Outbound1 is an innovative agency that delivers cutting-edge go-to-market (GTM) execution strategies. Founded by Stephen Karaolis, Outbound1 leverages AI-powered automation and strategic human insights to provide high-impact solutions for businesses looking to optimize their go-to-market strategies.Â
The agency specializes in automating content creation, capturing key data, and seamlessly integrating intelligent workflows to enhance client outreach and maximize impact.
Outbound1 is designed specifically for companies lacking a dedicated marketing department, providing them with tools that allow for a streamlined, efficient, and scalable GTM strategy.Â
The platform amplifies outbound strategies by automating execution, refining distribution, and driving measurable results.
Stephen Karaolis has over 14 years of experience in public relations and a deep background in sales and GTM engineering. After successfully leading an HR Tech company’s marketing and sales, he decided to dive deeper into GTM engineering and founded Outbound1 in November 2024.Â
As the lead strategist at Outbound1, Stephen oversees all workloads and strategic approaches across different projects.
Before discovering Smartlead, Stephen and his team at Outbound1 were using various cold email platforms to drive outreach campaigns for their clients. However, they faced challenges with these tools, including:
The tools didn’t offer the level of configurability required for Outbound1’s specific needs.
The existing platforms lacked advanced automation capabilities and integrations that could help scale campaigns effectively.
The tools often failed to deliver the desired response rates and led to wasted time and effort on campaigns that didn’t yield results.
For an agency that prides itself on maximizing the impact of its outreach campaigns, these were a few hiccups. Outbound1 needed a platform that offered better flexibility, automation, and higher deliverability.
After hearing positive feedback about Smartlead and experiencing frustration with previous platforms, Stephen decided to give Smartlead a try. According to Stephen, Smartlead felt more adaptable and suited to his agency’s evolving needs.Â
He mentions, “Smartlead felt more configurable for my business and something I can continue to grow into.”Â
After using Smartlead for over 3 months, Stephen and his team began to experience impressive results.
Smartlead provided the tools and customization needed to create highly-targeted campaigns, which were essential for Outbound1’s operations.
The platform’s advanced automation features allowed the team to streamline and scale their email campaigns without increasing workload.
Smartlead’s powerful features, like domain spinning, mailbox rotation, and SmartDelivery, ensured that emails reached the primary inbox, improving response rates.
The results from switching to Smartlead were immediate and transformative for Outbound1 and their clients. A standout campaign for one of their podcast clients showcased the power of Smartlead in driving positive outcomes with minimal effort.
For this campaign, Stephen’s team utilized Clay for lead enrichment, particularly using YouTube enrichment, to match the client’s podcast show themes and episodes. The team then integrated this customized data into Smartlead, automating the campaign from day one. The campaign was a massive success, generating:
Stephen emphasizes, “Outbound doesn’t have to be spray and paint, you just have to get as close to a possible mutual value exchange. Clay and Smartlead get you closer to the mutual value exchange, and that’s where positive replies keep kicking in. You just have to keep showing up and pushing till you get the desired results.”
This success demonstrated how Smartlead’s powerful automation, AI-powered insights, and customizable workflows could deliver tangible, impressive results even in a short time.
Stephen highlights Smartlead’s mailbox rotation and domain spinning as one of the most valuable features for his agency. This enables Outbound1 to scale its campaigns without worrying about email deliverability issues and helps to avoid spam filters.Â
“I have a single domain with 3 mailboxes, which is crushing with Smartlead. This shows you don’t always need a ton of infrastructure. Just a great offer is enough.”
Another standout feature for Outbound1 is the API integration provided by Smartlead. The API allows them to connect Smartlead with other tools, such as Slack, for seamless communication and automation.Â
Stephen also appreciates Smartlead’s strong community and ongoing improvements. The Slack community channel has provided insights from other industry experts, helping Outbound1 stay ahead of the curve.Â
Stephen says, “The Smartlead community has been an immense help for us, as we have a relatively smaller team.”
He adds, “The constant new updates like SmartServers show how Smartlead is cutting-edge and always stays ahead, listening to their users.”
Looking ahead, Stephen is excited about the continued potential of Smartlead to drive success for his agency and clients. He believes that the combination of advanced automation, customizable workflows, and AI-powered insights will continue to be essential in scaling their operations.
Smartlead has proven to be a game-changer for agencies that rely on precision-targeted campaigns and efficient lead generation.Â
Whether it’s the ability to automate workflows, ensure deliverability, or integrate with other tools, Smartlead provides a flexible, scalable solution for businesses looking to scale their outreach efforts and achieve high-quality results.
