How to find warm leads on LinkedIn as a founder
- Written by
- Jorrit van Ginkel, founder of Ziplined
- Published
- Last updated
This week
Two sales calls
Ship the new onboarding
Interview a first hire
Go through who engaged with Tuesday's post
Moved to next week
The warmest leads on LinkedIn already engaged with you, your competitors or industry experts. Finding them by hand takes time a founder rarely has.
Short answer for founders: check who engaged with your posts, who viewed your profile and who engages with your competitors. Ziplined Solo lists the ones who fit your ideal client, for $49 a month.
At a glance
- The problem
- Warm leads engage, and you have no time to check who
- What helps
- Your posts, your profile viewers, your competitors' audience
- With Ziplined
- The ones who fit your ideal client, in Slack or email
- What it costs
- Solo, $49 a month
Why is finding leads on LinkedIn so hard for a founder?
1. You post, and you have no time to read who engaged
Checking every like and comment, then each job title and company, is the first task to drop. A week later the moment is gone.
Notifications
Grace Mensah, Tom Verbeek and 38 others reacted to your post
1dRuben Smit commented on your post
1dMila Jansen and 4 others reacted to your comment
2d
Which of these 40 is worth a message?
2. The people who look at your profile often never like or comment
LinkedIn lists those visits one by one on your own profile page, not in your notifications.
Who viewed your profile
12 viewersRuben Smit
Founder, Brightwave Studio
LinkedIn Member
Private mode
Someone at Kestrel Labs
Private mode
9 more viewers. The full list needs Premium.
Not in your notifications.
3. Your competitors' audience is invisible to you
People who comment on a competitor's or an industry expert's post are in your market right now. LinkedIn sends you no alert about them.
A competitor
Posted 2 days ago
Lotte Vermeer
Head of Sales, Kestrel Labs
Same problem here. Saving this.
Grace Mensah
Head of Sales, Northwind
Great breakdown, thanks for sharing.
No alert. You only see them by opening the post.
What can a founder do about it?
Three habits help, with or without a tool.
- Check your notifications and your profile viewers once a day.
- Open two or three competitors' posts each week, and note who commented.
- Check each person's job title and company before you write.
Ziplined does the checking for you. The free extension adds your profile views, new followers and new connections as rows you can filter.
By hand on LinkedIn
- Open each post
- Read every like and comment
- Check each job title and company
Ziplined
- Collects every night
- Keeps who fits your ideal client
- Leads in Slack or your inbox
What changes when a founder uses Ziplined?
Ziplined is a LinkedIn Lead Radar. It finds people who engage with your team, your competitors and your market, keeps the ones who fit your ideal client, and sends them to your tools while you sleep.
Add your sources.
Your own profile as teammate, two or three competitors, and the industry experts your ideal clients follow.
Teammate
Your own profile
Competitor
Two or three
Industry expert
Followed by your ideal clients
Confirm your ideal client sentence.
Ziplined suggests it from your website. Views add more than 20 filters, such as seniority and warmth.
You sell to founders and heads of sales at companies of 11 to 50 people in software and IT services, in the Netherlands and Belgium.
Suggested from your website
Install the extension (optional).
It adds profile views, new followers and new connections. It never likes, comments, connects or sends.
Every night
- Post
- Reaction or comment
Chrome extension
- Profile view
- New follower
- New connection
Pick where the Leads go.
An email, a Slack channel, a CSV, or your AI agent through MCP.
Grace Mensah
Head of Sales, Northwind
Commented on a competitor's post
Every planSlack
Posted in #new-leads
Every planEmail
In your daily email
Team, from $99 a monthHeyReach
Added to your list
Follow up yourself.
Each person comes with the reason, for example "Commented on Anna's post". You decide who to write to.
Grace Mensah
RepliedHi Grace, saw your comment on Anna's post. How does Northwind handle this today?
Good timing, we are looking into this right now. Happy to compare notes next week.
