Episode 146: The “Invisible Pipeline” Is Real: Move Customer References to the Top of Funnel

Cold email is burning out, social is noisy, and buyers don’t follow a neat demo → proposal → close path anymore. In this episode, Jorge Soto sits down with Braydan Young (Co-Founder of Sendoso, now CEO at Slash Experts) to unpack a better way to build pipeline: make the invisible pipeline visible by connecting prospects with real customers early—not just at the end of a deal.

We dig into why peer-to-peer validation beats glossy case studies, where to insert references in your buyer journey, how this cuts churn and accelerates land-and-expand, and how first-party conversation data becomes a long-term moat.

Guest: Braydan Young

Host: Jorge Soto

Learn more: https://slashexperts.com

What you’ll learn:

-Why cold email deliverability & webinars aren’t filling calendars like they used to

-How to surface the invisible pipeline of peer conversations happening off your radar

-The simple play: move references to top of funnel (or immediately post-demo)

-Using customer connections to reduce churn & power land-and-expand

-Founder lessons from zero → one (process, tooling, and staying insanely organized)

-Balancing “build for now” with a 5–10 year data moat + LLM strategyChapters:00:00 Intro & history00:32 What’s changed in pipeline building01:33 The invisible pipeline (peer-to-peer proof)03:44 Put references before the demo05:07 Beyond glossy case studies: buyers want real talk06:42 Churn reduction & land-and-expand use cases08:30 Starting from zero again—Sendoso → Slash Experts lessons10:18 Founder learning loops & discovery mistakes14:18 Now vs 5–10 year vision (fundraising balance)15:14 First-party data as a moat (LLMs, insights)18:38 Humans still buy from humans19:59 Advice for early sales leaders (talk to everyone, get organized)21:03 Where to find Slash ExpertsLinks & ResourcesSlash Experts: https://slashexperts.com (hit Experts to talk to real customers)Braydan on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/braydanyoung/Jorge on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/startupjorge/Gear this episode helpsB2B founders, CROs, product marketers, AEs, and anyone trying to build pipeline without burning their domain or budget.