Ever stared at your inbox, wondering how half your emails ended up looking like they were written by a robot stuck in 2012? Yeah, us too. Turns out, cold email doesn’t have to feel like spam—it can completely transform the way outreach works when done right.

For Rish, the founder of Cleverviral, that realization was the beginning of something big. What started as a small three-person experiment turned into a full-fledged agency, sending high-volume, high-impact campaigns for clients across the globe. And let’s be real—breaking into the cutthroat U.S. B2B market from across the world? Not exactly a walk in the park.

So, how did Rish go from bouncing between businesses—first a regional venture, then a software startup in Bangalore—to running a high-performing cold email agency? More importantly, how did he crack the toughest part of cold outreach—actually landing in inboxes instead of vanishing into spam folders?

In this case study, we’ll unpack how Cleverviral cracked the code on cold email with Smartlead.ai—a platform that Rish says “makes our life a lot easier.” We’ll see how they built trust, mastered deliverability, and scaled to run high-impact campaigns for 50+ clients.

Finding the Perfect “System” for Sales

Rish started his first business at 25, helping hotels across multiple cities. Then he switched gears and moved to Bangalore, where he raised funds for a software startup. In the process, he learned an important lesson: Life is too short for work you don’t enjoy. He wanted three things—social freedom, geographical freedom, and financial freedom—a simple formula for freedom. In his words, "I wanted to be in control of my life, not just go along for the ride."

But how do you create a business that doesn’t chain you to specific locations or clients? For Rish, cold email marketing became the answer. It’s scalable and works from anywhere. Best of all, it lets him tap into his sales and communication skills—without having to circle back to monotonous, one-on-one pitching.

The Leap Into Cold Email and the U.S. Market

What happens when you realize your current strategy isn’t the one? You shift gears. Six months after launching Cleverviral, Rish pivoted hard into cold email services. And while they tried serving different countries at first (India, UK, Australia), they realized the U.S. market was the sweet spot. It was big, open, and filled with B2B companies, especially in tech and SaaS, which were hungry for pipeline growth.

But success is rarely that low hanging fruit. Scaling cold email isn’t just about hitting send—it takes a well-oiled machine. You need automation, domain warm-up, deliverability checks, personalization, and a whole lot more. Not to mention, clients were expecting game-changing results. Why else would they trust an agency from halfway across the world?

Overcoming India-to-U.S. Trust Barriers

That last part—being an India-based agency selling to U.S. clients—might not seem like a big deal in today’s global economy. But Rish quickly learned that trust can be a hurdle when it comes to intangible services like lead generation. Clients naturally ask questions like, How do I know they understand my market? or How do we handle payments or compliance issues?

Cleverviral tackled those doubts head-on. They built a personal brand and let success stories speak for them. Most importantly, they invested in the right technology stack to prove they weren’t just “another outsourced agency.” This is where Smartlead jumps into the climax scene as the protagonist.

The Smartlead Solution: From “Just Another Tool” to the Agency’s Backbone

Before Smartlead, Cleverviral was testing various different solutions. As Rish puts it, “The first six months to a year, we weren’t using Smartlead; we were on Instantly.” Yet despite Instantly’s initial appeal, they found they would need more advanced features if they had to scale up —particularly for deliverability and agency-wide scaling.

Smartlead's biggest USP was the quickness with which their team was constantly rolling out new updates. Smartlead clearly had a strong foothold at the forefront of "what’s happening” in cold email. So they made the jump. “We needed more agency-focused support,” Rish says, “and since then, we haven’t looked back.”

Continuous Innovation & Future Relevance

One thing that really sold Rish on Smartlead was the platform’s future-proof mindset. “If Outlook deliverability gets messed up in November,” he notes, “you (referring to Smartlead) launch an ESP feature so we can quickly adapt.” So here we are not evaluating solely the performance metric of the tool today—it’s equally viable to whether the tool would still be relevant six months down the road.

For Cleverviral, this was critical. They rely on Smartlead for everything from domain health to automation. Putting your entire business on a single platform can be risky if that platform doesn’t keep up with changing email rules and best practices. Luckily, the Smartlead team has a tangible reputation for proactively dealing with concerns like these.

