How Daniel Saks’ Encounter with Michael Dell Shaped Landbase’s Approach to Sales Outreach
When Daniel Saks was co-CEO of AppDirect, a startup he co-founded, he received a LinkedIn message from billionaire Michael Dell asking for a meeting. Dell is known for cold-contacting founders of startups that catch his interest. Initially, Saks thought the message was fake. Still, he replied and prepared for the call, half-expecting it not to be the real Michael Dell. It turned out it was.
This interaction taught Saks a crucial lesson for his new startup, Landbase: when people recognize who you are, they respond to your cold outreach.
From AppDirect to Landbase: Applying the Lesson
Saks left AppDirect about a year ago to start Landbase, a company focused on what he calls “vibe GTM”—using AI to automate outreach marketing. Landbase recently announced a $30 million Series A round co-led by Sound Ventures and Picus Capital, with participation from other investors like 8VC and Firstminute Capital.
The product leverages OpenAI’s GPT-4o base model, fine-tuned with data from 40 million marketing campaigns. This training used reinforcement learning combined with human oversight, based on data obtained through partnerships with marketing agencies.
One surprising insight from analyzing these campaigns was that over half had failed—not due to poor copywriting, but because of a lack of trust in the sender. This reinforced Saks’ initial lesson: people don’t respond when they don’t know or trust the sender.
Building Digital Trust to Boost Outreach Success
Saks explains that first-time founders with new companies have slim chances of running successful outbound campaigns. The key is building the company’s name recognition in highly targeted ways rather than broad, unfocused outreach.
Before AI-driven automation, raising brand awareness required large marketing budgets. Now, automation tools allow companies to run campaigns quickly and affordably, often in minutes instead of months and with fewer resources.
Following his own advice, Saks developed Landbase’s “digital trust” by creating content on YouTube and his personal website. Using Landbase’s platform, the company grew from 10 paid customers at the end of 2024 to over 100 today.
Fundraising and Team Strength
The Series A round validated Saks’ approach and brought on board Sound Ventures, a fund known for backing influential AI companies such as OpenAI, Anthropic, and Hugging Face.
Landbase’s seed round, raised in September, included investors familiar with Saks from AppDirect. The founding team features CPO Emily Zhang (formerly at Carta) and Chief Data Scientist Hua Gao (ZoomInfo), which impressed investors and helped put Landbase on the Silicon Valley radar.
After focusing on building digital trust, the startup received inbound interest from around 130 venture capitalists. Saks booked 50 meetings with top-choice investors across San Francisco, New York, and Los Angeles. Sound Ventures secured the deal partly thanks to Ashton Kutcher’s suggestion to refine the company’s marketing tagline from “intelligently automate your go-to-market” to a more direct “find your next customer.”
Standing Out in a Crowded AI Sales Market
Despite raising $42.5 million so far, Landbase faces stiff competition from well-funded startups like Regie.ai, AiSDR, Artisan, 11x.ai, and ZoomInfo, plus established players like Salesforce, Microsoft, and HubSpot.
Landbase differentiates itself by not trying to replace humans or giving its AI a human persona. Instead, the AI suggests and tracks outreach efforts, while a human remains in control to edit and oversee campaigns.
The startup targets a broad range of small and medium-sized businesses, including insurance brokers, commercial landscapers, and managed service providers—industries often overlooked by tech-focused competitors.
Pricing and Product Model
Landbase offers a freemium model, which is rare among AI-driven sales tools due to unpredictable token costs. The free tier lets users automate campaign planning and messaging, but running campaigns at scale requires a subscription costing around $3,000 per month, with more pricing tiers coming soon.
This approach balances accessibility for smaller businesses with the advanced features needed for larger campaigns.
Key Takeaways for Sales Professionals
- Build trust early: People respond better when they recognize the sender. Use targeted content and channels to raise your profile.
- Use AI to automate, not replace: Let AI support your outreach, but keep humans in control to maintain authenticity.
- Focus on targeted outreach: Avoid broad, untargeted campaigns. Quality beats quantity.
- Leverage digital trust: Create content and presence that position you as a credible contact before reaching out.
- Start small and scale fast: Automation tools can compress months of work into minutes, freeing up your time for relationship-building.
Sales professionals interested in AI-driven outreach tools and strategies can explore quality training and courses on Complete AI Training to stay ahead in this evolving landscape.
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