u/Minimum_Boss9220

Curious to know, if it's possible to generate leads with 0 budget

this is a universal problem, which I feel, many founders face. It's not something I am proud of, but I wanna change my situation

Word of mouth has worked for me in the past, but its not enough.

I do LinkedIn ghostwriting for founders (have great case studies and results), so lot of my work is already online, and I can leverage that.

I have tried running email campagins, but it;s not too much success (emails landing in spam even for reputed accounts)

I want to build something that pays long term.

Any suggestions? What kind of funnel I can build for outreach? or whatever?

Curious to know, if it's possible to generate leads with 0 budget

this is a universal problem, which I feel, many founders face. It's not something I am proud of, but I wanna change my situation

Word of mouth has worked for me in the past, but its not enough.

I do LinkedIn ghostwriting for founders (have great case studies and results), so lot of my work is already online, and I can leverage that.

I have tried running email campagins, but it;s not too much success (emails landing in spam even for reputed accounts)

I want to build something that pays long term.

Any suggestions? What kind of funnel I can build for outreach? or whatever?

I just started posting on Substack, got close go 20 subs in a week

Only notes posting

Sharing my life and professional plans

But seeing how the algorithm is pushing new content

I am thinking of actually growing it into something more productive

Any suggestions on how go grow it? And what else i can do with it?

Loved this show, expect the part that most of it was predictable, but a great watch. I've already watched Bly Manor. and Haunting of Hill house.

any other shows like these? dark, great dialogues, and amazing writing

I run a LinkedIn ghostwriting business for founders and investors. We've expanded past just ghostwriting into full personal brand building: PR placements, lead magnets, cross-promotions with top voices, and getting real engagement and traction from internal communities. We've generated 10M+ combined views for clients and have solid case studies to back it up.

What I'm after: The service and the proof already work. What's missing is the machine that turns that proof into a steady stream of clients, structured outreach, a real pipeline, and someone who can own that end to end. So far we get clients through word-of-mouth, and reference, but that isn't enough for scaling.

I'd want someone who can own outreach and sales largely on their own with my input, not someone I have to manage day to day. I run the delivery/creative side of the business, which is the whole reason I need a partner on growth.

Revenue share from the start, milestone payments for hitting client targets. Built for someone who wants ownership and backs themselves, not someone after a guaranteed check.

Background wise, I can share my links, for your idea.

If that sounds interesting, comment or DM. Happy to answer questions.

Working on a feature for my own SaaS, and trying to see if it's actually useful before I spend a ton of time on it.

Drop your startup/product website (or just explain what it does in a sentence), and I'll share you the GTM and how you can get users through social media (I've got more than 100, implementing what I know, so I will talk facts, not theory)

I'll take up 5, so as I can do justice to them.

The goal is to help founders spend less time building broad GTMs, hiring expensive agencies, and searching for users organically, while it can be done reasonably in a far lesser time.

If you're interested, drop your website and a quick description of what your product does.

I work in organic marketing field, have helped a lot of Founders &. Investors too, still do

but to be realistic, this is b2b, and everything is becoming far too unpredictable especially in terms of client acquisition (my retention is good)

so far, I get good word of mouth, and its helping stay afloat, but not enough to think about scaling & predicable growth

I don't do campaigns, but I am thinking about it now.

just wanted to know, if you are relying on inbound and word of mouth too?

or emphasising more on expanding a personal brand more now?

or run campaigns regularly to get more inquiries?-- outbound emails, or social media outreach?

I loved Art of Sarah, Glory, Bloodhounds, and romcoms too (dynamite kiss, business proposal, typhoon family) but it's been a long time, I liked anything to an extent, I could binge watch?

I am tired, burnt out from work, any recommendations would save me from this lazy week.

Last month, I opened up a few spots for Personal Brand Executives to join my team as we scale our client work. I kept the search targeted, receiving 45 applications over the course of two weeks.

every single candidate had the same credentials: Content Strategist, LinkedIn Growth Expert, Storyteller.

everyone claimed they could write for founders. but, only 5 candidates even made it to the short-list assessment round.

the assessment was straightforward. I gave them a brief and asked them to write a single post from a founder’s perspective. What came back from most candidates was technically correct, clean sentences, logical structure, and perfect grammar.

Basically, exactly the kind of "AI slop" that Claude or GPT-4 would write in 10 seconds.

It sounded like a polished output from a content creator,'s perspective, not a founder. it lacked the voice, and the messy reality of building a business.

Only two candidates made it to the final round. When I asked one of them how she approached the brief, she said: "I stopped trying to write it like everyone else on LinkedIn, and started trying to think like a Founder-- who is always on the path of an endless grind."

That was the line that made me select her.

I’ve spent the last 5+ years building my own community of 36k+ founders and investors on LinkedIn. I’ve seen the platform evolve from a place of genuine connection to a playground for forced influencer narratives and algorithm-chasing.

Founders are getting distracted by "growth" metrics that don't translate to business results. They are drowning in AI-generated content that looks good but says nothing.

Ghostwriting has started to become a disappearing act.

The idea is to find the clearest version of a Founder's thinking and put it on the page that inspires users, buyers, and potential clients to reach out to them. Having your own community can take you to places, and get you into rooms where you never thought you would enter.

If you are a founder, stop hiring for "LinkedIn Growth" and start hiring for the ability to synthesize thought.

If you are a writer, stop trying to write like a copywriter and start trying to think like the client. That pivot is exactly what differentiates a commodity service from a high-value partnership.

