Michel's unfair advantage is running his agency's growth in public
Most agency founders keep the machine private. Michel open-sources the exact tools, steps, team, and numbers, then gives the whole playbook away.
Michel Lieben is the founder and CEO of ColdIQ, a B2B outbound and GTM agency in Barcelona that scaled to $7M ARR working with more than 275 clients. His LinkedIn is not a feed of think-pieces. It is an open-source teardown of his own business: the exact tools, the API stacks, the funnels, the team behind each result, and now a new Unified API product, all narrated with real dollar numbers. Where most founders post opinions, Michel posts the machine.
That is the whole engine. Systems-led growth is when your distribution comes from open-sourcing the exact machine you run, the tools, the steps, and the numbers behind your own results, so every post doubles as proof that you know what you are talking about. Michel runs it with discipline: pick a real workflow, show the full stack and the sequence, attach the outcome in dollars, and give it away for free.
'We help B2B teams book more meetings.' A claim with no proof, no tools, and no numbers. Forgotten by the next scroll.
The exact 7-step Claude Code workflow, the 19 APIs, the $7M ARR funnel, named and numbered. You screenshot it.
“Running your GTM from Claude Code (or a coding agent) is the highest-leverage move you can make.”
— From his post announcing he is exiting the agency to launch a Unified GTM API (554 reactions)
Five findings that repeated across 83 posts
- The machine is the content. His biggest posts are teardowns of his own agency and the tools behind it: a hiring call (2,842 reactions), a reaction to Claude Design (1,041), and 'can you run your entire GTM with Claude Code?' (774).
- Conversation, not just reach. He averages 347 reactions but 319 comments a post, a comment-to-reaction ratio near 92%, more than ten times the LinkedIn norm. His posts are built to pull replies and DMs.
- Infographics do the work. 62% of his posts are images, and they average 391 reactions, ahead of video (316) and text (239), because his images are dense, designed GTM infographics.
- An honest, reduced sample. Of the 83 posts we pulled, 5 were reshares of teammates' launches; the analysis below is built on his 78 own posts.
- Weekday discipline. About 3.6 posts a week, Wednesday heaviest, with zero posts landing on a weekend.
The numbers behind the account
Moderate reach, unusually high conversation, and dense infographics carrying most of the weight.
Across the 83 posts we analyzed, Michel published about 3.6 times a week, entirely on weekdays, with Wednesday, Tuesday, and Monday driving the most volume. That front-of-week rhythm lines up with how the platform distributes B2B content, which we break down in our guide to how the LinkedIn algorithm works.
When he posts
The reach itself is honest and moderate: he averages 347 reactions, with a median of 284 and a top post at 2,842. Only 2 of his posts cleared 1,000 reactions. The real signal is not the likes, it is the comments.
The content-type mix
Where the engagement comes from
The top posts
| # | Post | Reactions | Comments | Reposts |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Hiring an Account Executive 'to free me from this hell' | 2,842 | 311 | 8 |
| 2 | Reacting to Anthropic's Claude Design release | 1,041 | 3,197 | 21 |
| 3 | 'Can you run your entire GTM with Claude Code?' | 774 | 2,846 | 15 |
| 4 | Building cold email campaigns in minutes with Claude Code | 757 | 249 | 37 |
| 5 | 1,400 people watched Kenny build an outbound campaign live | 753 | 1,851 | 14 |
| 6 | Exiting his $7M ARR agency for a Unified GTM API | 554 | 254 | 10 |
Want to see how your own cadence and comment ratio stack up? Run your profile through our free LinkedIn analyzer.
The six content pillars
Every post is one of six repeatable buckets, so a founder documenting a fast-moving agency never runs out of things to say.
Step-by-step workflows and API stacks that run outbound from the terminal, the theme that dominates his feed.
The full funnel, spend, and stack behind lemlist, Snowflake, and other $40M+ ARR machines.
The anatomy of his own $7M ARR agency: channels, headcount, tools, and revenue, mapped in the open.
How 24 employees became publishers and added $151K MRR in 90 days.
How the top 1% run cold email, buying signals, and data sourcing, with named tools for each step.
The failures, the exit, and the risky new bet, told in the first person with the numbers attached.
Pillar 1: Claude Code GTM systems (the flagship)
Why it works: His most-repeated post shape: a before/after time collapse, then a numbered, tool-by-tool workflow anyone can copy. He never gates the how. The value is so concrete that the P.S. link to the full video breakdown feels earned, not salesy.
