Guide: How to Build B2B Leads with LinkedIn and Crunchbase

1. Manual, Traditional Ways to Build a B2B Lead List

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1.1 LinkedIn basic search and profile mining

1. Define your ICP on paper: industries, company size, regions, job titles.
2. On LinkedIn, use the main search bar to search for a role (e.g., “VP Marketing”).
3. Click People, then narrow by Location, Industry, and Company size using filters.
4. Open each relevant profile, confirm they fit your ICP, and note:
   • Name, title, company
   • LinkedIn URL
   • Any visible email/website links
5. Paste this data into a spreadsheet or CRM.
6. Repeat daily until you hit your target volume.

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You can reference LinkedIn’s help on search and filters here: https://www.linkedin.com/help/linkedin.

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1.2 Company-first research via Crunchbase

1. Start from the account side: what kind of companies buy from you?
2. In Crunchbase (free or paid), search for companies by:
   • Industry
   • Funding stage
   • Revenue/employee ranges
   • Location
3. Save or export a list of matching companies.
4. For each company, click through to their website and LinkedIn company page.
5. On LinkedIn, search People at that company to find decision-makers.
6. Add those contacts to your lead list spreadsheet with a column for firmographics from Crunchbase (funding, size, HQ, etc.).

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See Crunchbase’s docs on using company filters: https://support.crunchbase.com/hc/en-us.

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1.3 Event and webinar harvesting

1. Attend niche webinars, conferences, and virtual events in your market.
2. Export or request the attendee/company list when available.
3. For each attendee, search their name on LinkedIn to confirm title and company.
4. Add verified contacts to your lead list and tag the Lead source as that event.

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1.4 Inbound leads and newsletter signups

1. Collect signups via lead magnets, blog subscriptions, or pricing pages.
2. For each inbound email domain, look up the company in Crunchbase.
3. Confirm: is this an ICP-fit company?
4. If yes, enrich via LinkedIn: find additional stakeholders (e.g., VP, Director, Manager in the relevant department).
5. Add them all as separate leads under the same account.

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1.5 Referrals and customer expansion

1. Ask your happiest customers for 2–3 peers in their network.
2. When they share names or companies, look each one up on LinkedIn.
3. Confirm titles and pull company context from Crunchbase.
4. Add them with Lead Source = Referral so you can prioritize outreach.

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Pros of manual methods

• Ultra-high control and understanding of every contact.
• Great for early-stage learning about your ICP.

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Cons

• Very time-consuming and repetitive.
• Hard to scale beyond a few dozen quality leads per week.

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2. No‑Code Automation Methods

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2.1 Automate LinkedIn exports with no‑code tools

Tools like browser-based scrapers or list-building extensions can speed things up without code.

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1. Use LinkedIn Sales Navigator (if available) to define dynamic lead searches:
   • ICP filters: seniority, role, company headcount, geography.
   • Save these searches: LinkedIn refreshes them as the network changes.
   • Learn more here: https://www.linkedin.com/help/sales-navigator.
2. Add a compliant list-building extension that can capture visible profile data into a CSV.
3. Run the extension on your saved search results pages.
4. Import the CSV into Google Sheets or your CRM.
5. Spot-check 20–30 rows for accuracy and remove obvious mismatches.

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2.2 Connect Crunchbase and Sheets or CRM

1. Use Crunchbase’s export (or API on higher plans) to pull account lists.
2. In Google Sheets or Excel, clean the data:
   • Normalize industries
   • Remove duplicates
   • Add columns for ICP scoring (e.g., A/B/C fit).
3. Use a no-code connector (Zapier, Make) to push clean accounts into your CRM.
4. Trigger workflows in your CRM to create Contact tasks for SDRs.

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Crunchbase docs for exports and API: https://data.crunchbase.com/docs and https://support.crunchbase.com/hc/en-us.

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2.3 Website visitor identification + LinkedIn enrichment

1. Install a visitor identification tool on your website.
2. Daily or weekly, export the list of visiting companies.
3. Use a no-code tool to match each company name to its Crunchbase record for size, industry, and funding.
4. For high-fit companies, automatically search LinkedIn for matching titles and add those as contacts via a connector.

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Pros of no‑code

• 5–10x faster than pure manual work.
• Repeatable flows you can run weekly.

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Cons

• Still requires you to maintain Zapier/Make scenarios and check data.
• Limited by what each SaaS offers via API.

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3. Scaling with Autonomous AI Agents (Simular + Apps)

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Now imagine you hand the entire process to an AI computer agent running on Simular Pro.

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3.1 Agent: LinkedIn → Crunchbase → Sheet workflow

1. In Simular Pro, create an agent with a clear instruction block:
   • "Open LinkedIn, search for [ICP description], filter by [regions, headcount]. For each profile, extract name, title, company, LinkedIn URL. Then open Crunchbase, find the company, record funding, size, and industry. Log everything into Google Sheets."
2. Let the agent operate your actual desktop and browser. Thanks to Simular’s transparent execution, you can watch each click and keystroke.
3. Run a small test: 20–30 leads.
4. Review the sheet, correct any misclassifications, and update the agent’s instructions.
5. When you’re satisfied, let it run overnight on a larger search.

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Pros

• Human-level flexibility: the agent navigates real web UIs, CAPTCHAs permitting.
• Production-grade reliability across thousands of steps.
• Every step is logged and editable inside Simular Pro.

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Cons

• Requires careful initial prompt/instruction design.
• You still must ensure compliance with LinkedIn and Crunchbase terms of use.

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3.2 Agent: Weekly lead list refresh and cleansing

1. Point the Simular agent to your master Google Sheet or CRM view.
2. Instruct it to:
   • Open each account’s Crunchbase page and update fields (employee count, funding rounds).
   • Check key contacts’ LinkedIn profiles for job changes.
   • Mark bounced or outdated emails for review.
3. Schedule this as a recurring workflow via Simular’s webhook integration into your pipeline.
4. Your list stays fresh without human data janitorial work.

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3.3 Agent: Multi-source ICP research loop

For agencies and revenue teams that live or die on list quality:

1. Provide the agent with examples of your best customers and a written ICP.
2. Ask it to:
   • Research similar companies via Crunchbase categories and funding events.
   • Validate decision-makers on LinkedIn.
   • Score each lead (A/B/C) based on your ICP criteria.
3. The agent outputs a prioritized, scored list ready for outbound.

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By combining LinkedIn, Crunchbase, and a Simular AI computer agent, you move from “I built a list this week” to “We have an always-on lead-generation machine” that you can inspect, tweak, and trust.