LinkedIn Outreach Campaign Targeting COOs at AI Companies in 2026: Sequences, Tips & Built‑in Sequencer
Step‑by‑step guide to running a LinkedIn campaign for COOs at AI companies. Includes a 3‑touch sequence you can copy, qualification tactics, and how Origami’s built‑in sequencer sends it all for you.
Founder @ Origami
Quick Answer: If you’ve built a list of COOs at AI companies, Origami has a built‑in LinkedIn sequencer that lets you send personalized sequences directly from the same platform where you found your leads — no CSV exports, no third‑party tools. This guide gives you the exact 3‑touch copy and workflow to turn that list into conversations.
This post is the companion to our guide on how to build a list of COOs at AI Companies. That taught you how to find and verify your prospects in seconds. Now we’re going to walk through what happens after you have that list: refining it for LinkedIn, writing messages that actually work on this audience, and sending the entire sequence from Origami’s platform.
Step 1 — Build the list in Origami (the 60‑second version)
You’ve already done this if you followed the parent post, but here’s the reminder: open Origami and type a single prompt. For COOs at AI companies, that prompt could be:
“COOs at AI companies in the US, 10‑500 employees, that have raised funding in the last 18 months and are actively hiring.”
Origami’s AI agent searches the live web, chains data sources, enriches every contact, and qualifies them. What lands in your dashboard is a targeted prospect list with verified names, current titles, email addresses, phone numbers, company size, industry tags, and often the tech stack they’re using.
You don’t need a credit card to start. The free plan gives you 1,000 credits, which is enough to build and enrich a solid initial list of COOs. If you haven’t done that yet, go do it now — then come back here.
Step 2 — Refine and qualify the list for LinkedIn
Raw lists need a human pass. Before a single connection request goes out, sit down for 20 minutes and clean your list. Here’s what I look for as someone who’s run multiple campaigns to AI operators:
1. Title accuracy. Some people list themselves as “COO” but are actually fractional or part‑time. On LinkedIn, if their headline says “Fractional COO” or “COO & Advisor”, I flag them. Not a hard pass, but I segment them for a softer message.
2. Company AI‑ness. Origami already filters on industry and keywords, but I still spot‑check a few profiles. Did the company build an AI product, or are they just an agency with “AI” in their tagline? The real buyers I want are COOs at companies building AI‑native products — LLM tooling, computer vision platforms, AI‑powered SaaS, MLOps startups — because their operational pains are brutally specific.
3. Headcount and funding. For LinkedIn, I segment by company size:
- 10‑50 people: the COO is probably wearing multiple hats (ops, finance, HR). Messages should reference breadth.
- 51‑200 people: they’re building repeatable processes. Messages should talk about scale and alignment.
- 200‑500 people: they’re optimizing. Messages should be about efficiency and cost control.
I also tag companies that raised a Series A or B in the last 12 months. Cash in the bank means they’re hiring and investing in ops tools — that’s a timing trigger.
4. Remove direct competitors and obvious misfires. I kill any lead that’s clearly not in my ICP, even if the title matches.
What “qualified” looks like for this audience: a full‑time COO at a for‑real AI company with 10‑500 employees, funded, actively scaling, and not a current customer. In my experience, that profile is 90% of what you need to make the sequence work.
Step 3 — Create the LinkedIn sequence
With a clean list, the next move is writing your messages. Origami gives you two paths. I’ll cover both and then hand you the exact copy.
Option 1: Paste your own templates
You write a 3‑touch sequence yourself — connection request, two follow‑ups — paste each message into Origami’s sequencer, set the delays between touches (Day 1, Day 3, Day 7, or whatever cadence makes sense for your buyers), and hit launch. Origami will send them in order, respecting any reply pauses.
Option 2: Let the agent write it
You can ask Origami’s AI agent to generate a personalized 3‑day LinkedIn sequence for every lead in your list. The agent pulls profile data — title, company, industry, even recent company news — and writes a unique message for each person. This means John at a Series A AI startup gets a different note than Sarah at a later‑stage NLP company, and neither feels like a mail merge. You can review and edit any message before sending.
