Impact 11

Helping B2B startups accelerate their GTM efforts - specializing in engineering, automations, and AI-assisted GTM acceleration for Series A-B companies, as well as hyper-targeted zero-to-one market and sales channel establishment for Seed and Pre-Seed startups.

Founder

Reply

Certified Expert

ApolloShield Counter-Drone Systems

Founded and led ApolloShield from idea to a profitable world-class drone detection and mitigation company.

Sold critical perimeter security systems to top-tier stadiums, prisons, militaries, critical infrastructure, law enforcement and government agencies worldwide.

Raised $3m from Y Combinator and prominent Silicon Valley funds.

Co-Founder & CEO (YC S16, Profitable)

Viggo Hotel TV

Led development and deployment of a hardware and software smart TV content system in thousands of hotel rooms worldwide.

Chief Architect

iOnRoad

Directed UX, branding, marketing, business development, and media activities for driving > 3m YouTube views and ~1m downloads one year after product launch.

iOnRoad won the CES 2011 Innovation honors award and was acquired by Harman Automotive and later integrated into Samsung

Head of Product Management (acq. by SAMSUNG)

Unit 8200 - Israeli Intelligence Corps

Led a critical part of an Israel Defense Prize winning system; Managed engineering teams and led innovative inter-organizational projects with dozens of participants across four associate units

Researcher, Team Leader, Project Manager

StartupGTM.com | I help b2b founders hack traction | Profitable founder (YC)

Transforming a startup from early to repeatable sales is HARD.

If you’re a B2B founder with early sales, then you've done many things right to win your first customers.

BUT - to raise a round A, your startup will need to have a product that's ready to scale because it can be 𝙨𝙤𝙡𝙙 𝙧𝙚𝙥𝙚𝙖𝙩𝙚𝙙𝙡𝙮 𝙖𝙣𝙙 𝙧𝙚𝙡𝙞𝙖𝙗𝙡𝙮.

To get repeatable sales - there are four blockers. 
 
You'll need to change each one from "not working" to "working": 
 
1️⃣ Consistently creating a 𝙨𝙩𝙧𝙚𝙖𝙢 of conversations with customers 
 
2️⃣ Converting these conversations into a 𝙨𝙩𝙧𝙚𝙖𝙢 of first meetings 
 
3️⃣ Converting these meetings into a 𝙨𝙩𝙧𝙚𝙖𝙢 of trials 
 
4️⃣ Converting trials into a 𝙨𝙩𝙧𝙚𝙖𝙢 of deals. 
 
These blockers need to be removed 𝙨𝙚𝙦𝙪𝙚𝙣𝙩𝙞𝙖𝙡𝙡𝙮 - i.e. one by one. 
 
💡 𝗙𝗼𝗰𝘂𝘀 𝗼𝗻 𝗖𝗥𝗔𝗖𝗞𝗜𝗡𝗚 𝘁𝗵𝗲 𝘀𝘁𝗮𝗴𝗲 𝘆𝗼𝘂'𝗿𝗲 𝗮𝘁 𝗥𝗜𝗚𝗛𝗧 𝗡𝗢𝗪. 𝗗𝗼𝗻'𝘁 𝗼𝘃𝗲𝗿𝘁𝗵𝗶𝗻𝗸 𝘁𝗵𝗲 𝗼𝘁𝗵𝗲𝗿𝘀.

—

I'm a former co-founder and CEO at ApolloShield - a profitable YC startup.

I work hands-on with B2B founders on turning their early sales into repeatable sales through a combination of disciplines:

1️⃣ 𝗠𝗮𝗿𝗸𝗲𝘁 𝗥𝗲𝘀𝗲𝗮𝗿𝗰𝗵 𝗮𝗻𝗱 𝗔𝗻𝗮𝗹𝘆𝘀𝗶𝘀: Understanding the market, identifying target customers, and analyzing competitors.

2️⃣ 𝗣𝗿𝗼𝗱𝘂𝗰𝘁 𝗣𝗼𝘀𝗶𝘁𝗶𝗼𝗻𝗶𝗻𝗴 𝗮𝗻𝗱 𝗠𝗲𝘀𝘀𝗮𝗴𝗶𝗻𝗴: Defining how the product fits into the market and crafting compelling messages to appeal to the target audience.

3️⃣ 𝗦𝗮𝗹𝗲𝘀 𝗮𝗻𝗱 𝗗𝗶𝘀𝘁𝗿𝗶𝗯𝘂𝘁𝗶𝗼𝗻 𝗦𝘁𝗿𝗮𝘁𝗲𝗴𝗶𝗲𝘀: Developing strategies for selling the product, including choosing sales channels and partnerships.

4️⃣ 𝗖𝗼𝗹𝗱 𝗢𝘂𝘁𝗿𝗲𝗮𝗰𝗵, 𝗖𝗼𝗻𝘁𝗲𝗻𝘁 𝗮𝗻𝗱 𝗖𝗮𝗺𝗽𝗮𝗶𝗴𝗻 𝗘𝘅𝗲𝗰𝘂𝘁𝗶𝗼𝗻: Creating and executing campaigns to build brand awareness and generate leads.

5️⃣ 𝗣𝗿𝗼𝘀𝗽𝗲𝗰𝘁𝗶𝗻𝗴 𝗮𝗻𝗱 𝘀𝗮𝗹𝗲𝘀: Managing discovery and commercial discussions with clients and partners to get their business.

5️⃣ 𝗢𝗻𝗴𝗼𝗶𝗻𝗴 𝗜𝗻𝗻𝗼𝘃𝗮𝘁𝗶𝗼𝗻 𝗮𝗻𝗱 𝗔𝗱𝗮𝗽𝘁𝗮𝘁𝗶𝗼𝗻 𝘁𝗼 𝗙𝗲𝗲𝗱𝗯𝗮𝗰𝗸: Gathering customer feedback and continuously adapting the product and strategies accordingly.

6️⃣ 𝗜𝗧 𝗮𝗻𝗱 𝗢𝗽𝗲𝗿𝗮𝘁𝗶𝗼𝗻𝘀: Building support systems to holistically orchestrate and manage your GTM efforts.

