How to Run a LinkedIn Outreach Campaign to CTOs at Series A SaaS Companies in 2026

Quick Answer: Got a list of CTOs at Series A SaaS companies? Origami can turn that list into a full LinkedIn outreach campaign using its built‑in sequencer — all from the same platform where you built the list. No need to export, sync, or switch tools. This guide walks you through refining your list, writing a 3‑touch sequence that actually gets replies, and launching the whole thing in minutes.

If you haven’t built the list yet, grab the method here: how to build a list of CTOs at Series A SaaS Companies. That post shows you the exact prompt to use inside Origami to pull 100 – 300 qualified CTOs in under five minutes. Once you have that list, come back here for the outreach playbook.

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Step 1 — Build the list in Origami (recap)

Even if you already have a list, it’s worth knowing how the targeting prompt shapes everything downstream. Inside Origami, you type something like this:

“Find CTOs at US‑based Series A SaaS companies with 20 – 200 employees. Include only companies that raised funding in the last 12 months. Prioritize those using AWS, GCP, or cloud‑native infrastructure. Enrich with LinkedIn profile URLs, verified emails, phone numbers, and details about their tech stack, recent hires, and any public job postings.”

Origami’s AI agent searches the live web, chains data sources, and returns a table with:

• Full name and current title
• Verified email (work and personal if available)
• LinkedIn profile URL
• Company name, size, funding round, and estimated revenue
• Technology tags (e.g., AWS, Kubernetes, Datadog)
• Hiring signals (open engineering roles, engineering‑team growth)

You can start on the free plan — 1,000 enrichment credits, no credit card required. That’s enough to build and verify about 200 – 250 CTOs, which is plenty for a first campaign.

Step 2 — Refine and qualify the list for LinkedIn outreach

Not every CTO on your list is ready for a conversation. Before you sequence, you need to slice the list so that every message lands with somebody who could actually buy (or champion) what you sell.

2.1 Remove obvious misfits

• Wrong stage: A CTO at a “Series A” company that actually raised $50M three years ago isn’t really Series A anymore. Cross‑check the funding date and total raised. Anything older than 18 months or north of $15M total raised starts to smell like a late‑B.
• Too corporate: CTOs at companies that just passed Series A but still act like a 500‑person enterprise (heavy IT procurement, no hands‑on technical involvement) rarely respond to LinkedIn cold outreach. If the company has roles like “VP of Procurement” or “Director of IT Sourcing”, skip them.
• Non‑technical CTO: Some Series A orgs give the CTO title to a co‑founder who is really the product visionary, not the person making infra decisions. Look for clues: do they have a GitHub presence? Are they speaking at KubeCon or AWS re:Invent? If their profile is all about go‑to‑market, they’re probably not your buyer.

2.2 Segment by persona and pain point

Your sequence will perform far better if you tailor messaging to distinct segments. For CTOs at Series A SaaS companies, I usually split into three buckets:

1. The “Scale the stack” CTO — company just crossed $3M ARR, engineering team grew from 5 to 20, and everything that worked as a monolith is now breaking. They’re hunting for observability, CI/CD, and platform‑engineering tools.
2. The “Hire and retain” CTO — they’ve raised fresh capital and need to double the eng team. Main struggle: attracting senior engineers, onboarding them fast, and building a culture that keeps them.
3. The “Cloud‑cost killer” CTO — AWS bill jumped 3× in six months, the board is asking questions, and the CTO is suddenly looking at FinOps. They care about cost optimisation, multi‑cloud, and right‑sizing.

Pick the segment that best matches your product. If you’re selling an APM tool, bucket 1 is your sweet spot. If you’re selling a developer‑hiring platform, go after bucket 2. You can tag leads in Origami with a custom field (“Scale”, “People”, “Cost”) so you only load the relevant cohort into the sequencer.

2.3 What “qualified” looks like

A qualified CTO lead for a LinkedIn campaign is someone who:

• Still writes or reviews code at least occasionally (hands‑on).
• Has budget authority or strong influence over tooling decisions (if it’s under ~$30k ACV, the CTO can usually green‑light it without a long procurement cycle).
• Shows a recent trigger — e.g., they posted about scaling challenges, the company just posted five new backend roles, or they attended a conference that aligns with your space.

If you’re unsure, leave them in. The sequencer’s behaviour (connection acceptance, replies) will tell you within two weeks whether the segment is responsive.

Step 3 — Create the LinkedIn sequence (two options)

Origami gives you two ways to build the sequence that your CTOs will receive.

Option 1: Paste your own templates

You can write a 3‑touch LinkedIn sequence yourself — copy the messages below, tweak them for your product, and paste them into Origami’s sequencer. You then set the delay between touches (e.g., connection request on Day 1, first follow‑up on Day 3, final message on Day 7) and hit Launch.

Option 2: Let the AI agent write it

If you’d rather not hand‑craft every variation, you can ask Origami’s AI agent to generate a personalised 3‑day LinkedIn sequence for all your leads automatically. The agent reads each lead’s enriched profile — title, company size, funding stage, tech stack, even recent job changes — and writes messages that feel one‑to‑one. You still review and approve everything before it goes out.

