ADIN University GTM — Solo Execution Plan (NYC)
PriyankaA 12-week plan built for one person, 10-15 hours/week, focused on Columbia, Cornell Tech, and NYU.
Ground Rules for Solo Execution
- 3 schools only. Columbia, Cornell Tech, NYU. Adding more = killing the strategy.
- Fixed weekly rhythm. Same activity on the same day every week. No daily planning.
- Batch everything. All outreach on Monday. All follow-ups on Thursday. All meetings on Tue/Wed.
- One workshop per week max. You're one person. Don't book two.
- Kill or double down at Week 4. If you don't have 3 club meetings booked by end of Week 4, change tactics.
- No faculty outreach until Week 8. Students respond fast, faculty don't. Get traction first.
The Narrowed Target: 3 Schools, 7 Clubs, 2 Papers
This is the entire list for the first 8 weeks. Do not add to it.
Cornell Tech (Roosevelt Island)
- Cornell Tech AI Society -- aisocietycornell.tech
- Cornell Tech Strategy & Consulting Club -- ctscc.vercel.app
- Columbia Data Science Society (CDSS) -- cdssatcu.com
- CBS Artificial Intelligence Club -- groups.gsb.columbia.edu/AIC
- Columbia AI Alignment Club -- cualignment.org
- Columbia Spectator (newspaper) -- columbiaspectator.com
- NYU Stern Business Analytics Club -- nyusternbac.org
- NYU ML Club -- nyumlclub.github.io
- GenArt NYU -- genartnyu.com
- Washington Square News (newspaper) -- nyunews.com
Your Weekly Rhythm (same every week)
| Day | Block | Activity | Hours |
|---|---|---|---|
| Mon AM | Outreach Monday | Send all new cold emails (batch of 5-8) | 2 |
| Tue | Meetings day | 2-3 club/founder calls (in person if possible) | 3 |
| Wed | Meetings day | 2-3 more calls | 3 |
| Thu AM | Follow-up Thursday | Reply to inbound, send all follow-ups (one each) | 2 |
| Fri | Build day | Workshop prep, content, product feedback | 2 |
| Sat/Sun | Off or workshop | If hosting a workshop, do it Sat afternoon | 0-3 |
Why Tue/Wed for meetings: students have class M/W/F or T/Th. Tue/Wed catches both. Avoid Monday (catch-up) and Friday (checked out).
The 8-Week Plan
Week 1 -- Setup only. No outreach yet.
Mon-Tue
- Build adin.chat/students landing page. Free Pro for 1 year with .edu verification. Add the unlock counter (150 signups → whole school free).
- Build the 2-page "ADIN for Research" PDF.
- Create a Notion tracker. Columns: School, Club, Contact name, Email, Last touch date, Status, Notes.
- Pre-populate every row for the 9 contacts.
- Find named contacts. 15 min each: club site → officers → LinkedIn → email (firstname.lastname@school.edu).
- Goal: name + email for all 9 contacts.
- Draft personalized versions of the 4 email templates (below), one per contact. Each email needs ONE personalized line referencing their actual work or last event.
Week 2 -- Outreach starts.
Mon AM
- Send 5 emails: Cornell Tech AI Society, Cornell Tech S&C, CDSS, CBS AI Club, NYU Stern BAC.
- Stagger send times (9:00, 9:15, 9:30...) -- looks less like a blast.
- Likely no replies yet. Use this time to draft Week 3 emails.
- Follow-up to non-responders from Monday (one follow-up, max 3 sentences).
- Reply to anyone who responded.
- Draft workshop curriculum for the first format. Pick one: "Lit Review in 30 Min" or "Deal Memo in 45 Min" (depends on which club responds first).
Week 3 -- More outreach + first meetings.
Mon
- Send remaining 4 emails: NYU ML Club, GenArt NYU, AI Alignment Club, Columbia Spectator.
- Also send to WSN.
- First club president calls (from Week 2 outreach). Goal: 2-3 meetings.
- On each call: pitch partnership (free Pro for members + $1K workshop sponsorship + featured spotlight). Ask for a workshop date in Week 5 or 6. Lock the calendar.
- Follow-up Thursday.
- Refine workshop curriculum based on what club presidents said they wanted.
Week 4 -- Lock workshop #1.
