Key Highlights
- 800+ email accounts launched .
- 130K emails sent in month one .
- ~$200K revenue generated first month .
- Outreach scaled from 11 to 500+ employees .
- Seven campaigns routed across time zones .
Summary
Pump.co, a Y Combinator-backed cloud cost optimization startup, started with no outbound cold email infrastructure and a novice GTM engineer leading the effort. Using Smartlead, they rapidly built a scalable outbound sales system, sending over 130,000 emails monthly and generating close to $200K in revenue within the first month.
Background
Claire Hardesty is the founding GTM engineer of Pump.co, which is a San Francisco-based startup helping companies manage and reduce their cloud expenses. Their typical customer profile includes SaaS companies with 11-50 employees, often in Series A funding rounds, experiencing rapid growth and rising cloud bills.
When their head of growth operated as a contractor, Pump.co lacked foundational infrastructure for outbound email campaigns.
Out of college with no prior outbound experience, their GTM engineering lead was tasked with building this function from scratch alongside a small team.
They quickly realized the complexities of modern outbound sales stacks, including handling domain management, cold email routing, and integrations with enrichment and CRM tools.
Challenges
- No existing cold email outbound infrastructure, starting entirely from zero
- Novice in the outbound sales field, and navigating complex automation tools
- Need to send large volumes of emails tailored to time zones across multiple campaigns
- Managing multiple domains and email accounts without losing control or deliverability
- Coordinating multi-channel outreach, including cold calls, LinkedIn sequences, and SMS follow-ups
- Maintaining high campaign visibility and fast issue resolution with technical dependencies
Our Solution
Pump.co chose Smartlead for its intuitive user interface and powerful automation capabilities, finding it especially accessible for users with limited technical background. Key elements of their setup included:
- Purchasing and managing multiple domains with Zapmail integration for email warm-up and deliverability
- Using Smartlead to house nearly 800 email accounts, allowing campaigns to scale across wide target addressable markets
- Developing a sophisticated routing system in Clay to send prospects' emails within their local business hours across seven campaign types
- Leveraging Smartlead’s spintax features to create dynamic personalized email copy, written in-house by their GTM engineer
- Integrating enrichment and lead data from multiple sources smoothly into campaigns
- Implementing multi-channel strategies by supplementing outreach with LinkedIn via Heyreach and planning SMS sequences through SendBlue
Results
- Achieved the initial goal of sending 100K emails per month within the first month post-launch, exceeding it with approximately 130K emails sent
- Generated close to $200K in pipeline revenue attributed directly to Smartlead campaigns in that first month
- Reduced manual overhead dramatically through automated lead management, tagging, and clear visual dashboards
- Gained rapid problem resolution and support responsiveness during critical moments, including payment disruptions that could have halted campaigns
- Established a foundation for ongoing optimization and scaling with detailed analytics and seamless integration with CRM and calling tools
Why Smartlead?
The user highlighted several differentiators that made Smartlead essential to Pump.co’s outbound success:
User-friendly Interface
Critical for quick onboarding and ongoing management by non-experts
Reliable Customer Support
Immediate chat responses and root cause troubleshooting prevented prolonged downtimes
Powerful Infrastructure Management
Visibility into account status, domain health, and lead funnel ensured no leads slipped through
Scalable Automation
Spintax and easy editing allowed flexible, personalized campaigns without complexity
Strong Integration Ecosystem
Worked well with Clay, Zapmail, Heyreach, and other tools for a multi-channel outbound approach
Pump.co continues to deepen its use of Smartlead and explore additional channels like SMS and Twitter outreach to further enhance engagement as they scale.
Conclusion
By partnering with Smartlead, Pump.co transformed from having zero outbound infrastructure to a high-volume, revenue-generating sales machine in record time. The accessible platform empowered a new grad marketer with no cold email experience to build, optimize, and manage a complex outbound system driving significant business impact.
This case exemplifies how startups in growth phases can leverage Smartlead to build effective outbound execution from the ground up confidently.
Well, if Pump.co can do it, so can you. Sign up for Smartlead’s 14-days free trial to see how you can do the same.
Wajahat Ali
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Frequently asked questions
What is Smartlead's cold email outreach software?
Smartlead's cold email outreach tool helps businesses scale their outreach efforts seamlessly. With unlimited mailboxes, fully automated email warmup functionality, a multi-channel infrastructure, and a user-friendly unibox, it empowers users to manage their entire revenue cycle in one place. Whether you're looking to streamline cold email campaigns with automated email warmups, personalization fields, automated mailbox rotation, easy integrations, and spintax, improve productivity, or enhance scalability with subsequences based on lead’s intentions, automated replies, and full white-label experience, our cold email tool implifies it in a single solution.
How does Smartlead's unlimited mailboxes feature benefit me?
Our "unlimited mailboxes" feature allows you to expand your email communications without restrictions imposed by a mailbox limit. This means you won't be constrained by artificial caps on the number of mailboxes you can connect and use. This feature makes Smartlead the best cold email software and empowers you to reach a wider audience, engage with more potential customers, and manage diverse email campaigns effectively.