7️⃣ 𝗥𝗮𝗽𝗶𝗱 𝗜𝘁𝗲𝗿𝗮𝘁𝗶𝗼𝗻: Developing a method to move forward quickly, iterate and get market feedback - doubling what works and tossing what doesn’t.

🚀 Let's connect and accelerate your startup together!

Nimo Shkedy

Excited to announce the second (N)YC GTM+AI Masterclass! 🎉

📍 Same venue: Clay's NYC HQ
🕰️ Same time: Wednesday at 5:30 pm
📆 Date: November 19, in 2 weeks
👥 Same guests: YC founders, alumni, and friends
🎓 More mentors and speakers
💪 More learning & building!

👉 Sign up here: https://lnkd.in/dKXuhw7K

This event will comprise of 2 parts:
1. TED talks + Expert panel
2. Hands-on masterclasses with mentors

Agenda:
• ​5:30-6:00 pm - Snacks, Drinks, Networking
  Music by Yotam Koren 
  
• 6:00-6:45 pm - Expert panel
  Topic: Value vs Fluff in the GTM+AI space
  David Ronen (Anomalo)
  Gal Fontyn (WalkMe)
  Ajinkya Nene (Trellus (YC W22))
  John DiLoreto (Knock2.ai)
  Avishai Sam Bitton (DemandBox)

• ​6:45-7:15 pm - TED talks
  Asaf Raz (Agora):
  AI-Powered GTM: From Hype to Action
  Maya Mandelbaum (Drata):
  Building global, multi-product GTM with AI

• ​7:15-9:00 pm - Hands-on masterclasses:
  ​AI hyper-targeted lists and signals,
  ​AI revenue operations, automations, and agents,
  ​AI outreach & sequences,
  ​AI content & SEO,
  Context aware GTM engines,
  ​+ Vibe-coded apps with the amazing Shira Luk-Zilberman 

Special thanks to previous mentors + speakers, as well as friends who helped & inspired this event: Omer Shkedy Boaz Descalo Nir Sandbank Keren Milman Adir Ben-Yehuda Keenan D. Williams David Pawlan Brittany Levy Aakash Shah Boardy Gil Birnboim 🐰 Shahar Sorek Nir Goldstein Arnon Sobol Augusto Ferreira🌴 David Goecke 

CCd + Mentors and speakers I wish would join our next events: Amos Bar-Joseph Matan Zamft Osnat Lidor Omer Maman Nima Gardideh Matthew Silberman Andreas Wernicke  Tom Granot Karthiga Ratnam Jared Robin  Ofer Hermoni, Ph.D.

B2B GTM | 2x Founder | YC | MBA | Former hacker (yes, for real)

Awesome masterclass this Wednesday at Clay's HQ! 😍

📆 𝗦𝗲𝗲 𝘆𝗼𝘂 𝗮𝘁 𝘁𝗵𝗲 𝘁𝗵𝗲 𝗻𝗲𝘅𝘁 (𝗡)𝗬𝗖 𝗚𝗧𝗠+𝗔𝗜 𝗠𝗮𝘀𝘁𝗲𝗿𝗰𝗹𝗮𝘀𝘀:
https://lnkd.in/dPTNjbHD (Wednesday, Jan 21, 5:30pm)

(I'll announce speakers & mentors soon. Let me know if you have experts to nominate!)

👑 𝗖𝗿𝗲𝗱𝗶𝘁 𝘁𝗼 𝘁𝗵𝗲 𝗯𝗿𝗶𝗹𝗹𝗶𝗮𝗻𝘁 𝘀𝗽𝗲𝗮𝗸𝗲𝗿𝘀 & 𝗺𝗲𝗻𝘁𝗼𝗿𝘀: 
• Asaf Raz ​Building and executing an organizational GTM engineering plan
• Maya Mandelbaum ​AI for enabling partnerships + A Hands-On Growth Workshop From Insight to Income
• Avishai Sam Bitton ​AEO mastery
• Shira Luk-Zilberman ​Vibe Coding Apps with Base 44
• Ajinkya Nene ​Building products with AI to compete with giants
• Gal Fontyn ​Org-wide AI project strategies for executives
• John DiLoreto ​Evaluating AI in GTM: Separating Real Revenue Economics Value from Fluff
• David Ronen ​Building context-aware GTM automations
• Randall Bennett ​Expert prompt-writing for agents and chats

💡 𝗔𝘄𝗲𝘀𝗼𝗺𝗲 𝗽𝗲𝗼𝗽𝗹𝗲 𝘄𝗵𝗼 𝗶𝗻𝘀𝗽𝗶𝗿𝗲𝗱 𝗮𝗻𝗱 𝗺𝗮𝗱𝗲 𝘁𝗵𝗶𝘀 𝗽𝗼𝘀𝘀𝗶𝗯𝗹𝗲:
Gil Birnboim Lior Meitar Boaz Descalo Andreas Wernicke Matthew Silberman Omer Maman Nima Gardideh Aakash Shah Adam Alpert Tom Granot Gil Dabah Tom Mes TJ (Tsion) Gonen Amit Yampolsky 🎏 Shoham Eckhaus Gadi Evron 

🤝 𝗝𝗼𝗶𝗻 𝘁𝗵𝗲 (𝗡)𝗬𝗖 𝗚𝗧𝗠 𝗪𝗵𝗮𝘁𝘀𝗔𝗽𝗽 𝗰𝗼𝗺𝗺𝘂𝗻𝗶𝘁𝘆:
https://lnkd.in/d2Drua36

It took me 7 years to hit $2M a year

Today I understand: I was learning too slowly

Homeland security sales cycles drag on for 12–24 months and many end up closed lost

It was part miracle, part design that we survived long enough to get traction

So now, I pivoted to B2B software and services - what a relief 😎

But even in B2B, here’s how to move faster:

𝟭. 𝗧𝗮𝗹𝗸 𝘁𝗼 𝘆𝗼𝘂𝗿 >𝗺𝗮𝗿𝗸𝗲𝘁<, 𝗻𝗼𝘁 𝘆𝗼𝘂𝗿 𝗱𝗮𝘁𝗮.
↳ Volume is too low to wait for A/B tests that yield 5% improvement
↳ Five real conversations beat 5000 clicks with 0.1% conversion
↳ You’ll learn more in a week of calls than a month of dashboards & guesswork

𝟮. 𝗧𝗿𝗮𝗰𝗸 𝗽𝗿𝗼𝘅𝘆 𝗺𝗲𝘁𝗿𝗶𝗰𝘀.
↳ If deals take months to close, find leading indicators.
↳ Second meetings. Proofs of value.
↳ Those tell you 𝘯𝘰𝘸 if you’re building something people want.

