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EMILIO BAEZ · DEVELOPERS.NET

From "too saturated to work" to $336K signed in 40 days.

THE SITUATION

Developers.Net sells nearshore development talent, a market where every buyer hears ten pitches a week and every firm claims "best customer service." Every deal in company history required physical presence: conferences, flights, handshakes.

Emilio hated them. They pulled leadership away from the business and away from family, and produced unpredictable results. His belief was simple: the market is too saturated, outbound won't work here. He didn't even respond to the DMs he received himself, so why would anyone else.

They signed with us in February 2024. Kara took the kickoff call from a ski hill between runs, 20 centimeters of fresh snow that morning, and walked them through exactly how the acquisition channel would get built. They were ready for it. They understood this was no small feat, and they were done trading family time for conference booths.

WHY EMILIO ALMOST PASSED

They had tried agencies, other programs, and cold email. Nothing ever signed a client. Even the first attempt at this system stalled, because his team ran it before anyone knew what good looked like. The shift came when Emilio took the process himself. Within 40 days of the founder stepping in, momentum appeared.

40 DAYS

  1. FEB 2024

    Signed with MDL — kickoff from a ski hill, 20cm of fresh snow

  2. FIRST ATTEMPT

    Team runs the system before anyone knows what good looks like — it stalls

  3. DAY 0

    Emilio takes the process himself — momentum appears

  4. WEEK 4

    3–5 appointments per week, every week

  5. DAY 40

    $336,000 twelve-month contract signedthree developer positions to fill from day one

  6. 2.5 YEARS LATER

    Same system still running — Emilio & Douglas on their own profiles, team running the show

WHAT WE INSTALLED

The Signal Channel, with the messaging rebuilt first. They stopped sounding interchangeable and started sounding like the only firm that understood the buyer's exact situation.

  • Messaging rebuilt first so the outreach stopped sounding like every other dev firm.
  • Signal detection across five platforms to find founders in a buying window right now.
  • Founder-led relationship system, built to hand back to the team once the standard was set.

Outreach only goes to the 3% in a buying window.

SIGNAL DETECTION ACROSS FIVE PLATFORMS

LinkedIn
Reddit
Instagram
YouTube
Podcasts

Messaging rebuilt first — stop sounding interchangeable

The 3% in a buying window

founders ready to buy — right now

Founder-led conversations

3–5 Booked Appointments / Week

BUILT TO HAND BACK TO THE TEAM ONCE THE STANDARD IS SET

THE NUMBERS

BEFORE

0

clients ever signed from outbound

Growth ran on conferences, flights, and luck. Every deal required physical presence.

AFTER

$336Kin 40 days

twelve-month contract signed with a fintech company

3–5 appointments / week by week 4Conference dependency: eliminatedStill running 2.5 years later

IN THEIR WORDS

"We have a client that has signed a contract ($336,000) and we're looking for their developers. We have a couple more prospects asking questions.. Something is working! We're seeing it move."

RECEIPTS

SLACK — DEAL CONFIRMATION, $336K / 3 POSITIONS
SLACK — DEAL CONFIRMATION, $336K / 3 POSITIONS

WHAT THIS RESULT KILLS

Five beliefs this result put in the ground.

  • "Our market is too saturated."

    Saturation wasn't the problem. Sounding like everyone else was.

  • "Outbound doesn't work for dev firms."

    $336K signed in 40 days from a channel that had never produced a client.

  • "We already sound great, we have good service."

    The messaging was rebuilt first — before a single message went out.

  • "Our team should handle this."

    Momentum appeared within 40 days of the founder stepping in.

  • "If I don't respond to DMs, no one else will."

    The buyers in a window responded. The message just had to be written for them.

THE COST OF WAITING

  • Every new deal still needs a flight. Growth stays tied to who is in the room.
  • Growth stays unpredictable, riding conference cycles instead of a channel you control.
  • Founder time drains into conferences, pulled away from the business and from family.
  • The business stays dependent on being in the room, never on a system that books calls without you.

WHAT THIS MEANS FOR YOU

Saturation isn't the problem. Sounding like everyone else is. When the outreach only goes to the 3% in a buying window and the message reads like it was written for one founder, a crowded market stops being a disadvantage.

And to be precise about what got cracked here: it was never about cracking LinkedIn. It was about cracking a channel that books appointments for a company that believed nothing outside their network ever could.

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