This 20-person fintech builds embedded payment and lending APIs for marketplace platforms. Every meeting needed to be with the CEO or CPO because the integration decision sits at the top of the organization. It touches core product architecture and revenue model. Cold outreach to C-suite at funded tech platforms gets a response rate below 0.5%. The company had no brand recognition and competed against well-known infrastructure providers with 100x their headcount.
MEETINGS BOOKED
9
With CEOs and CPOs at marketplace and platform businesses
C-SUITE ATTENDANCE
100%
Every single meeting was with the top decision maker
COMMERCIAL NEGOTIATIONS
3
Started within 30 days of first meeting
What this company was facing
Embedded finance requires CEO and CPO buy-in because it changes the platform’s core product and revenue model. These decision makers are flooded with vendor pitches from well-funded competitors. Cold email to C-suite at Series A-C tech companies is blocked by executive assistants and email filters. The company’s only pipeline came from investor introductions, which were limited to 2-3 per quarter.
Pipeline from investor intros only (2-3 per quarter)
Cold outreach to C-suite producing 0.5% response rate
Competing against infrastructure brands 100x their size
No brand recognition in the marketplace ecosystem
9 C-suite meetings in 6 weeks
100% decision-maker attendance (CEO or CPO)
3 moved to commercial negotiation within 30 days
First signed partnership within 90 days
WEEKS 1-2
Identified marketplace companies at the right stage for embedded finance adoption: GMV thresholds indicating payment volume readiness, recent fundraising events signaling infrastructure investment, and product roadmap signals from job postings for payments or lending engineers. Cross-referenced with Fluum’s opted-in network to find warm paths to platform CEOs and CPOs.
WEEKS 3-4
Messages written at CEO/CPO reading level: strategic, not technical. Each message referenced the platform’s specific business model and how embedded financial services would create a new revenue stream. No technical jargon. No product feature lists. Focused on business outcomes and competitive advantage. Every message strategist-reviewed.
WEEKS 5-6
3 CEOs and CPOs moved directly from first meeting to commercial negotiation, bypassing the typical multi-meeting evaluation process. Fluum facilitated second meetings with technical teams after C-suite greenlight. First signed partnership closed within 90 days of campaign launch. Signal agents identified a second wave of marketplace platforms entering a payment infrastructure evaluation triggered by recent funding rounds.
“We get 50 vendor pitches a week. I ignore all of them. This one was different because it referenced our specific business model and a revenue opportunity I hadn’t considered. That’s why I took the meeting. That’s the only reason I take any meeting.”
CEO, marketplace platform
C-suite at funded tech platforms do not engage with cold vendor outreach. They respond to strategic relevance. Fluum’s approach identified marketplace platforms at the right stage for embedded finance adoption, then facilitated C-suite introductions framed around business outcomes. 100% of the 9 meetings were with the CEO or CPO, and 3 moved to commercial negotiation within 30 days.
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