How Zuper built $120K+ in pipeline in 60 days from a TAM scraped from scratch
- Pipeline in 60 days
- $120K+
- Of Zuper's total new pipeline
- ~25%
- Reply-to-interested rate (113 of 171)
- 66.08%
Chris RiesHead of Growth Marketing, Zuper
How Folio earned 1,987 interested replies from freelancers in 7 weeks, one inbox at a time
A link-in-bio and portfolio platform for freelancers reached 1,987 interested replies in 7 weeks by opening with the one thing freelancers want: more paid work.
- Market
- Link-in-bio and portfolio pages for creative freelancers worldwide
- Client
Julian FellaCo-Founder of Good Fella, which builds Folio
Every opener drew replies at about the same rate, 1.9% to 2.5%. The one that offered work turned 61% of its replies into interested. The ones that critiqued a freelancer's portfolio reached 16% at best.
- Interested replies in 7 weeks
- 1,987
- Positive reply rate on 3,489 replies
- 56.95%
- Emails sent to 72,745 freelancers
- 139,012
Folio had to get freelancers to say yes to a new tool from a stranger's email.
Folio gives freelancers a link-in-bio page for their work, a directory clients browse by discipline, and payments they keep in full. Its buyers are individual creatives around the world, so there is no company to research and no company name to personalize on.
The first tests found the channel and the problem at once. Reply rates held at 1.9% to 2.5% on every opener, but the openers that critiqued a freelancer's portfolio drew people who wrote back to push back.
The fix had to raise the share of replies that meant yes, and send only to addresses that would land.
What we built.
We tested the opener until the replies said yes, then scaled it across the platforms freelancers publish their work on.
Claude Code
Serper.dev
MillionVerifier
EmailBison
Context
A portfolio page for freelancers, sold one inbox at a time.
Offer test
13 variants tested. The winner offered work.
Sourcing
Freelancers found on the public portfolios they already keep.
List hygiene
Every address checked before it could cost a send.
Messaging
Two steps: a first name, the platform they came from, one question.
Segmentation
41 campaigns, split by source and inbox provider.
Sending
A dedicated sending instance from August 10.
From a public portfolio to a yes in the inbox.
Every freelancer comes from a portfolio they published themselves. We check the address, open with an offer of work, and send the signup link to everyone who says yes.
Folio reached 1,987 interested replies in 7 weeks at a 56.95% positive reply rate.
From August 10 to September 27, 2026, Folio's own sending instance sent 139,012 emails to 72,745 freelancers. 3,489 replied, and 1,987 of those replies were interested: 56.95%.
- Emails sent in 7 weeks
- 139,012
- Freelancers contacted
- 72,745
- Replies at a 4.8% reply rate
- 3,489
- Interested replies
- 1,987
- Positive reply rate
- 56.95%
- Bounce rate
- 1.22%
More client results.
Different markets, the same system underneath.
Chris RiesHead of Growth Marketing, Zuper