𝟯. 𝗧𝗿𝗮𝗰𝗸 𝗽𝗮𝗰𝗲, 𝗽𝗹𝗮𝗰𝗲 𝗯𝗶𝗴 𝗯𝗲𝘁𝘀.
↳ Write down every hypothesis. Record every experiment.
↳ The faster you learn & adapt, the faster you move.
↳ Place bets that can have dramatic outcomes, not single digit improvements.

You don’t grow by doing more of the same.
You grow by learning & adapting faster.

Speed & magnitude of iteration is everything.

Inspired by Eytan Levit & David Katz's podcast episode (from 10 years ago!) about placing big bets + tips from YC, Ron Binder, Gil Dabah, Adir Ben-Yehuda, Erez Moscovich, Tobia De Angelis, Rob Snyder and Logan Gott 

--

P.S: I have space for 2 startups this month, to remove guesswork from their lead gen efforts

Using "PMF sprints" - a method I perfected while working with 30+ seed/A B2B startups

Want to learn the method? Book a meeting from my profile (it's free)

Want to see the best GTM+AI practitioners in NYC show their best work? 👇

Today's amazing mentors:

Asaf Raz on ​​building and executing an organizational GTM engineering plan

Maya Mandelbaum on the path from insight to income: A hands-on growth workshop

Avishai Sam Bitton on ​AEO mastery

Shira Luk-Zilberman on vibe coding apps with Base 44 (CC: Lior Meitar + Ofer Hermoni, Ph.D. @)

Ajinkya Nene on building products with AI to compete with giants (CC: Kaushik Tiwari + Beeri Amiel)

Gal Fontyn ​on org-wide AI project strategies for executives

David Ronen on building context-aware GTM automations

John DiLoreto ​on evaluating AI in GTM: Separating real revenue economic value from fluff

Randall Bennett on expert prompt-writing for agents and chats

---

In case you missed this event -

👉  𝗦𝗶𝗴𝗻 𝘂𝗽 𝘁𝗼 𝘁𝗵𝗲 𝗻𝗲𝘅𝘁 𝗚𝗧𝗠+𝗔𝗜 𝗺𝗮𝘀𝘁𝗲𝗿𝗰𝗹𝗮𝘀𝘀: https://lnkd.in/dPTNjbHD

and join us on Wednesday, Jan 21, at Clay's office

Speakers & mentors on my wishlist: Jared Robin Amit Yampolsky 🎏 Nima Gardideh Andreas Wernicke Amos Bar-Joseph Matan Zamft Ron Binder Omer Maman Matthew Silberman Karthiga Ratnam 

💡 𝗪𝗵𝗼 𝗲𝗹𝘀𝗲 𝘀𝗵𝗼𝘂𝗹𝗱 𝘀𝗽𝗲𝗮𝗸 𝗮𝘁 𝗼𝘂𝗿 𝗻𝗲𝘅𝘁 𝗺𝗮𝘀𝘁𝗲𝗿𝗰𝗹𝗮𝘀𝘀𝗲𝘀? Let me & them know in the comments :)

Last month, I ran a campaign I was 𝘴𝘶𝘳𝘦 would crush it.

Tight copy. Perfect audience. BUT: No results.

I was baffled. What am I going to do now?

That’s when I realized something many founders miss:
𝗗𝗮𝘁𝗮 𝘁𝗲𝗹𝗹𝘀 𝘂𝘀 𝘄𝗵𝗮𝘁 𝗵𝗮𝗽𝗽𝗲𝗻𝗲𝗱. 𝗜𝘁 𝗻𝗲𝘃𝗲𝗿 𝘁𝗲𝗹𝗹𝘀 𝘂𝘀 𝘄𝗵𝘆.

And that’s the trap I see so many founders fall into:

We stare at dashboards, trying to decode why one version wins and another flops.

But those numbers seldom tell us what we should do next.

So if you’re stuck in that loop, stop running “yes/no” experiments.
✅ Click / ❌ No Click
✅ Reply / ❌ No Reply

Instead, talk to 5 customers.
Say the same message out loud.
Watch how they react.

You’ll learn more in an hour of conversation than in a month of A/B testing.

This week, an investor in 500+ startups told me 95% of B2B founders fail at GTM.
 
Here's what he sees in the 5% who succeed:
 
𝟭) 𝗧𝗵𝗲𝘆 𝗵𝗮𝘃𝗲 𝗮 𝗹𝗮𝘀𝗲𝗿-𝘀𝗵𝗮𝗿𝗽 𝗜𝗖𝗣
 
Not "CFOs at enterprise companies."
 
CFOs using Stack X, tried Solutions Y and Z (heard about them from Channel Q), failed because of Problems A, B, C.
 
If you can't describe your ICP in one breath with this level of detail, you're guessing.
 
𝟮) 𝗧𝗵𝗲𝘆 𝗱𝗼𝗻'𝘁 𝗳𝗶𝗴𝗵𝘁 𝘁𝗵𝗲𝗶𝗿 𝗳𝗶𝗿𝘀𝘁 𝗸𝗻𝗶𝗳𝗲 𝗳𝗶𝗴𝗵𝘁 𝗮𝗹𝗼𝗻𝗲
 
Some founders are naturally good at GTM. Others are really well connected.

With B2B buyers already confused by the competition and still having sky-high expectations, GTM is a knife fight. Founders play in hard mode from day one.

Good founders who aren't experienced with knife fights get coaches or expert fighters, or both.

