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How Adam Robinson Grew With Provocative Ads, Cold Email and LinkedIn

Adam Robinson explains how provocative Facebook ads, a tiny cold email team and a LinkedIn audience grew his company, and why hiring without processes set it back.

Adam Robinson · Retention.com

Published March 29, 2024
About this resource
Format
SaaSOpen Austin 2024
Length
21 min video
Inside
5 lessons, 6 funding moments and a mind map
Read the full transcript

Explore the lesson. Sign in to access the slide download.

Adam Robinson got his company moving with weekly one-minute Facebook videos built around an offer people found interesting, then grew it with very few people and a low-cost cold email operation run by his cofounder. When he later tried to build a unicorn, he hired expensive senior people without processes, spent like a VC-backed company and missed his public target by about half, while the high churn of his product category pushed him toward B2B, where he built a LinkedIn audience before launching a new product.

Key takeaways

  • For GetEmails, Adam's Facebook ads were weekly one-minute videos, made with his wife Helen, that answered the product's sales questions, and he said they worked where his earlier ads had failed because the offer itself interested people. 04:57
  • The ads paid back fast because the company sold both $9 plans and big plans: about 100 people would sign up and churn around 20% a month, and one customer paying $5,000 paid the ads back. 07:23
  • His cofounder Diana Ross ran outbound with a five-person team in the Philippines that cost about $2,000 to $3,000 a month, finding emails that were not in ZoomInfo and sending from Gmail accounts. 08:22
  • Adam called getting FOMO his biggest mistake: he added expensive senior people with no processes, spent like a VC-backed company and missed the target he announced in a docuseries by about 50%. 14:37
  • He said churn depends on the product category: customers rarely leave systems of record like CRMs, while selling leads or intent data on a SaaS contract brought his company about 60% gross churn a year. 14:55
  • For the move to B2B, he aimed his LinkedIn content at B2B revenue leaders, spent about $50,000 a month on the program, and held off the launch for six months while running over 300 discovery calls with about 1,600 people on the waitlist. 17:19

Takeaways and lessons are Founderpath’s summary of this resource, checked against the transcript. Quotes are verbatim.

Mind map

Everything in this resource on one page

Retention.com

Select any point on the map to see the quote behind it, play that moment, or jump to the full lesson.

The playbook: 5 lessons from Retention.com

Lesson 1 · Paid acquisition

Lead your first ads with the offer, while you have no brand to lose

Adam had tried plenty of Facebook ads at his earlier company without results. For GetEmails, starting in 2019, he and his wife Helen made a one-minute video every week that answered the product's sales questions in front of an unusual background, hoping people would start looking forward to the next one.

  1. The offer matters more than the ad.

    “So number one, the offer that you are making people is like the most important to making an ad work.”

    Adam Robinson, Watch at 05:56

    Going further: His earlier Facebook ads had failed; these worked, he said, because what the product did and what he was saying interested people.

  2. Before you have revenue, provocation costs little.

    “you don't have a brand when you're zero MRR. Like, you can do outrageous things with zero consequence, as far as I can tell.”

    Adam Robinson, Watch at 06:54

    Going further: The product identifies anonymous website visitors, so a vocal minority hated the ads and argued in the comments, and he mocked them back from the brand account. He credited that back-and-forth for how well the ads did.

  3. Selling small and large plans made the ads pay back quickly.

    “And then one guy would pay us five grand and like immediately pay the ads back.”

    Adam Robinson, Watch at 07:23

    Going further: He was clear about the limit: the ads brought awareness and cash, but not the customers the company was being built for, so the channel did not last past the first stage.

Lesson 2 · Outbound & cold outreach

Build outbound around contacts your competitors aren't emailing

After the Facebook stage, Adam's cofounder Diana Ross ran outbound with five people in the Philippines, which he put at about $2,000 or $3,000 a month, while the company had a single salesperson.

How the cold email machine worked

  1. Build the list in ZoomInfo08:51
  2. Find a different email elsewhere onlineHalf of each day went to this research08:51
  3. Send from several Gmail accounts08:51
  4. Cofounder handles the replies08:51
  5. Demo and close08:51
Source: Adam Robinson's SaaSOpen keynote. Every step is described in the talk; select a timestamp to play it.

  1. Reach people through addresses the big databases don't have.

    “They were spending half of their days doing lead gen, finding emails that were specifically not in ZoomInfo.”

    Adam Robinson, Watch at 08:51

    Going further: Diana's belief, which Adam called untested and unscientific, was that emails from Apollo or ZoomInfo were already being spammed and that automation tools everyone used couldn't work.

