Hey, {{first_name | Founder}}!
A beloved client asked me today: "Dmitry, I remember your email 'do not pay for interviews'. Do you still believe it to be true for cold outreach, when nothing else seems to be working?"
I was faithful: I wouldn't do it.
It dilutes learnings with noise, and if your product is solving a pain, it's a gift on its own. Why supplement it?
He then showed me something: a SaaS company that scaled through cold outreach with paid demos on a very similar audience. Their price point was much higher to adjust the LTV for such an expensive acquisition.
I reassessed instantly.
If it works for nearly the same audience, you're prepared to change your business model for a higher LTV if needed, and you have the budget to test, let's absolutely do this.
GTM is built on experimentation.
Experiments are hard. It requires controlling lots of variables and being precise about what you're testing. Poorly designed experiments are much worse than failures ā they tell you nothing, but cost you money.
If you can take someone's learnings ā provided they've done it right and with your audience ā you're getting that result for pretty much free. You get the exact same evidence that someone else paid for.
Never say "no" to such a great gift to your runway.
Look around. Have some of your peers figured out a channel or tactic that doesn't seem to work for you? Then go steal it.
P.S. What is the biggest variable you are trying to test right now? Reply to this email and let me know. I read every reply.