I recommend starting with option 2, spot‑checking the output, and then tweaking one or two messages to match your voice. It saves hours.
Full 3‑touch sequence (copy and steal)
Here’s the exact sequence I use for COOs at AI companies. Each message is 50‑100 words, written to be read on a phone, and deliberately light on jargon. Replace the bracketed bits with your own company/product.
Day 1 — Connection request note
The connection note is just a handshake. It should name the company, signal relevance, and invite the connection without asking for anything.
Hi , you’re COO at — impressive growth in . I’m working with AI COOs who are cutting operational overhead and accelerating product delivery. Would be great to have you in my network.
(If you don’t have a recent signal to personalize, simply remove that clause — the note still works.)
Day 3 — Follow‑up message (different angle)
Once they accept, wait two days. Your Day 3 message should add value, not repeat the connection note. I switch the angle from “I notice you” to “here’s a problem I see from other AI COOs.”
Thanks for connecting, . Quick thought: a lot of AI COOs I talk to struggle to keep engineering and ops aligned when the product roadmap changes weekly. We built [Your Product Name] so COOs can see real‑time project health and automatically re‑route resources — without another dashboard to babysit. Worth a 2‑minute look? Happy to share more.
This message clocks in at about 80 words. It names the specific pain (roadmap changes causing misalignment), positions your product as a simple fix, and asks a lightweight question (“Worth a look?”).
Day 7 — Final message (soft close)
If no reply after four more days, send one last message. This one should acknowledge their time, reframe the value, and leave the door wide open. No breakup language — just a final invitation that respects their priorities.
Last ping, — I know operational chaos doesn’t wait, so I’ll keep this short. We’re helping AI companies like reduce ops fire drills by roughly 35% and give their COOs a single source of truth for delivery. If that’s top‑of‑mind, I’d be glad to walk you through it. No hard sell, just a demo if you’re curious.
The final message is 80 words. The “last ping” sets the context honestly. The mention of a similar company (pick one from your list that they’d recognize) adds credibility. The soft close “no hard sell” reminds them this isn’t a pressure campaign.
These three messages are enough to start. After you run the campaign for a few weeks, you can A/B test small variations — but this core sequence works because it’s direct, relevant, and respects the pace of a busy COO.
Step 4 — Send the sequence directly from Origami
This is where Origami changes the game. You don’t export your list to a CSV, upload it to another tool, set up a sequence there, and pray the sync works. Once your messages are plugged in, you launch the sequence right from the same dashboard that holds your enriched list.
One platform, one workflow. Origami’s built‑in LinkedIn sequencer sends connection requests, waits the delay you’ve set, then delivers the follow‑up messages in order. You can see opens, clicks, and replies directly next to each lead’s profile — the same profile that shows you their title, company, tools used, and enrichment data. When a COO replies, you have the full context of why you reached out, so you never fumble a response.
Automatic un‑enrollment. If someone replies or connects, they exit the sequence. No accidentally sending a Day 7 “last ping” to a person who just booked a meeting. That’s table stakes, but I’m pointing it out because some tools screw this up.
Cost and credits. The sequencer itself is free on all paid plans. You pay only for the credits you use to enrich leads. So if you’ve already built and enriched your list on the free 1,000‑credit plan, you can upgrade to a paid plan ($29/month) and run this sequence without paying a penny more for the sending.
What to track and when to iterate For COOs at AI companies, a healthy initial response rate (connection accept + replies) sits in the 15–25% range if your list is well‑qualified and your message is on‑point. If after 100 touches you’re below 10%, check two things in order:
- The list — Are these really full‑time COOs at genuine AI companies? Run a quick audit by looking at a random sample of their LinkedIn profiles. Bad list, bad results.
- The messages — Are you referencing their world accurately? COOs at AI companies care about hiring velocity, infrastructure costs, product delivery cadence, and cross‑team visibility. If your copy talks about “lead generation” or “sales pipelines,” you’re speaking to the wrong nerve. Rewrite one message at a time and test.
Most campaigns fail because people skip the list quality step and then blame the copy. Fix the list first.