Zero to One: Street-Smart Founders with AI
This session will equip you with practical AI-powered strategies to accelerate your startup's growth. Get ready to transform your approach for customer acquisition and feedback gathering.

by Patrick Collins

Patrick Collins:
Testing Strategies for Startup Traction
Startup Growth Consultant
Patrick Collins is a startup growth consultant with over 13 years of experience working with founders, sales leaders, and CMOs to scale their businesses.
Experience Across Industries
He has consulted for startups throughout Europe & Asia, led sales teams, ran his own agency, and developed his own sales software that got to 40K MRR
The Relationship of Sales
Now, he's launching TheRelationshipofSales.com—a community and newsletter dedicated to helping startups drive growth through practical, relationship-driven sales strategies.
From Zero to First Paying Customer

1

Identify Target Market
Use AI tools to research and define your ideal customer profile. This focused approach ensures efficient resource allocation.

2

Develop MVP
Leverage AI for rapid prototyping and iterative development. This speeds up your product's time-to-market.

3

Gather Feedback
Employ AI-powered survey tools to collect and analyse user feedback quickly. This helps refine your product.

4

Optimise Sales Funnel
Use AI to personalise outreach and automate follow-ups. This increases your chances of landing that crucial first sale.
Leveraging LinkedIn for Growth
Profile Optimisation
Craft a headline and summary that truly reflects your expertise and connects with your target audience. Focus on clear, action-oriented language, and highlight measurable results that showcase your key skills. Use AI tools to update your profile picture, helping boost your profile visibility and make sure it gets in front of the right people.
Your Tagline Formula
Your tagline should combine your job title or role with a unique personal element or a statement about how you help others. This creates a more memorable and impactful profile.
Examples:
For example:
  • Job Title at Company + Unique Personal Information
  • Laura Haldane: "VP Sales & Marketing | Game of Thrones Extra"
  • Job Title at Company + Helping X to X
  • Vilma Daubariene: "Head of Tourism @Go Vilnius | Helping visitors discover the best of Vilnius"
  • You can create your own tagline by merging what you do with a unique fact or how you make an impact. It’s a simple formula, but it helps your profile stand out by showing both your role and what makes you unique or valuable.
8 Ways to Find Your Target Audience on LinkedIn
  • LinkedIn Search
    Use LinkedIn’s free search with 13 filters to find people who match your criteria.
  • Sales Navigator Search
    Create precise searches using LinkedIn’s paid tool, Sales Navigator, to filter by advanced criteria.
  • Group Search
    Find potential leads or audience members in LinkedIn Groups where your target demographic is likely to engage.
  • Event Search
    Discover your audience by searching for attendees in LinkedIn Events that align with your industry.
  • Post Engagement Search
    Identify your target audience by looking at who’s engaging with posts relevant to your niche.
  • LinkedIn Learners Search
    Search for your audience through LinkedIn Learning courses to see who’s gaining knowledge in relevant areas.
  • LinkedIn Services Search
    Find your target audience by filtering through LinkedIn Services, specifically for those offering or seeking specific services.
  • LinkedIn Products Search
    Filter by LinkedIn Products to identify audience members interested in specific tools or services related to your industry.
Outreach Strategies
These campaigns are designed to target relevant LinkedIn users based on their activity, profile, and interests, ensuring a personalized and strategic outreach.
  1. LinkedIn Learning Campaign
    Target people who are studying online and may be interested in attending your event as well.
  1. Connector Campaign
    Personalized connector campaigns to grow your network and interact with people who register for your event.
  1. Open InMail Campaign
    Profiles on LinkedIn with a Gold Profile can be messaged directly through an Open InMail campaign.
  1. Group Message Campaign
    Run campaigns to invite relevant people in LinkedIn groups that you are part of to your event.
  1. Event Inviter
    Safely invite up to 1,000 people per week to your event.
  1. Event Participants Campaign
    Run campaigns targeting people participating in similar LinkedIn Events.
  1. Inbound Campaign
    Connect with anyone who visited your LinkedIn profile.
  1. Campaign Builder
    Create a custom drip campaign combining LinkedIn and email campaigns for multi-channel lead generation.
  1. Mobile Connector Campaign
    Run campaigns to connect with relevant people, expanding your outreach by 50-100 connection requests every week.
Perplexity.ai For Content Ideas
Search for Trending Topics
Use Perplexity.ai to search for popular topics or industry-specific trends by entering keywords related to your niche. The tool aggregates recent, relevant information to help you identify what people are currently discussing.
Explore Common Questions
Find out what your target audience is curious about by searching for frequently asked questions. Use these as inspiration for blog posts, LinkedIn articles, or social media content that addresses those concerns.
Discover Emerging Themes
Stay ahead of the curve by identifying emerging trends and themes in your industry. Perplexity.ai helps you uncover new angles or perspectives that you can leverage to create timely and relevant content.
Benefits of Using Perplexity.ai for Content Creation

1

Real-Time Insights
Find up-to-date topics people are actively discussing.

