How Cello Tripled their Outbound Pipeline
Context & Background
Cello is a referral platform that helps SaaS companies build and automate user and partner referral programs directly inside their products. The company is also known in the industry for co-hosting the GTM10 Awards alongside Lightspeed Venture Partners.
To grow their pipeline, Cello focuses their outbound efforts on reaching SaaS marketing and product teams. For Julia Kleber, Cello’s founding GTM manager, reaching this audience required meeting them exactly where they spend their time.
"We mostly sell to SaaS marketing and product people. They're very active on LinkedIn, so that's where we have to be, and that's why our strategy is LinkedIn first. I would say probably 90% or 95% of replies come from LinkedIn."
- Julia Kleber, Founding GTM Manager
Before La Growth Machine, Cello’s outbound infrastructure couldn't support their target volume. They were relying on legacy, Chrome extension-based tools that weren't built for LinkedIn outreach. The manual workload was overwhelming, and tracking performance was nearly impossible. The lack of cloud-based security with their previous setup also caused account safety concerns.
"Before La Growth Machine, it was not manageable. The tool we were using] didn't even track if someone replied or accepted your connection request. It was just not manageable for us to automatically execute LinkedIn outreach; it was super manual." - Julia Kleber, Founding GTM Manager
The Search for a Solution and Choosing LGM
Cello needed an outreach platform that could handle conditional sequence logic while keeping accounts safe. To scale their outbound volume securely, they needed a tool designed specifically to protect their team's LinkedIn profiles.
As Julia evaluated alternatives on the market, La Growth Machine won out by offering a dedicated, cloud-based infrastructure, utilizing safe residential IPs, and the ability to build complex multichannel sequences.
"We were very focused on the security, the patterns, and the proxy setup. That was probably one of our main criteria, and having the advanced logic in the sequences. We needed a tool that was built for LinkedIn first."
- Julia Kleber, Founding GTM Manager
By choosing LGM, Cello found a platform built specifically for LinkedIn automation safety. This eliminated the risks associated with browser extensions and provided the secure foundation they needed to scale their campaigns.
Implementation and Usage
To run their outbound, Cello implemented a centralized model. Julia operates as the strategy lead, building targeted prospect lists, designing the sequences, and managing the LGM infrastructure. Meanwhile, the account executives (AEs) on her team step in when a prospect replies, allowing them to focus entirely on closing deals.
"If it’s centralized, you can steer it more effectively and better compare what’s working. AEs should focus on deals and replies and spend time on selling, not the process overhead."
- Julia Kleber, Founding GTM Manager
Julia runs targeted campaigns based on Cello's existing customer base. For example, when a well-known company uses Cello, Julia builds a list targeting other businesses in that exact vertical. She then sets up an LGM campaign that starts with a LinkedIn connection request. If the prospect doesn't respond, the workflow automatically sends them into an email sequence.
Because Julia manages multiple campaigns and identities across the team, she frequently interacts with her dedicated client partner and LGM's live support.
"We use your support chat a lot... There's always live support. It's very human. You don't talk to an AI bot all the time. Everybody is very considerate and tries to help and replies pretty quickly."
- Julia Kleber, Founding GTM Manager
Results and Impact
With a secure and scalable system in place, Julia’s team scaled their outreach from just 1 user identity on LGM to 10 in a single year, resulting in a 10x increase in their outreach capacity.
Cello proved this by increasing their outbound demo bookings by 50% quarter over quarter.
"We’ve significantly increased pipeline—about 30–35% now comes from outbound, up from roughly 10% before."
- Julia Kleber, Founding GTM Manager
Since Cello relies heavily on LinkedIn for their outreach, protecting their team's accounts is essential. When reflecting on LGM’s most valuable features, Julia pointed to these built-in safeguards.
"It's the overall control you have around the outreach to make it safe; like the limits you can set and the working hours. You feel like you're in control."
- Julia Kleber, Founding GTM Manager
