YC's Max Kolysh says
Your first 10 customers come from you. Working your warm network, doing the unscalable things: showing up in person, going where your buyer already spends time, finding where they complain online.
What's load-bearing
The advice that works is fieldwork wearing a sales jacket. "Frame outreach as advice," "give the prospect something" — meet the person before you sell to them.
So what
When cold outreach stops working, the scarce skill is the human act of actually understanding someone before you ask for anything. That act doesn't scale — which is exactly why it's the edge.