2

Unlimited Ideas
Generate content ideas based on real searches and trends, ensuring your posts are relevant and engaging.

3

Targeted Content
Address your audience's specific questions and pain points, increasing the chances of engagement and interaction.
How to Apply It

1

LinkedIn Posts
Create posts based on trending questions or industry themes discovered through Perplexity.ai.

2

Blog Ideas
Turn popular search queries into blog posts that provide value to your audience.

3

Social Media Engagement
Stay relevant by creating content around hot topics that are gaining traction in your field.
Postdrips for LinkedIn Content
Postdrips is an AI-powered tool that helps you create, schedule, and optimize LinkedIn content efficiently. It's designed to save you time and ensure your posts are engaging, consistent, and tailored to your brand voice.
AI Content Generation
Postdrips' AI generates attention-grabbing hooks and full posts in seconds, tailored to your tone and message. Say goodbye to writer's block and start creating instantly.
Clean Writing Interface
With a simple, distraction-free writing environment, Postdrips lets you focus on crafting your message without overwhelming options or clutter.
Post Scheduling
Organize and schedule posts effortlessly. Plan your content weeks in advance with just a few clicks and ensure you never miss a posting opportunity.
Post Preview
Preview your LinkedIn post before it goes live to optimize for better engagement and clicks. See exactly how it will appear to your audience.
Multi-Media Support
Postdrips supports videos, images, GIFs, and more, helping you create visually appealing content that stands out.
Formatting Options
Easily style your posts with bold, italics, bullet points, and emojis to add a creative touch to your message.
Benefits of Using Postdrips
Save Time
Generate ideas and schedule posts in minutes, freeing up more time for other tasks.
Increase Engagement
AI-driven posts are optimized for engagement, helping you grow your audience.
Consistency
Plan and schedule posts in advance to maintain a consistent presence on LinkedIn.
Customization
Tailor posts to match your unique voice and brand with ease.
Outbound Messaging with AI - Phantombuster
Scraping LinkedIn Users
Start by creating engaging posts on LinkedIn that target your ideal audience. Use Phantombuster to scrape the users who interact with your posts, such as likes, comments, or shares. These users have already shown interest, making them ideal for outreach.
LinkedIn Events
LinkedIn Events are another great source for finding leads. With Phantombuster, you can scrape attendees of industry-relevant events and directly reach out to them. These users are highly targeted, as they are already interested in the event topic.
AI-Enhanced Personalisation
Once you have scraped the relevant data, use AI tools to enhance your outreach by personalising messages. You can reference the content they've interacted with or the events they attended, making your outreach feel more personal and relevant, increasing the chances of engagement.
Using AI for Calls: Hoop.app
Transcribe Calls with Ease
Hoop automatically transcribes your calls in real-time, so you never miss a key detail. This feature is perfect for keeping track of important conversations, whether they're sales calls, user feedback sessions, or internal meetings.
Create Follow-Up Tasks Instantly
After the call, Hoop lets you create follow-up tasks directly from the transcript. Quickly assign tasks based on action points discussed during the call, ensuring nothing falls through the cracks.
Turn Transcripts into Detailed Follow-Up Emails with GPT
With Chat GPT, you can take the call transcript from Hoop and transform it into a detailed, professional follow-up email. The AI can help summarize the key points, address any questions raised, and provide actionable next steps, all while personalizing the message to keep the tone conversational and engaging.
By combining the power of Hoop.app and GPT, you can streamline your workflow, ensure effective follow-ups, and maintain excellent communication with clients and teams. This ensures a smooth process from initial conversation to actionable outcomes.
Using Probelabs.ai for Instant User Feedback
Probe.ai is an AI-powered assistant that revolutionises how you gather user feedback. It finds participants, conducts interviews, and delivers insights in just hours.

1

Traditional Approach: 43 Hours
8 hrs sourcing, 30 hrs interviewing,
5 hrs reviewing

2

Probe Approach: 14x Faster in 3 Hours
10 mins setup, 2 hrs for results, 30 mins review
How Probe Works

1

Create an Interview
Probe's AI crafts questions tailored to your needs.

2

AI Interviews Real People
Probe taps into 200,000 vetted participants.

3

Receive Actionable Insights
Probe delivers comprehensive interview summaries.
Verified and Reliable Participants

1

Bank-Grade ID Verification
Ensures participant authenticity.

2

IP Address & Quality Screening
Filters out bots and low-quality responses.

3

Regular Monitoring
Maintains a top-tier participant pool.
Flexible Pricing Plans
Use Your Own Participants
Free interviews with unlimited responses.
B2C Participants
7-minute interview, 2 hour turnaround.
B2B Participants
1 day turnaround.
Why Probe.ai is Essential

1

Instant Feedback
Probe finds participants for you.

2

In-Depth Interviews at Scale
Gain comprehensive market understanding.

3

Actionable Insights
Probe delivers clear feedback summaries.
Practical Application and Q&A