I scaled my business in 2021 and earned $1M+ (did LinkedIn ghostwriting for Founders)

I faced health issues in 2022, which let me to quit writing for a while

I pivoted to clothing business in 2023 and invested half my savings into it

I burned all my savings in 2024 by running campaigns, creating stock, and only sold 25% of the inventory, even though feedback was good

I again, restarted writing (recovered more than 75%) in 2025, and build my SaaS alongside

Now, in 2026, I am re starting to create my own community which I earlier did in 2021 on LinkedIn.

Life is crazy, most of the times, but at least I got my humour in place.

Hoping, I make something out of substack, and reddit, the only 2 places I find, where I don’t have post my selfies to get attention.

here’s to hustling… 🍸

PS: no hidden meanings, just wanted to share my journey.

I do LinkedIn ghostwriting for founders and my conversion rate is more than 50%

But since the advent of AI and SaaS offerings, leads have dropped. I only used to rely on inbound leads which i used to get from LinkedIn, but now business has slowed

I’ve hired couple of lead gen companies in the past, but all charge super high for setting up infrastructure and all. ATM i really can’t afford it

If any one has suggestions on how i can generate leads fast, then pls let me know.

I do LinkedIn ghostwriting for founders and my conversion rate is more than 50%

But since the advent of AI and SaaS offerings, leads have dropped. I only used to rely on inbound leads which i used to get from LinkedIn, but now business has slowed

I’ve hired couple of lead gen companies in the past, but all charge super high for setting up infrastructure and all. ATM i really can’t afford it

If any one has suggestions on how i can generate leads fast, then pls let me know.

hi, we are looking for hiring 2-3 campus ambassadors who have a reliable network of students, who can help us with user testing.

IITs and IIITs preferred.

This is a paid internship.

I did a soft launch of my SaaS, then got 100s on waitlist, but my tech glitched, so had to postpone the proper launch to a few months

Waitlist didn't convert (not even 10%)

Now, we remodelled the features an rebranded.

I haven't launched or shared it anywhere, as I made a mistake before, lol/

I wanna do a pilot launch of first 10 users, validate and get feedback.

What has worked for you guys, in getting organic attention? Which forums or channels? Apart from LinkedIn?

I see this a lot, whenever I connect with fellow Founders, through reddit or LinkedIn.

the path to getting some organic attention is posting online, and AI did make lot of work easier, so it can be done, with little tweaks

Still I see not many post on linkedIn, and focus only on tech alone.

Is it because of the LinkedIn offers that are there today or because you guys don't see results or something?

I see this a lot, whenever I connect with fellow Founders, through reddit or LinkedIn.

the path to getting some organic attention is posting online, and AI did make lot of work easier, so it can be done, with little tweaks

Still I see not many post on linkedIn, and focus only on tech alone.

Is it because of the LinkedIn offers that are there today or because you guys don't see results or something?

AI marketing tools can generate content, automate campaigns, analyze data, and save time, but they aren't perfect.

For marketers using AI regularly, what's the biggest challenge?

• ⁠Generic or repetitive content
• ⁠Poor brand voice consistency
• ⁠Inaccurate information and hallucinations
• ⁠Low-quality leads from AI-driven campaigns
• ⁠Difficulty ranking AI content on Google
• ⁠Limited creativity and originality
• ⁠Over-reliance on automation
• ⁠Measuring real ROI

What's the one problem that makes AI marketing harder than expected?

I am preparing a GTM for my SaaS, There are a lot of tools I see flooded in the market, especially for 0 to 1 stage. Many people on Reddit, have recommended picking channels, like LinkedIn or Reddit or YT.

But still starting from 0 and implementing it, especially when you are bootstrapped, is an issue.

Any suggestion, might be of great help.

I am a ghostwriter for Founders, and since last years, getting clients have become increasingly difficult, as every other solution is AI. I used to make lakhs in months, and had developed a good clientele. But now situation is not the same.

Very few clients see the value of human content.

So I started doom scrolling on LinkedIn for gaining some inbound attention. Trying to find what's working and what not.

Every 2nd post I see is:

Claude replacing SDRs
Claude creating AI warm leads
Claude helping in reach with 300 times increase n viewership
Openclaw replacing $10k per month teams

This is the same trend I saw when everyone used to post about cold emailing & it's saturation (still do, but percentage is less)

This seems like a monopoly at times, and also an increase in self-branding to an extent of becoming an infleuncer ans selling subscription (might have worked amazingly for some)

But with this over saturation of content like this, seems like the entire service industry in the red, because of such narrative

Real solutions are barely there, and people are only posting on Claude, Openclaw, and more like these.

I feel a geniune need for services is still there, but it is now buried in false narratives, and fomo based content

Is this an opportunity to build something like this, or will this end in another hoax or a bubble being burst eventually?

I've been doom scrolling on LinkedIn for months now. Trying to find what's working and what not.

Every 2nd post I see is:

Claude replacing SDRs
Claude creating AI warm leads
Claude helping in reach with 300 times increase n viewership
Openclaw replacing $10k per month teams

This is the same trend I saw when everyone used to post about cold emailing & it's saturation (still do, but percentage is less)

This seems like a monopoly at times, and also an increase in self-branding to an extent of becoming an infleuncer ans selling subscription (might have worked amazingly for some)

But with this over saturation of content like this, seems like the entire service industry in the red, because of such narrative

Real solutions are barely there, and people are only posting on Claude, Openclaw, and more like these.

I feel a geniune need for services is still there, but it is now buried in false narratives, and fomo based content

Is this an opportunity to build something like this, or will this end in another hoax or a bubble being burst eventually?