How Ryan Doyle Turned AI and Cold Email into a $1M ARR Agency

From Salesman to Developer

Ryan Doyle grew up on a New York farm, studied business in California, then joined software sales teams in Silicon Valley and New York City. During the 2020 lockdowns, he clocked 80-hour workweeks and taught himself coding nights and weekends. After two months of sleepless nights and community unrest, he decided to quit and apply his raw skills toward launching digital products on his family farm’s rent deal.

The First Flops

Doyle’s early projects included Chatty, a Slack-based sales helper that stalled after six weeks, and salesadvice.io, a short-lived newsletter that netted just $500 before content ideas ran dry. He kept iterating, learning that product-market fit and consistent value matter more than flashy code.

A Haiku to GPT

In November 2020, Doyle earned GPT access by tweeting daily haiku at OpenAI’s CTO. With GPT unlocked, he launched Magic Sales Bot, an AI cold email writer. The product wasn’t perfect, but AI hype took it to $1,000 MRR, press mentions, and investor calls—teaching him that momentum often beats polish.

Finding a Partner Online

After 18 months, Doyle shared his experiences on Twitter and connected with Jakob Greenfeld over web-scraping tutorials. Six months of DMs led to a cold email service pilot. They didn’t meet in person until months later, by which point they were already at $10,000 in monthly revenue. Their remote collaboration proved the power of online partnerships.

Building Sales.co

Under the Sales.co banner, the duo built proprietary tools in Airtable for lead discovery and AI-driven reply categorization. Incoming responses feed into GPT, get tagged “positive,” “neutral,” or “question,” and land in the right teammate’s queue. This workflow let them handle hundreds of thousands of emails and deliver detailed weekly reports without missing a beat.

Pricing by Trial and Feedback

They offered three companies a free week of service, then tested $500, $1,000, $1,500, and $2,000 price points, always listening to customer feedback. Money-back guarantees and open calls built trust and optimized pricing. Failed commission-only and per-meeting models taught them what not to do.

Scaling Roles and Products

As Sales.co grew, Greenfeld became CEO, Doyle focused on special projects, and they added virtual assistants. New offerings include niche lead lists (Damn Good Leads) and advertiser data scrapers for newsletter ads. Their own cold email system drives self-sustained marketing.

Balancing Tech and Van Life

Meanwhile, Doyle’s renovating an old van to tour U.S. national parks and Mexico, using YouTube tutorials to guide hands-on work. Switching between code and craftsmanship keeps him sharp and motivated.