By combining AI-powered features, email deliverability features, advanced automation, and seamless integrations, Smartlead has proven to be more than just a tool—it’s an indispensable asset for agencies that want to stay competitive in the fast-evolving world of outbound marketing.
Outbound1’s experience with Smartlead underscores the power of combining cutting-edge technology with strategic insights to drive success. As Stephen Karaolis and Outbound1 continue to leverage Smartlead’s capabilities, they can confidently tackle even the most challenging outreach campaigns and drive significant results.
If you’re looking for an email campaign software that can help you achieve the same results, Smartlead is worth considering. Ready to supercharge your email campaigns and generate more leads? Give Smartlead a try today.
Join us to elevate your outreach!
Founder, StackOptimise
Smartlead's combination of automation, unlimited inboxes, and easy campaign management has completely transformed how we run cold email campaigns.
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Founder, Cold Email Hackers
We have about 15 companies and we use Smartlead for all of them.
Founder, DutchSave Media
One of the things I love about using Smartlead is the deliverability feature. If they landed in the bounce or spam folders, we could resolve this quickly.
Co-Founder, Growth Today
I want to continue to use Smartlead to make operations more seamless - the plan is to bring more clients here and build more SOPs.
Founder, FueltoFly
Smartlead listens to the agencies and customers and builds according to what people want, that has really made things easier for us.
Founder, OutboundSync
We build an infrastructure product, and OutboundSync communicates with Smartlead itself. I love the webhook and API. They're really well done and keep getting better.
Founder, Axoleads
With SmartDelivery, you can put all of that in the hands of the tool. It ensures your emails land in inboxes, and by running a simple test, you can see if you're hitting the mark.
Founder, Claygen
Deliverability is the cornerstone of cold email outreach. You could have the best email copy in the world, but if no one is seeing it, it's useless. I really love the feature where you can actually give client accesses to your clients.
Co-Founder, Cymate
I do not want to switch to another software. Pick a solution you trust, stick with it, and keep refining your copy.
CMO, Avalanche Capital
Managing large volumes of emails through multiple inboxes used to be a logistical nightmare. With Smartlead, the process is seamless. We book thousands of discovery calls through cold emails. These campaigns are generating leads at a scale we never thought possible.
Founder, Growth Engine X
We came for the unlimited inboxes, and we stayed for the API. 1.5M cold emails/month, 7,767+ inboxes managed.
Head of Community & Ecosystem, TxtCart
You cannot replace having 10,000 touches with potential clients. When you have that much distribution and reach, you really start to see incredible results. The simplicity of Smartlead made all the difference. It doesn't require you to be a technical wizard.
Founder, Hyperke
Smartlead has been a game-changer for us. It increased our appointment volume, improved ease of use, and offered valuable features. 80% increase in appointments/month, peak of 276 appointments in a single month.
Founder, Kinetyca
Smartlead has been our cold email backbone from day one. The platform evolves constantly, keeping pace with how deliverability and personalization need to work today. 21% overall reply rate, $175K in 4 months for multiple B2B clients.
Founder, Reachflow
Smartlead is centered around deliverability and constantly evolving. Their API is not like any other platform. Smartlead covers all our needs. The focus on core features like deliverability and API integration is unmatched.
CEO, Halfwarm
Our approach to crafting conversational emails led to reply rates that many of my peers thought were unattainable.
Co-Founder, letstrike
We've grown on zero capital, zero marketing, purely cold emailing - and that's the story we love to tell. The best approach is no approach if you can't handle domain meltdown. The second best is something like Smartlead that's built from the ground up for deliverability at scale.
Founder, Fenixtal
Smartlead's white-labeling and automation let us punch above our weight. The 12M euros sales potential? That's what happens when you combine human creativity with Smartlead's precision.
Co-Founder, Digital Creativs
Nine out of 10. Ninety percent of our clients are on Smartlead unless they come in with an existing setup. That's the default.
Co-Founder, BuildingReach
At the end of the day, you have to take a bet on one tool or another. It was a no-brainer taking that bet on Smartlead. We had to even turn down the volume of our marketing campaigns - Smartlead was capable of driving more volume than our sales team was able to fulfill.
Founder & MD, Prospectiv
Since starting the business in January of this year, we've already generated $200K in sales exclusively from cold email. Smartlead has been central to our operations and has exceeded our expectations.
Founder, Growthlynk
There's so much stuff built on top of it. I would be dead if I had to rebuild it with another tool. I can manage hundreds of senders easily. I can send hundreds of thousands of emails.
Founder, Corebits
The platform's HubSpot integration, real-time Slack updates, and advanced campaign customization have been game changers for our business and our clients'.
Founder, Apex Ascension
From day one, we've never used anything else.
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