  2. Keep sending simple and keep the replies with the founder.

    “They'd send a bunch of different emails from our Gmail accounts, and then when people responded, she would deal with them and get them on a demo and close them.”

    Adam Robinson, Watch at 08:51

    Going further: By the time of the talk, Adam said, the cold email landscape had changed and the company was doing it differently, so copy the principle, not the sending setup.

Lesson 3 · Hiring & leadership

Hire only when the process for the hire exists

Adam said he loved running the lean stage: the company reached $12 million in ARR with six people. He shared an office with the team that went on to build Jasper and watched it grow quickly and raise money from top-tier investors. At $13 million in ARR, he decided to try to build a unicorn himself.

From a lean team to a hiring spree

  1. December 2020Jasper's founders get a first customerDave texts: “Hopefully, this is my GetEmails.”11:46
  2. A year laterJasper grows fast and raises moneyAdam still has one salesperson12:19
  3. The advice“Hire one more, please”Shane Orlick, one of Jasper's hires, on Adam's single salesperson12:49
  4. The decisionChase a unicornExpensive senior hires with no processes, spending on everything13:39
  5. The resultPublic target missed by about 50%14:37
Source: Adam Robinson's SaaSOpen keynote. Dates and figures are as he stated them in the talk.

  1. Traction creates pressure to hire.

    “And, you know, it takes a lot of discipline to not add employees when you have traction.”

    Adam Robinson, Watch at 09:49

    Going further: People called a six-person team “cute”, and Shane Orlick, one of the people Jasper hired, told him to hire a second salesperson.

  2. Senior hires don't replace process.

    “So we also added a bunch of expensive senior people with no processes.”

    Adam Robinson, Watch at 15:23

    Going further: He described the result as a sloppy, very fast sprint with no processes, made because he was sure growth was coming.

  3. Copying a funded peer's pace was the costliest mistake.

    “I got FOMO and I started behaving like a VC backed company. What does that mean? I was, like, spending money on literally everything, losing all discipline.”

    Adam Robinson, Watch at 15:23

    Going further: He added that he was setting a bad example for his employees, and that he had the free cash to do it without raising money.

Lesson 4 · Retention & expansion

Know your category's churn before you set a growth target

Adam named churn as a main reason for the missed target. Selling leads or intent data on a SaaS contract to e-commerce brands brought about 60% gross churn a year, and with more competitors, expansion revenue turned into a price war.

  1. Customers rarely leave a product that stores their data.

    “So golden goose in MarTech is systems of record, email service providers, CRMs. Right? If you're storing data from somebody, they're never gonna quit.”

    Adam Robinson, Watch at 14:55

    Going further: At the opposite end of his spectrum is selling leads or intent data and asking customers to pay for it on a SaaS contract, which is what his company did.

  2. High churn can stall a company that keeps selling.

    “And, like, really the reason why is and why I say I'm stuck again is this unbelievably high churn paradigm. And I'm talking like sixty percent gross per year.”

    Adam Robinson, Watch at 15:52

    Going further: Competition pushed prices down, so expansion couldn't make up for it and revenue retention was just as bad. The company stayed profitable, which he called another reason to bootstrap.

What a year of gross churn costs per $1M of ARR Our arithmetic on $1M of starting ARR, ignoring expansion and applying churn to the starting base only. Adam gives the 60% figure; the 10% row is a comparison we chose.

Annual gross churnARR lost in a year, and new ARR needed to stay flatNew ARR needed to grow 50%
10%$100,000$600,000
60%, Adam's figure$600,000$1,100,000

Lesson 5 · Personal brand & LinkedIn

Aim your content at the next buyer and let the audience shape the product

When the company turned to B2B, Adam switched his LinkedIn content in August 2023 from Shopify store owners to B2B revenue leaders, and said the response grew about tenfold. He then built an audience and waited six months before launching the new product.

Audience first, product second

  1. Write for B2B revenue leadersNot Shopify store owners17:19
  2. Fund it like a channelAbout $50,000 a month plus his time17:49
  3. Hold the launch for six months18:47
  4. Over 300 discovery callsAbout 1,600 people on the waitlist18:47
  5. A free offer in the postsDM him to see visitors' LinkedIn profiles in Slack18:47
Source: Adam Robinson's SaaSOpen keynote, March 2024. Figures as stated in the talk.

  1. Who you write for can matter more than how you write.

    “But I pivoted my content from trying to attract Shopify store owners to trying to attract B2B revenue leaders.”

    Adam Robinson, Watch at 17:19

    Going further: He pointed to his own LinkedIn from Labor Day 2023 as the moment the switch shows, and said it was just the content that changed.

