Commercial diagnosis
I reviewed weekly MRR, subscribers, trials, signups, and acquisition data with the owner, then built a GTM plan using the 4DX framework.
Software operating experience / Post-acquisition GTM
Rebuilding Polymail’s commercial engine.
I work directly with Polymail's new owner-operator to diagnose growth constraints and rebuild the commercial system around positioning, acquisition, trial activation, retention, and customer proof.
Fractional GTM Lead · Advisor to the owner-operator2025–present
Polymail · YC S16
2025–presentThe commercial rebuild.
Positioning & acquisition
Website narrative, trial campaigns, and customer proof.
Activation & retention
Onboarding, lifecycle email, and subscriber reporting.
Historical demand
A segmented plan for a 185K-user win-back program.
3.4xPeak website traffic
4.3K in March 2025 to 14.5K in January 2026.
Approx. 40%Churn reduction
From the mid-February peak.
1,300+Active subscribers
Maintained during the commercial rebuild.
16+Commercial pages shipped
Positioning, copy, and agency coordination.
The context
The brief.
Polymail was a mature YC-backed email product with a loyal core audience and a long history of users. Subscriber and revenue contraction had made the next owner's growth task more complicated than increasing signups. I used weekly commercial data to prioritize the work, then translated the plan into pages, campaigns, lifecycle emails, reporting, and reusable sales material. It gave me hands-on experience working with a software asset after a change of ownership.
The work
What I worked on.
Understand the constraint before scaling demand
The brief evolved from growing signups to understanding acquisition, subscriber movement, churn, and paid conversion together.
Positioning and proof
The work focused on high-value inbox workflows for founders, independent operators, prosumers, and small teams. Testimonials, operator stories, and persona-specific evidence supported that positioning.
Build the working commercial system
Execution covered the website, outbound, content, trial lifecycle, and reusable acquisition material.
Website and trial welcome
I led the overhaul of 16+ commercial pages and replaced a 14-step welcome journey with a flow organized around product use and value moments.
Acquisition tests
A cold-outbound pilot used a 22.5K-contact ICP list, a focused trial landing page, and a two-touch sequence. Other work covered retargeting creative, search, affiliates, referrals, sponsorships, and creators.
Content and templates
I produced posts, carousels, infographics, blogs, and video, and built 30+ Inbox Ops templates organized by persona, use case, funnel stage, and call to action.
Plan the next stage of growth
I built a growth plan around a target of $85K MRR from a $24K baseline, with priorities for acquisition, activation, and retention.
Historical-user opportunity
I mapped a staged reactivation plan for 185K historical users, with segmentation, messages, and rollout priorities.
Growth reporting
I tracked MRR, trials, signups, churn, and subscriber movement with the owner as the commercial work progressed.
Selected artifacts
A closer look at the work.
Published pieces, original materials, and work presentations from this period.
Work sample
GTM plan
Commercial diagnosis and a modeled $24K-to-$85K MRR path.
Document
Cold-outreach pilot emails
Two-touch sequence built for response and learning.
Work sample
Retargeting creative
Creative for outbound traffic and site visitors.
Document
Trial welcome sequence
Revised onboarding organized around product value moments.
Published work
Polymail website
Commercial positioning, architecture, and copy overhaul.
Work sample · By request
Video content
Video work from the engagement. Email me for a sample.
Published work
Operator content
Published productivity and operator-focused LinkedIn content.
Published work
Product infographic
Published visual content from Polymail's account.
Document
185K-user win-back plan
Proposed phased reactivation, segmentation, and messaging.
Work sample
Inbox Ops toolkit
30+ response-focused templates across the customer journey.
Published work
iOS store listing
Modernized product imagery and app-store copy.
Looking back
What stayed with me.
Read retention alongside acquisition
The work pushed me to examine subscriber movement and churn before prescribing more traffic.
Historical demand deserves a close look
The dormant-user base became a specific planning opportunity with its own segmentation and rollout requirements.
Build proof while rebuilding the product story
I worked on testimonials and operator examples alongside pages, campaigns, and lifecycle material.
The work today
Helping founders sell what they’ve built.
My operating and founder experience now informs a focused M&A practice for early-stage software, AI products, and technology IP.