The Deliverability Moat: Why Cold Email Infrastructure Is Now an Agency Balance-Sheet Decision

Cold email stopped being a software subscription decision and became an infrastructure decision. Agencies that own sending domains, warmed IP pools, and documented compliance posture can price outbound as a retainer with defensible margins; agencies that rent a shared sending pool are one reputation event away from losing a client's pipeline overnight. The gap widens as AI agents take over research and follow-up, because the constraint shifts from labor to inbox placement.