What we know, what we don't know, and what we need to find out.
What We Think It Is
Lead generation / Sales-as-a-Service for life sciences companies. You handle outbound prospecting so their BD team can focus on closing.
Service Type
Outbound Lead Gen
Target Clients
Equipment & CDMOs
Current Clients
? clients
What You Deliver (According to Website)
-
Infrastructure Setup
CRM, domains, inboxes, warming, tool stack
-
Research & Targeting
ICP, lead lists, validation, scoring
-
Email Outreach
Sequences, personalization, A/B testing
-
LinkedIn Outreach
Connection requests, messages, engagement
-
Cold Calling
Scripts, calls to decision-makers
-
LinkedIn Authority
Content creation for client's team
Critical Questions — Client Economics
How many paying clients do you have right now?
Not "pipeline" or "talking to" — actual invoices going out this month.
List each client: Company name, monthly fee, start date
e.g. "Client A: $4,000/mo, started Oct 2025" — we need real numbers.
What's your pricing structure?
Flat retainer? Per meeting? Setup fee + monthly? Tiers?
Is your first/main client your former employer (Cytiva)?
The website says "multinational bioprocess instrument manufacturer" — is that Cytiva?
How did you get each client?
Referral, outbound, inbound, former colleague? This affects scalability.
Critical Questions — Your Costs
How many hours per week do you work on each client?
This determines your effective hourly rate. $4K/mo at 40 hrs/mo = $100/hr. At 80 hrs/mo = $50/hr.
What tools do you pay for? Monthly cost for each?
ZoomInfo, Apollo, LinkedIn Sales Nav, Outreach/Salesloft, email tools, etc.
| Tool Category |
Common Tools |
Typical Cost |
Your Cost |
| Lead Data |
ZoomInfo, Apollo, Lusha |
$100–$500/mo |
? |
| Email Sequencing |
Instantly, Smartlead, Lemlist |
$50–$200/mo |
? |
| LinkedIn Automation |
Expandi, Dripify, manual |
$0–$100/mo |
? |
| CRM |
HubSpot, Pipedrive, client's |
$0–$50/mo |
? |
| Email Infrastructure |
Domains, inboxes, warmup |
$50–$150/mo |
? |
| Total Tool Cost |
|
$200–$1,000/mo |
$?/mo |
Do you have any contractors or VAs helping you?
If you pay someone for list building, calling, or admin — that's a cost.
Critical Questions — Output & Results
How many qualified meetings did you book last month? For which clients?
This is the core deliverable. "Qualified" = showed up + was a real decision-maker.
How many emails sent per month per client?
Volume matters for benchmarking. 1,000/mo? 5,000/mo? 20,000/mo?
What's your reply rate? Meeting booking rate?
Industry benchmarks: 2-5% reply rate, 0.5-2% meeting rate for cold outbound.
The "290+ replies" on your website — over what time period? For how many clients?
290 replies in 1 month is impressive. Over 12 months is less so.
Unit Economics (Fill In The Blanks)
Per Client P&L
Monthly retainer from client
$___/mo
− Tools cost allocated to this client
− $___/mo
− Contractor costs (if any)
− $___/mo
= Gross profit per client
$___/mo
Hours spent on this client
___ hrs/mo
Effective hourly rate
$___/hr
Why this matters: If you're making $4,000/mo from a client but spending 60 hours/mo and $400 in tools, your effective rate is $60/hr. That's fine if you're scaling, but you need to know the real number.
What We Know
You said: "It's aggregated and the headlines are written by AI" and "it's an afterthought compared to lead gen, but it's helping keep reputation up and a few sponsors."
Critical Questions — The Newsletter
How many sponsors do you have? What does each pay per month?
"A few sponsors" = ? We need: "3 sponsors paying $150, $200, $100 = $450/mo"
What's your open rate and click rate?
This determines what you can charge. Beehiiv shows this in your dashboard.
How much time do you spend on the newsletter per week?
If AI does most of it, maybe 2-3 hrs/week? Or more?
What tools/costs for the newsletter?
Beehiiv plan ($0-$99/mo?), AI tools, any paid news sources?
Can you export your subscriber list with job titles?
We're guessing who subscribes. Actual data would tell us if they're buyers or lurkers.
Newsletter Unit Economics
Monthly P&L
Sponsor revenue
$___/mo
− Beehiiv / tools
− $___/mo
= Net revenue
$___/mo
Hours per week × 4
___ hrs/mo
Effective hourly rate
$___/hr
The real value: The newsletter might make $300/mo profit. But if it helps you close $5K/mo lead gen clients because of credibility, the ROI is massive. We need to understand if/how it actually helps close deals.
Full Beehiiv export from Dec 30, 2025. Categorized by email domain — no guessing.
Email Type Split
43% use Gmail, Yahoo, Outlook, etc. — likely small biotech founders, consultants, and academics using personal accounts.
Corporate Email Breakdown
Top Companies by Subscriber Count
Biotech & Startups
Curie.bio
20
Biocytogen
11
Asimov
7
Ignota Labs
6
Inventia Life
5
Invertbio
5
Vendors & Equipment
Thermo Fisher
17
Merck / MilliporeSigma
12
Cytiva
7
bioMérieux
7
Sartorius
6
Bio-Techne
4
Big Pharma
Johnson & Johnson
5
Regeneron
4
AstraZeneca
3
BMS
3
Merck & Co
3
Novartis
2
CDMO & CRO
Advanced Clinical
7
Lonza
5
3P Biovian
4
Syneos Health
3
Catalent
3
OmniaBio
3
Consulting & Services
Oracle Life Sciences
17
Cooley (Law)
10
Altitude Marketing
10
Lumira VC
7
DrugBank
6
Vintura
5
Corrected Analysis
The Apollo sample was misleading. Your real audience is much more diverse:
- 43% personal email — likely small biotech founders, consultants, freelancers
- Biotech/Startups are the biggest corporate segment — these are BUYERS
- Vendors are only 5% — not 65% like the Apollo sample suggested
What This Actually Means
Good News for Lead Gen
Your subscribers include biotech founders and pharma decision-makers — exactly the people your clients want to reach. Curie.bio (20), Biocytogen (11), Asimov (7) are real companies that buy equipment.
Sponsorship Opportunity
With 200+ biotech employees and 36 Big Pharma readers, you can pitch vendors (Thermo, Cytiva) as sponsors: "Reach the decision-makers who buy your equipment."
The Two-Sided Opportunity:
1. Lead Gen Clients = Vendors (Thermo, Cytiva, Sartorius) who want to reach biotech buyers
2. Newsletter Sponsors = Same vendors, paying to reach your biotech audience
3. Overlap = A vendor could be BOTH a lead gen client AND a newsletter sponsor
Science 2 Sales
Revenue potential
$5K–$15K/mo
Time investment
High (20-40 hrs/client)
Scalability
Limited by your time
Moat
Industry expertise + track record
TLDR Biotech
Revenue potential
$500–$3K/mo (at 2.7K subs)
Time investment
Low (AI-assisted)
Scalability
High (grows with subs)
Moat
Audience ownership
The Synergy Question
The newsletter subscribers ARE the leads that equipment companies want. But how much does this actually help?
Have any of your lead gen clients come from newsletter subscribers?
If yes, the newsletter has direct revenue attribution beyond sponsorships.
Do you use your subscriber list for client outreach campaigns?
If your clients are reaching the same people who read your newsletter, that's a unique advantage.
Have sponsors converted to lead gen clients (or vice versa)?
If someone sponsors your newsletter and then hires you for lead gen, that's a funnel.