The LinkedIn Lead Radar
- Watch your market for buying signals
- Analyze your own audience
- No LinkedIn login or cookie
- Claude
- ChatGPT
- Grok Bot
- Cursor
- Slack
- HeyReach
- Google Sheets
- Clay
What do founders get on the Solo plan?
 Ziplined Solo | |
|---|---|
| Price | $49 a month, monthly, in USD. Tax added at checkout |
| Credits | 3,000 a month |
| Users | 1 |
| Sources | Unlimited: your profile, competitors, industry experts, company pages |
| Dark signals | Profile views, new followers and new connections, through the free extension |
| Where Leads go | Slack, email, CSV, AI agent (MCP) |
| HeyReach, Clay, Google Sheets, webhooks | Team plan, from $99 a month |
| Trial | 7 days, 3,000 credits |
Is 3,000 credits enough? This example is from Ziplined's pricing page, and Solo covers it.
How does Ziplined compare with other signal tools for founders?
| Ziplined Solo | Valley | Teamfluence | |
|---|---|---|---|
| What the price buys | The scan, in credits, for 1 user | A seat for one LinkedIn account. Valley also writes and sends | 1,000 qualified leads and 20,000 credits, unlimited seats |
| Lowest public price | $49 a month, 3,000 credits | $395 per seat a month | €449 a month |
| Profile viewers | Yes, free extension | Yes | Yes, visits on your teammates' profiles |
| Limit on profiles you watch | None. Credits are the limit | 5 at a time | Up to 60 profiles and 40 posts per user |
| Sends for you | No. You or your outreach tool | Yes. It writes in your voice, and you review before sending | Yes, connection requests across your team's accounts |
| Trial | 7 days, 3,000 credits, card needed | 7 days, payment method required | No self-service sign-up |
Read on 4 and 5 November 2026: joinvalley.co, /pricing, /signals/competitor-post-engagers and /signals/linkedin-profile-viewers, teamfluence.com/pricing and /help/faq, and Ziplined's pricing.
| Choose Ziplined if | Choose another tool if |
|---|---|
| You want to know who is warm every day, and write your own messages | You want a tool that finds people, writes in your voice and follows up on LinkedIn (Valley) |
| Your budget is $49 a month | You want keywords, company page visitors and connection campaigns, with a guided onboarding call (Teamfluence) |
Who is Ziplined not for?
- Founders who want one tool that finds people and sends the messages.
- Founders who want a contact database.
- Founders with no LinkedIn activity in their market.
What Ziplined is not
Ziplined does not send messages, write posts or scrape random profiles. Nothing connects to your LinkedIn account, and you or your outreach tool do the sending.
FAQ
How much does Ziplined cost for a founder?
Ziplined Solo costs $49 a month for 3,000 credits and one user (checked 5 November 2026). It includes the Chrome extension, Slack, email, CSV and the AI agent connection.
Can Ziplined find leads without automating outreach?
Yes. Ziplined finds the people who engage with your posts, your competitors' posts and industry experts' posts, and the people who view your profile. It never sends a message, so you decide who to contact and how.
Can Ziplined see who viewed my LinkedIn profile?
Yes, with the free Ziplined Chrome extension. Each profile view or new follower costs 1 credit.
Is the extension safe for my LinkedIn account?
The Ziplined extension reads through your own browser, only on linkedin.com, at most once or twice a day. It waits a random 2 to 30 seconds, pauses 72 hours when LinkedIn reports too many requests, and never likes, comments, connects or sends.
Do I need LinkedIn Premium or Sales Navigator?
No, except to see everyone who viewed your profile: LinkedIn shows the full list only to Premium accounts. Nothing connects to your LinkedIn account, and the nightly scan of your sources runs on Ziplined's side.
Can I use Ziplined with Claude, ChatGPT or Grok Bot?
Yes. The Ziplined AI agent connection (MCP) is on every plan, Solo at $49 a month included. Your AI agent can read your Leads and set up sources and views for you.
What happens after the 7-day trial?
The Ziplined Solo plan starts at $49 a month, and its 3,000 credits replace the trial credits. You can cancel before the trial ends through the billing portal.
