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Pre-launch software, solo founder · LinkedIn

A solo founder booked 19 discovery calls while still building his products

Yoram Kornatzky, a software engineer, was building three products on his own. Over a six-month subscription, Sellinger’s agent ran customer discovery from his LinkedIn: it matched a product to each person, asked for their perspective rather than a purchase, and in most booked threads sent a booking link only after they said yes.

Client: ShortVibe
Founder: Yoram Kornatzky, solo founder
Channel: LinkedIn
Window: Dec 2025 to May 2026
Data as of: 10 October 2026

discovery calls booked from 935 LinkedIn conversations the agent opened (2.0%)

calls documented as held; Yoram rated 4 of the 6 he scored “very high” interest

42%

replied: 395 of 935, about half of them courtesies such as “thanks for connecting”

16 of 19

bookings came from intent lists; title searches booked 1 in 225

In short

Not a sales campaign: a solo founder used the agent on his own LinkedIn to talk to the people his three pre-launch products were for, and to hear what they would use and pay for.
The engine was lists of people already in the conversation. 16 of the 19 bookings came from people engaging with relevant creators’ and competitors’ posts; title and keyword searches booked 1 call in 225 conversations.
The agent usually sent the booking link only after a yes, framed as “I’d value your perspective”. In five booked threads from late January it went out within minutes of that yes, and follow-ups won 7 of the 19 bookings.

8 min read

Three products, one founder, and no time to prospect

Yoram Kornatzky is a software engineer building three products at once. Before launch he needed real conversations with the people they were for: is the problem real, what do they use today, what would they pay.

ShortVibe runs synced short-video watch parties for demos, onboarding and team updates; it went live in February 2026. StudyHall offers silent, camera-on co-working rooms for people who work or study on their own; it went live on 18 March 2026. EchoWork, an employee-advocacy posting tool, stayed a concept, so its calls tested the idea itself.

Sellinger’s agent ran the discovery from Yoram’s own LinkedIn, writing as him: “a peer and an expert, not a salesperson”. It matched one product to each person, asked about their work, and offered a 15-minute call as feedback, not a sale.

What
Three products, still being built
ShortVibe watch parties, StudyHall focus rooms and EchoWork, an employee-advocacy concept.

Who
The people each product was for
Product, growth and enablement leads, founders, coaches and remote workers already engaging with the topic.

How
A 15-minute call, asked as feedback
Not a sale: a short call, then notes on price, competitors and referrals.

2,259

people invited to connect; 2,150 of 2,276 requests carried a note written by the agent

935

accepted connections where the agent wrote first, usually with its connection note

91%

of LinkedIn messages sent were written by the agent (2,996 of 3,278)

15 of 19

booked threads where every substantive message before the booking was the agent’s; Yoram typed a product explanation in 4

These were discovery and feedback calls for products still being built, not sales calls. No revenue from these conversations is visible in the data, and none is claimed.

The playbook: one compliment, one product, one question, and a link only after a yes

Bumps came every 5 to 7 days (median gaps of 6.0 and 6.6 days between later touches). In December and January the first real question often came weeks after a prospect accepted; in April, the same day.

Day 0
Connection note
One compliment on a profile detail, the product that fits them, often “I’d value your perspective”.
After accept
One question
About their work, in their words.
Every 5 to 7 days
A narrower bump
“Bumping this, is getting team members to actually amplify those messages a bottleneck you run into?”
No fit
A clean exit
“I’ll leave it there for now. All the best.”
After a yes
15-minute call
Framed as a feedback chat or a walkthrough, not a sale.

Rules the agent worked by

Write as Yoram, a fellow engineer and founder: concise, jargon-free, a peer rather than a vendor.
Present one product only, and only if it is relevant to the person.
No calendar link in the first message. Offer the call once the person is interested.
Goal ladder: see the product in action first, then a 15-minute call framed as a walkthrough or a feedback chat.

935 conversations, 19 discovery calls booked, 10 documented as held

Every booked thread was read. A call counts as held only with independent evidence: Yoram’s own post-call notes (6) or a thank-you after the call (4).

The funnel

LinkedIn, December 2025 to May 2026

Invited to connect2,259
Conversations opened935
Replied395 (42%)
Discovery calls booked19 (2.0%)
Documented as held10

What happened to the 19 bookings

Documented as held10
Likely held2
Booked, no outcome recorded5
No-show1
Cancelled by the prospect1

Where the 19 calls came from

Lead list	Conversations	Replied	Calls
People engaging with a US B2B growth-marketing creator	230	51%	6
People engaging with competitor and adjacent-tool pages	224	45%	6
People engaging with a Polish creator	202	43%	4
Other: 3 hand-picked, 51 with no list recorded	54	33%	2
Title and keyword searches (mostly March and April)	225	33%	1

Intent lists booked 2.0 to 2.7% of their conversations; title and keyword searches 0.4%. Reply rates by list come from the conversation review and a recount of the raw threads.

