Hunter.io

Aaron Epstein teaches founders how to write cold emails that earn replies and move prospects to the next step. He recommends getting warm introductions when possible, then mapping and measuring a conversion funnel so outreach volume and weak points are clear. The talk’s seven principles for effective email copy are to set one goal, sound human, personalize specifically, keep it short, establish credibility, focus on the reader, and use a clear call to action. Epstein also advises founders to write and follow up manually before automating, and illustrates the principles with examples of ineffective and successful emails.

Gustav Alströmer explains how founders can win their first customers by doing sales themselves and working closely with early users. He covers practical outreach: writing concise sales emails, building a prospect list, running demos, qualifying leads, and onboarding customers. He argues that startups should prioritize reachable early adopters, charge for real value, and track each step of the sales funnel to understand how much outreach is needed. He closes by explaining why early growth often requires hands-on tactics that differ from the scalable channels a company may use later.

The talk compares top-down sales, which starts with an executive decision-maker, with bottoms-up sales, which starts with individual users adopting a self-serve product. Top-down can offer a reliable sales playbook and strong early retention, but enterprise sales teams are expensive and can pull startups into custom work. Bottoms-up can make sales more efficient when users already love the product, but viral growth is hard to achieve and still requires salespeople. The best motion depends on whose problem the startup solves: executives tend to call for top-down sales, while individual contributors and small teams tend to call for bottoms-up.