Mon
- Round 2 outreach: anyone who didn't reply gets a second follow-up with a new hook.
- More meetings. Cumulative goal: 4-5 meetings done by end of Week 4.
- Lock at least ONE workshop on the calendar for Week 5 or 6.
- Finalize workshop logistics: room, food, agenda, slides, demo flow, ADIN setup for attendees.
- 1+ workshop booked → continue plan
- 0 workshops, 2+ meetings → extend outreach 2 weeks, don't pivot yet
- 0 meetings → stop and rewrite emails. Don't keep blasting.
Week 5 -- Run workshop #1.
The workshop is the moment everything compounds. Don't half-ass this.
Workshop structure (60 min):
- 0:00-0:10 -- Founder intro: why you built ADIN, what makes it different from ChatGPT/Perplexity for research.
- 0:10-0:25 -- Live demo of one specific workflow (deal memo, lit review, article draft -- whichever the club cares about).
- 0:25-0:50 -- Hands-on: every attendee builds their own real research project with their own materials. Walk around, help.
- 0:50-0:60 -- Q&A, pizza, every attendee leaves with a shareable ADIN project link + a referral code.
- Tweet/LinkedIn post with photos, tag the club + attendees who consented.
- DM every attendee within 24 hours: "Loved meeting you. Here's your free Pro. What did you think?"
- Identify the 2-3 most engaged attendees → Campus Strategist candidates.
Week 6 -- Workshop #2 + strategist recruiting.
Mon-Wed
- Run workshop #2 at another school.
- DM the strongest Workshop #1 attendees with the Campus Strategist offer.
- Convert 2-3 candidates into paid Campus Strategists. One per school.
- Package: free Pro for life, $750/month stipend, "ADIN Campus Lead" title, one mission (drive 50 signups in their network in 30 days).
Week 7 -- Strategists do the work, you support.
This is where solo execution starts to scale. Strategists run the next phase. You support.
Your job:
- Daily Slack check-in with strategists.
- Provide them: pitch deck, signup link, referral codes, swag/stickers (Sticker Mule, \~$200).
- Be available for any meeting they book.
- Workshop #3 at the third school (you still host, they organize).
Week 8 -- First viral unlock attempt.
By end of Week 8 you should have:
- 3 workshops done
- 2-3 Campus Strategists active
- 100-200 .edu signups across 3 schools
Hard go/no-go at end of Week 8:
- 7-day retention >35% → keep going, expand to schools 4-6
- 7-day retention 20-35% → traction exists, fix workflow gaps before scaling
- 7-day retention <20% → product/workflow fit isn't there. Stop expanding. Talk to active users and fix before more growth.
Weeks 9-12 -- Scale or stabilize.
If retention is good:
- Add 3 more NYC schools: Baruch, Hunter, Fordham.
- Begin faculty outreach (Email C) at Columbia + NYU + Cornell Tech.
- Start a monthly "ADIN NYC Student Meetup" at your office -- recurring event = recurring growth.
- Apply for earned media: TechCrunch student section, NY Times tech newsletter, Garbage Day, Platformer.
- Stop expansion entirely.
- 15 user interviews with churned users.
- Ship product fixes.
- Then resume.