Reading the numbers

About half of the replies were courtesies: thanks for connecting (about 45%) or an emoji (7%). About 40% engaged with substance.
StudyHall and EchoWork opened more doors than ShortVibe: 8, 8 and 3 bookings. Notes naming ShortVibe drew 30% replies, against 45 to 49% for the other two.
Yoram scored 6 of the calls: 4 “very high” interest, 1 “medium”, 1 “not interested”. His notes read like customer discovery: price checks, competitor pointers, referral offers.

Follow-ups added 32% more replies and 7 of the 19 bookings

Replies to the connection note alone: 32.0%. With the messages that followed: 42.2%. In December and January the first real question often came 3 to 6 weeks after a prospect accepted, and it still worked: accepted connections stayed open.

Reply rate at each touch

of people who got that message without having replied yet

Connection note32.0% (299/935)
Follow-up 111.5% (55/480)
Follow-up 28.2% (26/318)
Follow-up 38.2% (15/183)

Which message earned the first reply

395 people who replied

Connection note76%
Follow-up 114%
Follow-up 27%
Follow-up 3 or later4%

CEO of a learning-technology start-up. The only booking from a title search.

Day 44: one question, and a yes 20 minutes later

Yoram (agent)Day 0
Hi Marc. As a fellow entrepreneur and engineer with a deep interest in AI, your background in [his field] is compelling. I see a clear overlap in our fields. Let's connect.
Connection note: one compliment, no pitch.
Yoram (agent)Day 44
Hi Marc, Yoram here. Wanted to briefly elaborate on why I reached out. With [his platform] optimizing learning experiences, I'm working on something similar for the study environment itself: Study Hall, a virtual library for professionals needing deep focus. Does the challenge of consistent, distraction-free learning resonate with your users?
The first real question, tied to his users.
Marc, CEO+20 min
Hi Yoram, thank you very much for reaching out, Yes, sure, we can schedule a brief meeting to further discuss this.
He proposes the meeting.
Yoram (agent)+17 h
Great, Marc. You can grab a slot on my calendar here: [booking link] Looking forward to it.
January: a slow link, still on target.
Marc, CEO+5 h
Thanks Yoram, I just booked a time on your calendar for next Wed [...]
Booked and held.

7 of 19

bookings came only after a follow-up or a question re-asked weeks later

13 of 96

replies to follow-ups were negative or asked to stop (9.1%, 19.2% and 20.0% at follow-ups 1, 2 and 3+), against 2 of 299 replies to the connection note

From hours to minutes, and a booking link right after a yes

In January the agent took a median 6.1 hours to answer a prospect; by April, 2 minutes. In five booked threads from late January to April, the booking link went out 1 to 6 minutes after the prospect’s yes. In three January threads it took 17 to 20 hours, and those prospects still booked.

Median time to answer a prospect, by month

LinkedIn, agent-written replies to a prospect message, in minutes (conversation review)

December37 min
January6.1 h
February5.2 h
March58 min
April2.0 min

2.0min

median in April (158 prospect messages); 84% answered within 10 minutes

86min

median over the whole term (787 replies)

1 to 6min

from a yes to the booking link, in five booked threads from late January to April

At the moment of interest

First touch to booking: a median 22 days; 6 of 19 within about 2 days, the longest about 70 days. 11 of the 19 bookings came more than two weeks after the first touch.
Fastest booking: 1 h 49 min after the first touch, over 7 quick exchanges, from a prospect who had sent Yoram the connection request.
Before booking: booked prospects wrote a median of 3 messages.
Outside working hours: 44% of prospect messages arrived in the evening, at night or at weekends (Yoram’s time); 57% of those were answered before the next working morning.

Five patterns behind the 19 bookings

Shares are of the 19 booked threads; a thread can show more than one pattern.

Write to people already in the conversation

The agent wrote to people who had engaged with posts by a growth-marketing creator, a Polish creator, or competitor and adjacent tools. They already cared about the problem.

16 of 19 bookings came from intent lists; title searches booked 1 in 225 conversations.

One product, matched to one person

A career counsellor heard about StudyHall; a fractional CMO heard about EchoWork. The note named one concrete detail from their profile.

The product was named in 12 of 19 booked connection notes.

The link only after a yes

No calendar link up front. It came once the prospect had written something positive or curious, short and in their words.

15 of 19 booked threads. Three prospects proposed the call themselves.

Ask for a perspective, not a purchase

“I’d value your perspective”, “get your feedback”, “pressure-test the idea”. Prospects accepted the call as experts, not as buyers.

11 of 19 booked threads used this framing.

Short paths when the interest is real

Once a prospect leaned in, the agent kept it short: one example, one mirrored phrase, one link.