(Note: For proper founder-led sales, founders still need to lead. They keep ownership and accountability, and manage their coaches / experts while getting their own hands dirty too)
  
𝟯) 𝗧𝗵𝗲𝘆'𝗿𝗲 𝗵𝗮𝗰𝗸𝗲𝗿𝘀 𝗮𝗻𝗱 𝗵𝘂𝘀𝘁𝗹𝗲𝗿𝘀 - 𝘄𝗵𝗼 𝗹𝗶𝘀𝘁𝗲𝗻
 
They find tricks to get to the right people. They read between the lines in every conversation.
 
They don't pitch. They don't get "happy ears." They don't fall in love with their solution.
 
They're IN the conversation - curious, wanting to help, but staying ready to adapt and open to learn what they got wrong.
 
---

P.S: I learned GTM solo. I made it work. But there was a shorter, better way.

Now, I get help to achieve my goals.

Expensive? Yes. Always works? No. Worth it? Absolutely.

If you're a funded B2B founder and want to talk GTM - book a quick meeting from my profile.

Michel Lieben 🧠

Founder / CEO @ ColdIQ | Scale Outbound with AI & Tech 👉 coldiq.com

I’m (Michel) the Founder & CEO at ColdIQ, a sales prospecting agency (+ we compare the latest sales tech, too!).

We worked with 100+ B2B organizations (including SaaS & Agencies!) and are using Clay, Prospeo, FullEnrich, Instantly, Lemlist, Ocean.io - alongside other great sales tools - to run outbound campaigns that flood 🌊 our (and our clients’) inboxes with interested prospects.


We can help you:

• If you’re a B2B business leader who doesn’t have the time to handle your prospecting engine or to hire and manage salespeople… You can outsource your lead gen to us, and we’ll transparently show you the exact way we run your campaigns. (We’ll provide SOPs, too… if it works so well that you want to build your in-house team).


• If you’re a sales leader or an outbound agency owner: We’ll help you set up the exact systems & tools we use to run automated ‘trigger-based’ campaigns that convert like crazy. 


• And… if you simply want to improve your B2B sales automation skills or learn to run these campaigns yourself, we’ll teach you by building a campaign from scratch together with you —from ‘idea’ to ‘running campaign’ (we’ve done it more than 50 times already, and the rumour says people ❤️ed it).


We've launched hundreds of campaigns, so you don't have to.


Thus - if you: 
- are a B2B service/solution provider making > $50k/month
- provide solutions with Lifetime Value > $10k
- want to shortcut your outbound success


We can help.

Send a DM, and I'll share more details.

Alternatively, reach out to michel[at]coldiq.com 
or via the website 👉 coldiq.com 


__________



And if you're looking to build your top-of-funnel tool stack... 
Check our curated lists of the best outbound tools here 👇

👉 coldiq.com/tools 👈
👉 coldiq.com/ai-sales-tools 👈

Performance-based B2B lead generation 💥 | coldiq.com
→ We help you scale your prospecting activities by implementing outbound sales systems in your business. We take care of sourcing leads, researching your ICP, crafting the sales messages, automating sending and ensuring the high deliverability of messages. We let you focus on what brings money into the business: closing deals.

I turn 31 today. My business made $557,000 last month. But before that, I failed 7 businesses in a row:

Here’s what I tried building... 
and why I'm convinced each 'fail' got me closer to a 'win'


1. I started a clothing brand with my friend Thibault Selderslagh.

👎 We barely managed to sell 15 t-shirts. We had to order minimum 400. So we ended up with 385 t-shirts... now collecting dust somewhere.

👍 But, I learned how to create websites during this process.

↳ ... a skill I used to create the V1 of my website ColdIQ.


2. I co-founded a raffle lottery in the UK 🇬🇧

👎 I invested 40,000€ of my personal savings. We only managed to sell £1,000 worth of lottery tickets.

👍 But, I learned to run ads while desperately trying to sell these tickets.

↳ ... a skill we now use to book 50+ monthly meetings via ads. And that we offer as a service to clients (with some closing > $1M as a result!)


3. I tried to become an Instagram influencer.

👎 I found a hack that grew my account to 29,000 followers. Then it stopped working, and I've lost followers ever since. I never made a dime from the platform, nor did I get offered any free brand product.

👍 But, I learned about social media & algorithms.

↳ ... a skill that got me to be a LinkedIn influencer instead (😆). But more seriously, this led to 15,000,000+ impressions & 1,000+ inbound meetings for my company.

(And we now offer it as a service too... send a DM!)


4. I ran a sports betting affiliate website.

👎 I grew it to $6,000/mo, until it dropped to 0 overnight because of regulation changes in Belgium 🇧🇪

👍 But, I learned a lot about monetizing affiliate brand deals.

↳ ... a skill that allows us to generate > 5-figure per month in passive affiliate revenue.


5 & 6. I started an MMA Betting blog AND a Crypto blog.

👎 None of them made a single $1.

👍 But, I learned SEO & Copywriting

↳ ... skills that are responsible for driving 100s of thousands of visits to ColdIQ's website.


7. I launched a Facebook Ads agency

👎 I booked 15 meetings, and didn't manage to close a single client.

👍 But, I learned cold email in the process.

↳ ... a skill that turned into a service we currently deliver for 70+ clients, amounting to > $500K in MRR.


Takeaway?
You win, or you learn.

And each failure turns into a lesson that lets you try again... better.

So keep pushing!

P.S: What's the worst business idea you've tried... and what did you learn from it? 👀

Failing 7 businesses before growing one

Claude can now build advanced n8n workflows from a single prompt.

Just use this Claude project setup, and it will handle 90% of the work 👇

This completely changed how we build automations at our $6.5M ARR agency…

Here’s precisely how we run this:

1. Write a basic prompt describing your workflow. 

Claude (Sonnet 4.5) will read it, break it down & output an n8n JSON file that can be imported.

2. Claude takes care of the complex implementation.

That is:
- Filed mappings + expressions
- Data flow between nodes
- Trigger configurations
- Conditional branches
- Sticky notes for docs
- Error handling

Beware: there are usually a few small items to debug, and it won’t add your API keys for you. But everything else is handled.

Now, what’s included in the system:

1️⃣ Full Claude Project Setup

The system infrastructure that transforms Claude into an n8n workflow builder. 
(Just need to copy paste & you’re ready to go!)


