Start a podcast whose guest list is your target client list. The invitation is outreach senior people actually accept.
Harry Stebbings started the 20VC podcast interviewing investors and founders, and made a habit of asking every guest for introductions. The show reached 80 million downloads, and he turned the network into a venture firm: an $8.3 million first fund, $140 million across two funds in 2021 (TechCrunch, 16 June 2021) and a $400 million third fund in October 2024, backed by institutions and some 40 technology entrepreneurs (Sifted, 15 October 2024).
Sifted reports that he asks each guest for three names and meets two new prospective investors every week. This is fundraising rather than client pipeline, and no source ties specific guests to specific investments, but the mechanism is the play: the guest list is the prospect list.
B2B services, consultancies and agencies, and SaaS selling to a defined buyer.
Senior people say yes to being interviewed when they say no to being sold to. An hour's conversation builds the relationship, the episode becomes content the guest shares, and the transcript becomes searchable text on your site. The variant is the podcast tour: the founder guests on 20 niche shows in two months and borrows their audiences the same way.
Reported. 20VC's fund sizes and downloads (TechCrunch, June 2021; Sifted, October 2024). Self-reported. The guest-introduction habit, as described to Sifted. There is no controlled data on how often a guest becomes a client, so judge it on your own conversations.
Cost to test. Recording and editing tools at a few dollars a month, plus about two hours a week.
Kill it if after 12 episodes no guest has led to a second conversation about work.
Slow: allow six months before it compounds. A show that is secretly a sales call gets found out, and the guests talk. Guest quality matters more than audio quality.
The Roundtable Series, The Founder Feed, Trigger Outreach
A 30-minute call first. If it fits, two calls in one week and a written growth plan you keep.