In today's episode, I chat with Roshan, co-founder at Kale Acquisition, about building cold email systems for companies selling to local businesses—and why staying deeply involved in the revenue conversation long after the lead is generated is what separates a growth partner from just another cold email agency. 

We explore how Kale generates 250 positive replies a week for their top clients by sending around 30,000 emails weekly, then maps every reply through sentiment analysis directly into the client's CRM so the sales team has full visibility—qualified leads, booked calls, and pipeline all in one place rather than isolated systems. He also shares their unique sales approach: running anonymized outbound on behalf of prospects during the sales cycle itself, proving the system works before asking for a signature. And for their longest-running client, the engagement went from zero BD function to a team of 10 with a newly hired SDR manager—built from scratch over a year together. Roshan also breaks down the local business niche advantage: you're talking to an owner, not five layers of procurement, so sales cycles are short and decisions happen fast. His prediction: they're now actively scaling new client acquisition after years of product-first growth, running the Clay Toronto community, and building a system that retains clients well past the industry average of three to six months. Roshan shares his path from engineering at University of Ottawa to calling his co-founder Mike right as Mike was about to quit his job—20 minutes after his manager conversation—and together building an engineer-first approach to outbound that treats sales as a system problem, not a headcount problem. 

Enjoy 🙂

(00:00) Introduction to Outbound Wizards 
(00:22) What Kale Acquisition Does: Cold Email for Local Business Sellers 
(01:00) Origin Story: Two Engineers from Ottawa Building Sales Systems 
(04:00) How the Local Business Niche Happened Organically Through Clay Expert Inbound 
(07:08) First 30-60-90 Days: Kickoff, Weekly Calls, Anonymous POC Campaigns 
(09:25) 250 Positive Replies a Week: The Scale of What They're Running 
(12:15) Integrating Into the CRM: Sentiment Analysis, Reply Routing, and Full Funnel Visibility 
(13:34) From Zero BD Team to 10 Reps: What a True Growth Partnership Looks Like 
(15:51) Roshan's Journey: Engineering Mindset Meets Sales, Learning You Can't Sell to Someone Who Doesn't Want It 
(18:40) The API Story: How Roshan's Question Pushed SalesRobot's API Direction 
(19:19) Future: Scaling New Client Acquisition After Years of Product-First Growth

🔗 CONNECT WITH ROSHAN

👥 LinkedIn 
🌐 Clay Experts Page 

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🎥 YouTube Channel

🐦 X (Twitter)

📸 Instagram

💻 Website

👥 LinkedIn
📧 Email - [email protected]

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