Dopplio is an effective tool when trying to establish a network. One such way we used it was to secure YC (Y-Combinator) referrals when starting out.

For those that don't know, YC is one of the most successful startup accelerators in the world, where startups receive a $500,000 investment and has helped build some of the biggest companies in the world, including Airbnb, Reddit, and Stripe.

It's a well-known secret that although referrals aren't officially required, a lot of incoming startups in the batch seem to have them -- so we were determined to acquire a few to maximize our chances.

The Strategy

We decided to target startups in the most recent YC batch in the sales niche, thinking they'd be more likely to appreciate what we'd built.

The plan was to send each one a personalized video, explaining who we were, why we were reaching out to them, and ask if they could proofread our application.

Normally we'd do this manually, recording each video separately -- but since we had Dopplio, we thought we'd use it to:

1) save time

2) showcase our product

Creating the Dopplio campaign

To create our Dopplio campaign, we just recorded a base video, and specified:

• where words we wanted to replace in our video's audio

• how many backgrounds we wanted to show up

• how long we wanted each background to show for

Once our campaign was created, it was time to use it to generate videos.

Generating videos

We simply made a spreadsheet containing three values:

- the greeting we wanted our AI voice clone to say in each video

- each prospect's linkedin url

- each company's Y-Combinator profile page

Then we just dragged our CSV into the bulk generation form, and Dopplio started generating our videos.

Here's what one such video looked like (note — this was before we introduced our lip sync capabilities, so we used a cheeky "hand wave" in lieu of it 😂 — surprisingly effective):

Delivery

To maximize the likelihood our videos were watched, the key is to send them as embeddable GIFs so each prospect:

1) sees that we've recorded a video for them

2) sees their LinkedIn page in the background of the video, so they know this was personalized to them

To do this we just went to each video's landing page on Dopplio, clicked 'Share', and then "Copy GIF thumbnail"

Then we pasted this into our email draft on Gmail, using the following script:

Simple, to the point, and endearing.

Specific enough to spark interest, but broadly applicable to our target group so we didn't have to re-write it for each one.

Here's what it looked like all put together:

With that, we were ready to send them out!

Results

We sent out around 15 videos, from which we got about 10 replies, and ended up meeting with 5 or 6 YC founders, who were really helpful in improving our wording and application.

From this, we also ended up securing 2-3 YC referrals -- mission accomplished.

If you ever have a small group you'd like to get in contact with, and don't have a warm intro, we highly recommend sending personalized videos manually to maximize the chance of a reply.

People love the authenticity and emotion that can be conveyed through video, that can't quite be captured through text.

If this group is too large or you're looking to scale your outreach even further through automation, check out Dopplio -- you can get started for free.