2️⃣ Over 70 n8n Documentation Pages

The official n8n GitHub documentation from which we extracted syntax, capabilities & node references. 

That’s how Claude knows how to build functioning workflows.


3️⃣ Templates & Frameworks

Templates + Frameworks you can copy-paste for use cases like lead routing and social listening.


4️⃣ Real-life Examples 

Our actual prompts vs. the workflows Claude ended up building.
(So you can see what worked well, and what did not).


5️⃣ SOPs to always stay updated with the latest Docs

Step-by-step guide to pull and compile n8n documentation every time there’s a new feature.
(Which is every week in AI world)


Once again, this is democratising complex workflow buildouts.

Starting from scratch or piecing together documentation used to take a lot of time.

“How to build n8n workflows?” has always been a bigger challenge than “what n8n workflow shall I build?”

This flips the questioning on its head.

Spend most of your time thinking about which automation moves the needle for your business. Not how you'll build it.

...and leverage Claude to get 90% of the way there.

If you want to get the entire system, including the documentation package & guide to set it up yourself, comment “PROMPT”, “n8n” or “CLAUDE” and I’ll DM it to you!


P.S: Kenny Damian is our n8n 🐐 at ColdIQ, and the man behind the agentic workflows we build for our > $10M ARR clients. If you want to get access to these value drops before everyone else… you NEED to follow him!

How I would find my first 10 clients if I had to restart from 0:

It's how I've hit > $6.5M+ ARR in 3 years 👇

1. I'd find a ‘free’ way to get my brand out there.

In the beginning: 

You have lots of time.
You have little money.

So you want to start with a time-consuming channel that doesn’t require much funds.

This could be:
→ Writing blog articles.
→ Creating LinkedIn posts.
→ Recording YouTube videos.
→ Being active in niche communities.

I tried them all.
The one that worked best for me was LinkedIn.

It’s what I recommend to all my friends in B2B to get started.


Software you can use:
- Design: Canva or Figma
- Content Ideation: Taplio or Scripe 


2. I'd direct this ‘visibility’ to a short landing page.

Your brand efforts will gather interest.

Interested visitors will check your site or your social profiles.
You want them to understand asap how you help.

The most effective way I found to do so, is to record a 5-min video sales letter, breaking down your offering.

Some people won’t buy straight away.

For them, I’d suggest creating a lead magnet to grab their email addresses
… and nurture them with valuable content over the long term.

For the ones that didn’t provide their emails, you can use visitor identification software to de-anonymize them (in the US).


Software you can use:
- VSL Hosting: Wistia
- Landing Page: Webflow or Framer
- Visitor Identification: Midbound or Instantly.ai


3. I'd reach out to warm ‘high-fit’ leads.

Many prospects will engage with your content but won’t try to schedule a call

Still, they might be interested.

In this case, I’d suggest reaching out to every prospect who’d make an ideal client but hasn’t messaged you yet.

I recommend writing your first 25-50 messages by hand, before trying to automate.

This could look like:
“Hey {{name}}, seems my post on {{topic}} resonated with you. Are you working on {{potential initiatives}}? Happy to swap notes if that’s helpful.

Whatever you write… the magic of manual notes is that it forces you to re-read & improve your messaging every time.

This allows you to uncover patterns…
Which will be invaluable once you scale your sending.


Software you can use:
- Email Outreach: Instantly.ai
- LinkedIn Outreach: Expandi
- Multichannel Outreach: lemlist
- Email Finding: Wiza, Prospeo.io, LeadMagic or FullEnrich.


4. I'd repeat the above steps for 3 months straight before considering giving up. 

This 100% works.
It sounds simple, but it’s challenging to keep working hard when things are uncertain.

Working hard is difficult on its own.
But working hard, when doubting that there’s a point, is even harder.

To make it work, you must somehow convince your brain that you’re not doing this for nothing. Even when you get 0 results in the first weeks, or months.

Repeat these steps enough times.
And you’ll inevitably improve.

Improve enough…
And soon enough, you’ll reap the rewards of your hard labour.

Good luck ✌️

P.S: Who's starting something new in 2026? 👇

Silicon Valley is the hub of GTM unicorns.

But have you seen what’s going on in Europe?

Giants are being built in countries with just 11M inhabitants 🇸🇪 🇧🇪

And it’s happening all over the continent.

Here are some of my favourite EU success stories:

1. Odoo 🇧🇪

Founded by Fabien Pinckaers, Odoo quitely grew to 40M€ MRR and is now valued at well above $5B.

They did that by breaking all the rules:

→ A generous Freemium model.
→ Kept it open source & community-powered.
→ Built 100s of apps, instead of just ONE block.

All the while: 

- his board was trying to get him fired.
- spending 7 years near bankruptcy.
- losing 16M€ from overnight

Today, it’s 6500+ employees & 750M€ in revenue in 2025.

I’m especially proud of this one, as a fellow Belgian 🇧🇪!


2. Lovable 🇸🇪

Founded by Anton Osika & Fabian Hedin… it’s the loudest success story of the year.

Lovable hit $200M ARR last week, one year after hitting $1M ARR.

At ColdIQ, we use it to build free tools for lead generation purposes.

Testing out prototypes required technical people. 
Most of our team is able to spin off a ‘free email finder’ or a ‘custom client dashboard’ in a day.


3. lemlist 🇫🇷

The French success story that should be studied by everyone in GTM.

Founded by Guillaume Moubeche, now led by Charles Tenot.

It includes lemlist, Taplio & now Claap under one umbrella.

Some things to takeaway:

- A 300K+ combined followers, employee-wide LinkedIn content strategy.
- Unseen build-in-public transparency by their Founder & the entire team.
- Bold acquisitions (i.e: Taplio, Claap) so their app ecosystem covers every GTM function.

At ColdIQ, they're our #1 choice for all our multichannel prospecting campaigns!


4. n8n 🇩🇪

They’ve been a staple in automation teams for some time…

But with the rise of AI agents… they became a category of one.

More modulable than their competitors, more powerful, less expensive… it’s an essential component of modern AI + GTM tech stacks.

It’s saving our team hours of work everyday!


