Secure Outreach
A self-hosted cold email platform for a B2B export business. It sends from the client's own mailboxes, checks the sending domain before a campaign can launch, and sorts replies with fixed rules instead of AI.
- Sector
- Trade and export
- Status
- In development
- Runs on
- Client's own machine
- Licence fees
- None
01The problem
The client wanted to find buyers with cold email, without paying for an outreach subscription and without putting their sending domain at risk.
- 01
Domains get blacklisted
Sending at volume without SPF, DKIM and DMARC in place, or without a slow warmup, can get a domain blocked by the inboxes it needs to reach.
- 02
Replies sorted by hand
Someone had to read every reply to separate real interest from out-of-office messages and bounces.
- 03
Compliance is easy to miss
Every email needs a postal address and a working one-click unsubscribe. Leaving either out is a common mistake.
02What we built
Outreach that protects the sender.
Mailboxes connect once, the domain is checked before launch, emails go out slowly under a daily cap, and replies are sorted without anyone reading the auto-replies.
Mailboxes, contacts, active campaigns, qualified leads and suppressed addresses, counted straight from the database. Sending and reply checks run on their own in the background.
Multi-step sequences with merge fields and a live preview. The unsubscribe link and postal address are added to every email automatically, so nobody can forget them.
Sends, replies and bounces per campaign and per step. There is no open or click tracking, by design, so every number is a real event.
Each connected mailbox has its own daily ceiling and a warmup ramp, so a new sender starts slowly and builds its reputation.
A genuine reply stops the sequence for that contact and lands here, ready to export as CSV.
03How it works
From mailbox to qualified lead.
Connect
Microsoft 365 sign-in or a Gmail app password.
Check
SPF, DKIM and DMARC must pass before launch.
Send
A slow drip under warmup and daily caps, across several mailboxes.
Sort
Each reply marked human, auto-reply or bounce by fixed rules.
Qualify
A human reply becomes a lead and stops the sequence.
04Security
Locked down by default.
- Credentials
- Mailbox tokens are encrypted with AES-256-GCM under a versioned master key. Nothing is stored in plain text.
- Database
- PostgreSQL row-level security, enforced for the app's own database user, so a bug in the app cannot bypass it.
- Sign-in
- One operator password with lockout after repeated failed attempts, and a signed, HttpOnly session cookie.
- Network
- Nothing is exposed to the internet. The app checks mailboxes for replies instead of waiting for incoming webhooks.
- Errors
- The browser only sees plain error messages. Full detail is logged on the server.
05From the client
06Scope
- Features
- Mailbox connection, deliverability check, multi-step sequences with merge fields, warmup and daily caps, mailbox rotation, reply sorting, lead capture, unsubscribe list, contact import from CSV or a business-card photo, CSV export, backups
- Reply sorting
- Fixed rules with no AI, so every decision can be checked
- Built with
- Node.js, TypeScript, Express, PostgreSQL, IMAP and SMTP, Microsoft 365 sign-in, OCR that runs on the machine
- Runs on
- The client's own machine or server, as a Windows service that restarts itself if it stops
- Status
- In development