What do you mean by "unibox to handle your entire revenue cycle"?
The "unibox" is one of the unique features of Smartlead cold email outreach tool, and it's a game-changer when it comes to managing your revenue cycle. The master inbox or the unibox consolidates all your outreach channels, responses, sales follow-ups, and conversions into one centralized, user-friendly mailbox.
With the "unibox," you gain the ability to:
1. Focus on closing deals: You can now say goodbye to the hassle of logging into multiple mailboxes to search for replies. The "unibox" streamlines your sales communication, allowing you to focus on what matters most—closing deals.
2. Centralized lead management: All your leads are managed from one central location, simplifying lead tracking and response management. This ensures you take advantage of every opportunity and efficiently engage with your prospects.
3. Maintain context: The "unibox" provides a 360-degree view of all your customer messages, allowing you to maintain context and deliver more personalized and effective responses.
Can Smartlead help improve my email deliverability rates?
Yes, our cold emailing software is designed to significantly improve your email deliverability rates. It enhances email deliverability through AI-powered email warmups across providers, unique IP rotating for each campaign, and dynamic ESP matching.
Real-time AI learning refines strategies based on performance, optimizing deliverability without manual adjustments. Smartlead's advanced features and strategies are designed to improve email deliverability rates, making it a robust choice for enhancing cold email campaign success.
Can I integrate Smartlead with other tools I'm using?
Certainly, Smartlead cold email tool is designed for seamless integration with a wide range of tools and platforms. Smartlead offers integration with HubSpot, Salesforce, Pipedrive, Clay, Listkit, and more. You can leverage webhooks and APIs to integrate the tools you use. Try Now!
What is Smartlead, and how can it enhance my cold email campaigns?
Smartlead is a robust cold emailing software designed to transform cold emails into reliable revenue streams. Trusted by over 31,000 businesses, Smartlead excels in email deliverability, lead generation, cold email automation, and sales outreach. A unified master inbox streamlines communication management, while built-in email verification reduces bounce rates.Additionally, Smartlead offers essential tools such as CNAME, SPF Checker, DMARC Checker, Email Verifier, Blacklist Check Tool, and Email Bounce Rate Calculator for optimizing email performance.
How does Smartlead, as a cold emailing tool, automate the cold email process?
Smartlead’s robust cold email API and automation infrastructure streamline outbound communication by transforming the campaign creation and management processes. It seamlessly integrates data across software systems using APIs and webhooks, adjusts settings, and leverages AI for personalised content.
The cold emailing tool categorises lead intent, offers comprehensive email management with automated notifications, and integrates smoothly with CRMs like Zapier, Make, N8N, HubSpot, Salesforce, and Pipedrive. Smartlead supports scalable outreach by rapidly adding mailboxes and drip-feeding leads into active campaigns Sign Up Now!
How does Smartlead ensure my emails don't land in the spam folder?
Smartlead, the best cold email marketing tool, ensures your emails reach the intended recipients' primary inbox rather than the spam folder.
Here's how it works:
1. Our "unlimited warmups" feature is designed to build and maintain a healthy sending reputation for your cold email outreach. Instead of sending a large volume of emails all at once, which can trigger spam filters, we gradually ramp up your sending volume. This gradual approach, combined with positive email interactions, helps boost your email deliverability rates.
2. We deploy high-deliverability IP servers specific to each campaign.
3. The ‘Warmup’ feature replicates humanized email sending patterns, spintax, and smart replies.
4. By establishing a positive sender reputation and gradually increasing the number of sent emails, Smartlead minimizes the risk of your emails being flagged as spam. This way, you can be confident that your messages will consistently land in the primary inbox, increasing the likelihood of engagement and successful communication with your recipients.
What features does Smartlead offer for cold email personalisation?
Smartlead enhances cold email personalisation through advanced AI-driven capabilities and strategic integrations. Partnered with Clay, The cold remaining software facilitates efficient lead list building, enrichment from over 50 data providers, and real-time scraping for precise targeting. Hyper-personalised cold emails crafted in Clay seamlessly integrate with Smartlead campaigns.
Moreover, Smartlead employs humanised, natural email interactions and smart replies to boost engagement and response rates. Additionally, the SmartAI Bot creates persona-specific, high-converting sales copy. Also you can create persona-specific, high-converting sales copy using SmartAI Bot. You can train the AI bot to achieve 100% categorisation accuracy, optimising engagement and conversion rates.
Is Smartlead suitable for both small businesses and large enterprises?
Smartlead accommodates both small businesses and large enterprises with flexible pricing and comprehensive features. The Basic Plan at $39/month suits small businesses and solopreneurs, offering 2000 active leads and 6000 monthly emails, alongside essential tools like unlimited email warm-up and detailed analytics.
Marketers and growing businesses benefit from the Pro Plan ($94/month), with 30000 active leads and 150000 monthly emails, plus a custom CRM and active support. Lead generation agencies and large enterprises can opt for the Custom Plan ($174/month), providing up to 12 million active lead credits and 60 million emails, with advanced CRM integration and customisation options.