How to reach founders and CEOs at consulting firms on LinkedIn

Last updated 26 October 2026

Reaching founders and CEOs at consulting firms on LinkedIn requires a specific approach, and HeyLead can run this outreach for you. These leaders manage both the business and the client work.

What it is

HeyLead is an AI agent for LinkedIn outreach: it finds the right people, writes to them in the voice of your own LinkedIn posts, follows up, and handles replies. It runs from Claude Code, Cursor, any MCP client or a web dashboard.

You type a one-sentence brief in Claude, Cursor, ChatGPT or the HeyLead dashboard. HeyLead drafts the campaign. You review it and press Launch. Nothing is sent before.

One sentence creates a draft campaign. It runs from the cloud with your laptop closed. The client's source is on GitHub under MIT. The hosted backend is not. HeyLead reads your own LinkedIn posts to learn your voice and never posts unless you ask for a post.

Why it matters

Founders and CEOs at consulting firms face specific challenges. In small and mid-size firms the managing partner sells, staffs the work and buys the tools.

Work comes in waves instead of steadily. Partners spend billable time on business development. They buy outcomes for clients and distrust anything that looks like a sales tool. Reaching them requires an understanding of these pressures.

You can use six campaign goals.
These include sell a product or service, find a job, hire people, find partners or investors, find a vendor, and research interviews.
Hire people, find partners or investors and research interviews work with a custom brief.

What to write or do

Ask how they find the next client while a large engagement keeps everyone busy. Before an invitation, HeyLead warms up. It does a profile view, a follow, and a comment on a recent post.

HeyLead watches 40+ signal types, scored, matched to your ICP and expiring. A strong signal starts outreach and the opener says why now.

An invitation includes a note, an opening message, up to 2 follow-ups on Free and 5 on Pro, InMail and email fallback.
Replies are read, classified and answered from the campaign's facts.
Anything ambiguous is held for you.
A "not now" reply gets a check-in in 30 days.

The brief to type into HeyLead

The brief defines your target audience. The ICP fields include industries consulting. The seniority covers owner, cxo, and director. The company size targets 11-50, 51-200, and 201-500 employees.

It works in Claude Code, Cursor, Claude Desktop and claude.ai, any MCP client and a web dashboard. It also works in ChatGPT as a custom MCP app. This is tested on ChatGPT Pro. Custom apps depend on your ChatGPT plan and settings.

Open Claude Code, Cursor, Claude Desktop, claude.ai, any MCP client, the web dashboard, or ChatGPT as a custom MCP app.
Type the brief into the prompt.
Review the drafted campaign.
Press Launch to start.

Find founders and CEOs at consulting firms with 11 to 500 employees. Ask how they find the next client while a large engagement keeps everyone busy.

Limits

Free costs $0 for one connected account with 2 follow-ups. Pro costs $29 a month per connected account.

Opening messages, follow-ups and answers to replies wait for your approval until you switch to autopilot. Invitations, not-now check-ins and meeting nudges are not held.

HubSpot is the CRM it syncs with. Google Calendar is the calendar it books into.

Questions people ask

What does HeyLead do before sending an invitation?

Before an invitation, HeyLead warms up. It does a profile view, a follow, and a comment on a recent post.

How does HeyLead handle replies?

Replies are read, classified and answered from the campaign's facts. Anything ambiguous is held for you, and a "not now" gets a check-in in 30 days.

What are the costs for HeyLead?

Free costs $0 for one connected account with 2 follow-ups. Pro costs $29 a month per connected account.

Which CRM and calendar does HeyLead use?

HubSpot is the CRM it syncs with. Google Calendar is the calendar it books into.

HeyLead sends from your own LinkedIn account at a human pace: at most 20 invitations a day and 100 a week on a free LinkedIn account (more on Premium or Sales Navigator: a newly connected paid account starts at 20 a day and doubles each week up to its limit), Monday to Friday 08:00 to 22:00 in your time zone, minutes apart. It backs off when LinkedIn pushes back and resumes on its own. You can pause any campaign at any time.

HeyLead is not affiliated with LinkedIn. It reaches LinkedIn through Unipile, which is also not affiliated. LinkedIn's own rules are in the Terms.

Start free, no card

Set up HeyLead using https://heylead.dev/llms.txt