  2. The audience was a funded program, not a side habit.

    “I'm spending a ton of effort and money on this. Like, the the consultant I use is twelve thousand five hundred dollars a month, but we're using it for four people.”

    Adam Robinson, Watch at 17:49

    Going further: He also paid someone fifteen grand to run outbound conversations from his profile and kept a filmmaker and a video editor on staff, about $50,000 a month in all plus much of his own time.

  3. Build the audience before or while you build the product.

    “Customer discovery is building an audience either before or while you build the product”

    Adam Robinson, Watch at 18:47

    Going further: He held over 300 discovery calls and had about 1,600 people on the waitlist, and ended posts with a free offer to DM him.

  4. A large audience favors a free, shareable offer over a sales-led one.

    “If I have an insane free offer and I'm heavily influenced by this Mailchimp situation, it's gonna help me with this megaphone a lot more than it would help someone who did not.”

    Adam Robinson, Watch at 19:54

    Going further: He had planned a sales-led mid-market product at $30,000 to $50,000 ACV for lower churn, and changed course because the LinkedIn reach was so large.

Funding moments

The 6 moments where the conversation turns to how a growing business pays for growth, and the idea behind each one.

  1. 03:33Self-funding from sales
    “when you're bootstrapped and you're trying to run a profitable business, when you get stuck, you have options. And a lot of times, if you're raising VC, you just don't.”
    Adam Robinson
    Bootstrap financing →
  2. 07:23Self-funding from sales
    “And then one guy would pay us five grand and like immediately pay the ads back.”
    Adam Robinson
    Bootstrap financing →
  3. 10:19Selling equity
    “Millions for everyone. Right? And I don't think you should have to sell your equity to do it.”
    Adam Robinson
    Venture capital →
  4. 12:49Selling equity
    “they raised a bunch of money from all the top tier investors.”
    Adam Robinson
    Venture capital →
  5. 13:39Reinvesting profit
    “And thank God I didn't go out and raise money, but, you know, as I mentioned, at that point, we had, like, you know, we had just a ton of free cash.”
    Adam Robinson
    Bootstrap financing →
  6. 16:22Self-funding from sales
    “You can make a horrible mistake if you are bootstrapping and still be in a beautiful place.”
    Adam Robinson
    Bootstrap financing →
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Retention.com by the numbers

FigureValueWhen said
Smallest plan sold with Facebook ads$9 a month07:23
Signups from a typical ad pushAbout 10007:23
Monthly churn of those signupsAbout 20%07:23
One big-plan customer that paid the ads back$5,00007:23
Five-person outbound team in the Philippines$2,000 to $3,000 a month08:22
Gross churn, leads sold on a SaaS contractAbout 60% a year15:52
LinkedIn consultant, shared by four people$12,500 a month17:49
Person running outbound from his profile$15,00017:49
Whole LinkedIn programAbout $50,000 a month18:18
Wait between content pivot and launchSix months18:47
Discovery callsOver 30018:47
WaitlistAbout 1,600 people18:47

Where this may not work for you

The provocative ads worked because the product itself provoked a reaction and the company had no brand yet; a product that needs trust from its first buyers can't borrow that tactic. The cold email setup predates what Adam called a changed cold email landscape. And the LinkedIn results came from a program costing about $50,000 a month plus a founder's time, which most early founders can't match, so start smaller and measure discovery calls rather than reach.

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Resource files

  • Video

    Watch video

  • Adam Robinson SaaSOpen keynote slides

  • Retention.com Revenue Growth

  • January 2024 P&L

Featured slides and resources

Retention.com Revenue Growth

About the speaker
Adam Robinson

Adam Robinson

CEO and Founder · Retention.com

Retention.comRB2BThe RB2B NewsletterLinkedIn

Adam Robinson co-founded GetEmails, which became Retention.com, and for a time ran it alongside Robly, an email newsletter app that he said had been stuck for four years while Mailchimp dominated its market. He gave this talk as he moved into B2B with a new product built with his LinkedIn audience.

Retention.com's About page lists Adam Robinson, Tate Blahnik and Diana Ross as the company's founders (as of November 2026). (said at 08:22, Retention.com, About)

The RB2B Newsletter, where Adam wrote about building the company, describes him (as of November 2026) as founder and CEO of Retention.com and RB2B, and says he launched RB2B in March 2024 to show SaaS companies the LinkedIn profiles of anonymous website visitors in Slack. (said at 18:47, The RB2B Newsletter)

What Adam teaches here

“You are not stuck. It just feels like you are.”
Adam Robinson, Watch at 20:23

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