The Founder’s Connections Playbook

January 27, 2026

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A workflow that routes founder LinkedIn connections into tiered outreach flows so high-priority leads receive personal outreach and lower-priority leads scale automatically.

Fivos Aresti

How it works

Step 1: Export Founder’s LinkedIn Connections

Start by exporting the founder's LinkedIn connections.

How to export LinkedIn connections:

Click the Me icon at the top of the LinkedIn homepage.
Select Settings & Privacy.
Open the Data Privacy section from the left sidebar.
Under How LinkedIn uses your data, click Get a copy of your data.
Select Download larger data archive, which includes connections.
Click Request archive.
Download the file from the link sent to your primary email address.

After export:

Extract the connections CSV file.
Upload the CSV into Clay.
Use this list as the warm starting point for outbound.

Step 2: Qualify companies

Review the companies behind each connection.

Enrich companies in Clay with industry, size, funding, and location.
Add tech stack data where relevant.
Keep only companies that match your ICP.

This step ensures outbound effort is focused on the right accounts.

Step 3: Qualify contacts

Next, qualify the individuals within those companies.

Enrich role, seniority, and department.
Identify decision-makers and buying roles.
Filter out unrelated roles

Only relevant contacts move forward.

Step 4: Score leads using AI

Use ‘Use AI’ in Clay to prioritize the list.

Review company fit, role relevance, and context together.
Assign a priority tier:
- Tier 1: Strong fit, high priority
- Tier 2: Good fit, medium priority
- Tier 3: Lower priority
Add a short reason for each score.
Exclude non-fit leads automatically.

This creates a clear order of operations for outreach.

Step 5: Route leads into tiered outreach

Tier 1: High Priority
- Assign leads to AEs for manual outreach
- Calls using BetterContact for phone numbers
Tier 2: Medium Priority
- Enroll leads in automated email and LinkedIn outreach
- Emails via Instantly and LinkedIn DMs via HeyReach
Tier 3: Low Priority
- Enroll leads in automated email-only nurture
- Emails via Instantly

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