Case studies

After 18 months of development, an HR tech startup launched a platform solving a costly problem: contractor and vendor payment sum and delays in recruitment. The product was ready, the team was ready, the client base wasn't.

Because payment infrastructure is a high-trust, high-friction sell, going broad too early would have burned runway on unvalidated messaging. The client needed a phased approach to land the first users and build a repeatable sales engine.

Phase 1:

Before any outreach, we built the infrastructure to protect deliverability and target the right people:

• Domain & CRM setup: Configured SPF, DKIM, and DMARC authentication, and set up a custom CRM to track outreach from day one.
• Visitor tracking: Installed tracking on the live website to identify inbound B2B visitors early.
• Decision-maker research: Targeted companies showing real pain signals, rapid headcount growth or heavy reliance on contingent workforces, rather than generic HR titles.
• Segmentation: Grouped enriched leads into tight, 50-company cohorts by industry and title, enabling genuinely personalized messaging.

Phase 2:

Introducing a new solution to a sensitive problem meant learning before selling. We ran low-volume, high-touch outreach focused entirely on discovery, not a pitch, testing the product against real workflows rather than asking for a sale.

This personalized approach outperformed the client's prior template-based campaigns significantly on reply rate. More importantly, it surfaced honest feedback on:

• UX friction — where teams or candidates stumbled during onboarding
• Pricing elasticity — whether pricing matched perceived savings
• Goal fit — whether the product solved their real problem

Early prospects became design partners, with a real stake in the product's direction.

Phase 3:

Once Phase 2 validated the messaging, we scaled it:

• Lead magnets: Built data-backed resources on the cost of payment friction
• Outreach at scale: Expanded calling and email to 50+ qualified leads per week, using the exact messaging validated in Phase 2
• Pipeline automation: Routed high-intent responses into automated follow-up to maximize conversion

The Takeaway

An 18-month build deserves a deliberate launch, not a rushed blast. By validating the message before scaling it, the client didn't just find clients, they built a repeatable acquisition engine.

The Challenge: Launching Fast, With No Room for Error

A cybersecurity freelancer spotted a real gap: strong corporate demand for security professionals, met by an outsourcing model that was already gaining traction. They launched a new consultancy with ambitious targets: 3 professionals placed by year-end, €1M in revenue within 3 years.

The catch: scaling the team required long-term client contracts, and winning those contracts required a team to deliver them. With the summer slowdown approaching, there was little time to get this right.

Phase 1:

Before any outbound activity, we built the foundation:

• CRM & automation: A dedicated CRM and automated workflows, built for long-term account management and retargeting, not one-off cold outreach.
• Deliverability & tooling: Prospecting, enrichment, and outreach software, backed by a secure email setup to protect deliverability at scale.

Phase 2:

Rather than relying on job boards, we used our own sourcing platform, which tracks a large share of live IT and project requests across the Netherlands, to identify exactly which banks, insurers, and enterprises had active budget for security and compliance roles.

Phase 3:

With the target list defined, we ran a tight, multi-channel campaign:

• Outbound: LinkedIn and email campaigns aimed strictly at CISOs and CTOs.
• Phone qualification: Immediate calls on positive responses, to qualify and convert quickly.
• Vacancy selling: Monitored live freelance vacancies and pitched the consultancy's professionals directly as a more stable alternative to interim hires.
• Upselling & brokering: Turned smaller requests into structural contracts (3+ months, 32+ hours), using a freelance partner network to fill roles the consultancy couldn't staff internally — while keeping the client relationship and margin.

Where Things Stand

The commercial infrastructure, CRM, market intelligence, and outbound systems, is live, and outreach to the target list of banks, insurers, and enterprise players is underway. The goal: 3 placements with new clients by the end of the year, the first step toward the €1M, 3-year milestone this engine was built to support.

The Takeaway

Speed and structure aren't in conflict. Rather than chasing clients blind, the consultancy built the targeting and outreach engine first, so execution toward its first 3 placements is deliberate, not improvised.