Apex Lab
How Apex Lab Books Weekly Meetings With AI Founders in the US and DACH
Apex Lab is an AWS partner that builds AI products and cloud systems for startups in the US and Europe. In order to hit their growth goals in this space, they partnered with Growth Today to start more conversations with the right founders, every week.
We built a list of 18,414 companies in the US and DACH, removed the ones that didn't fit, and started with the best fits. Before any list goes out, we check it against Apex Lab's CRM, so customers and open deals never get a cold message.
Seven people from Apex Lab send the messages on LinkedIn. We read every reply and use it to improve the next message, and Soma, Apex Lab's founder, approves every message before it goes out.
Impact TL;DR
- 29% of connection requests accepted, up from 16%
- Almost 5 replies per 100 connection requests, up from under 1.5
- 87 interested leads, compared with 10 in the first three months
- 31% acceptance and 82 replies from one DACH campaign
- 40+ people signed up for an event in six days, against a goal of 20 to 30
- A healthcare AI company signed an NDA 16 days after its first reply
“I'm super happy about the campaign performance! ... we're on a good track.”
Soma László, Founder, Apex Lab
Apex Lab had five services to sell and no clear reason for founders to answer
Apex Lab offers migrations, compliance work, workshops, architecture reviews and AI builds. In the first two months we tested campaigns for several of them at the same time.
The results were weak. Only 16% of people accepted our connection requests, and about 1 in 70 replied.
Founders of AI startups also get messages from development agencies every day. If our message looked like one of those, they ignored it.
- Two markets: US founders decide faster and are more open to new partners, while DACH founders take longer, think decisions through and want more proof first
- Seven senders who must never message the same person
- Customers and open deals that must never get a cold message
Pick one offer and send it to the right founders
In July we held a workshop with Soma and agreed on one change: every campaign would lead with the AI Accelerator, with the US first and DACH second.
Here's what we changed:
- Built a list of 18,414 companies and 17,123 verified contacts, sorted by how well they fit
- Sent to the best-fit companies first
- Matched each sender to their market: the US team writes to US founders, the Budapest team to DACH
- Checked every list against Apex Lab's CRM before upload, so customers, open deals and competitors are left out
- Sent every reply to Slack and the CRM right away, so the team could answer the same day
- Launched new lists within a day of getting them
Connection requests accepted
16% →29%
Almost 2x the acceptance rate
Replies per 100 connection requests
1.4 →4.7
Over 3x the replies, and 87 interested leads vs 10
Every week we look at acceptance, replies and interest for each market and each message. On email, for example, most replies came after the second message, the one that shows the program works, so that's the message we test first.
AI helps us find common patterns faster, better and at scale, but our senior GTM engineers always check each finding and use commercial judgment before anything changes. Soma approves every message before it goes out.
Focus on one offer to get more replies
What we did: We stopped running five different campaigns and focused on one offer, the AI Accelerator, written with Soma in his own words.
The outcome: Acceptance went from 16% to 29%. Replies went from under 1.5 to almost 5 per 100 connection requests. Interested leads went from 10 in the first three months to 87. One DACH campaign alone got 31% acceptance and 82 replies.
“I'm super happy about the campaign performance! ... Let's ... build further on these foundations.”
Soma László, Founder, Apex Lab
Get 40+ people to sign up for an in-person event in six days
What we did: Apex Lab hosted a rooftop happy hour in Los Angeles with a partner. We built a list of cloud and infrastructure leaders on the West Coast and sent LinkedIn invites from four people at Apex Lab.
The outcome: 37% accepted and 46 replied. Sign-ups went from 9 to more than 40 in six days. The goal was 20 to 30, so Apex Lab asked us to stop the invites.
“We have fantastic news! We now have over 40 registrants ... We are over capacity by 20 or so.”
Jesse Kersey, Founder and VP of Sales, Apex Lab
Invites from real people at the company work better than a newsletter. It's the same reason cold email works so well as a marketing channel. A 1:1 message that shows we did our research, mentions the event's location and says clearly why we're reaching out to this person and why now feels written for them. A newsletter blast feels automated, like it was never really meant for you. From the prospect's side, that relevance is what makes the message worth answering, and it's why more of them signed up.
Build a process that turns a new list into a live campaign in 24 hours
What we did: Every time Apex Lab got a new list of target accounts, we found the right people, checked their details and had the campaign live the next day.
The outcome: More than half of the people we reached accepted (52%) on one of these campaigns, and the main campaigns kept running without a pause.
Keep customers and open deals out of every campaign
What we did: Before anything goes out, we check every company against Apex Lab's CRM, so customers, open deals, lost deals and competitors are left out. We match on website domains, because company names change and domains don't.
The outcome: No unwanted messages to customers or open deals, and the sales team always knows which leads are new.
What the replies told us
Besides meetings, the replies told Apex Lab which cloud founders use, which compliance step comes next, and what they ask before they trust a partner. Apex Lab used this to fine-tune their commercial offerings.
What the replies look like
Founders reply asking for a call, and Apex Lab's team takes it from there.
GT APP10:37 PMGT APP8:51 PMGT APP9:49 AMGT APP11:02 AMContacts forward the offer to colleagues and ask for material to share internally.
GT APP7:55 AMGT APP4:58 PMGT APP10:25 PMSome founders point Apex Lab to other companies they run or advise.
GT APP9:46 AMGT APP6:12 PMReplies like these, even the no's, helped Apex Lab's team fine-tune their commercial offerings.
GT APP9:49 AMGT APP11:01 AMWhy Apex Lab chose Growth Today
Apex Lab tried running outbound with its own team, but the tools change every few months and the team was busy with client work. Growth Today runs the whole program: lists, data, LinkedIn and email, messaging with Soma, reply routing and reporting. Apex Lab's team focuses on the calls.
“Since partnering with Growth Today, we've been able to focus on our offers while they handle the rest brilliantly.”
Soma László, Founder, Apex Lab
Results & Impact
- 18,414 companies mapped across the US and DACH
- Every list checked against the CRM before upload
- Every reply sent to Slack and the CRM right away
- 29% acceptance and almost 5 replies per 100 connection requests
- 87 interested leads, up from 10 in the first three months
- Calls booked in the US, Germany and Switzerland, and a healthcare AI company under NDA in 16 days
- One clear offer, written in the founder's words
- Seven people from Apex Lab on LinkedIn without messaging the same person
- Apex Lab extended the program into 2027
Every week, Apex Lab's offer now reaches the right founders, and the team has a steady flow of warm conversations to work on.
“Great start to our relationship! Well done”
Jesse Kersey, Founder and VP of Sales, Apex Lab
Ready to accelerate your pipeline?
Reach out to discuss how we can help your GTM team scale with automation and expertise.