Growth and creative strategy agency

Stratlyst.
A strategy practice that could finally scale past referrals.

Stratlyst sits at the intersection of growth strategy and creative direction for venture-backed B2B and consumer brands. They wrote the kind of decks that founders forwarded around their cap table, but they had no outbound muscle and were stuck reacting to whoever happened to know them.

All case studies

● Stratlyst

radar

Stratlyst · Growth and creative strategy agency

Discovery calls / mo

Time to first booked call

Day 12

Show rate

82%

ICP fit on booked calls

94%

01 · Before vs after

The numbers, side by side.

Six metrics that show how the engagement changed the business.

Metric

Before

After

Delta

Outbound-sourced calls / mo

new channel

Referral concentration

70%

28%

-42 pts

Average engagement size

$52k

$78k

+50%

Proposal-to-close rate

41%

58%

+17 pts

Quarterly bookings

$310k

$890k

+187%

Reply rate (email)

n/a

14.2%

above target

● Pipeline curve

growthChart

Pipeline value over 90 days for Stratlyst.

● KPI snapshot

kpi

Aggregate KPIs after 90 days of engagement.

02 · The challenge

What was actually broken.

Pricing was premium ($30k-$120k engagements), so volume was never the goal. The problem was concentration risk: 70% of revenue came from 3 referral sources. When one source went quiet for a quarter, the agency felt it immediately. They needed direct access to the executives who actually buy strategy work.

● Pipeline leak

funnel

Where the prior engine was losing prospects.

03 · The approach

What we built and shipped.

Step 1
Narrowed ICP from 'B2B and consumer brands' to two precise wedges: post-Series-B SaaS preparing for a brand refresh, and DTC brands hitting a growth ceiling between $5M and $30M.
Step 2
Built a research-led cold email sequence that opened with a specific observation about the prospect's funnel or category positioning, not a pitch.
Step 3
Used LinkedIn DM as the follow-up channel only, never the first touch — preserved the premium feel.
Step 4
Layered intent data: prospects researching rebrand keywords got a different sequence than prospects researching growth-marketing keywords.
Step 5
Set up a high-friction intake (4 questions, calendar gated) to keep the call quality high.

Engagement specs

ICP: VP Growth, CMO, and founders at post-Series-B SaaS or $5M-$30M DTC brands.
Duration: 120 days to repeatable engine
Channels: Cold email, LinkedIn DM, Intent-based sequencing

● Channel stack

stack

The channels we ran for Stratlyst.

04 · Week-by-week

The 12-week build, plain English.

● Engagement arc

timeline

Five milestones from kickoff to steady state.

Week 1-2ICP narrowing, research playbook, infra and creative.
Week 3-4First sequence live, weekly call grading.
Week 5-8Intent-data layer added, DM follow-up sequence tested.
Week 9-12Premium track for $100k+ accounts, calendar gating tuned.
Week 13+Steady state, expansion into adjacent wedge.

05 · The outcome

What actually changed in the business.

Stratlyst now books 9-12 strategy discovery calls per month with executives at companies that match their ideal engagement profile. Concentration risk dropped: top 3 referral sources are now 28% of revenue instead of 70%.

● Channel mix

donut

Where the booked calls came from after 90 days.

06 · In their words

What the team said after 90 days.

"We were terrified outbound would cheapen the brand. The opposite happened. The research-led opener makes us look more thoughtful than the agencies people compare us to."

— Stratlyst team

07 · What's next