Small Business Expo NYC · October 15, 2026
From the registration list to Booth 412: every tool and owner at each step. Updated November 5, 2026.
Show Producers export
The Show Producers sent a full registrant export every Monday, which Claude diffed against the master. 11,142 new registrants from August 31 to October 15, about 250 a day, and 2,700 to 2,900 a week in the final two weeks.
Source
Claude · Viktor
Claude diffed each export against the master, tiered every row T0 to T4 and split people from role inboxes. Viktor merged it into Master v2, removed duplicates by business and phone, and caught re-registrations and withdrawals.
Owner: Claude and Viktor
ZeroBounce · Viktor
Valid, catch-all or invalid, with catch-all results scored before loading. Suggested typo corrections held for Chris’s review; approved fixes sent.
Owner: Viktor
Google Sheets · Viktor
One row per registrant: 15,497 rows, about 12,500 distinct businesses, with row_id, tier, status, send dates and Do Not Contact flags. One contact per business picked for the personal emails; drop-offs marked. The Call Sheet tab holds one row per business.
Owner: Viktor
Claude · Zapier · Gmail · Viktor
Claude drafted each email, Zapier placed all 155 of Claude’s drafts in Chris’s Gmail for review. Viktor queued and tracked the T0 send list across six batches.
Drafts: Claude · Send list: Viktor
Chris
Reviewed and sent 155 personal emails over eight days, September 1 to 29, from chris@vetano.com.
Owner: Chris
Instantly · Chris
37 mailboxes across 12 dedicated sending domains, kept separate from vetano.com. Tracking off, unsubscribe link and postal address in every email.
Set up by Chris
Chris · Viktor
Viktor created each campaign paused, loaded the leads with their fields and tracking links, set the daily caps and built the thank-you list; Chris launched each one. Touch 1 (A/B subject), Touch 2, weekly adds, final reminder October 10 to 14, thank-you October 22 to 28; after the show, a thank-you went to 9,872 registrants. Ramp from 30 to 55 a day per mailbox.
Built by Viktor · Launched by Chris
Recipient inbox
Short link vetano.com/expo, tagged with utm_source, utm_content and utm_term = row_id.
Every recipient
Lovable · Amplitude · Chris
Built with Lovable. Amplitude recorded every visit by row_id, with session replay. Viktor reviewed each session and summarized it in Slack (step 4).
Owner: Chris (Lovable)
Vetano web and app · Dev team
Free business account, created before the expo on app.vetano.com or in the mobile app. Both live in production; UTMs forwarded from the site.
Owner: Dev team
Vetano app · Persona · Dev team
Persona government ID verification in the mobile app. A verified, complete profile gets its own Vetano QR code.
Owner: Dev team
Small Business Expo NYC · Chris
At the booth, a qualifying ID-verified business account scan received a free job post. The iPhone 18 Pro drawing required a numbered ticket: keep one half and drop the stub in the entry box. A scan alone was not drawing entry.
Chris and booth team
Instantly Unibox
Replies landed in the sending mailbox. Stop on reply halted the sequence.
Instantly · continues in step 5
Amplitude · Sheets · Slack · Viktor
Viktor reviewed every real vetano.com/expo session, 263 in all, and posted a summary to #alerts-instantly: who visited, any issues they hit, whether they signed up. He stamped the Call Sheet in Master v2 and flagged business owners who signed up under the wrong role.
Owner: Viktor
vetano-api · Slack · Dev team
#alerts-user, #alerts-employer and #alerts-talent: every new account posts an alert with name and email.
vetano-api · Dev team
Zapier · ZeroBounce · Claude · Viktor
Triggered by new-account alerts. Skips test accounts, checks the address with ZeroBounce, and catches duplicates by checking what’s already been sent. 179 accounts processed, 72 businesses and 107 talent.
Designed by Claude and Viktor · Built, tested and published by Claude
Gmail · Chris
Sent about 12 seconds after the account was created, from hello@vetano.com via Gmail, signed ‘Chris at Vetano,’ with replies to support@vetano.com. The Expo P.S. dropped off automatically after October 15.
Owner: Chris
Zapier · Slack · Chris
Each reply posted with name, email, phone, title, industry, campaign, tier and the reply text.
Built by Chris
Viktor · Claude
Viktor tagged each reply (call, quick, question, opt-out), drafted the response in the thread, saved reply templates in the Unibox and audited every inbound reply against what had been answered; Claude reviewed the wording.
Owner: Viktor
Chris
Sent from the Unibox. A human wrote or approved every template, and Chris personally reviewed every founder email.
Owner: Chris
Zapier · HubSpot · Instantly · Sheets · Viktor
Interested replies, marked in Instantly, became HubSpot leads automatically. Opt-outs went to the Instantly blocklist and Do Not Contact in Master v2.
HubSpot automatic · Blocklist and Do Not Contact by Viktor
Viktor · Sheets
19,569 emails before the expo reached 8,915 registrants. After the show, a thank-you went to 9,872 registrants. Viktor matched every signup back to the list and reported conversion by tier, before and after the expo.
Owner: Viktor
The automation layer
Zapier connected the work between tools, from a draft in Chris's inbox to a new account's welcome email.
155
September 1 to 29
ClaudeGmailZapier placed every draft in Chris's inbox for review before he sent it.
179
October 1 to November 4
Slack signup alertGmail welcome72 businesses and 107 talent. Validated, deduplicated and welcomed by name in about 12 seconds.
Every
September 30 onward
InstantlySlackThe sender's name, title, tier and message reached the team together.
8
October 12 to 28
InstantlyHubSpotOne click created a lead with source, tier and campaign attached.
Campaign results
registrants emailed
emails before the expo
personal founder emails
click-throughs
registrants sent a thank-you
additional business click-throughs
additional replies
What we learned
A human wrote or approved every template, and Chris personally reviewed every founder email.
Our subject-line test never got measured; the reporting broke and we didn't catch it in time.
Technology stack
As featured on the Zapier blog
The platform behind the campaign
Vetano is a hiring platform where every applicant verifies their government ID and records a video of their work before you interview them. Businesses post jobs or send their own applicants the link. You see proof before the first conversation.
