Probe.dev: 70 Opportunities Generated Through GitHub-Scraping Cold Email Strategy

Campaign Overview

Probe.dev, a production-grade API platform for video file analysis and validation, partnered with Lead Gen Jay to build an outbound pipeline targeting senior video engineers and streaming infrastructure teams across the United States. Built by the founder of encoding.com — a well-known name in the video processing space — Probe.dev eliminates the operational overhead of maintaining brittle open-source tools like FFprobe, MediaInfo, and Apple's HLS mediastreamvalidator in production video workflows.

The challenge was unique: Probe.dev's ideal customers are highly technical engineers embedded deep within video teams at streaming services, cloud video platforms, broadcasters, and media companies. These aren't typical B2B buyers who respond to generic outreach. They're developers who live in code, contribute to open-source projects, and are skeptical of sales emails. Reaching them required an unconventional approach.

The Strategic Pivot: From Standard Lists to GitHub Intelligence

The campaign initially launched using standard prospecting lists sourced from Apollo, targeting video engineers and streaming professionals by job title and company. While this approach aligned with the strategy discussed during onboarding, the early results fell short of expectations. Traditional list-based targeting simply wasn't reaching the right engineers with enough precision.

Recognizing this, the Lead Gen Jay team pivoted to a highly custom approach: scraping GitHub repositories to identify engineers who actively contribute to the exact open-source tools that Probe.dev replaces and enhances. Specifically, the team targeted contributors to FFmpeg, MediaInfo, Video.js, HLS.js, x264, x265, and related streaming video projects.

This was a fundamentally different prospecting method. Instead of guessing which engineers might care about video infrastructure based on job titles alone, the GitHub scraping approach identified developers who were already hands-on with the very tools Probe.dev improves upon. These engineers had firsthand experience with the pain points — the brittle builds, the scaling headaches, the constant maintenance — making the outreach immediately relevant.

This outside-the-box strategy proved to be the turning point. The campaign's performance transformed once the GitHub-sourced leads were in play, ultimately driving the results that met the performance guarantee and delivered an exceptional outcome for the client.

Key Metrics

• Total Emails Sent: 23,000
• Total Replies: 324
• Reply Rate: 2.77%
• Opportunities Generated: 70

The 2.77% reply rate is particularly notable given the audience. Video engineers and streaming infrastructure professionals are among the hardest-to-reach personas in B2B outreach — they tend to ignore generic sales emails and respond only to messaging that demonstrates genuine technical understanding. The fact that nearly 3% of outreach generated a reply speaks to how well the GitHub-sourced targeting and technically-informed messaging resonated with this audience.

The 70 opportunities generated represent a strong pipeline of qualified prospects — engineers and technical decision-makers at video-heavy companies who expressed genuine interest in Probe.dev's API platform.

Best-Performing Campaign

GitHub Repository Contributor Outreach

The highest-performing segment of the campaign was built entirely from GitHub intelligence. By scraping contributor lists from repositories including FFmpeg, MediaInfo, Video.js, HLS.js, x264, and x265, the Lead Gen Jay team assembled a prospect list of developers with direct, hands-on experience of the exact pain points Probe.dev solves. This targeting precision made it possible to craft outreach that felt immediately relevant rather than interruptive.

The messaging strategy leaned on the founder's credibility from encoding.com, adopting a developer-to-developer tone that felt like a peer recommendation rather than a cold sales pitch. Offering a full-featured "Always Free" plan with instant API access further lowered the barrier to engagement, allowing engineers to evaluate the product on their own terms without requiring a sales call, budget approval, or commitment.

Success Factors

GitHub-Based Prospecting

The single biggest driver of campaign success was the pivot from standard list-based prospecting to GitHub repository scraping. By identifying engineers who actively contribute to FFmpeg, MediaInfo, and other video processing open-source projects, the team built a prospect list of developers who already understood the exact problem Probe.dev solves. This eliminated the need to educate prospects on the pain point — they lived it daily.

Technically Authentic Messaging

The outreach was crafted to speak the language of video engineers, not generic B2B buyers. Leveraging the founder's credibility from encoding.com and leading with a personal, developer-to-developer tone, the emails felt like a peer recommendation rather than a cold sales pitch. This approach was critical for building trust with a technically sophisticated audience that is inherently skeptical of traditional outbound sales.

Low-Friction Lead Magnet

Offering a full-featured "Always Free" plan with instant API access removed the biggest barrier to engagement. Engineers could evaluate Probe.dev on their own terms without a sales call, budget approval, or commitment. This self-serve approach aligned perfectly with how developers prefer to evaluate new tools — by testing them firsthand.

Willingness to Pivot

The campaign's success wasn't guaranteed from day one. The initial Apollo-based approach didn't deliver the results the team expected. Rather than doubling down on a strategy that wasn't working, Lead Gen Jay quickly identified the issue, developed a custom GitHub scraping methodology, and relaunched with a fundamentally better prospect list. This adaptability was the difference between a mediocre campaign and an exceptional one.

Business Impact

The 70 qualified opportunities represent significant pipeline value for Probe.dev. With target deal sizes ranging from $25,000 to $200,000+ in annual spend, even a modest conversion rate from these opportunities could generate substantial recurring revenue for the company.

Beyond the immediate pipeline, the campaign validated a repeatable prospecting methodology. The GitHub scraping approach identified a rich vein of high-intent prospects that Probe.dev can continue to mine for future outreach cycles. This intelligence — knowing exactly which repositories, contributors, and technical communities yield the best results — is a strategic asset that compounds over time.

The campaign also reinforced Probe.dev's positioning in the market. By reaching engineers at major streaming services, cloud video platforms, broadcasters, and media companies with technically credible messaging, Probe.dev established awareness among the exact audience they need to win. Even prospects who didn't convert immediately are now familiar with the product and may return as their infrastructure needs evolve.

Conclusion

Probe.dev's cold email campaign demonstrates that even the most technical, hard-to-reach B2B audiences can be engaged effectively when the prospecting and messaging strategy matches the sophistication of the buyer. Standard approaches fell short, but a creative pivot to GitHub-based intelligence unlocked a high-quality prospect pool that responded to authentic, technically informed outreach.

With 70 opportunities generated from 23,000 emails at a 2.77% reply rate, the campaign exceeded expectations and met the performance guarantee. The combination of unconventional prospecting, credible founder-led messaging, and a frictionless free-plan offer created a playbook that Probe.dev can scale as they continue to grow their presence in the video infrastructure market.

This campaign is a testament to the value of adaptability in outbound sales. When the first approach didn't work, the willingness to think outside the box — scraping GitHub repositories instead of relying on traditional databases — turned a challenging campaign into a standout success story.