
CRM for startups: what founders need for the first 10 customers
Run founder-led sales without a spreadsheet: every lead, trial and deal in one pipeline.
From $29 a month for 3 seats.
| Name | Company | Title | Deal stage | Last activity | Owner | |||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
Jess Tran | Loop Analytics | Owner | jess.tran@loopanalytics.com | Lead | Today | Sara Collins | ||||
Priya Shah | Loop Analytics | Operations manager | priya.shah@loopanalytics.com | Lead | 2 days ago | Sara Collins | ||||
Omar Haddad | Pioneer Bank | Managing partner | omar.haddad@pioneerbank.com | Demo booked | Yesterday | Tom Becker | ||||
Marcus Webb | Pioneer Bank | Finance lead | marcus.webb@pioneerbank.com | Demo booked | 3 days ago | Tom Becker | ||||
Dee Park | Quill Labs | Director | dee.park@quilllabs.com | Trial | 2 days ago | Mia Chen | ||||
Elena Rossi | Quill Labs | Office manager | elena.rossi@quilllabs.com | Trial | Last week | Mia Chen | ||||
Eli Ward | Mosaic Health | Head of operations | eli.ward@mosaichealth.com | Negotiation | 3 days ago | Sara Collins | ||||
Tom Alvarez | Mosaic Health | Partner | tom.alvarez@mosaichealth.com | Negotiation | Today | Sara Collins | ||||
Ana Ruiz | Tandem Co | Owner | ana.ruiz@tandemco.com | Customer | Last week | Tom Becker | ||||
Grace Liu | Tandem Co | Procurement | grace.liu@tandemco.com | Customer | Yesterday | Tom Becker | ||||
| Count 10 |
Your contacts, with their company, deal stage and last activity. Example data.
Run founder-led sales without a spreadsheet: every lead, trial and deal in one pipeline. Built around how startups actually sell, so you start from your own stages instead of a blank page.
Your pipeline, in your stages
Deals move through the stages startups actually use. Drag a deal, and its forecast and reports follow.
Example data.
The whole CRM, not just the pipeline. Contacts, companies, tasks, email, automations, chat and the lead finder, in one app.
01Find
People from one sentence
Describe who you sell to. Rodok finds them by role, company size and city, with their work email, and sets apart the ones already in your CRM.




| Name | Title | Company | Location | Fit | Status | |||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
Camille Roux | Head of Sales | Northgate Logistics | camille.roux@northgate.io | Lyon, France | High | New | ||||
Jake Morrison | VP Sales | Ironbridge Freight | j.morrison@ironbridge.com | Chicago, USA | High | New | ||||
Sofia Marino | Sales Director | Portline | sofia@portline.eu | Milan, Italy | High | New | ||||
Jonas Weber | Head of Business Development | Kargo Systems | jonas.weber@kargo.de | Hamburg, Germany | High | In CRM | ||||
| Count 4 |
Every feature, and which plan has it
Pro includes everything in Starter.
- Companies and peopleStarterEvery email, meeting, note and file on the record.
- Deals and the pipeline boardStarterYour own stages, amounts, close dates and owners.
- Tasks and remindersStarterA next step on every record and one list for the day.
- Gmail and OutlookStarterEmail syncs onto the right contact, and you send from your own mailbox.
- Calendar and booking linksStarterYour free times on a page; a booking files the contact and lands in both calendars.
- Reports and forecastingStarterForecast against quota, pipeline by stage and win rates, per rep.
- Team chatStarterChannels, direct messages and a thread on every deal, with @mentions.
- ImportStarterBring contacts and companies in from Excel or CSV.
- LinkedIn signalsProDescribe a signal in a sentence; trackers find the posts, job changes and hiring that match.
- Lead finderProFind people by title, seniority, company size, industry and market, usually with a work email.
- EnrichmentProFill in the company, website and LinkedIn page for the people you add.
- SequencesProEmail steps from your own mailbox and LinkedIn steps as tasks for the rep.
- Replies inboxProReplies sorted by intent, so the ones that matter come first.
- AutomationsProSay what should happen; it runs from a signal, a deal moving, a schedule or a webhook.
- AI assistantProAsk in plain words; it finds people, writes emails and fills the CRM, and asks before it sends or spends.
- Teams and custom rolesProDecide who sees what, down to a field, and check it with View as.
And the rest. Integrations, booking, reports, chat, roles and an audit log, already connected.

Works with the tools you already use
Gmail, Outlook or any mailbox, Google Calendar, LinkedIn, Slack, webhooks, and imports from Excel or CSV. AI is built in, with nothing to set up.

Booking links
Your own page with your free times. A booking files the contact and lands in both calendars.

Reports and forecasting
Forecast against quota, pipeline by stage, win rates and the sequence-to-deal funnel, per rep.

Team chat on every record
Channels, direct messages and a thread on every deal, with @mentions of teammates and records.

AI that knows your business
Give it your website. It writes your profile, who you sell to and how, and every message starts from there.

