Definition

Coined by Sawa (startsawa.com), 2026. First published in How do you grow a B2B email list from zero? The Five Routes to the First Hundred are, in order: customers and contacts you already know, every sales and customer call, your own LinkedIn posts, one partner newsletter, and only then a lead magnet.

The order is the point. The first three routes are person-to-person asks to people who can be named, and they produce the readers most likely to reply. The fourth borrows a list that already trusts email. The fifth, the lead magnet, scales but brings the most wrong people when the promise is broad, so it comes last, after the welcome email has run for real subscribers.

An example: a founder emails forty customers one at a time with the newsletter link, ends every call for a month with the same one-line ask, posts four times a week with the link in the first comment, and swaps one mention with a partner. The hundredth subscriber arrives before any asset exists.

Why it matters for B2B email

The first hundred subscribers set the list's reply rate, its deliverability and the writer's picture of who is reading. A hundred named buyers teach you what to write; a thousand strangers from a broad giveaway teach you nothing and bounce. Starting with routes one to three keeps the list made of people who chose to hear from you.

The article that answers this in full: How do you grow a B2B email list from zero?.

Related terms

Owned audience An owned audience is the group of people you can contact directly, usually by email, without asking a platform for permission.
LinkedIn-to-email LinkedIn-to-email is the practice of turning attention on LinkedIn into email subscribers.
Lead magnet A lead magnet is something useful you give away in exchange for an email address.
Double opt-in Double opt-in means a new subscriber has to confirm their email address before they are added to your list.

Part of the B2B email marketing glossary. Last updated 2026-10-09.