Sales & Customers

Should I buy an AI SDR, or keep prospecting human?

The honest 2025-2026 answer: fully autonomous AI SDRs have mostly disappointed, with high churn, burned sending domains, and at least one high-profile scandal about inflated customer claims. What works is the hybrid: AI handles research, list building, and drafts, while a human (usually you, the founder) reviews what goes out and takes every conversation. Buy tools that make you faster, be very skeptical of anything promising meetings on autopilot.

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Sales Development Rep Churn

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Also in Starting Up

The same ground, over in Get your first customers, our Starting Up track.

How do I actually get my first 10 customers when nobody has heard of me? 19 → When is my product 'ready' to launch? 20 →
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