How I Found 50 Founder Contacts in 15 Minutes Using WHOIS Data

🎯 Real Results

This is a real case study showing exactly how I used WhoMails to extract 50 high-quality founder contacts in just 15 minutes, including screenshots, step-by-step process, and actual results from the outreach campaign.

Last week, I needed to quickly identify and contact founders in the SaaS space for a partnership opportunity. Instead of spending hours manually researching LinkedIn or company websites, I decided to leverage WHOIS data extraction with WhoMails.

The results surprised even me: 50 verified founder contacts in 15 minutes, with a 32% response rate when I reached out. Here's exactly how I did it, step by step.

Challenge Overview

Goal: Find 50+ SaaS founder contacts for partnership outreach
Target: Early-stage SaaS companies (5-50 employees)
Time constraint: Had to complete in under 30 minutes
Quality requirement: Direct email addresses, not generic ones
Budget: Minimal cost (under $50 total)

The Traditional Approach (What I Used to Do)

Before discovering WhoMails, my process looked like this:

Search for SaaS companies on LinkedIn Sales Navigator (15-20 minutes)
Visit each company website individually (2-3 minutes per company)
Look for team/about pages to identify founders (2-3 minutes per company)
Try to find contact information (often unsuccessful)
Use Hunter.io or similar tools to guess email addresses
Manually verify each contact

Total time for 50 contacts: 4-6 hours
Success rate: About 60% valid contacts
Quality: Mix of personal and generic emails

The WhoMails Approach: Step-by-Step

Here's exactly what I did, with timestamps and screenshots:

⏱️ 0:00 - 2:00 (2 minutes)

Identify Target Domains

First, I needed a list of SaaS company domains. I used multiple sources:

AngelList startup directory (filtered for SaaS, 5-50 employees)
Product Hunt recent launches
Crunchbase company search
Y Combinator startup directory

I quickly compiled a list of 75 domains in an Excel spreadsheet.

Screenshot: Excel file with 75 SaaS domains ready for processing

Example domains: stripe.com, notion.so, figma.com, etc.

⏱️ 2:00 - 3:00 (1 minute)

Upload to WhoMails Batch Processing

Logged into WhoMails and used the batch processing feature:

Clicked "Batch Processing" in the dashboard
Uploaded my Excel file with domains
Selected processing options: "Include all contacts" and "Full data export"
Started the batch job

Screenshot: WhoMails batch processing interface showing 75 domains queued

Progress bar showing real-time processing status

⏱️ 3:00 - 8:00 (5 minutes)

Real-Time Processing

WhoMails processed the domains automatically. I watched the progress in real-time:

Average processing time: 4-6 seconds per domain
Success rate: 87% (65 out of 75 domains had usable WHOIS data)
Total contacts found: 187 (including technical and administrative contacts)
Founder/CEO contacts identified: 52

187

Total contacts found

Founder/CEO contacts

87%

Success rate

4.2s

Avg. processing time

⏱️ 8:00 - 12:00 (4 minutes)

Filter and Clean Data

Used WhoMails' built-in filtering to get high-quality contacts:

Filtered by contact type: "Registrant" and "Admin" (usually founders/decision-makers)
Excluded generic emails (info@, admin@, support@)
Removed privacy-protected domains
Verified email format and domain validity

Final result: 50 high-quality founder contacts with complete information.

Screenshot: WhoMails filtering interface showing contact quality scores

Green scores (A/B rated contacts) selected for export

⏱️ 12:00 - 15:00 (3 minutes)

Export and Organize

Exported the data and organized it for outreach:

Downloaded Excel file with complete contact information
Added columns for personalization notes
Researched 2-3 key facts about each company (funding, recent news, etc.)
Prepared personalized outreach templates

The Data Quality Results

Here's what I found in the final dataset of 50 contacts:

Contact Information Breakdown

50 email addresses - 48 personal, 2 role-based but founder-specific
47 phone numbers - Mix of direct lines and company numbers
50 complete addresses - Physical business locations
45 LinkedIn profiles - Found through cross-referencing names
Company details - Domain registration dates, business info

Founder Types Identified

32 CEO/Co-founder contacts - Primary decision-makers
12 CTO/Technical founders - Technical decision-makers
4 CMO/Growth founders - Marketing decision-makers
2 CFO/Operations founders - Business operations

The Outreach Campaign Results

I sent personalized emails to all 50 contacts over the following week. Here are the results:

98%

Email delivery rate

47%

Email open rate

32%

Response rate

Meetings booked

Campaign Outcomes

16 positive responses expressing interest in partnerships
8 meetings scheduled for deeper discussions
3 partnership agreements signed within 30 days
2 follow-up opportunities for Q2 2024
$47,000 in new business generated from this campaign

Key Success Factors

Several factors contributed to the high success rate of this campaign:

1. Data Quality

Personal email addresses: No generic emails meant higher deliverability
Verified contacts: WHOIS data is always current and accurate
Complete profiles: Names, titles, and company info for personalization

2. Targeting Precision

Decision-maker focus: Reached actual founders, not assistants
Company size fit: Targeted appropriate company sizes for partnerships
Industry relevance: Focused on SaaS companies with complementary services

3. Personalization at Scale

Company research: Referenced specific company achievements
Founder background: Mentioned relevant experience or background
Value proposition: Tailored partnership benefits to each company

Want to Replicate These Results?

You can achieve similar results with WhoMails:

Batch processing up to 1,000 domains at once
94% accuracy rate for contact extraction
Advanced filtering to find decision-makers
Complete contact profiles for better personalization
Export to any format (Excel, CSV, CRM integration)

Try This Method Free Watch Demo

Cost Breakdown

The total cost for this campaign was remarkably low:

Total Investment

WhoMails credits: €18 (75 searches)
Email sending tool: €0 (used free tier)
Time investment: 15 minutes setup + 2 hours outreach
Total monetary cost: €18
ROI: 2,611% (€47,000 revenue / €18 cost)

Lessons Learned

Several insights from this campaign that you can apply:

What Worked Best

WHOIS data accuracy: 98% of emails were deliverable vs. 60-70% with other methods
Direct founder access: No gatekeepers meant faster responses
Batch processing speed: 15 minutes vs. 4-6 hours manually
Complete contact profiles: Enabled better personalization

Areas for Improvement

Follow-up sequence: Could have implemented more systematic follow-ups
LinkedIn integration: Could have connected on LinkedIn first
Phone outreach: Had phone numbers but didn't use them (missed opportunity)

Replicating This Process

Here's your step-by-step guide to replicate these results:

Your Action Plan

Step 1: Create a list of 50-100 target company domains

Step 2: Sign up for WhoMails and upload your domain list

Step 3: Use batch processing to extract contact data

Step 4: Filter for decision-makers and high-quality contacts

Step 5: Research each company for personalization points

Step 6: Create personalized outreach campaigns

Step 7: Track results and optimize your approach

Conclusion

This case study proves that WHOIS data extraction can be incredibly powerful for B2B prospecting when done correctly. The combination of speed, accuracy, and direct access to decision-makers makes it superior to traditional methods.

The key takeaway: Quality beats quantity every time. Rather than sending hundreds of emails to generic addresses, focus on finding the right people with personal contact information.

🚀 Ready to Try This Yourself?

Start with WhoMails' free trial and see if you can replicate these results. The batch processing feature makes it easy to scale this approach for any size campaign.