For the rest of this section, I’ll give you a proven, copy‑paste‑ready sequence that’s tuned specifically for CTOs at Series A SaaS companies. Whether you use it as‑is or let the AI build from it, the structural choices (why Day 3, why this ask) are the real gold.

The 3‑touch sequence (CTO at a Series A SaaS)

This sequence assumes you’re targeting the “Scale the stack” segment — the CTO who is dealing with expanding infrastructure, observability gaps, and rising cloud costs. Adjust the pain‑point references if you’re targeting a different bucket.

Each message is kept between 50 and 100 words. No fluff, no “hope you’re well.”

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Day 1 — Connection request + note

Connection notes are limited to 300 characters. Here’s the exact text:

Hi , I’m tracking how Series‑A CTOs are scaling infra without burning out their teams. Saw is in the thick of that. Would love to connect and compare notes. No pitch, no follow‑up‑spam — just patterns.

Why this works: It’s peer‑to‑peer, references their company, and explicitly removes the fear of a hidden sales trap. CTOs who are drowning in vendor DMs will often accept a connection that promises “patterns” instead of a demo.

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Day 3 — Follow‑up message (after they accept)

Subject line (InMail) or just the message body:

Hey , thanks for connecting. I know you’ve got a million things on your plate. I spent the last six months talking to CTOs at similar‑stage SaaS companies — , , and a few others. One thing that consistently moved the needle: consolidating observability and CI/CD feedback loops so the on‑call engineer can actually see why a deploy broke, not just that it did.

Curious if that’s on your radar or if you’re fighting a different fire right now. Happy to share the playbook — 15 min, zero pitch.

Why this works: You’re name‑dropping peers (the AI can inject real competitor or similar‑company names from Origami’s data). You open with a specific, non‑obvious tactic, and you give them an easy‑to‑accept format (a “playbook” exchange).

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Day 7 — Final message (soft close)

, nudge nudge — last one from me, I promise. If the scaling stuff we touched on (like tightening the deploy‑to‑alert loop, or making your AWS bill predictable) is eating up your headspace, I’d be glad to jump on a 20‑min call and share what’s worked for a few Series‑A CTOs I know. No obligation, and absolutely no pitch deck.

If now isn’t the right time, no sweat. Appreciate the connection either way.

Why this works: “Last one” signals respect for their inbox. The message recalls the earlier topic without repeating it. And it makes the call feel low‑risk — “no pitch deck” is the modern “no‑obligation.”

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Variables & personalisation:

• and are auto‑filled from the enriched contact fields.
• `` can be pulled from a list of peer companies (or let Origami’s AI insert real, similar‑stage companies from your data).
• In Option 2, the AI agent will weave in additional details like a lead’s recent conference talk or a newly posted engineering role.

Step 4 — Send the sequence directly from Origami

This is where Origami stops feeling like a lead‑list tool and starts feeling like your outbound ops teammate. Once your sequence is written (or generated), you don’t need to export a CSV, upload to a separate tool, or mess with Zapier. Everything runs from the same dashboard.

4.1 Launch the sequencer

Inside Origami, open your refined list of CTOs, click “Start Sequence,” and select the template you’ve built or the AI‑generated version. Set the delays:

• Touch 1 (Connection request): Send immediately, Mon – Thu, 8 – 10 a.m. prospect local time.
• Touch 2 (Follow‑up): 2 days after connection acceptance.
• Touch 3 (Final message): 4 days after Touch 2. (Day 7 from initial connection send.)

You can batch‑send to avoid triggering LinkedIn’s daily limits; the sequencer automatically spaces requests within safe thresholds.

4.2 Sending & tracking

Once launched, you watch everything from the same screen where you built the list. Origami shows:

• Connection acceptance rate: How many of your requests turned into 1st‑degree connections.
• Follow‑up opens & replies: Opens, link clicks (if you include any), and raw reply text — all in a unified activity feed.
• Prospect context: While viewing a contact’s activity, you still see their full enriched profile (title, company, tech stack, hiring signals). So if a CTO replies, you instantly know why you reached out and what matters to them — no flipping between tools.

4.3 Automatic un‑enrollment

If a CTO replies — even with a “not interested” — they’re immediately removed from the sequence. The system won’t accidentally send a “breakup” follow‑up after a booked meeting. This alone solves one of the biggest reputation‑killers in cold outreach.

4.4 One platform, no extra cost for sending

The LinkedIn sequencer is included on all paid plans. You pay only for the credits required to enrich your leads. The sending engine — sequences, personalised message delivery, tracking — is free on any paid tier (plans start at $29/mo). Find, enrich, sequence, send, track: zero CSV exports, zero API syncs.

4.5 What response rates to expect

With a well‑refined list of Series‑A CTOs and the sequence above (or one like it), I typically see:

• Connection acceptance: 25% – 35% (if your note mentions their company and a specific pain point, not a generic “we should connect”).
• Reply rate: 8% – 12% (any reply, including “not right now”).
• Meeting‑booked rate: 3% – 5% of total prospects.

If you dip below those numbers after 200+ sends, don’t immediately throw away the list. Iterate on messaging first. Test a different Day 1 note, a different problem hook, or a shorter Day 3 message. If two messaging iterations still don’t move the needle, then go back to your list and refine the qualification criteria — you may be hitting the wrong segment.

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