CoDev GTM Repositioning
The 30-second version
Lead sales conversations with outcomes we have already delivered, keep selling staff augmentation underneath, and prove it works with a 3-week pilot that risks almost nothing.
- The market buys outcomes, not just hours. We already ship those outcomes and have five wins to prove it.
- Every call makes a deposit first: a useful, specific insight given for free before we ask for anything.
- Staff-aug outreach never deposits, which is why prospects go cold. This plan fixes that.
Lead with outcomes.
Keep the hours.
The market buys outcomes, not just hours. We already deliver them, and five wins prove it. This plan leads with outcomes while keeping staff augmentation underneath, tested on a 3-week pilot that risks almost nothing.
The whole motion runs on one idea. Every call makes a deposit, a useful insight given for free, before it asks for anything. Staff-aug outreach never does, which is why prospects go cold.
We don't lose on price. We lose to a shrug.
600+ deals went cold with no stated reason. We never even got to compete for them. That is roughly two every week a prospect forgot CoDev existed before we gave them a reason to remember. The fix is not a better closer. It is a better first sentence.
Approve a 3-week pilot. Nothing more.
Run the new motion with 2 to 3 of our existing SDRs while the rest keep selling staff-aug exactly as they do now. No new budget, no new tools, no headcount. At the end you get a real number and a Keep, Change, or Kill decision. This is not a request to reorganize the team or bet the pipeline.
The roadmap beyond the pilot is on The Pilot page, shown as the prize, not as part of this ask.
How the pieces connect
Six artifacts, one argument. Evidence to strategy to offer to motion to proof.
What you are probably thinking
Read in any order
01 / Evidence
The Problem
Why the current motion is failing, grounded in CoDev's own pipeline data, not opinion.
The 30-second version
CoDev is not losing on price or to competitors. It is losing to indifference, and the pipeline data shows it.
- Every won deal is a seat (a role placed), not a solution. The business that closes today is rent-a-person.
- "Gone Cold" is the number-one loss reason. Price and competition barely register.
- Generic staffing outreach creates zero urgency, so prospects ghost. Read it as a strong hypothesis the VOC interviews will confirm.
"Gone Cold" is not a competitor. It is a shrug.
It is the number-one reason we lose, and the cheapest one to fix. Prospects do not reject us, they forget us, because "are you hiring developers?" sounds like forty other vendors that week. Everything below is the evidence for that, pulled from CoDev's own pipeline.
Why we are repositioning, in CoDev's own numbers, not opinion.
02 / Why & How
The Strategy
Keep the cash engine, change what we lead with, and run the whole thing as a learning machine instead of a launch.
The 30-second version
Keep the cash engine, change what we lead with, and run the whole thing as a learning machine instead of a launch.
- Value ladder: lead with the solution (top rung), keep staff augmentation (bottom rung). We are not abandoning it.
- Qualify what stage a prospect is in and flex the deposit. Validate on the acute-pain end, then scale.
- Deposit, not withdrawal, is the single behavior change that defines the motion.
The value ladder
We are not abandoning staff augmentation. We lead with the top rung and keep the bottom one.
The AI adoption spectrum
We qualify a prospect's stage and flex the deposit, validating on the acute-pain end first. Stages are provisional until the VOC interviews put real buyer language behind them.
Deposit, not withdrawal
The single behavior change that defines the whole motion.
"Hi, are you looking for .NET developers?"
This one sentence is why they forget us. Forty vendors say it this week. The prospect is not rejecting us, they literally cannot tell us apart. That is what "Gone Cold" really is.
You cannot withdraw from an account you never paid into.
Every cold "are you hiring developers?" is a stranger asking for money. Every deposit pays in first. That is the whole reposition in one sentence, and the one thing a staffing competitor cannot copy. They have nothing to deposit.
The positioning every downstream artifact inherits from.
How the motion runs as one learning machine, not a launch.
03 / What
What We Sell
Stop selling hours. Start selling things a buyer can picture and say yes to. The full shop, not just the AI work.
The 30-second version
Stop selling hours. Sell things a buyer can picture and say yes to. The full shop, led by six outcomes.
- Six hero offerings carry the motion. Each solves a problem the buyer already feels, and each one we have shipped.
- Behind the heroes sits the whole 300-person shop: six capability groups, one delivery team.
- Staff augmentation is the base of the ladder, sold at the end of an outcome conversation, not as the opener.