Speedy Integrations & Scalability

Let's see what a day at Cleverviral looks like. The agency’s daily chores involve juggling five or six Smartlead accounts simultaneously—across direct clients and partners. Sometimes, they need to spin up new campaigns at a moment’s notice. Thanks to Smartlead’s API and user-friendly interface, the team is able to easily attend to those needs without losing track of their overall strategy.

They can:

• Onboard new clients quickly, setting up domains and warm-up sequences in record time.
• Scale campaigns across multiple industries—software, ad tech, B2B services—while ensuring quality control.
• Deliver consistent results even when running 40 separate campaigns at once, thanks to robust deliverability features and personalized processes.

Results & Business Impact: Impressive Metrics & Happier Clients‍

1. Booking Meetings Like Never Before

We can ask ourselves: At the end of the day, what do B2B companies really want? More sales conversations. That’s exactly what Cleverviral delivers—thanks, in part, to Smartlead’s deliverability muscle. Rish shares that one client, launched just a week prior, already saw 50+ positive responses. That’s in seven days of sending. Pretty good!

They track something called EPR—Emails per Positive Response. Typically, you might see 1 positive for every 300 or 400 emails in a standard cold campaign. But with Smartlead’s help, they’re hitting under 200 EPR, sometimes even in double digits (about 1 in every 90!). Impressive, right?

2. A 10x Scale in Under Two Years

Cleverviral didn’t just solve problems for their clients - they solved them for themselves. In two years, they went from three people tinkering with random services, to 10+ team members fully dedicated to the U.S. B2B cold outreach space. Rish suggests they’ve scaled “10x or more,” which is a bold statement—yet the performance metrics they’ve shared back it up.

In the process of building a flowing pipeline for each new client, they also boosted the agency’s reputation. Word traveled fast that “these guys can actually get your emails noticed.” And since Smartlead’s advanced features take care of deliverability and personalization, Cleverviral’s team could focus more on strategy, copywriting, and overall client success.

3. Outperforming the Competition

One thing Rish mentions is that their results can match any top agency in the space—agencies that typically charge a premium. Thanks to their focus on deliverability, they totally outshine those budget email spammers who can’t even get into inboxes. Even cooler, they can manage complicated automations and multiple accounts all at once—something that’s tough for smaller setups or freelancers to pull off. 

Learnings Shared By Rish‍

1. Deliverability Is Non-Negotiable

If you’re a lead gen agency sending cold emails, Rish insists that “the story never even starts” if your emails don’t land in the primary inbox. He calls it the “biggest hurdle,” and he’s absolutely right. You might have amazing copy, spot-on personalization, and a huge list of prospects, it’s lights out.

2. Building Trust Takes More Than Results—But Results Sure Help

Since Cleverviral is an India-based agency serving the U.S. market, they had to deal with trust issues straight away. In addition to case studies and personal branding, delivering solid results greatly helped them reassure clients who were on the fence. There’s nothing like racking up 50 positive responses in a week to put any credibility concerns to rest.

3. Keep Your Eye on Future Upgrades

Even with Smartlead’s success, Rish has one suggestion to offer: a more user-friendly UI. The APIs are strong, but a smoother interface could definitely help teams just getting started. Still, he says, focusing on getting the product to work first and worrying about looks later was totally worth it.

Ready to Supercharge Your Cold Email Strategy?

Rish’s journey with Cleverviral shows what’s possible when you combine ambition, adaptability, and the right technology. From the beaches of Goa to the offices of U.S. startups, he built a cold email empire rooted in personal freedom, delivering top-notch results for clients a world away.

If you're an agency, freelancer, or any business looking to boost your outreach, here’s the big takeaway: if you own deliverability, the sky’s the limit. That’s why a platform like Smartlead is so helpful. When you are not bogged down by technical issues like domain warming, spam monitoring, or advanced sending logic—you can focus on what truly matters: closing deals and serving your clients.

If you’re ready for next-level cold email performance, don’t settle for guesswork or outdated methods. Click here to explore Smartlead.ai and get a firsthand look at the platform that’s helping agencies like Cleverviral seize new markets and radically boost client pipelines.

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