In a remarkable 3-month collaboration, we at the Social Selling agency ModumUp helped a startup advisor and ex-FAANG executive to attract 76 leads, secure a $30 million deal with a startup, and become a mentor at the global Techstars accelerator as well as the European Acelera accelerator - all while the consultant's monthly rate covered the cost of our 3-month Social Selling work.

The client who reached out to us at ModumUp was a startup advisor and business angel with experience at FAANG companies and large international firms. At these organizations, she had focused on business development, partner acquisition, and bringing innovative products to market.

The client was always drawn to and inspired by technology and the startups behind its development and promotion. This interest, combined with a desire to help them grow and scale faster, led her to create her own consulting firm for startups in Europe and the US.

It was crucial for us to structure the work on the personal profile in a way that would allow the business consultant to independently maintain and continue it after the initial 3-month period. This goal was fully achieved, as the profile successfully transitioned to the client's independent management after the 3 months.

To underscore our client's expertise, we utilized various content formats. The primary message conveyed through personal profile posts was: "I help build systems and teams that deliver rapid financial results."

The most engaging responses were garnered from expert posts where the client shared practical advice on startup development, sales strategies, and mentoring principles. This content resonated with the audience's interests and proved valuable to all its segments: founders, accelerators, venture capital firms, and business schools.

A portion of the expert content was dedicated to reviews of the client's investment experience. Specifically, the business consultant discussed current trends on the rise, the most promising regions and sectors for investment, and shared real-life cases and negotiation preparation and execution tips with investors.

The client openly discussed significant aspects of her work, talking about her collaboration principles with startup founders in a mentorship role. The audience positively received this content as it allowed them to see not only the professional qualities of the business consultant but also her personal traits.

The audience also responded well to short updates from industry events attended by the client. Situational posts directly from the event venue gave the profile a sense of lightness, relevance, and appeared very natural.

We aimed to strike a balance between professional and personal narratives on social media. This approach allowed the audience to perceive us as professionals while also connecting with us on a more personal level, making online interactions more open and sincere.

Our client is a bright and intriguing personality, a successful leader, entrepreneur with extensive experience, and a mother who devotes a significant amount of time to her child. Therefore, the role of women in business and motherhood naturally took center stage in our content.

Posts discussing our client's approach to integrating gadgets into family life received high engagement. She shared insights on embracing innovation and teaching her child to use technology for learning. Additionally, she detailed how she incorporates AI into her daily routine, making neural networks an integral part of her day, such as assisting her son with homework using technology.

Audience engagement was also high on topics related to experiences of living and studying nuances of education in Europe and the USA.

The tone of our posts was always tactful yet lively and genuine, fostering trust and helping us build a strong emotional connection with our target audience.

Many individuals experience camera shyness, avoiding live broadcasts, video podcasts, and webinars, which sometimes hinders them from realizing their full potential.

Our client also felt uncomfortable in front of the camera. It wasn't until the end of the third month that she overcame this barrier and recorded her first video. While attending the Web Summit conference, where she had already stepped out of her comfort zone by actively engaging with participants, she managed to record a report-style video, sharing her thoughts on the summit speakers' presentations.

After the initial positive experience, the consultant went on to create more videos. Gradually, the fear dissipated, making even LinkedIn live broadcasts feel effortless and natural.

During the project, our client became a mentor at the renowned American accelerator Techstars. We leveraged these career advancements to enhance our LinkedIn profile by updating the Experience section. This helped us attract more attention from our target audience, including startups and venture capital firms.

Additionally, we assisted our client in obtaining the LinkedIn Top Voice badge by contributing to collaborative articles. This badge confirms an individual's expertise in a chosen topic, instills trust among the target audience, and increases opportunities for invitations to educational projects and podcasts. We have covered how to obtain the LinkedIn Top Voice badge in our article.

Upon completion of these tasks, our client received the LinkedIn Top Voice badge within 24 hours.

To attract potential partners and clients, we utilized lead generation via personal messages. At the onset of our Social Selling project, we identified two target segments:

- Startups from Western Europe, the USA, and LATAM
- Venture capital funds, accelerators, and incubators from Western Europe, the USA, and LATAM

We decided to test the hypothesis regarding startups first. We initiated our search with startups whose founders, like our client, had experience working at FAANG. Shared work experience acts as an icebreaker, facilitating initial conversations and creating a sense of familiarity with the interlocutor.

Our hypothesis has been confirmed: founders of startups who were former colleagues actively responded, readily agreed to have a call, and were open to further communication.

However, we encountered an issue: while engaging with startup representatives on LinkedIn, it was challenging to precisely determine if the company was at the same stage of development as our client. Despite the positive response, we decided to refrain from outbound lead generation in this segment. Meanwhile, during our Social Selling project, our client received an inbound lead — a large American startup valued at $30 million. They were familiar with the client before the launch of the Social Selling project, but upon seeing the client's content on LinkedIn, they were impressed and approached them with a mentoring request.

After validating the startup hypothesis, we transitioned to testing the second hypothesis regarding offering mentorship to venture capital funds, accelerators, and incubators.

Working with this segment proved to be more effective: our message attracted a lot of interest and leads, two of which converted into partnerships:

- One commercial partnership with the accelerator Acelera, where the monthly salary covered our three-month Social Selling project
- The second partnership was with the major global accelerator Techstars

Moreover, engaging with funds, accelerators, and incubators helped our client swiftly integrate into the venture community and expand their network

Through comprehensive profile development, client engagement, and openness to new solutions, we successfully built trusting relationships with our target audience and attracted potential clients ready for collaboration.

"For me, a crucial aspect was that during the project, the ModumUp team also had an educational function. The team helped me incorporate Social Selling into my routine: posting one to two times a week, promptly responding to comments on posts, and engaging with others' posts.

Many people may know what to post on LinkedIn or how to develop their profile, but they lack the hands-on guidance I had. They lack someone to push them. Generally, people don't understand how Social Selling works, what posts to write, or what else needs to be done for algorithms to promote them. Essentially, over the three months we worked together, the ModumUp team taught me a lot. And I continue to apply those learnings," shared the client.

Additionally, the consultant received an invitation to participate in a well-known podcast about startups and an invitation to conduct a guest workshop at a European business school.