Cal AI · B2C · photo calorie tracking app
Have 25 hired assistants each email 100 creators a day
~220K creators contacted, 2-3K signed; roughly 1 signed per 1,000 emailed
Workedcreator-opsinfluenceroutbound-sales
What they did
Started with ~5 marketing assistants, grew to ~25, each pushed to contact 100 influencers a day (~2,000/day; real output 40-70 on bad days). Assistants hired through an outside staffing company. Outreach is by email, not DMs (DMs are rate-limited and work mainly with a big personal brand). Creators in the US, UK, France, Germany, Spain; not picky as long as the creator could fit the app into their video at a decent CPM. Assistants send a Calendly link for a manager call; managers close. Signing goals of 50+, later 100 creators a month. Funnel: ~10% reply, a few book a call, ~1 in 1,000 signs. Outreach tracked in an internal system.
What happened
About 220,000 influencers contacted and 2-3K onboarded or signed; 200+ creators posting at once.
- Stage
- Scale (0 to $60M/year)
“now, we have about 25 marketing assistants doing outreach for us each day, and they we push them to try and reach out to 100 influencers a day each.”
“I I think the numbers are like we reached out to about 220,000 influencers.”
“Yeah, most of our outreach is actually email. DMs do work, but not really as well, I don't think.”
“compared to most brands, we were, you know, less picky with who we worked with. As long as they could kind of get the app into their video and it and it be like a a decent CPM, we usually said yes.”
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More from this episode
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- Cal AI: Let AI answer creators' email replies and hand warm ones to a managerAssistants' job ends at the first email; no results reported
- Cal AI: Pitch 'keep making your normal videos, just sneak us in', then ask for a callCalls ~10x the chance of signing; the pitch often lowered creators' prices
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- Cal AI: Buy only very cheap views at first, then pay more per deal once people know youDeals got more profitable over time, not less
- Cal AI: Test creators beyond fitness: moms, comedy, and fitness sub-nichesMixed: some moms profitable at $10 CPM; comedy got views but low intent
- Cal AI: Pay recipe, cooking and mukbang creators to promote a calorie trackerDidn't convert; cut early. Healthy-meal videos only okay
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- Cal AI: Befriend creators' managers, then ask to add the creator to the group chatLanded deals with a TV star; guest calls relationships the key
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