An SDR should name an offering in one breath, and the buyer should already know whether they need it.
"A senior .NET developer" is a seat. "We move your software off a vanished contractor's accounts and back into your hands" is a thing a buyer can feel. Same shop, sharper handle.
Six catalog themes carry the motion. Each solves a problem the buyer already feels, and each one we have already shipped.
Cloud Migration
Your app runs on accounts you do not own, or a contractor who walked away still holds the keys to your servers, database, and domain. We move systems and data onto infrastructure you control and fix the architecture on the way in. The stranded-software scenario nobody else names.
Proof VLCM, RidgeView
Custom Software Engineering
Your software is live and breaking. Senior engineers stabilize it, close the security gaps, and hand it back as something you can actually trust, then keep it that way.
Proof LineAmp, RidgeView, VLCM
POC / MVP Development
It works in the demo but will not survive real users. We take prototypes, including the AI and no-code ones, and turn them into software that holds up under load and your own team can maintain.
Proof all five wins
Application Modernization
Every change to the old app is slow and risky and nobody wants to touch it. We rebuild it in stages while it keeps running, with no year-long rewrite that bets the company on a restart.
Proof CityWeekly
System Integration & APIs
Your tools do not talk to each other and people retype the same data between them. We wire your systems together with APIs that hold, so data moves once and stays correct.
Proof Strangebrain.ai, RidgeView, LineAmp
Dedicated Teams
You need a team now, not three months of hiring. A ready-made group of senior developers, QA, and DevOps who own the result. The cash engine, now the next step after an outcome conversation, not the opening pitch.
Proof CaseWorthy, 333 deals, the base of the ladder
Behind every outcome above sits the whole 300-person shop. Six capability groups, one delivery team.
Software Engineering
End-to-end design, build, and delivery of web, mobile, and enterprise applications, shaped to the business, not the org chart.
Cloud & DevOps
CI/CD, infrastructure as code, and 24/7 reliability across AWS, Azure, and GCP, tuned for lower spend and fewer outages.
Support & Maintenance
Tiered support and production care that keeps shipped software healthy: triage, fixes, tuning, and patching.
Staff Augmentation
Senior engineers and full teams embedded in yours, owning delivery, not just filling seats. The base of the ladder.
Data & Analytics
Pipelines and reporting that turn scattered data into one source your leaders can act on instead of argue about.
AI & ML
Custom models, LLM and RAG systems, and AI-assisted delivery with senior engineers who know where AI gets it wrong.
04 / Run It
The Motion
Two halves of one machine: the Deposit Call the SDR runs, and the lead-gen pipeline that arms every call with a reason to make it.
The 30-second version
The motion is one repeatable loop: spot a signal, give a deposit, earn the meeting.
- Find prospects showing acute-pain signals, lead with a specific free insight, then ask.
- The call is where the ask happens. Emails and follow-ups keep depositing in between.
- Everything is measured in a CoDev-owned scorecard, never written back to HubSpot.
Lead-gen flow: old vs revised
The SDR team built a clean, compliant pipeline. The one thing it does not do yet is give the rep a reason to call. The revision keeps all that plumbing and adds three things to it: a signal, a deposit, and a scorecard.
Click any changed or new step in the revised flow to see why. Kept steps need no defense, they are unchanged on purpose.
Current flow
12 steps. Clean, compliant, signal-blind.
Revised flow
13 steps. Same plumbing plus signal, deposit, scorecard.
changed01Campaign + Signal DefinitionICP filters plus the observable signal. No signal, no list.
changed04Data CleaningName filter removed. Replaced by region, role, language.
new05Attach Stage + DepositSet stage, attach the Deposit Library line. Loads the call.
changed07Net-New + Warm DedupPlus dedup vs HubSpot. Warm goes to the warm-base play.
changed08Lead TaggingPlus arm (pilot/control) and signal.
changed11SDR EngagementLead arrives with stage + deposit. Prep is seconds.
changed13Outcome TrackingPlus scorecard fields. These decide the trial.
The one step that must change now
Old step 4 removes "Asian/Indian sounding names." That is name-based ethnic filtering: legal exposure, brand risk if ever seen, and it does not even work as a proxy for the real intent (US-based, English-first buyers).
Replaced with clean signals that hit the same target: company HQ and region, decision-maker role and seniority, and language of operation judged at the company level. Same goal, defensible mechanism, no exposure.
