u/suminooo

I'm trying to understand how agencies handle inbox infrastructure once they start scaling.

A lot of providers like Mailforge/Primeforge seem to require buying mailbox slots in bulk, like 10+ at a time. I understand why agencies use multiple inboxes/domains to keep sending volume low per inbox, but I’m confused about the logistics for client work.

How would you buy and warm up inboxes in advance?

For example, if you buy 10–20 inboxes now, don't you usually have to name them early on? Like choose sender names, domains, and email addresses. But for client campaigns, the sender persona might depend on the client. It could be the founder, someone on their team, or me reaching out on their behalf.

So my questions are:

1. Do agencies usually wait until a client signs before buying domains/inboxes?
2. Do they pre-buy bulk slots and leave them unused, even though they’re paying monthly?
3. Do they use generic sender personas like “Alex” or “Sarah” across clients?
4. Do they send as the agency on behalf of the client instead of using client personas?
5. Is keeping “warm inventory” only practical once you already have multiple active clients?

Trying to avoid wasting money on unused inboxes, but also don’t want every new client to wait 3–4 weeks before campaigns can start.

Would appreciate advice from people actually running client cold email campaigns. How do you structure this?

I'm trying to understand how agencies handle inbox infrastructure once they start scaling.

A lot of providers like Mailforge/Primeforge seem to require buying mailbox slots in bulk, like 10+ at a time. I understand why agencies use multiple inboxes/domains to keep sending volume low per inbox, but I’m confused about the logistics for client work.

How would you buy and warm up inboxes in advance?

For example, if you buy 10–20 inboxes now, don't you usually have to name them early on? Like choose sender names, domains, and email addresses. But for client campaigns, the sender persona might depend on the client. It could be the founder, someone on their team, or me reaching out on their behalf.

So my questions are:

1. Do agencies usually wait until a client signs before buying domains/inboxes?
2. Do they pre-buy bulk slots and leave them unused, even though they’re paying monthly?
3. Do they use generic sender personas like “Alex” or “Sarah” across clients?
4. Do they send as the agency on behalf of the client instead of using client personas?
5. Is keeping “warm inventory” only practical once you already have multiple active clients?

Trying to avoid wasting money on unused inboxes, but also don’t want every new client to wait 3–4 weeks before campaigns can start.

Would appreciate advice from people actually running client cold email campaigns. How do you structure this?

I’m starting to run outbound for clients and want to set this up the right way from the beginning.

Example: for a client, I may need 2–3 secondary sending domains and a few Google Workspace inboxes. I’m debating between:

1. Having the client create their own Porkbun/Google Workspace accounts, buy the domains/inboxes, and then I help configure DNS, SPF, DKIM, DMARC, warmup, etc.
2. Buying the domains/inboxes myself, managing everything under my own accounts, and charging the client for setup/infrastructure.

I can see pros and cons both ways.

Client-owned seems cleaner for ownership, security, billing, and offboarding.

Agency-owned seems easier/faster because I don’t have to wait on the client to set things up or deal with them making mistakes.

For those of you actually running cold email for clients:

• What do you usually do?
• Do clients push back on buying their own domains/inboxes?
• If you manage it yourself, how do you handle billing, ownership, and handoff if they cancel?
• Any mistakes you made early on that I should avoid?

Trying to avoid creating a messy setup as I take on more clients.

I met with a SaaS founder today who said he's had nothing but bad experiences with lead generation agencies.

One agency generated very few meetings, and the meetings weren't qualified.

Another agency booked 5–6 meetings per week, but most were poor fits, many were no-shows, and a lot of prospects only took the call because they thought the product was "cool", not because they had a real business problem to solve.

He also mentioned that several other SaaS founders told him to avoid lead gen agencies altogether because they tend to overpromise on meeting volume and underdeliver on quality.

For those of you running SaaS companies:

• Have you had success with outsourced cold email/lead gen agencies?
• Do you think outsourced outbound still works in 2026, or are most companies better off building SDR functions internally?

Is cold emailing just dead in 2026?

Between domains, inboxes, deliverability tools, data providers, sequencing platforms, warming tools, and stricter Google/Microsoft requirements, outbound has become significantly more expensive and complex than it was a few years ago.

I met with a SaaS founder today who said he's had nothing but bad experiences with lead generation agencies.

One agency generated very few meetings, and the meetings weren't qualified.

Another agency booked 5–6 meetings per week, but most were poor fits, many were no-shows, and a lot of prospects only took the call because they thought the product was "cool", not because they had a real business problem to solve.

He also mentioned that several other SaaS founders told him to avoid lead gen agencies altogether because they tend to overpromise on meeting volume and underdeliver on quality.

For those of you running SaaS companies:

• Have you had success with outsourced cold email/lead gen agencies?
• Do you think outsourced outbound still works in 2026, or are most companies better off building SDR functions internally?

Is cold emailing just dead in 2026?

Between domains, inboxes, deliverability tools, data providers, sequencing platforms, warming tools, and stricter Google/Microsoft requirements, outbound has become significantly more expensive and complex than it was a few years ago.

Saw that it's banned but is it possible to revive it?