Angry leads, a scraper exploit, and a tool that converts

Saturday morning, an email dropped into my inbox from a lead.

It wasn’t a reply. It was a reprimand.

He took offense. Like real offense, to the fact that I called him by his first name and signed off without including my surname.

That’s right. Out of 2,000 people in a cold outreach campaign, one guy decided that “Cheers, Brendan” crossed a line so sacred it disqualified me from being taken seriously.

His exact words: “Cannot be taken seriously.”

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Not because the offer lacked value.

Not because the automation didn’t solve a real problem.

But because I didn’t perform the script of professionalism to his standards.

It was hilarious. And kind of sad.

But mostly, it was clarifying.

Here’s my reply:

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TBH, he did me a favor by disqualifying himself.

Thank god for that.

You’re going to encounter people like these and that’s alright.

Don’t lose sleep over it.

A useful disqualification

There’s a specific kind of person who demands “Mr” and “Dear Sir” energy in 2025.

They’re not wrong. They’re just not my audience.

These are the people who will read 300 words of a cold email, ignore the offer, and judge you by whether you used Arial or Calibri. They’re hardwired to optimize for etiquette instead of value.

So here’s the takeaway: If someone gets this angry over formatting, they’re never going to trust an automation system that moves fast and breaks legacy ops.

They’re not wired for speed.

They’re wired for ceremony.

Better to filter them early—before they burn hours of your time in demo calls just to ghost when the solution gets “too technical” or “too unfamiliar.”

Sometimes disrespect is just misalignment in disguise.

Friction always reveals leverage

Contrast that angry man with another founder I spoke to this week.

Joyce.

Runs an executive recruitment consultancy.

Sharp. Decisive. Zero ego.

She wanted to know: “How much time do I need to spend during the implementation?”

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Not: “Who do you think you are to email me?”

Not: “Where is your surname?”

Not: “Is this how business is conducted?”

Her only filter was: does this help me reclaim time?

I told her:

• One kickoff call
• Share your credentials
• Sit back while I build and notify you asynchronously via Slack
• Optional end-of-week call for alignment

She was in. No friction. No posturing.

Just forward motion.

These are the clients I want.

Not polite gatekeepers. Not pitch-perfect skeptics.

Operators.

Understandably, this was a warm lead while the Boomer above was cold.

But Joyce’s first reply to my email was nothing short of friendliness and professionalism.

A fun Phantom Buster hack

On the topic of friction, I also stumbled upon a neat little growth exploit.

While using PhantomBuster to enrich leads, I noticed something odd: the exported CSV was incomplete, but the data was being loaded fully in the browser preview.

So I opened DevTools. Popped over to the Network tab.

And there it was: a direct CSV download URL buried inside a GET request.

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No API key. No pagination.

Just a single link that instantly downloads all enriched data. 302 rows, clean formatting even on a free plan that’s only supposed to export 10.

Tools always leak leverage at the edges.

And companies know the average person won’t understand what happens under the hood.

Basically, information on various web applications is transferred by calling different API endpoints to send and receive data.

You just need to look where the UI stops and the browser begins.

The ROI calculator is live (and working)

Another win this week: I shipped the Nimbflow Automation ROI Calculator.

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It’s a simple tool:

• Pick a task
• Estimate hours saved
• Plug in team salary (or founder time value)
• See projected ROI instantly

It calculates net ROI, time savings, breakeven period, net new capacity, and even includes industry benchmarks.

Why does this matter?

Because automation is still abstract to most founders.

This tool turns vague interest into quantifiable upside.

I’ve also set up a webhook using Make to receive the lead contact information and auto-subscribe them to Kit for future follow-up emails.

Let’s see how it fares in the upcoming months.

I also plan to keep adding more tools to assist B2B service founders for various use cases.

Rize is annoying, so I kept using it

Lastly, I tried out Rize, a time tracker that pops up every time I switch tabs or stray off-task.

It’s invasive. It’s judgmental.

And I didn’t uninstall it.

Here’s why: It made me painfully aware of how much time I lose to “just checking something.”

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23 hours tracked this week. Most of it was legit:

• 4+ hours coding
• 2.5+ hours writing
• 2 hours YouTube (I’ll take the L)
• 1.9 hours on Nimbflow
• 1.8 hours in Make

The rest? Mild chaos.

But that awareness alone made me ship more.

Even with the interruptions, I still released a lead magnet, onboarded two clients, and discovered a scraping exploit.

It reminded me of something true: Tracking creates pressure.

And pressure creates clarity.

You can use my code “BRENDAN” and get 30% off the first 3 months if you want to give it a go.

Parting shot

This week, I pissed off a stranger, signed a client, exploited a SaaS loophole, shipped a calculator, and fought with a productivity app.

Not bad for five days.

See you next week or the one after.

– Brendan

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