How founders book more demos from LinkedIn with buying signals and AI
The system behind our 25 YC-backed customers in four weeks. Signals pick who to message and when. AI does the grunt work. You take the replies.
Namanyay Goel5 min readMy name is Namanyay. I'm the founder of PumpGTM (YC).
This is what we do: we find people who want what you sell. Then we message them from your own LinkedIn, X and email. You just take the replies.
More than 25 YC companies use us.
Now, what you're here for.
The problem you already know
You know who buys from you. So you build a list, write a message, and hit send.
A few people reply. Then the list runs dry. The best people in your market have already ignored you once.
So you send more. Replies drop. LinkedIn warns you. And your selling hours go into prospecting.
We hear it on every call. One founder paid an agency for three months and got "not even one valid, really good lead." Another: "actually going in every day and doing it is another thing, when you're busy."
Mistakes that cost founders meetings
If your outbound is stuck, one of these is usually why.
Who this is for: founders and small sales teams who run outbound themselves, never have enough hours, and don't want to pay for five tools.
What you'll get: the system we use to book demos every week. Signals decide who to contact and when. AI does the prospecting, writing and follow-ups. You'll see what it did for five founders, then the exact steps to run it.
How the best founders book more demos: signals + AI
The founders booking the most demos fixed those mistakes with two changes.
First, they only reach out to people with a reason to talk now. A signal gives you the timing. Their company just posted a job for the problem you solve. They liked a post about it. They signed up for your trial and stopped.
Second, they hand the grunt work to AI. Finding people, writing first drafts, timing follow-ups. Their hours go into real conversations.
Put together, it's a four-part recipe:
- Your customer profile decides who.
- A signal decides when.
- AI does the finding, drafting and follow-ups.
- You take over the moment someone replies.
Our own numbers
We run this on ourselves first. Here is one founder sequence on LinkedIn:
That's 1 meeting for every 27 people. No ads, no SDRs.
Five founders who made it work
That's the claim. These five founders are the proof.
Docmost (21,000 GitHub stars) uploads trial signups and failed checkouts. PumpGTM finds each person on LinkedIn and messages them from Philip's account.
Rahul sells to DevRel leaders, who can smell a blast. He checks every name, and the pace is slow on purpose.
“I really like PumpGTM. My automated outreach also feels like a human. Really thoughtful approach man! I think the quality of leads is great, not a slop list like a ton of other products.”
Chaitanya (YC F26) tests different messages on CTOs and sees which one gets replies. Now his whole team sends from one shared list.
“PumpGTM quickly finds relevant leads from different sources and allows me to test messaging. I'm onboarding my entire team now to speed up my outbound sales.”
Eric left Dripify and turned down a $3,500 InMail blast: "I'd much rather do it the real way." He now runs five team accounts, with 4,500 prospects in the first sequence.
“I love how easy it is to hook up different accounts. It's been working really good, and I'm gonna keep bringing on new accounts in here, just because of how useful it is.”
Supermemory serves 100,000+ organizations, so Dhravya has no time to prospect. PumpGTM finds the people. He approves them. Nothing sends that he hasn't seen.
“PumpGTM found exactly the right leads for my business and reaches out to them, automatically”
Start your first play
- Enter your website. PumpGTM writes down who buys from you. Fix anything it got wrong.
- Connect your LinkedIn. Messages go from your own account, inside LinkedIn's limits. Add email if you want.
- Pick one signal. Post engagers, companies hiring, YC founders, or your own signups.
- Read the list. Every person comes with the reason they were picked. Remove anyone you don't want.
- Write three short lines. The problem, one proof, one question. No link. No meeting ask.
- Turn it on. Any reply stops the sequence and lands in your inbox.
- Check the numbers weekly. Keep the message that wins.
What a first message looks like:
Hiring signal: "Saw you're hiring your first AE. Are you running outbound yourself until then?"
Post engager: "You liked my post on cold outreach. Are you doing it yourself or does someone own it?"
Trial signup: "You started a trial last week. Did you get stuck anywhere?"
Your launch checklist
Tick these off before your first sequence goes live. Your progress saves in this browser.
Bonus: run it all from Claude (MCP)
You've seen what signals + AI did for these founders. Here's how to run the same thing from Claude, ChatGPT or Cursor.
MCP lets Claude use PumpGTM like a teammate would. The work splits like this:
- You describe your buyer in plain English.
- Claude finds the people and the reason each one fits.
- It writes a message for each, and waits for your yes.
Try a prompt like: "Find founders at YC companies under 50 people that are hiring their first AE. Show me 20 with the reason each fits."
Connect PumpGTM to Claude, or grab a ready-made prompt from the skills library.
Questions people ask
What is a buying signal? Something you can see that says a person may buy now: their company posted a job for your problem, they liked a post about it, or they signed up for your trial.
Will this get my LinkedIn restricted? Sending stays inside LinkedIn's weekly limits from your own account, and any reply stops the sequence. Blasting a cold list is the real risk.
Do I need Sales Navigator? No. PumpGTM finds the people and their profiles for you.
Does the AI send without me? Only after you approve the list and the messages. Anyone who replies is handed back to you.
How soon will I see replies? Connection requests take a few days to be accepted, so first replies usually come in the first week.
Can my team use it? Yes. Each person connects their own LinkedIn and you share one list and one inbox.