Paradigm: Revolutionizing Sales Outreach Automation

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Happy Tuesday, folks.

Want to start by giving a huge shoutout to Karen who referred 6(!) new readers last week.

You’ve been one of my longest-reading subscribers, and I really appreciate you going the extra mile to show some love <3

Have actually been sitting on some revamped referral rewards, and looks like she is going to be one of the first ones to earn them 👀

Might be the first time I’ve ever said this, but everyone else should be a Karen

Paradigm: Empowering Sales Teams with Intelligent Outreach Automation

The Story: Building Sales Outreach Automation

The quickest way to develop thick skin is to cold call 100 prospects and get 4 responses, all of which say something like “leave me alone.”

BDR work is one of the most monotonous, mind-numbing professional activities in the world of tech, on par with HR (no offense) and hiring managers (offense intended… you mfs just use AI to screen candidates anyways)

However, it’s a crucial component of the sales pipeline for most B2B tech companies, and roughly 1.5 million individuals are employed in the role in the United States alone.

Billions of dollars are flowing into the space, from data analysis software to contact databases.

Through it all, the general process remains very much dependent on humans using these various tools to complete specific parts of the same general process. This is where sales outreach automation comes into play.

1. Get a picture of the company’s ICP

2. Comb through databases for potential prospects

3. Log contact information

4. Create & send personalized outreach emails

5. Respond or send follow ups (usually 3-4 emails per sequence)

6. Schedule meetings

7. Update the company’s CRM

With such a structured, repetitive workflow, it was only a matter of time before this field saw a lil AI-nnovation.

Paradigm drew the eye of the partners at YC for its AI “interns” for sales, operations, and marketing efforts.

Paradigm's AI-powered sales outreach automation handles every step of the Sales process. From finding companies from its database of hundreds of millions of companies based on filters and triggering such as Series A startups in the solar space or companies that have recently raised or posted new job opportunities, Paradigm handles prospect compiling.

From there, the AI can create personalized AI-but-doesn’t-look-like-it’s-AI email emails based on the prospect’s company, role, background, etc as well as the founder or sales professional’s own background, send the email and manage replies, and update the CRM (no matter the tool being used) to log any and all interactions with the potential client.

Paradigm doesn’t seek to replace sales professionals altogether. However, it does make them a whole helluva lot more productive.

The numbers:

Traction:

• Early beta, so limited users with plans to open this up in the coming months

• They’re initially targeting companies selling to other startups using triggers and automations as well as those with an interest in eventually expanding agent-based operations in non-sales departments

• While sales operations are mostly built out, customers have also begun to try the AI’s non-existent hands at research, data labeling, recruitment

Market Size:

• TOM: $100 billion (10.6% CAGR)

• SOM: $1 billion

• SAM: $10 million

Competition:

• Yalo

• Outreach

• Salesforce, HubSpot, Oracle

Team:

• Anna Monaco, Co-founder: former CTO of a conference networking app, UPenn alum (graduated last year early…)

• Claire Oxner, Co-founder: built various data analysis startups and a software development company which scaled to a few hundred thousand dollars in ARR from her dorm at UPenn

Risks:

• Bigger companies in the CRM space: major players in the space like Salesforce and HubSpot could 100% see AI and automation as an opportunity and have a massive data and resource advantage

• Expansion risks: expanding to other functions requires building much of this pipeline from scratch and could be better served by a vertical-specific solution

• Reliability: AI is notoriously bad at writing and the occasional hallucination, and mitigating these mishaps will be a forever problem for the company

What I like:

• Pipeline automation: unlike other tools in the space, Paradigm's sales outreach automation covers the entire process, eliminating the need to leave the platform for parts of the sales flow

• Integrations: the platform is integrated with the best CRMs, contact databases, and outreach software, allowing companies to use their existing accounts

• Human empowerment: while Paradigm will allow fewer BDRs to do the same amount of work (or more), it requires humans checking and approving each step of the process, minimizing complaint-worthy actions and incorporating that “human touch”

Opportunities:

• Other customers: selling to startups has lots of potential, but there will be more money in selling to large companies

• Pricing Models: assuming that the company sells a set subscription, they may be able to explore new pricing models such as per agent or even a commission for sales won through Paradigm

• Proactive Experimentation: while the client may have a pretty good idea of what they imagine their ideal customer to be, they may be pigeon holing themselves in their notions and not exploring pools of customers that may be particularly receptive to their product. Adding proactive experimentation with phrasing, contacts, sequences, etc would provide another extremely attractive value prop

As someone who has experienced the drain of BDR work first-hand, I can verify the soul-sucking task that it is. However, it's essential for any company hoping to sell to other businesses, so it's not going away anytime soon. Sales outreach automation tools like Paradigm will become increasingly crucial for businesses to stay competitive and efficient in their sales efforts.

Expect to see Paradigm being a household name like Salesforce and HubSpot as the go-to for all things sales outreach efforts.

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Cheers to another day,

Trey