05 / Prove It
The Pilot
The small, de-risked test that puts a number on the one thing we have never proven: that value-led outbound converts cold strangers.
The 30-second version
The ask is small and reversible: approve a 3-week pilot with a few SDRs against a control, then decide on the data.
- 2-3 SDRs run the new motion, a control group keeps the old one, for 3 weeks.
- The decision metric is deposit-acceptance, measured the same way for both groups.
- Low cost, short, and it ends with a clear go or no-go. The roadmap is the prize if it works.
Approve 2 to 3 SDRs running this for 3 weeks.
No new budget, no new tools, no headcount, and we keep selling staff-aug the entire time. The pilot is reversible in a week. What you get back is a number and a Keep, Change, or Kill decision, not a commitment to scale.
Three weeks, reversible in one. The commitment ends at a Keep, Change, or Kill decision, not a rollout.
The funnel at par
Roughly 1,500 dials over the sprint. Enough to read the early funnel clearly, which is why the decision metric is deposit-acceptance, not meetings.
What it costs, and what it returns if it works
| Pilot cost | ~3 SDRs x 3 weeks of existing labor. No new spend. |
| Conversations at par | ~150 (from ~1,500 dials) |
| Meetings booked at par | ~15 |
| Meetings to opportunities (illustrative 30%) | ~4 to 5 new solution opportunities |
| Pipeline value | 4 to 5 x [solution ACV you set] |
06 / Proof & Honesty
Evidence
The wins that prove we deliver the outcome, the honest caveat that none were cold, and the gate that closes it.
The 30-second version
The outcome motion is not a theory. Real wins already prove CoDev turns fragile, AI-built, or stranded software into production systems, and delivers the integration, data, and AI work behind them.
- RidgeView, LineAmp, TryShed/ShedRx, CityWeekly, and VLCM each bought an outcome, not a seat. Strangebrain.ai adds integration, data, and AI breadth.
- They span the proven themes: Cloud Migration, Application Modernization, Custom Software Engineering, Custom Mobile App Development, System Integration & APIs, and Data Engineering.
- Honest caveat: these wins came warm. The pilot tests whether we can manufacture them cold.
VLCM was locked out of their own product.
The students who built it on a Cursor stack left, and every server, login, and key sat on accounts VLCM could not reach. Their own software was holding the business hostage. We moved all of it, code, infrastructure, database, every integration, onto accounts they own, and handed back the keys. That is the outcome we sell. The logos below are four more of it.
Every one of these came warm or by referral. Never from a cold call.
We put that on the page on purpose. It is the one thing the wins do not prove, and it is exactly what The Pilot exists to close. Honesty about the gap is the reason to trust the rest.
Six client wins: five where we took fragile or AI-built software to production, plus the integration, data, and AI delivery behind a sixth.
What we still have to validate before the first dial, and the review that hardened it.
SDR Playbook / P1
Call Flow
The live cold-call sequence. Glance at the LIVE card on a call, study the PREP version before one. All copy is drafted v1, pending SDR validation.
Opener
Hi {{First Name}}, this is {{Rep}} at CoDev. I will be quick. We keep running into software teams whose product was built fast, sometimes by a contractor or with AI tools, and is now live but fragile. Before I ask anything, is that anywhere close to your world right now?
If they engage
The ask
Direct: "Worth 20 minutes this week to walk you through what we would check first?"
Prep15-second pre-call · the stage detector
Know which signal you are hunting and which stage the prospect is likely in.
Stage 0 - Evaluating: no AI/quick build yet, just curious. Lightest deposit, longest nurture.
Stage 1 - Experimenting: built something with AI or no-code, not yet in real production. Deposit on the gap between demo and production.
Stage 2 - Stuck: it is live and breaking, or owned by someone who left. Acute pain. This is the primary target. Deposit the specific teardown.
Menufull offering menu · name any of these mid-call
The spine above leads with the six proven plays. This is the rest of the official CoDev catalog so you can name any offering once a conversation is open. A theme in filled carries a win story.
Software Engineering
Cloud & DevOps
Support & Maintenance
Staff Augmentation
Data & Analytics
AI & ML
Openerearn the next sentence · 6 openers, pick by signal
Lead with curiosity plus a hint of specific pain. Do not pitch. The safe all-purpose opener:
If you already know the signal from your research, open sharper. Pick the one that matches what you found:
Dedicated Teams is rarely the cold open. It is the next step after an outcome conversation, so save it for the meeting, not the first line.