Booked prospects wrote a median of 3 messages; the fastest, a prospect who had sent the connection request, booked 1 h 49 min after the first touch.

Inside the conversations

Three real LinkedIn threads, condensed. Prospect names are changed and identifying details are replaced in [brackets].

“I think your project is unique from this point of view, and actually, really scalable.”
Founder of a coaching practice, after the call

Fractional CMO, Northern Europe. Product: EchoWork, still a concept.

A courtesy reply kept open for 50 days, then booked 17 minutes after she engaged

Yoram (agent)Day 0
Hi Lena. I build the AI tools you help [founders] articulate. Your perspective on [messaging] is key. Would be great to connect.
Connection note anchored on her headline. No pitch, no link.
Lena, fractional CMO+1 min
Thanks Yoram, happy to connect!
A courtesy, like about half of all replies.
Yoram (agent)Day 34
Lena, when helping [founders] keep their [message consistent] across channels, what's your biggest challenge in boosting that message's organic reach?
The first real question, in her vocabulary.
Yoram (agent)Day 50
Bumping this, is getting team members to actually amplify those messages a bottleneck you run into?
The bump narrows a broad question to one yes-or-no pain.
Lena, fractional CMO+2 h 28
Hi Yoram, sorry for missing out on your message. It's quite a broad question, [...] Do you have a specific example in mind?
She engages, and pushes back on vagueness.
Yoram (agent)+2 min
Makes sense, Lena. For a growth company, getting dozens or hundreds of employees to consistently amplify key messages on their personal LinkedIn [...] is a common bottleneck I see. Does that resonate with what you encounter?
The concrete example she asked for, then a check.
Lena, fractional CMO+4 min
yea, that is definitely true. [...] the biggest challenge is not even on their Linkedin's but in their conversations with clients, leads, investors, media, etc., getting everyone saying the same and not their own take is a challenge.
She reframes the problem herself: discovery data.
Yoram (agent)+2 min
That's a critical point, Lena. Ensuring a consistent message from every team member [...] is exactly the kind of challenge EchoWork helps streamline. [...] Would you be open to a brief 15-min chat [...]?
Mirrors her reframe, then asks.
Lena, fractional CMO+1 min
Sure. This week is a bit busy, but how about the next one?
Yoram (agent)+1 min
Great. Let's aim for next week then. You can grab a time that works best for you here: [booking link]
Accepts her timing; the link.
Lena, fractional CMO+7 min
Great, booked!
Booked. Held on day 60: interest “very high”, referrals offered.

Why it worked: The agent kept a courtesy connection alive, narrowed a vague question to one pain, gave the example she asked for within minutes, and asked for the call only after she had described the problem in her own words.

Career counsellor, Central Europe. Product: StudyHall.

Booked within minutes of “my English is quite basic”

Yoram (agent)Day 0
Hi Ewa, your focus on helping [the people you support] avoid overload really resonates. I'm building StudyHall, a virtual library for distraction-free work. Let's connect.
The note names her audience.
Ewa, counsellor+<1 min
[...] Your idea of a virtual library for distraction-free work sounds very aligned with what I see in my work with [my clients]. I'd be happy to connect and learn more about StudyHall.
A fit signal.
Yoram (agent)+6 min
That's great to hear, Ewa. It sounds like there's a real synergy here. Would you be open to a quick 15-minute call to explore how StudyHall could support the [people] you work with? If so, you can grab a slot on my calendar here: [booking link]
Link after a yes, framed around her clients.
Ewa, counsellor+5 h 49
Hi Yoram, just a quick note: my English is quite basic, so I may need to speak simply or ask you to repeat sometimes. If that's okay for you, I'm happy to have the call.
The worry is the call, not the product.
Yoram (agent)+1 min
Absolutely fine, Ewa. My goal is to make sure we connect effectively. Just pick a time that works for you on my calendar here: [booking link]
One warm line and the link again.
Ewa, counsellor+6 min
Thanks, Yoram. I've booked February 4th at 11:00 on your calendar. Looking forward to our conversation.
Booked. Held (Yoram’s notes): interest “very high”.

Why it worked: The note named her audience, so the fit was obvious in one line. The agent answered within minutes at both decision points and treated the language worry as a non-issue.

Founder of a coaching practice, Europe. Product: StudyHall.