Roles, teams and permissions
Decide who sees what, down to a single field. Scope deals to their owner or team, and check it with “View as”.

| Who | What | When | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
Admin | Changed the Sales rep role | now | ||||
Sara Collins | Exported 120 people | 7m | ||||
Automation | Saved a Gmail draft | 14m | ||||
Tom Becker | Added 5 people to a sequence | 21m | ||||
Sara Collins | Moved Northgate to Proposal | 28m | ||||
Sara Collins | Created a tracker | 35m | ||||
Tom Becker | Merged two companies | 42m | ||||
| Count 7 |
An audit log of everything
Every action by every person and automation, searchable and exportable.
What Rodok does for startups
A clear line between what is in the product and what is not, so you can decide in a minute.
Covered
- Lead and deal pipeline for founder-led sales
- Gmail or Outlook email on every record
- Booking links for demos
- Pro: LinkedIn signals and sequences for outbound
Not what Rodok is for
- Product analytics and billing
- Customer support desk
- Marketing automation
Pricing
Seats are included, and credits cover signals, lead lists and AI.
3 seats, $9 per extra seat. The CRM: pipeline, contacts, Gmail and Outlook, calendar, booking links and reports.
Start with Starter3 seats, $19 per extra seat. Everything in Starter plus LinkedIn signals, the lead database, sequences and AI agents to find new clients.
Start with ProA CRM for startups should take an afternoon to set up, track a handful of deals well, and not charge you for a sales team you do not have yet. The best CRM for startups keeps the pipeline, the emails and the next step for each lead in one place, so a founder doing the selling never loses a conversation.
How selling works at a startup
Early on, the founder is the sales team. The first 10 customers usually come from your own network, warm introductions, founder posts, communities and direct outreach to people who look like your first buyer. There is no process yet, and that is fine. What you need is a record of what you learned in each conversation.
For a B2B software product, stages commonly look like this:
| Stage | What it means | Next step to log |
|---|---|---|
| Lead | Someone who might fit | First message or intro |
| Discovery call | You talked and learned their problem | Book a demo, or disqualify |
| Demo | They saw the product | Agree a trial or pilot |
| Trial or pilot | They are using it | Check in on day 3 and day 7 |
| Proposal | Price and terms sent | Chase the decision date |
| Won or lost | Closed | Log the reason |
Call the stages whatever you want. What matters is that every lead has one, and a next step with a date. If you want a longer read, see what a sales pipeline is and the outbound sales strategy guide.
When to move from a spreadsheet to a CRM
A spreadsheet is fine for your first few leads. Move when any of these is true:
- You cannot say, without searching, who you are supposed to follow up with today.
- Emails and notes live in three places.
- A co-founder or first hire starts selling and you both need the same view.
- You want to know your win rate or how long deals take, and the numbers are scattered.
The cost of waiting is lost leads and lost context. The cost of moving early is small, because a CRM with 20 records is easy to import.
A founder-led setup in one afternoon
- Import your list from a CSV or Excel file: companies, people and deals.
- Name your stages to match your sales process.
- Connect Gmail or Outlook, so conversations attach to the contact.
- Set a next step on every open deal. A deal with no next step is a deal you will forget.
- Do a 15-minute weekly review: list the deals with no recent activity, and either act or close them.
- Write down your ideal customer in one paragraph. The ideal customer profile template helps.
Signals worth watching
Founders do not have time to scroll LinkedIn for leads. You can describe the signal once and let Rodok Pro watch for it (LinkedIn posts, job changes, hiring and company news). Examples for a B2B startup:
- A target company hires for the role your product helps. Tracker: "companies hiring a (role your product serves) in (region)". See hiring for your job.
- A new leader starts in your buyer's seat. Tracker: "(buyer title) who started a new role in the last 90 days at companies with 20 to 500 employees". See champion job change.
- A company raises money. Tracker: "companies announcing a funding round in (your market)". See funding round.
- Someone posts the problem you solve. Tracker: "posts from (buyer title) complaining about (the problem you solve)". See problem post.
- A competitor or an adjacent tool gets attention. Tracker: "people engaging with posts from (competitor)". See competitor engagement.
For the method behind it, read signal-based selling.
A first message example
An example, with made-up names:
Hi Jordan, I saw Linden Labs is hiring its first revops person. Teams at that point often have deals scattered across inboxes and sheets. We built a small CRM for exactly that stage. If it is useful, I can send a two-minute walkthrough. No call needed unless you want one.
For more, see the cold email template.
What Rodok costs for a startup
Rodok is built for small B2B sales teams, which describes most early startups.
- Starter, $29 a month for 3 seats. The CRM: companies, people, deals, tasks, Gmail and Outlook sync on every record, calendar sync, booking links, reports and forecasting, and team chat.
- Pro, $79 a month for 3 seats. Everything in Starter, plus LinkedIn signals, a lead database with enrichment, sequences, replies inbox and AI agents.
- Extra Pro seats are $19 each per month.
- Both plans are paid from day one, with public prices.
A reasonable path: start on Starter while your leads come from your network, and move to Pro when you want Rodok to find new people to talk to. Rodok does not take over billing, product analytics or support, so you will pair it with the tools you already use for those.
Frequently asked questions
Do I need a CRM for my first 10 customers?
Not on day one, but sooner than most founders think. A CRM matters most once you are juggling more than a handful of conversations and need a record of what each person said and the next step.
What is the best CRM for a startup with no sales team?
One that takes minutes to set up, syncs your email, tracks a few stages and has a price you can justify with 1 to 3 users. Look at what you will pay as the team grows, and whether you can start with a CRM and add prospecting later.
Should a startup use a free CRM or a paid one?
A free tier is fine to learn the habit. Paid plans start to matter when you want email sync, reports or help finding leads. Compare the limits on seats, records and email sync before committing, and test with your real leads during a trial.
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