Discoverysurface the signal · questions grouped by service
Ask the question that reveals the pain so the deposit lands. Start with the broad one, then drill into the group that matches what you hear.
"When that product was built, is the team that built it still the team that maintains it today?"
"If you needed to get into the servers, the domain, or the admin accounts behind your product today, do you have the keys, or does someone outside the company?"
"When the original builder set it up, were the cloud and domain accounts ever moved into your company's name?"
"If something broke in production tonight, who is the person who fixes it, and how long would that take?"
"When did you last have an outage or a security scare you did not see coming?"
"How much of what works in the demo would you trust with ten times the users, without a rewrite?"
"Which tool built it, Replit, Lovable, Bolt, Cursor, or a contractor, and is it in front of real customers yet?"
"How long does a change that should take a day actually take in that system now?"
"Is there a part of the codebase your team avoids touching because it is too risky?"
"Are you paying more than you expected to run it, going down more than you would like, or both?"
"Is your data in one place you trust, or spread across tools nobody fully owns?"
The Meeting Askcalls are where you ask · 3 variations
Put it together: 5 full calls
The whole flow assembled, opener to ask, as a real conversation. The last three are built on real CoDev engagements. Expand one and read it out loud.
Worked call ACustom Software Engineering · live and breaking
Custom Software Engineering
Worked call BCloud Migration · the quiet signal
Cloud Migration
Worked call CCustom Web Development · based on the ToniqLabs engagement
Custom Web Development
Worked call D"We have our own team" save · based on the CaseWorthy engagement
Dedicated Teams
Worked call EApplication Modernization · based on the CaptionCall engagement
Application Modernization
Practice scenarios
Drills, not scripts. Read the scenario, then say your opener, one fishing question, and the deposit out loud before you reveal the model. Each is built on a real CoDev engagement, so the proof you practice with is proof you can use.
Drill 1 · ToniqLabs: the invisible failure
Scenario. You are calling a fast-growing crypto or fintech platform. In your research you saw users complaining that "transactions fail," but the company insists everything works. The product was scaled fast.
Your move. Out loud: your opener, one fishing question, and the deposit. Then reveal.
Reveal a model answeropener · fishing question · deposit · ask
Opener: "Hi {{First Name}}, Alex at CoDev. We get called when software is live and something feels off that the team cannot quite pin down. Is anything in your product doing that right now?"
Fishing question: "When users say something failed, can your team see what actually happened inside the system, or are you piecing it together from complaints?"
Deposit: "We saw this exact thing at ToniqLabs: trades settled but the screen lagged, so users thought they failed and left. The fix was two parts, make the screen reflect reality instantly and put real monitoring in. That visibility later let us trace a compromised account to 99 percent confidence and map 228 bad inflows. You cannot fix what you cannot see."
Ask: "Worth 20 minutes to map your blind spots? I will bring the short list of what we would instrument first."
Drill 2 · CaptionCall: the rewrite they are scared of
Scenario. You are calling a company with a maturing mobile or web app. Signals: slow releases, an aging codebase, performance complaints, maybe an accessibility-sensitive user base. They are nervous about a big rewrite.
Your move. Out loud: your opener, one fishing question, and the deposit. Then reveal.
Reveal a model answeropener · fishing question · deposit · ask
Opener: "Hi {{First Name}}, Alex at CoDev. We help teams where an app still runs the business but every change is slow and risky and nobody wants to touch the old code. Does that describe anything you are sitting on?"
Fishing question: "How long does a change that should take a day actually take in that system now?"
Deposit: "The trap is the big-bang rewrite that bets the company on a restart. We modernized the mobile app for CaptionCall in stages while features kept shipping. iOS came out about 13 percent faster and used around 20 percent less memory. Staged, not a gamble."
Ask: "Worth 20 minutes to map which part to modernize first, the riskiest one, while everything keeps running?"
Drill 3 · CaseWorthy: "we have our own team"
Scenario. You are calling a scaling SaaS company. They clearly have an in-house engineering team and may bristle at "outsourcing." They are under deadline pressure, possibly with regulated or government clients.
Your move. Out loud: your opener, your handling of "we have our own team," and the proof. Then reveal.
