workflows, reporting (like Slack updates), enrichment, and build custom tools tailored for each client.

Deliverability Management

They leveraged Smartlead’s warmups, sending infrastructure, and robust deliverability controls to achieve results in today’s challenging inbox environment, outperforming legacy providers.

Full Analytics Visibility

Smartlead’s global analytics and client logins build transparency and trust as clients could see real data in real time, becoming more self-sufficient as campaigns mature.

Startup Handover Program

Operatana moves beyond done-for-you agency work by setting up the entire outreach stack, mentoring founders, integrating fresh data and campaign workflows, and handing over a fully functional system and empowering startups to own and scale their own outbound channel.

Results

• Sent 1.2 million+ cold emails in 6 months across all clients, generating over 400 positive replies and booking several hundred meetings.
• For 4 clients, 100+ meetings were generated in just 4–5 months—business-changing results opening new sales channels.
• Multiple startups now run 20+ meetings/month in-house, with costs far below paid ads and fully owning their lead gen stack.
• Operatana manages 6,000+ inboxes via Smartlead, automates Slack notifications and client updates, and iterates weekly to maximize campaign performance.
• Rapid feature development from Smartlead (e.g., better bulk management, advanced analytics) supports ongoing agency and client innovation.

Lessons Learned

• Follow clear, focused advice from experts instead of piecing together scattered tactics. Consistency and iteration drive results, not one-off “hacks.”
• Scaling is only possible with robust, API-driven platforms that allow for deep automation, customization, and seamless integration.
• Smartlead’s focus on infrastructure and ongoing updates make reliable inboxing and results possible even as cold email gets tougher.
• Giving startups ownership of outreach systems (not just leads or meetings) builds sustainable growth and internal capability.

Feedback for Smartlead

• Advanced API and Feature Velocity: API-first design gives unmatched control for agencies; regular new features are appreciated, though improvements to bulk inbox management and more granular Slack integration would help larger-scale operations.
• Analytics & Client Portal: Live analytics streamline reporting and enable clients to become self-reliant quickly.

Conclusion

Operatana, powered by Smartlead, demonstrated that with the right infrastructure, it’s possible to transform cold email from a founder-led grind into a predictable, scalable acquisition engine. 

Generating 1.2 million emails, 400+ positive replies, and 100+ meetings per client in months, they help startups unlock new markets and pipeline, all while paving the way for in-house ownership of a critical growth channel.

If your business or agency is been searching for cold email tools to scale your outreach efforts, check out our 14-day free trial