Outbound

How Founders Can Structure the First Outbound Cycle

DATE
November 3, 2025
AUTHOR
Narmin Mammadova
READ
4 min

Introduction

Founder-led sales is not about improvisation. It’s about discipline.

In early-stage startups, the first 100 outbound touches determine the shape of your entire go-to-market motion. Founders who treat sales like an experiment — not a guessing game — are the ones who later scale predictable revenue through their SDRs.

At GrowTech, we’ve seen this pattern repeat across Lithuanian and EU SaaS startups: when founders structure their first outbound cycle, they learn faster, sell faster, and avoid years of misalignment between product, market, and message.

Here’s the simple 4-week outbound structure that defines winning founder-led sales in 2025.

1. Week 1–2: Define your ICP and build outreach templates

Every great sales process starts with clarity — who you sell to, and why they should care.

Step 1: Define your Ideal Customer Profile (ICP)

Answer three non-negotiable questions:

  • What industry segment has the pain your product solves right now?
  • What company size can act fast and afford your pricing?
  • Who actually feels the pain day to day (job titles and responsibilities)?

In Lithuania, founders often make the mistake of targeting everyone in “tech” or “SaaS.” Narrow it to one high-probability niche first — such as HR tech tools for small IT firms in Vilnius or logistics SaaS for Baltic export companies.

Step 2: Write three short value-driven templates

  • One for email (under 100 words).
  • One for LinkedIn (personal, not automated).
  • One for phone (30-second opening).

Each message should state:

  1. What problem you solve.
  2. What measurable result you enable.
  3. Why you are reaching out now.

Example:

“Hey [Name], many SaaS teams in Vilnius are losing hours manually segmenting outbound leads. We built a workflow that automates it and doubles reply rates. Can I share how Lithuanian teams use it?”

Short, relevant, and regionalized — that’s what breaks through.

2. Week 3: reach out to 100 targeted companies manually

Now execution starts. The goal is not volume; it’s insight.

Manually reach out to 100 companies that perfectly fit your ICP. Don’t delegate this yet — founders need to feel every response, every rejection, and every signal of curiosity.

What to track for each contact:

  • Reply rate (positive, neutral, negative).
  • Common objections (“We already use X,” “Not now,” “Send info”).
  • Emotional sentiment — did the message feel relevant?

This dataset becomes the foundation for your outbound intelligence system. When you later hire SDRs, they’ll start from real evidence, not speculation.

Pro tip:

Use a simple Google Sheet for the first 100 contacts. Include columns for company name, title, message type, response, and notes. This manual process teaches intuition that no CRM dashboard can replicate.

3. Week 4: analyze patterns and iterate

After three weeks, you now have the beginnings of a predictable system. Week four is about reflection and iteration.

Ask these questions:

  • Which subject lines or messages triggered replies?
  • Which industries opened the most conversations?
  • What objections repeated most often?
  • Which channels (email, call, LinkedIn) converted fastest?

Visualize your data — even simple pivot tables can reveal where 80% of your traction comes from.

If 30% of positive replies come from manufacturing companies in Latvia, that’s your first validated niche. The objective is not to chase scale but to find repeatability.

At GrowTech, we call this the Outbound Validation Phase — the point where anecdote turns into data.

4. Beyond week 4: convert learning into systems

Once the first 100 contacts reveal consistent traction, systemize the process before adding new people or tools.

Document your winning sequence:

  • Message copy that converts.
  • Industry and job title filters.
  • Typical objections and tested replies.
  • Conversion metrics (reply → meeting → deal).

This becomes your first sales playbook — the asset you hand to your first SDR, not a guesswork manual.

Then, integrate automation tools to handle the heavy lifting (sequencing, enrichment, tracking) without losing the personal tone that made your first outreach work.

To sum up

  • Founder-led sales is not random; it’s structured experimentation.
  • 100 personalized touches are enough to validate your ICP, messaging, and offer.
  • Manual outreach builds intuition and trust before scaling automation.
  • Data from the first outbound cycle becomes your startup’s first sales playbook.