Pillar 2: Company & competitor teardowns (the reach engine)
Why it works: He borrows another company's numbers as his content. A named funnel with a real ARR figure is pure curiosity bait, and by publishing it he positions himself as the person who knows how every top GTM machine actually works.
Pillar 3: The agency as proof (the credibility)
Why it works: The strongest credential an agency founder has is his own P&L. By mapping ColdIQ's channels, headcount, and tools in the open, he turns a sales pitch into a case study the reader can audit line by line.
Pillar 4: Team-powered content engine (the multiplier)
Why it works: Michel does not rely on one founder account. He shows the system that turned two dozen employees into publishers, with an MRR number attached. The post is both a flex and a lead magnet: the cheat sheet is in the comments, which is why it pulled 548 of them.
Pillar 5: Tactical outbound education (the evergreen)
Why it works: The evergreen how-to: open on the outcome every reader wants, then hand over a categorized directory of named tools. This is the pillar that earns saves and reposts (39 here), because it is a reference sheet, not a hot take.
Pillar 6: Founder story & public bets (the trust)
Why it works: Between the tactical posts, Michel zooms out to the personal stakes: the failures, the exit, the risky new bet. Framing a product launch as a founder confession ('the riskiest bet of my life') turns a company announcement into a story people root for.
The hooks that earned the click
The through-line is a specific number or a concrete promise in the very first line. Michel never warms up.
Pose the question the reader wants answered. 'Can you run your entire GTM with Claude Code?'
Lead with a count and a payoff. '19 APIs that turn Claude Code into a GTM machine:'
Contrast the old cost with the new one. 'Building cold email campaigns used to take hours. Claude Code builds them in minutes:'
Name a company and a big number. 'What lemlist's $42,000,000 ARR funnel looks like:'
Open on the stakes. 'I'm exiting my $7M ARR agency to take the riskiest bet of my life:'
React to a fresh release. 'Anthropic just released Claude Design.'
For the mechanics of writing openers like these, our guide to writing LinkedIn hooks goes deeper, and you can pressure-test your own first line in the free hook generator.
His top hooks, by the numbers
| Hook type | Opening line | Reactions |
|---|---|---|
| News reaction | 'Anthropic just released Claude Design.' | 1,041 |
| Provocative question | 'Can you run your entire GTM with Claude Code?' | 774 |
| Time collapse | 'Building cold email campaigns used to take hours.' | 757 |
| Personal bet | 'I'm exiting my $7M ARR agency to take the riskiest bet of my life:' | 554 |
A voice that shows the machine, never just the message
It reads like an operator handing you his SOPs: dense, numbered, tool-by-tool, with a dollar figure on every claim.
- Opens on the number or the promise. The first line states the outcome, the count, or the stake, never a windup.
- 'We' for the machine, 'I' for the bets. The agency's work is a team story; the failures and the risks are personal.
- Names teammates and tools relentlessly. Kenny, Ivan, Pilar, Clay, Instantly, lemlist, as living proof the system is real.
- Numbered, scannable structure. 1️⃣, →, and ↳ break every post into a directory you can screenshot.
- A dollar figure on everything. $7M ARR, 275+ clients, 10s of millions of emails, $151K MRR. Specificity is the persuasion.
- Ends on a P.S. A question to farm comments, or a link to the full video, repo, or cheat sheet.
The signature move is generosity with the how. Michel does not tease a framework and hold the details for a paid course. He publishes the full 7-step workflow, the 19-API stack, the exact funnel, and lets the depth do the selling. The bet is that giving away the playbook proves he can run it better than anyone, which is exactly the reputation an agency (and now a product) needs.
What he does, and doesn't, do
- Open on a number or a concrete promise
- Show the full stack and every step
- Name the teammates and the tools
- Give the whole playbook away free
- Anchor every claim to a dollar figure
- Post on weekends
- Theorize without a named tool
- Hide the process behind a paywall tease
- Vague 'we help you grow' claims
- Any assertion without a number
Holding that voice, dense, generous, and numbered, across a Claude Code workflow, a competitor teardown, an agency map, and a founder confession, at three-plus posts a week is the part almost nobody sustains, and it is exactly the gap CaptureFlow closes. CaptureFlow is an AI content agent that turns your expertise into weeks of on-brand content for every platform. You capture one idea in 5 minutes (a voice note, a screen recording of a workflow, a Loom of your funnel), and CaptureFlow, trained on your voice and your past posts, drafts native content for each channel, a LinkedIn post, an X thread, a carousel, an infographic, a short video, so scaling the cadence never costs the operator's voice. See how the AI content agent works.