Reveal a model answeropener · the save · proof · ask
Opener: "Hi {{First Name}}, Alex at CoDev. We help product teams shipping under pressure that cannot hire fast enough to keep up. Sound like your world?"
The save (if "we have our own team"): "Good, that is usually exactly who we work alongside, not instead of. Can I tell you what that looked like for one client, in 30 seconds?"
Proof: "CaseWorthy serves over a thousand agencies under hard deadlines. Their engineers were strong but underwater. We took regression testing, legacy upkeep, and production support so they could stay on the work only they could do. Their VP of Engineering said our developer became a critical part of the org and would be incredibly hard to replace."
Ask: "Worth 20 minutes to find the one area your team is most underwater? That is where we would start."
Drill 4 · Strangebrain.ai: the data nobody trusts
Scenario. You are calling a company that runs on several operational systems plus an accounting or ERP tool like NetSuite. Signals: staff re-keying the same records by hand, finance and operations arguing over which number is right, no single source of truth for customer or payment data.
Your move. Out loud: your opener, one fishing question, and the deposit. Then reveal.
Reveal a model answeropener · fishing question · deposit · ask
Opener: "Hi {{First Name}}, Alex at CoDev. We get called when a company's tools do not talk to each other and someone ends up re-keying the same data between them. Does that sound like anything in your stack?"
Fishing question: "When a transaction happens in one system, how does it get into your accounting or ERP, by hand, or does it flow on its own?"
Deposit: "We are doing this right now for an AI-automation consultancy. We wired their operational systems into NetSuite and a data warehouse so patient visits and payments become invoices automatically, no manual re-keying, with bi-directional sync across NetSuite, the warehouse, blob storage, and SharePoint, plus a RAG assistant on their support desk. If your tools do not talk and someone is re-keying between them, that is the gap we close."
Ask: "Worth 20 minutes to map where data is being re-typed today? That is usually where the first integration pays for itself."
Post-call log
Log these in the CoDev-owned scorecard, never in HubSpot. This is what the pilot measures.
SDR Playbook / P2
Deposit Library
Six plays, one per lead-with catalog theme. Spot the signal, ask the fishing question if you have not heard it, then give the deposit. Drafted v1, pending SDR validation.
Cloud Migration
Proof: VLCM Renewal Radar, RidgeView · the stranded-software scenario nobody else names
An app built by a contractor, agency, or team that is now gone, running on accounts the company does not control.
"When that product was built, is the team that built it still the team that holds the keys to the servers and the domain?"
The ownership-risk checklist: who owns the cloud account, the database, the domain, the repo, and the admin logins. If a vanished third party holds any of them, the business is one flipped switch from going dark.
"We move all of it onto accounts you control, set it up properly, and document where everything lives, so nobody outside your company can lock you out."
"Our developer set it up, it is fine." Reframe: fine until that person is unreachable. The checklist shows the exposure in five minutes.
Cloud Migration onto accounts you own, plus System Integration & APIs and a Well-Architected Review.
Custom Software Engineering
Proof: LineAmp, RidgeView, VLCM
Software is live and breaking. Outages, security scares, or a team afraid to deploy.
"If something broke in production tonight, who is the person who fixes it, and how long would it take?"
A short stabilization triage: the three failure points we see most in fast-built software (no monitoring, unhandled load, exposed credentials) and which one to check first.
"We come in, stabilize it, close the security gaps, and hand you back something you can trust, then keep it that way."
"We will get to it." Reframe: every week it stays fragile is a week you are one incident from a customer-facing outage. Triage is low cost and tells you how urgent it really is.
Custom Software Engineering, then Post-Release Maintenance to keep it stable.
POC / MVP Development
Proof: ToniqLabs (Odin, built from scratch) · all five wins
Something works in a demo but will not survive real users. Often built with Replit, Lovable, Bolt, or Cursor.
"How much of what works in the demo would you trust with ten times the users, without a rewrite?"
The demo-to-production gap list: the specific things AI and no-code tools skip (auth, data integrity, error handling, scale) that turn a great demo into a 2am page.
"We take the prototype, including the AI-built ones, and turn it into software that is secure, holds up under load, and your team can maintain."
"The AI built it fast, it is basically done." Reframe: fast to a demo, yes. The last 20 percent, the part that survives real users, is the part AI gets wrong.
POC / MVP Development, then Custom Software Engineering as it goes to real users.
