Options at a glance
- Dex — personal CRM, best if you track relationships across many platforms.
- Clay — enrichment-first, best if you run outbound at scale.
- HubSpot Free — full pipeline CRM, best once you have a co-founder or first sales hire.
- Notion / Airtable — DIY, best if you love spreadsheets more than replies.
- LinkedIn Reminders — free reminder layer inside LinkedIn, best for solo founders under ~200 active threads.
What founders actually do on LinkedIn
Investor intros, hiring conversations, design partner calls, partnership pings. Almost none of those jobs need a pipeline stage. They need "remind me next Tuesday" and a link back to the thread. That's the entire workflow.
When to graduate to a real CRM
The moment a second person needs visibility into your pipeline — a co-founder handling sales, a first BDR, an EA managing your calendar. Before then, a CRM is a diary you'll stop updating within a month.
Frequently asked questions
Do solo founders need a LinkedIn CRM?
Rarely. Below ~200 active conversations a month, a reminder layer on LinkedIn covers the same jobs — follow-up, reply-later, warm intros — with no data entry.
What's the cheapest LinkedIn CRM?
The cheapest option is no CRM at all: a free reminder extension attached to LinkedIn. Paid CRMs like Dex, Clay, and HubSpot start at $12–$50/user/month.