The systems underneath the posts
Two loops quietly turn 83 posts into pipeline, meetings, and a team-sized distribution engine.
The give-it-away funnel
The free playbook is the lead magnet and the P.S. is the CTA. Because the value is delivered in full inside the post, the ask at the end reads as a bonus, not a bait-and-switch.
The team-amplification loop
- 1The founder account growsMichel goes from 2K to 77K followers by posting the machine.
- 2Turn employees into publishers24 teammates post, incentivized with a competition and cash prizes.
- 3Volume compounds581 posts in 90 days, 34,000+ new followers, +$151K MRR.
- 4300K combined team reachthe agency's single biggest acquisition channel.
- 5Social proof funds the next hirewho posts, and feeds the loop again.
Choosing the media
A dense, branded infographic. His highest-reach format at 391 avg reactions.
A screen recording of a teammate building a campaign in Claude Code.
Plain text when the numbered directory is the whole point.
This systems-led model is a cousin of the cold-email teardown engine we mapped in the Arnaud Belinga playbook, and it is the template most agencies should study: document the exact machine you run for clients, then turn your own team into the distribution channel, the way we lay out in our guide to building an employee advocacy program.
Your 30-day challenge
Run the playbook for a month. Turn the systems you already operate into posts, one pillar at a time, and point the reach at a real asset.
- Days 1-2: List every workflow, tool stack, and result you already run
- Days 3-4: Post your best workflow as a numbered, tool-by-tool teardown
- Days 5-7: Map one of your own funnels with real numbers, as an infographic
- Days 8-9: Break down a competitor or admired company's stack and funnel
- Days 10-11: Publish the anatomy of your own business, channels and headcount
- Days 12-14: Write one evergreen how-to with named tools for each step
- Days 15-17: Tell a founder story: a failure, a pivot, or a bet, in the first person
- Days 18-19: React to a fresh release in your space with a strong take
- Days 20-21: Recruit one teammate to post their own workflow this week
- Days 22-24: End every post with a P.S. pointing at a real resource
- Days 25-27: Reply to every comment to feed the conversation ratio
- Days 28-30: Review analytics and double down on the format that reached furthest
Want the cadence without writing every teardown from scratch? That is exactly what CaptureFlow's content agent automates. See pricing to start turning your systems into weeks of content.
The metrics to track weekly
| Metric | Benchmark to aim for |
|---|---|
| Reactions per post | 300+ |
| Comments per post | 100+ |
| Comment-to-reaction ratio | 20%+ |
| Weekday posting cadence | 3+ per week |
| Named tools or people per post | 5+ |
| Posts ending in a resource CTA | Every post |
The takeaways
- 01Document the machine, not the message. Michel's biggest posts are teardowns of his own $7M ARR agency and the exact tools behind it.
- 02Give the whole playbook away. He publishes full 7-step workflows and 19-API stacks, then lets the depth prove he can run it best.
- 03Optimize for comments, not just likes. He earns a comment-to-reaction ratio near 92%, more than ten times the LinkedIn norm.
- 04Make the infographic do the work. His images average 391 reactions, ahead of video and text, because they pack a full system into one frame.
- 05Turn your team into the channel. 24 employees posting added 34,000+ followers and $151K MRR in 90 days.
- 06Batch-capture your workflows so a three-a-week cadence survives a heavy client-delivery week.
Frequently asked questions
- How did Michel Lieben grow his LinkedIn following?
- By open-sourcing the exact machine behind ColdIQ: full Claude Code outbound workflows, API stacks, competitor funnel teardowns, and his own agency's numbers, about 3.6 times a week. Across 83 recent posts he averaged 347 reactions and 319 comments each, and his account grew past 77K followers.
- What kind of post performs best for Michel Lieben?
- Concrete teardowns and reactions with a big number in the first line. His top post, a hiring call, earned 2,842 reactions, and his infographics (62% of his posts) average 391 reactions, ahead of video and text.
- How often does Michel Lieben post, and when?
- About 3.6 times a week, entirely on weekdays, with Wednesday, Tuesday, and Monday heaviest and zero posts landing on a weekend.
- How do you apply this playbook without spending hours a week?
- Batch-capture the systems you already run, then let a content agent draft in your voice. CaptureFlow turns one 5-minute capture into a week of native posts across platforms, so you can hold the cadence without writing every teardown from scratch.