Application Modernization
Proof: CaptionCall, CityWeekly
An app still runs the business but every change is slow, risky, and expensive, and nobody wants to touch the old code.
"How long does a change that should take a day actually take in that system now?"
The staged-modernization map: how to rebuild the riskiest part first while the app keeps running, instead of a year-long rewrite that bets the company on a restart.
"We rebuild it in stages while it keeps running, so it gets faster and safer to work on without a big-bang rewrite."
"A rewrite is too risky right now." Reframe: agreed, which is why we do not rewrite. We modernize in stages so nothing stops.
Application Modernization.
DevOps Support & SRE
Proof: VLCM, RidgeView
High cloud bills, frequent outages, or a system that goes down more than it should. Often no monitoring and nobody on call.
"Are you paying more than you expected to run it, going down more than you would like, or both?"
The reliability note: the two or three reasons fast-built systems bleed money and uptime (no monitoring, no autoscaling, untuned infrastructure) and the one check that finds most of it.
"We put real monitoring and on-call in place and tune the infrastructure, so you get lower bills and fewer outages instead of the same problems on repeat."
"We will sort it ourselves." Reframe: most teams cannot see the spend or the failures clearly enough to fix them. The check is low cost and shows you where the bleeding is.
DevOps Support & SRE, plus DevOps Engineering & CI/CD to keep releases safe.
Dedicated Teams
Proof: CaseWorthy · 333 deals · the base of the ladder
They need a team now, not three months of hiring. This is the cash engine, now offered as the next step after an outcome conversation, not the opener.
"Once we fix the immediate thing, do you have the team to keep building, or is hiring the bottleneck?"
An honest read on build-vs-hire: what a ready-made senior squad covers that a three-month hiring cycle cannot, and when it is genuinely cheaper to embed than to hire.
"We drop in a ready-made group of senior developers, QA, and DevOps who own the result, not just fill seats."
"We prefer to hire our own." Reframe: keep hiring. We cover the gap now so the roadmap does not wait on a six-month search.
Dedicated Teams, or Individual Experts (T&M) for a single senior hire.
Win stories you can cite
Real CoDev engagements, translated for a cold call. Each one ends with a line you can say out loud. Use the hard number, name the client, keep it short.
ToniqLabs
Custom Web Development & DevOps Support & SRE · live Web3 trading platform
A fast-growing crypto trading platform. Trades settled correctly on-chain, but the screen lagged behind, so users thought their trades had failed and walked away. Underneath: tech debt from a half-finished migration and almost no monitoring.
Built the Odin platform with a focused engineering team, fixed the lag so the screen reflects reality instantly, and put real monitoring in. That new visibility then let the team investigate a compromised account and map the damage.
Traced a compromised account to 99 percent confidence and mapped 228 illicit inflows. Doubled monitoring memory to end telemetry blackouts.
"We worked with a crypto trading platform whose users thought their trades were failing. The trades worked, the screen just could not keep up. We fixed the lag and put real monitoring in, and that same visibility let us trace a hacked account to 99 percent confidence. You cannot fix what you cannot see."
CaptionCall
Application Modernization · assistive-comms company, 5,000+ employees
A captioned-calling app for people with hearing loss, maturing fast and needing to get faster and more reliable, with real accessibility demands for an older user base.
Modernized the iOS and Android codebase, migrated frameworks, and shipped features like in-app E911 and a cleaner onboarding, all in stages while normal feature work kept moving.
iOS performance improved by about 13 percent and memory use dropped by about 20 percent.
"We modernized the mobile app for an assistive-comms company. iOS got about 13 percent faster and used around 20 percent less memory, and we did it in stages while features kept shipping. That is modernization without a risky rewrite."
CaseWorthy
Dedicated Teams & Individual Experts (T&M) · human-services SaaS used by 1,000+ agencies
A .NET and React platform used by over a thousand nonprofit and government agencies, scaling under hard deadlines. Their own engineers were strong but underwater, and the platform is compliance-heavy and mission-critical.
Embedded as an extension of their engineering organization, taking on regression testing, legacy upkeep, and production support so their own people could stay on the work only they could do. Scaled delivery without scaling risk.
Their VP of Engineering: "...become a critical part of our engineering organization... it would be incredibly difficult to replace him." (Josh Knack, VP of Engineering)
"One client's VP of Engineering said our developer became a critical part of their org and would be incredibly hard to replace. We do not replace your team. We become the part of it you have not had time to build."
