Fable Security generated about $1M in pipeline from one campaign
A Series A security team pre-selected the titles and companies it wanted, kept the fit decision ahead of the calendar, and ran the whole program in under 30 minutes a week.
Fable Security · Cybersecurity, Series A
- ~$1M
- in pipeline from a single campaignGenerated in Fable’s first six months on the platform, from one campaign. One of those opportunities is in a proof of value.
- <30 min
- a week to run the programMost of that is keeping reps’ calendar links current. Tracking and follow-up nudges sit with DoGood.
The situation
Fable Security is a Series A cybersecurity company with a lean marketing team. At that stage the mandate is not lead volume. It is qualified opportunities that survive the funnel, and that is what the growth lead is measured on.
Fable already ran several meeting-setting services, including community-based ones focused on security. Those behave like channel partners. The pool of people they can reach is fixed, the vendor has little say over who lands on the calendar, and there is no way to turn down a poor fit once it is booked.
Several of those programs also pay the prospect a personal incentive to attend. That reliably produces meetings. It does not reliably produce meetings about the product.
Curtis Casella
Director of Growth Marketing·Fable Security
Cybersecurity · Series A · Lean marketing team
What they did
Pre-selected the titles and the companies.
Instead of accepting whoever a community pool produced, Fable named the roles and the accounts it wanted to meet before any outreach happened.
Layered qualifying questions on top of the targeting.
Leaders answer questions about the projects they are actually running, so their answers land before a meeting is confirmed.
Declined the opt-ins that were not a fit.
When someone opts in but their answers show a mismatch, Fable passes. Most services do not allow that, and it is what keeps the pipeline number honest.
Kept reps’ calendar links ready.
That is the bulk of the weekly load. DoGood handles the tracking, and follows up when a meeting has not been scheduled.
Ran one campaign, with the member pool in view.
Fable could see the communities it would be drawing from before committing, so the campaign was a targeting decision rather than a bet.
What happened
Fable generated roughly $1M in pipeline through DoGood in its first six months, out of a single campaign. They have not run a second one yet.
No closed-won deal so far, which is a timing read rather than a caveat. Six months is about the length of Fable’s normal cycle, and one of those opportunities is in a proof of value now.
Management time stayed near zero. Under 30 minutes a week, most of it spent making sure reps had a calendar link ready to send.
Meeting quality was the difference the team felt most directly. Because leaders opt in around a donation made on their behalf rather than a payment to themselves, the people who show up want the conversation.
When a meeting went unscheduled or a deal stalled mid-funnel, the DoGood team chased it rather than waiting to be asked.
“Because DoGood is making a donation on our behalf, the quality of the actual meetings is just higher.”
Curtis Casella
Director of Growth Marketing, Fable Security
Why it worked
The result is a consequence of the model, not a lucky quarter. Here is the part that carries over to any vendor.
Pre-selection moves the fit decision upstream.
Naming titles and companies before outreach means the pool is your target list, not a community roster you inherit.
The right to decline is worth more than it sounds.
An opt-in is not automatically a fit. Reading the answers and passing costs nothing, and it is why a pipeline number from this channel holds up under scrutiny.
A donation selects for different people than a payment.
Pay a prospect personally and you attract people who want the payment. Donate on their behalf and you attract people who want the conversation. Same mechanic, opposite selection.
Visibility comes before commitment.
Fable could see the member communities it would draw from before running anything, so it knew the shape of the pool instead of trusting a promise about it.
Someone works the gaps.
Unscheduled meetings and stalled deals get chased. A program that is monitored converts better than a program that is merely delivered.
Source
This page summarizes a recorded interview with Curtis Casella. The full conversation, in their own words, is in the journal.
Read the full interviewBuild pipeline you can actually follow up on.
Set your ICP, review who opts in, and take only the meetings you want.