Email Templates
Email A -- AI/Tech/Business Club Presidents
Subject: Partnering with \[Club Name\] this semester>
Hi \[first name\],>
I'm \[your name\], founder at ADIN -- we built a research-focused AI workspace (project memory + source citations + real outputs, not just chat). We're in NYC and want to partner with 5-6 NYC student orgs this semester before going wider.>
The offer for \[Club Name\]:>
-- Free ADIN Pro for every member (we verify via .edu) -- $1,000 to co-host one workshop with us (we bring demo + pizza + the founder, you bring the room) -- Featured spotlight on our network for the best member projects>
We can come to your campus or host at our \[neighborhood\] office, your call. No strings -- we're betting if your members find ADIN useful, they'll tell people.>
Free for a quick 20-min call next week? Or I can send a 2-page overview first.>
Best, \[name\] adin.chat
Email B -- Student Newspapers
Subject: Free Pro access for \[Paper Name\] reporters>
Hi \[first name\],>
Quick note from ADIN, an AI research workspace built for source-heavy work -- sources to synthesis to drafting, with citations preserved throughout. We've been watching how Perplexity worked with Medill at Northwestern and wanted to do something similar with NYC papers.>
The offer: free ADIN Pro for the entire \[Paper Name\] editorial staff this semester. No cost, no strings. If your reporters end up using it for real work, we'd love to co-host a paid workshop on AI-assisted reporting -- "Interview Notes to Draft in 30 Minutes.">
Worth a 15-min call? I'm in NYC and happy to swing by your newsroom.>
\[name\] adin.chat
Email C -- Faculty (use only after Week 8)
Subject: AI research workspace -- happy to set up a free pilot for your students>
Dear Professor \[last name\],>
I came across your work on \[actually read one of their papers -- name it\]. I'm reaching out because we're piloting ADIN, an AI research workspace, with a few NYC labs and graduate programs this semester.>
Unlike general-purpose AI tools, ADIN preserves project memory across sessions, tracks every source citation back to the document, and is built around the actual research workflow: paper triage, synthesis, drafting. The students I've shown it to describe it as "a research assistant that doesn't forget.">
No cost. We'd offer your \[lab / class / advisees\] free access for the semester and only ask for honest feedback. If it works, we'd love to develop case studies with you.>
Would a 20-min call this month or next make sense? I'm based in NYC and happy to come to campus.>
Sincerely, \[name\] adin.chat
Email D -- Investment Clubs (Baruch IMG, BAI, etc.)
Subject: Free tool for \[Club\] analysts -- deal memos in half the time>
Hi \[first name\],>
\[Name\] at ADIN. We built a research-focused AI workspace, and one of the use cases our power users love is investment memos -- upload a 10-K, pitch deck, or earnings call, get a structured DD brief with sources tracked back to the document.>
Saw that \[Club Name\] runs \[pitch competitions / a real portfolio / case prep\]. We'd like to offer:>
-- Free ADIN Pro for all active members this semester -- $1,000 sponsorship for your next pitch competition or speaker event -- A live workshop: "Building a Deal Memo with ADIN in 45 Minutes" (we host or come to you)>
Worth a 20-min call? I'm in NYC, happy to grab coffee.>
\[name\] adin.chat
Campus Strategist Offer (use after Week 5 workshops)
Hi \[name\] -- really enjoyed meeting you at the \[Club\] workshop. You asked smarter questions than 90% of the room and clearly get what we're building.>
We're launching an ADIN Campus Lead program -- paid, one student per university, mission is to bring ADIN to more of your community. The package:>
-- $750/month stipend -- Free ADIN Pro for life -- "ADIN Campus Lead -- \[School\]" title -- Direct line to me + product team -- One mission: 50 signups in your network in 30 days, then we figure out next phase together>
Time commitment: 5-8 hrs/week, very flexible. Want to grab coffee this week to talk?
Time Budget Summary
| Weeks | Hours/week | Activity |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | 8-10 | Setup, no outreach |
| 2-4 | 10-12 | Outreach + meetings + workshop prep |
| 5-6 | 12-15 | Workshops + strategist recruit |
| 7-8 | 10-12 | Strategist support + viral push |
| 9-12 | 8-12 | Faculty + scale OR fix product |
Five Weekly Metrics (track every Friday)
- New .edu signups this week
- Active users (used ADIN 2+ times this week)
- Workshops booked
- Cold emails sent → replies
- 7-day retention on the cohort that signed up last week
Things You Will Be Tempted to Do -- Don't
- Add a 4th school in Week 5 because you got excited. Don't.
- Run two workshops in one week because two clubs are interested. Push the second to next week.
- Skip the .edu verification because it's annoying to build. The unlock mechanic depends on it.
- Email faculty before Week 8. They take 4-6 weeks to reply. You're wasting the window.
- Optimize landing page conversion in Week 2. Nothing to optimize until you have traffic.
- Build a referral program before Week 6. Not enough users to mean anything yet.
The Solo Founder's Edge
The single biggest mistake on a campus playbook is front-loading the funnel. Sending 200 cold emails Week 1, getting 10 meetings, and not sustaining the cadence to convert them.
This plan caps outreach at 5-8 emails per week so you can actually take every meeting that comes back.
Slow funnel, deep conversion. That's the solo advantage.