Strangebrain.ai
System Integration & APIs · Data Engineering · Generative AI · AI-automation consultancy, ~12 people
An AI-automation and systems-integration consultancy whose operational tools did not talk to each other. Patient visits, payments, and provider records lived in separate systems, so people re-keyed the same data by hand and no one had a single source of truth.
Joined as a dedicated team (T&M). Wired Plato, FHN3, and other operational systems into the client's data warehouse and NetSuite, with bi-directional sync across NetSuite, the warehouse, Azure Blob Storage, and SharePoint. Automated patient-visit and payment transactions into NetSuite as invoices, payments, and credit notes. Added banking and billing integration (DBS Bank, SFTP), Power BI reporting, and a knowledge-based RAG assistant for their support desk.
One source of truth for customer, patient, payment, and provider master data, with manual re-keying removed from the visit-to-invoice flow. RAG assistant live on the support desk. Delivered with AI-assisted workflow and code generation under Scrum, Jira, and UAT. Active engagement, no published metrics.
"We are doing this right now for an AI-automation consultancy, wiring their operational systems into NetSuite and a data warehouse so patient visits and payments become invoices automatically, no manual re-keying, plus a RAG assistant on their support desk. If your tools do not talk and someone is re-keying data between them, that is the gap we close."
The full menu: everything we can sell
Software Engineering
End-to-end design, build, and delivery of web, mobile, and enterprise applications.
Cloud & DevOps
CI/CD, infrastructure as code, and reliability across AWS, Azure, and GCP.
Support & Maintenance
Tiered support and production care that keeps shipped software healthy.
Staff Augmentation
Senior engineers and full teams embedded in yours, owning delivery. The base of the ladder.
Data & Analytics
Pipelines and reporting that turn scattered data into one source leaders can act on.
AI & ML
Custom models, LLM and RAG systems, and AI-assisted delivery. AI-Enabled Delivery is how we build everything above.
SDR Playbook / P3
Objections
Tap an objection for the rebuttal. Every one follows the same shape: acknowledge, reframe, re-deposit, soft ask. The two cards at the end are call-navigation scripts (gatekeeper and voicemail), not objections. Drafted v1, pending SDR validation.
"What would actually resolve that for you?"
When you are stuck, hand the problem back. Ask the prospect what it would take to make the concern go away, and they will tell you exactly how to proceed. It turns a wall into instructions: a price worry becomes "if it paid for itself in a month," a timing worry becomes "after our launch in March." Then you sell to the answer they just gave you. Use it on any objection below when the scripted rebuttal does not land.
"Just send me some info" +
"We already have a team" +
"Not the right time" +
"Too expensive / no budget" +
"We use [another vendor]" +
"This is not relevant to us" +
"We built it with AI, we're fine" +
"Just send me pricing" +
"We're too small for this" +
"We don't outsource development" +
Gatekeeper: "What is this regarding?" +
Voicemail (no answer) +
SDR Playbook / P4
Email Sequence
The follow-up deposits, between calls. Same cadence you know, with the generic observations replaced by specific, outcome-led ones. Copy any email, fill the {{tokens}}, send. Drafted v1, pending SDR validation.
Subject: the part AI does not finish
Connection request
Subject: who holds the keys
Subject: fine, until it is not
Subject: the rewrite you do not have to do
Subject: closing the loop
Lead Gen
Lead Cycle
The ownership spine of the Lead Gen motion: who owns the lead at every stage, the loop that keeps the list clean, and the injections that add a reason to call. Mary's framework is preserved intact. Every change is marked proposed and sits beside her work, not over it.
The 30-second version
The lead moves ICP to Leads to Outreach to MQL to SQL to AE to Customer, with Gone Cold looping back to Lead Gen and a feedback loop running SDR back to Lead Gen. Lead Gen owns sourcing, hygiene, and Gone Cold recovery; SDR works the list.
- Lead Gen and SDR are two jobs, two owners, two numbers. They meet at one place: the handoff, the armed lead.
- Mary's spine is solid: clear owners, a disciplined feedback loop, mature reporting thresholds, good CRM hygiene.
- The injections add the one thing the spine does not carry yet, a reason to call, and close two leaks the current shape allows.