Other GTM success stories across Europe:

🇨🇿 Apify
🇫🇷 Aircall
🇫🇷 arcads AI
🇫🇷 Argil
🇫🇷 Dust
🇫🇷 FullEnrich
🇫🇷 Hyperline
🇫🇷 Prospeo.io
🇬🇧 Attio
🇬🇧 ElevenLabs
🇬🇧 Synthesia
🇲🇰 HeyReach.io
🇪🇸 Genesy
🇪🇪 Pipedrive
🇦🇹 Storyblok
🇳🇱 Expandi
🇳🇱 Framer

… and the list goes on!

P.S: What EU SaaS is on your radar at the moment?

Most companies bet their entire LinkedIn strategy on the Founder.

We get the whole team involved:

Last month, this allowed us to sign 14 new deals, totalling ~$70,000 in MRR for our agency. Plus, another 16 customers won for our educational program.

It’s a win-win.

For the team:
→ They grow their brand, a precious asset they own… and that will benefit them whatever they decide to pursue.

For us:
→ They send visitors to our site and generate qualified leads every single day.

Everyone shares around their domain of expertise: 

- Ivan talks about ABM, LinkedIn Ads & Funnels.
- Millie shares tips on Founder-Led branding.
- Monika shares her best cold email rewrites.
- Kenny shares his latest n8n workflows.

… and the combined posting volume makes it challenging not to come across ColdIQ on your LinkedIn feed.

2026 will be the year of Employee-led branding.

Don’t miss this shift.

I just crossed 60,000 followers. LinkedIn got us to $6.5M+ ARR.

Here's every tool I used to grow my following:

1. Content Ideation

→ Taplio (go.coldiq.com/taplio)

I use their in-app feed to find outlier LinkedIn posts in my niche.

You can input keywords such as: "ai sales", "outbound" or "GTM" and then filter for posts that:

- include the above 'searched' keywords
- were posted within a month ago
- had 300 likes or more

I then reverse-engineer the structure, hook & CTAs of these high-performing posts to improve my own.

→ Scripe

Also great for content ideation. 

It lets you aggregate posts by author, which is another helpful way to find 'viral publications' or 'outliers' on a given topic.


2. Copywriting

→ Grammarly

As a non-native English speaker, I make lots of spelling mistakes. 

I use Grammarly's extension to correct my writing in real-time.

Doesn't sound too crazy, but this could be the most helpful application in my LinkedIn tech stack.

→ Claude

I use Claude to generate hook variations, repurpose past content & brainstorm new angles.


3. Visuals & Design

→ Figma / Adobe

My LinkedIn strategy relies a lot on visuals.

When made well, they multiply the reach of your publications up to 10X.

Our designers use either Figma or Adobe's suite to design our carousels & infographics.


→ Canva

My first-ever carousels published on here were made on Canva.

It is the most beginner-friendly app to create social media visuals.


4. Video Creation

→ OpusClip

I use Opus's AI features to automatically create short-form videos from my long-form content.

The output isn't as great as that of a professional editor...
But it's cost-effective.

And multiple AI-edited videos got me 50,000+ views on LinkedIn (while only taking me 2 minutes to generate).

→ Screen Studio

Screen Studio is my favourite Mac Screen recording app.

It's great to make video walkthroughs or tutorials because it automatically zooms/focuses on the parts of the screen you're actively working on.

It makes video outputs look much more fancy than they'd be otherwise.

→ Ezgif

I use Ezgif to create .GIF files out of my short audioless video content.

If you're planning to publish a < 15-second audio-less video on LinkedIn...

I'd recommend speeding it up and converting it into a GIF file.

I'm not 100% sure why, but it outperforms in terms of reach & engagement.


5. Content Planning

→ Notion

My central content hub.
It's where I collect ideas, draft them, and prepare my posts.

Notion also serves as my content calendar.


That's the entire stack I used to go from 0 to 60,000+ followers.

It's also the tech stack I plan to get past 100,000.

What tools did I miss?

Let me know 👇

P.S: If you want to grow your account, sell a B2B product, but don't have time to post... send a DM. 
We'll do it for you ✌️

From 0 to 60,000+ LinkedIn followers

How to write cold emails like the top 1%

(Frameworks we use for clients at our $6M+ ARR agency)

1. AIDA Framework by Monika Grycz 💌

2. AI Campaign Ideas by Dujam Dunato

(inspired by Eric Nowoslawski)

3. Similar orgs' challenges by Patrick Trümpi

4. Observation, Call-Out, Proof by Nick Abraham

5. Trigger, Implication, Pain by Aaron Reeves

6. Trigger, Process, Pain or Symptoms by Tal Baker-Phillips

7. Champion Tracking by Brian LaManna

8. Rhetorical Analogy by Leif Bisping

9. Content Asset Giveaway by Ethan Parker

10. "Quick maths" by Thibaut Souyris

What's your go-to cold email framework?

Share it below 👇

P.S: We compiled the copywriting frameworks we used to book 10,000+ B2B meetings for > 200 orgs in a 'more' exhaustive document.
Let me know if you want it :)

Anatomy of a high-converting cold email

We’re about to hit $7m ARR. Here’s the GTM workflow that signed us 70+ high-ticket clients: 

Step-by-step breakdown ↓

1. Our team publishes 250+ LinkedIn posts every month.

- We use Taplio to identify posts that outperformed.
- We study the hooks, formats & visuals of these outlier LinkedIn posts.
- We solve our prospects' pain points in our content pieces.

↳ This works so well, I want to do more. Hopefully reaching 500+ monthly posts across the ColdIQ team.


2. We spend $10,000+ a month promoting our most effective publications via LinkedIn Ads.

- We study what posts generate qualified meetings.
- We analyze which ICP books from the posts.
- We boost said post in front of said ICP.


3. We identify anonymous visitors & reach out likers/commenters who didn't schedule a call.

- On ColdIQ’s site: Instantly.ai & Midbound de-anonymise our visitors.
- On LinkedIn: Clay captures our social activity.


4. We route all our warm leads to Clay.


5. We use LLMs to Tier, Segment & Score prospects.

- Claygent automates research at scale on our inbound leads.
- OpenAI prompts segment out leads.
- We contact warm leads via LinkedIn, Email & the phone.


