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Ding sent outbound recruiting messages to 50,000 engineers for early Merge

Shensi Ding · She cold messaged 50,000 engineers—then grew to $10M+ ARR. | Shensi Ding, Founder of Merge · PMF Show · Sep 18, 2025 · at 21:24

Merge co-founder Shensi Ding describes the massive volume of outbound messages she sent to recruit early technical talent.

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“I don't even remember the exact number of engineers that I outbound, but I think it was like 50,000 or so.”

quote is from the automated transcript, cleaned for reading: filler sounds and stutters are removed, nothing is rephrased. names can be misheard (the analysis reads context, assessments check outside sources). how →

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Shensi Ding Sep 18, 2025 ▶ 25:34 She cold messaged 50,000 engineers—then grew to $10M+ ARR. | Shensi Ding, Founder of Merge · PMF Show
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