I burned $10K before sending my first cold email...

How to Building Your Cold Email Tech Stack Without Breaking the Bank

Author

Christian Oland
April 19, 2025

Welcome to Issue #3 of RevGen Labs Report.

I jumped into cold emailing way back in 2016, and you won't believe this, but I burned through over $10,000 before I even sent my first cold email!

How did that happen? 

Well, nobody was really doing cold email campaigns back then, at least not openly. 

There weren't any LinkedIn gurus posting about cold email tech stacks or setups to learn from

I was basically pioneering in the dark!

So I thought I'd save you from my expensive education and break down some practical cold email tech stacks at different budget levels:

What we're covering today:

  • $500 Cold email tech stack

  • $1000 Cold email tech stack 

  • $2000 Cold email tech stack 

  • $5000 Cold email tech stack 

Before we dive in, quick reminder that I go live every Tuesday with agency founders to talk sales strategy. Subscribe to my  YouTube if you want to join in!

And this week we have Dr. Jay Feldman AKA Lead Gen Jay joining us for Tuesday Triggers session. 

He will share insights on how to be a master social selling. 

Want in? 

And I'll send you the calendar invite.

💸 $500 Cold email tech stack

Tool

Purpose

Monthly Cost

Google Reseller Inboxes

Professional email inbox

$3/inbox

Instantly (or Smartlead)

Cold email sending & automation

$37–$97

Apollo.io 

List Building

$50

Reoon Lifetime deal

Email verifier

$79 (500 credits/day forever)

Clay

Lead enrichment, advanced workflows

$149

✅ Total Monthly Cost: $525/month

(given you have 25 domains and 50 inboxes)

⚖️ $1000 Cold email tech stack 

Tool

Purpose

Monthly Cost

Google Reseller Inboxes

Professional email inbox

$3/inbox

Smartlead.ai

Unlimited email sending, multi-inbox rotation

$94

Apollo.io 

Lead sourcing

$50

BuiltWith, Crunchbase, Y Combinator, Storeleads

Scraping

$100

Lead Magic

Email validation

$99 

Clay

Lead enrichment, advanced workflows

$149

RevReply

AI auto responder

$39

Custom Domains

For rotating inboxes

~$20/domain/year

✅ Total Monthly Cost: $723/month

(given you have 25 domains and 50 inboxes)

🧠 $2000 Cold email tech stack 

Tool

Purpose

Monthly Cost

Google Reseller Inboxes

Professional email inbox

$3/inbox

Mailreef 

Backup inboxes

$250/month for 200 inboxes

Smartlead.ai 

AI sending, inbox rotation, analytics

$174/month

Apollo.io 

Lead sourcing

$50

BuiltWith, Crunchbase, Y Combinator, Storeleads

Scraping

$100

Clay 

Lead enrichment, advanced workflows

$800

RB2B 

Identify website visitor

$149

RevReply

AI auto responder

$39

Custom Domains

For rotating inboxes

~$20/domain/year

✅ Total Monthly Cost: $1,753.67/month

(given you have 25 domains and 50 inboxes)

👥 $5000 Cold email tech stack 

Partner with a cold email agency that delivers results. Agency that:

  • Have access to all the GTM tools 

  • Have proven expertise in maximizing these resources

  • Have already generated measurable outcomes for businesses like yours

Here’s an example of what an agency can do for you:

Quick Workflow Example

And that’s it.

So, pick a tech stack that fits your budget. 

Tell me your biggest cold email struggle - whether it's deliverability issues, tech confusion, or campaign failures - and I'll help you avoid the costly mistakes that almost broke me. 

Oh, and I'd love to hear what topics you're interested in or if you know someone awesome who'd make a great guest speaker! Just reply and let me know your thoughts.

Christian Oland
Co-founder RevGen Labs & RevReply