From a cold note to a booked call in 43 hours

Yoram (agent)Day 0
Clara, your work on [focus] is compelling. I'm building StudyHall, a virtual space for deep focus. Let's connect. Yoram
Product matched to her field in one line.
Clara, founder+2 min
Hi Yoram. Nice to meet you. It's lovely to connect. I love your work, as well. [...] Reading now some of your posts.
Clara, founder+2 min
And deep diving in your StudyHall!
An interest signal.
Yoram (agent)Day 1
Great to hear you're checking out StudyHall, Clara! It sounds like there could be some interesting overlaps with your work on [focus]. If you're open to a brief chat to explore how it might align, feel free to book a time here: [booking link]
About 20 hours later (January), but in her words.
Clara, founderDay 2
Perfect! I've just booked the meeting. Have a beautiful weekend [...]
Booked, 43 hours after the note.
Clara, founderDay 5
[...] I think your project is unique from this point of view, and actually, really scalable. And I think you also had a good intuition about adults having to study different subjects. It's a winning target, especially if you manage to build a community around it. [...]
After the call: product validation from a potential referral partner.

Why it worked: Right person, right product, one compliment and one link. An expert in the problem space booked herself, and the call became product validation.

How the agent handled what prospects raised

Counts are LinkedIn threads where the situation appeared. Quotes are the agent’s own words.

Objection	Threads	What the agent said	What happened
“What is it? How does it stand out?”	~54 first replies (14%)	“ShortVibe makes asynchronous videos active. Instead of just sending a link, it creates a scheduled watch party. Everyone watches in sync, and the live chat ensures engagement [...] Want to grab 15 minutes here?”	Short, fast answers converted: this prospect booked 2 h 40 min later
“There’s no demo video”	3+	“You’re right, the demo video isn’t ready yet [...] since we do have a demo version online, I’m happy to do a quick screen share [...]”	Booked 20 minutes later. After the call: “Your service is not fit for us”, an honest no
“My English is quite basic”	1	“Absolutely fine, Ewa. My goal is to make sure we connect effectively.”	Booked 6 minutes later; held, interest “very high”
Busy now, or a co-founder is away	~10	“Sounds good, Ron. When you and your co-founder are ready, you can pick a time that works best for both of you here: [link]”	Several booked weeks later
No fit: solo, no team, already has a tool	~28 first replies	“Understood, thanks for the reply. I’ll leave it there for now. All the best.”	A clean exit. Pivots to another product rarely converted

“Happy to test it alongside what you’re building with a small group if you're open.”
Fintech and operations entrepreneur (StudyHall)

“I myself love the prerecording of videos idea.. instead of endless meetings with no proof afterwards”
Tech recruiter, Europe (ShortVibe)

“ShortVibe sounds like a perfect answer to the current need for more immersive video experiences [...]”
Visual content creator (ShortVibe)

What we would change

One product per thread. When one product got no answer, follow-ups switched to the next (“shifting gears”). It rarely converted and sometimes confused people.
Keep replies in full sentences. Auto-learned style picked up very short messages, and April replies became one-line probes with no next step (“Video sync still a challenge?”).
Stay on intent lists. Title and keyword searches, mostly in March and April, booked 1 call in 225 conversations. Conversations started in March and April booked 2 calls from 331, against 17 from 603 in December to February, although the term ended before the later ones could mature.
Ask the first real question sooner. In December and January it often came 3 to 6 weeks after a prospect accepted; four booked threads waited 21 to 44 days.

What made it work

1
Write to people already in the conversation. Intent lists booked 2.0 to 2.7% of their conversations; title and keyword searches booked 0.4%.
2
Match one product to one person. A note that names their audience and the one product that fits makes the fit obvious in a line.
3
Ask for a perspective, not a purchase. Before launch, “I’d value your perspective” is honest, and experts say yes to it.
4
Send the link only after a yes, then send it fast. 15 of 19 bookings followed this rule; in five booked threads from late January the link went out within minutes.
5
Keep connections alive. Follow-ups and questions re-asked weeks later won 7 of the 19 bookings.

How we measured this

Source: Sellinger production data for the ShortVibe workspace, read-only, snapshot 10 October 2026. LinkedIn only, 2 December 2025 to 5 May 2026; the six-month term ended on 21 May 2026.
Invited = sent a connection request (2,259 people). Conversations opened = prospects who accepted the connection request and whose thread the agent started, usually with the connection note itself (935). Replied = wrote back after it; automatic messages excluded.
Touch = the n-th message before the prospect’s first reply; the connection note counts as the first. Reply rate per touch = of people who got that message without having replied, the share who replied before the next one.
Every booked thread and every first reply was read by hand. Bookings were found in the threads and booking confirmations, not from CRM labels. Held = Yoram logged an outcome with notes, or a message after the call exists. A calendar’s automatic “completed” status is not counted.
Response time = prospect message to the agent’s next message. All messages predate Sellinger’s AI-or-human tag; 91% of LinkedIn messages matched an agent-generated draft or send log.
These were discovery and feedback calls for products still being built. No revenue from these conversations is visible in the data, and none is claimed.
Prospect names are changed, companies are described, not named, and identifying details in quoted messages are replaced in [brackets]. Images are AI illustrations, not photos of the client or prospects.