6. We enrich the contact information of our filtered leads.

- We use Prospeo.io, LeadMagic, Wiza to find emails adresses.
- We use Prospeo.io, FullEnrich to look up phone numbers.


7. We send DMs, emails & call ‘warm' prospects.

- We make our outreach concise & valuable.
- We use lemlist for multi-channel outreach
- We use Instantly.ai for email outreach.

- Expandi is another great option for LinkedIn outreach.


8. This workflow booked us 1,500+ meetings in 2025 & closed > $3M ARR already.

- It helped us grow to > 35 FTEs
- It helped us reach > $6.5M in yearly revenue.
- It helped our clients close $500K+ in revenue at > 3-10X ROI


P.S: Anything you’d improve in the workflow below to get us to $10M ARR?

I tested way too many AI Sales tools.

Here are the categories I’m closely watching in 2026:

1/ Workflow Builders

Why?

↳ They help you build advanced, multi-step, automated prospecting workflows.

Example use-case: Running a signal-based Clay campaign that scores leads, segments them into several tiers, adds an AI-personalized first line… and pushes contacts to your favourite sequencer. For 1,000+ leads. On autopilot.

Examples include:

→ Relevance AI
→ Outbond
→ Clay
→ n8n


2/ MCPs

Why?

↳ They enable AI agents to take actions by connecting to your tools. Without you needing to manually open them.

Example use-case: Connecting Claude MCP to Google Calendar so that it… 

[1] checks how many sales calls you have today
[2] researches each prospect
[3] provides relevant talking points for the qualified ones…
[4] cancels meetings with unqualified leads. 

All that, without opening your calendar app.

You can prompt via tools such as:
→ Cursor
→ Claude
→ VS Code
→ Mistral AI

And connect to your apps using:
→ Docker, Inc
→ Pipedream
→ Composio


3/ All-in-One Sales Platforms

Why?

↳ They consolidate every essential cold outreach feature within one platform.

Example use-case: Warming up domains, building a lead list, monitoring relevant signals, enriching contact data & automating email outreach (Instantly.ai) or multi-channel outreach (lemlist) without any other prospecting tool. In essence, running your entire prospecting campaign in one place.

Examples include:

→ Instantly.ai
→ Expandi
→ Artisan
→ lemlist


4/ Sourcing Agents

Why?

↳ They source data autonomously, given a set of prompts.

Example use-case: Sourcing a list of Sales Leaders, based in SF, in VC-based startups that have > 5X’d revenue 2 years in a row within the last 3 years… by simply telling Exa, in plain English, that this is the list you’re trying to build.

Examples:

→ Relevance AI
→ Outbond
→ Claygent
→ Tavily
→ Apify
→ Exa


5/ Conversation Intelligence

Why?

↳ They record meetings & extract relevant insights from your business conversations.

Example use-case: Reviewing your latest 100 sales calls via Attention’s agent to figure out the most frequent objections your sales team gets from prospects.

Examples:

→ Momentum.io
→ Fireflies.ai
→ Attention


6/ Signal Platforms

Why?

↳ They monitor intent signals to help you uncover prospects in buying mode.

Example use-case: Monitoring previous product buyers (champions) in Common Room, to pitch your solution when they move to a new company (that doesn’t use your product yet!)

Examples:

→ Common Room
→ TheirStack
→ Outbond
→ Clay


7/ AI SDRs

Why?

↳ They automate your prospecting entirely.

Example use-case: Letting Valley write your outreach, qualify your leads, monitor replies & answer on your behalf.

Examples:

→ Artisan
→ Valley

P.S: What AI Sales software category are you betting on in 2026?

AI Sales Categories for 2026

LinkedIn got me past $6M ARR. But Jake Trinder, the mastermind behind Instantly.ai & Clay's channels, argues YouTube is better.

His proof? He grew multiple channels from 0 to > 7-figure revenue from YouTube.

So we did a side-by-side comparison 👇

1. Core Focus

→ LinkedIn: Booking meetings by publishing relevant snackable content.

→ YouTube: Building trust & booking meetings via in-depth educational videos.


2. Key Rules to Win

LinkedIn: 

A. Find outlier/viral/proven publications using tools like Taplio.
B. Consistent high-quality posts relevant to your ICP.
C. Frequent engagement actions with your audience.
D. Optimized profile (banner, title, featured section).

YouTube:

A. Nail combination of thumbnail + title before recording.
B. Focus on quality. YouTube = "Winner takes all"
C. Deep research on titles, thumbnails & trends.


3. Posting Time & Frequency

→ LinkedIn: 3 to 7 posts per week. Same posting time every day.

→ YouTube: 1 video per week. Posting when audience is most online.


4. Top Software

→ LinkedIn:

- Content Ideation + Analytics: Taplio
- Visuals: Figma, Canva, OpusClip
- Writing: Claude, Grammarly

→ YouTube:

- Content Ideation: 1of10, Viewstats, vidIQ
- Production: Adobe Premiere Suite
- Recording: Tella, OBS Studio


5. Expected Reach

→ LinkedIn:

- Audience = B2B focused (i.e: sales, marketing, HR & tech buyers).
- Prospects browse the feed to educate or entertain themselves.
- Over 310,000,000 monthly active users.

→ YouTube:

- Audience = Broad, top-of-funnel (creators, entrepreneurs, founders).
- Audience is actively searching for the content you're creating.
- Over 2,500,000,000 monthly active users.


6. Engagement Expectation

→ LinkedIn: 

- Decent conversion rate. 'Easy' to produce content scale.
- You can reach out to post engagers (DMs).
- Leads are nurtured daily.

→ YouTube:

- High conversion rate from long-form content.
- Audience can binge-watch channels.
- Can't contact viewers directly.


7. Challenges

→ LinkedIn:

- Can take weeks/months before generating any leads.
- Staying consistent is hard.

→ YouTube:

- Lots of upfront work to get 1 good video out.
- Consequent investment in studio setup.
- Talking to a camera can feel weird.


If you had to pick one platform to scale your business, which would you choose?