The lifecycle
Sources of Leads are Cold (Lead Gen) and Marketing. Gone Cold loops back to Lead Gen for recovery. A feedback loop runs from SDR back to Lead Gen to refine list quality.
Source framework: Mary Lovelyn Abne, Lead Generation Specialist II - "Lead Cycle," Feb 1, 2026. Preserved intact below; analysis and proposed injections added beside it.
Part 1 - Mary's Lead Cycle
Part 2 - Proposed injections
Mary's spine does not change. These add the one thing it does not yet carry, a reason to call, and close two leaks. Each is marked proposed and she accepts or rejects it on its own.
Cold Leads are sourced firmographic-only
Gap: Cold Leads are built from ICP firmographics. Those say a company could be a fit. They do not say why to call this week or what to say first.
Fix: source every list around an observable signal that already has a ready deposit attached. No list without a signal; no signal without a deposit.
Gone Cold recovery repeats the failure
Gap: recovery today is "enrich and re-sequence," which re-dials the same indifferent list. Gone Cold is our #1 loss reason; the working hypothesis (pending VOC) is that it means indifference.
Fix: a Gone Cold lead re-enters only with a new signal or a new stage hypothesis attached. Recover with a reason, not a redial.
The feedback loop is only half-built
Gap: the loop refines data accuracy and bans the most valuable motion signal by calling "not interested" invalid. It can fix accuracy and never fix relevance.
Fix: add a second, parallel motion-feedback loop: which signal converted, whether the deposit was accepted, the confirmed stage. Mary's loop stays as written; this runs beside it.
No SLA on any handoff
Gap: every stage has a named owner but no clock. Speed-to-lead is the single biggest conversion lever.
Fix: put a time SLA and a tracking field on each handoff: Lead Gen to SDR (armed-lead freshness), SDR to AE (meeting secured). Miss the SLA, it escalates.
MQL definition collision
Gap: the MQL definition here is inbound-marketing language. Our motion is cold outbound, where the qualifying event is a deposit accepted or meeting secured, not marketing engagement.
Fix: split the definitions cleanly: keep marketing-MQL for inbound, and define the outbound-qualified path (deposit accepted to SQL to AE) on its own criteria so the gates are unambiguous.
"Reschedule for steady call volume" is volume-first
Gap: rescheduling to keep dials up, on its own, is the staff-aug treadmill in miniature: reach the number by re-dialing un-armed leads.
Fix: make the target armed-lead volume (lead + signal + deposit), not raw dials. Steady volume of armed leads, not steady volume of names.
Reporting tracks data issues, not motion performance
Gap: reporting covers data-quality escalations, not leading indicators of whether the motion is working.
Fix: bridge reporting to the trial scorecard (deposit delivered, accepted, stage confirmed, arm). Data-quality answers "is the list clean." The scorecard answers "is the list converting." We need both.
Lead Gen / The Handoff
The Handoff
The contract between the two playbooks. One boundary, two obligations. Lead Gen owes SDR an armed lead; SDR owes Lead Gen structured feedback on both loops. The SLA is what makes the boundary measurable.
The armed lead
A lead is not ready to dial until it is armed: ICP match, an observable signal, a stage hypothesis, the matching deposit, an arm tag, and clean contact data. A name is not a handoff.
Lead Gen owes SDR
The armed lead, not a name
- ICP match. Industry, size, revenue, title within the campaign's parameters.
- An observable signal. A concrete reason to call this week, not a clean name.
- A stage hypothesis. 0 Evaluating, 1 Experimenting, or 2 Stuck.
- The matching deposit. The exact opener line tied to that signal.
- An arm tag. Pilot or control, so the trial can read the result.
- Clean, deliverable contact data. Email, mobile, LinkedIn, company info.
SDR owes Lead Gen
Structured feedback, both loops
- The data-quality loop. Mary's criteria table: wrong industry, department, title, location, or missing mobile.
- The motion loop. Which signal converted, deposit accepted yes / soft-yes / no, confirmed stage.
- Specific and data-based feedback. "Bad fit" and "not interested" are not valid feedback.
- Volume thresholds respected. Escalate on high-volume issues; manage fewer than 5 contacts on the list.
- No deletions. Mark Unqualified with a reason so the mark teaches the list.
Bottom line: Mary built the ownership spine. The pipeline doc built the plumbing. The deposit is the payload. Stack all three and Lead Gen hands SDR an armed lead under a real contract, instead of a clean name with nothing to say.