P.S.: If you need help with YouTube, reach out to Jake. He's the best at growing B2B brands on there. If you need help on LinkedIn, send me a DM :)

The best B2B data is the one your competition doesn't have:

...and you can find it for less than $50/month ↓

Thus, if you want to extract data...

→ Via a marketplace of thousands of pre-built scraping workflows: Apify (go.coldiq.com/apify)

→ Through AI agents researching the web on your behalf: Apify, Clay, Relevance AI, Exa, Outbond.

→ Without exiting LinkedIn: Prospeo.io, lemlist, Expandi.

→ On dedicated pages: Instant Data Scraper, ZenRows.

→ By crawling search engines: Firecrawl, Perplexity.

...there's a tailor-made solution!

What's your go-to software for data scraping?

Data Scraping Software (2025)

How I get > 30% replies via LinkedIn DMs

By doing the opposite of the 100+ weekly pitches I get:

CONTEXT

I sent 5M+ outbound messages for my $6.5M+ ARR Agency.

Nowadays...

Answering DMs costs me more time than running campaigns.

I'm the CEO at a 33-person company.
(I can't imagine how much outreach execs in big orgs get)

That said, I know most execs check their inbox.
And many reply.

Here's how I decide whether I'll respond or not...

And how I changed my own outreach because of this ↓


✅  DMs offering free work

Some DMs offered a free landing page rewrite or samples of already-made work.

I ran prospecting campaigns and pitched free custom lead lists.
(These were getting me more positive replies than I could handle)

My recommendation: Imagine your prospect is an existing client. What's the first thing you'll do for them? Do it already and send it over!


✅ DMs asking to be referred

Let's say you:
1. Send a message based on a current initiative of ColdIQ
2. Searched who is in charge of this initiative.
↳ I'll gladly refer you to said person

PS: You can automate this 'play' via Clay by combining intent signals & retrieving a leader/manager in a specific department.


❌ DMs asking for time on the 1st touchpoint

Meetings are my personal hell.
I'm fighting every day to eliminate as many of them as possible.

If you're "just asking 15 min of my time" to pick my brain, I won't answer.


✅ DMs from ‘known’ people

An unfair truth in cold outreach: $WHO sends a message matters even more than WHAT the message is.

If you're a well-known executive, I'll most likely reply.

I saw this firsthand as I grew my LinkedIn to 60K+ followers...

The exact same message would perform better, without changing anything.

Pro tip: If you sell B2B products, build your brand on LinkedIn.


❌ Generic templated outreach

The only way to make impersonal, generic outreach work is to send at a massive volume (millions of messages).

LinkedIn doesn't allow such volume.

So you'd be better off doing this by email.
Or better yet... not at all.


✅ DMs sharing valuable insights

Jihad explained this better than I could under one of my posts:

"
The best "free work" isn't actually work → it's insights.

I send technical audits of prospects' platforms.
→ 5-minute analysis
→ 3 specific optimization opportunities 
→ No strings attached

Example: "Your checkout flow has a 23% drop-off at payment verification. Here's why + 2 quick fixes."

- Takes me 10 minutes.
- Shows immediate value.
- Demonstrates expertise without asking for anything.

The key: Make it so valuable they'd typically pay for it.

Generic "free consultation" = everyone does this.
Specific actionable insight = rare.
"

Solving prospects' issues before they pay you a dime is the fastest way to gain their trust.


🔘 Videos or Voice Notes

I listen to voice notes or watch videos.

It annoys people.
But if they're well done, they'll grab attention.

What's a DM you receive you could NOT ignore?

Share it 👇

30% LinkedIn DMs

AI agents are replacing human employees.

Funny enough, they operate in very similar ways:

The smartest agents don’t work alone.
They work in teams.

Some behave like assistants.
Others as managers.

And as with any sort of team, there are different ways to structure their collaboration.

To illustrate this:
We can look at how 3 multi-agent setups would handle the same task…

For example: Scheduling a quarter business review with an important client.


1️⃣ Hierarchical setup

A manager agent assigning tasks to its agent team members.

1. The manager receives a task = Schedule a business review.

2. It tells a subordinate agent to check potential times to meet with the clients.

3. Another agent checks product usage from the client. "Has usage recently dropped? Is engagement still strong?"

4. A 3rd agent drafts an email based on client availability & product usage: 

"Hey Achilles, it's been a while - wanted to ensure you're using the product to the fullest. How about a quick chat next week, Wednesday?”

5. The manager reviews everything and sends the email.


2️⃣ 'Human-in-the-Loop' 

A smart assistant tapping your shoulder when needed.

1. The agent drafts the business review email and finds some available times.

2. But… it sees the client gave negative feedback 2 weeks ago.

3. Before sending the email, it asks you: “Do you want to review the email before I send it?"

4. You make small tweaks, and you send it.


3️⃣ 'Sequential' setup

Like a factory or an assembly line where each person does one task and hands it off to the next.

1. 1st Agent asks: "Is a quarterly business review due?" based on the client's last meeting time.

2. 2nd Agent pulls client's usage data.

3. 3rd Agent drafts a short email.

4. 4th Agent sends the email to book the meeting.


So, when should you use which?

As a rule of thumb:

- Hierarchical setups work well for complex, multi-step tasks.

- Human-in-the-loop setups are recommended for high-stakes, sensitive tasks.

- Sequential setups for ordered workflows with clear dependencies.


P.S: What's one process in your team that would run better...
with some smart agents working behind the scenes? 👇

taplio

The Battle

Nimo Shkedy

Michel Lieben 🧠

Followers

Posts

Engagements

Likes

Performance ScoreNimo Shkedy's LinkedIn Performance

Performance ScoreMichel Lieben 🧠's LinkedIn Performance

Ready to grow your LinkedIn presence?

taplio

The Battle

Nimo Shkedy

Michel Lieben 🧠

Followers

Posts

Engagements

Likes

Performance Score.css-goub6s{font-size:var(--chakra-fontSizes-md);font-weight:500;color:var(--chakra-colors-gray-600);display:block;margin-top:var(--chakra-space-1);}Nimo Shkedy's LinkedIn Performance

Performance ScoreMichel Lieben 🧠's LinkedIn Performance

Ready to grow your LinkedIn presence?

Performance ScoreNimo Shkedy's LinkedIn Performance