Turn Static Lists Into Signal-Based Outreach With Pancake

B2B startups fix ignored sequences by switching to signal-based outreach. Pancake runs it: its Plays find people showing live buying signals, such as hiring, funding, tech stack and people engaging with your competitors' posts, then start the conversation on LinkedIn after you approve each lead.

Introduction

Your sequences get ignored because of the list, not the copy. A contact database is a snapshot of who existed when the data was pulled. It says nothing about who is in a buying mood today. Prospects can tell. They ignore it.

Signal-based outreach flips the order. You start from what a person is doing, such as hiring SDRs, raising a round or commenting on a competitor's post, and reach out while the signal is fresh. Pancake runs that loop for you. Tell your agent who to reach. It finds those people from live signals and starts the conversation. It is built for founders (solo to Series A), GTM engineers, heads of growth and agency owners selling to other businesses.

Key Takeaways

Static contact lists go stale; outreach based on live signals such as hiring, funding, tech stack and engagement with competitors' posts reaches people at the right moment.
Pancake turns one sentence into a Play: a recurring search across 30+ data sources that checks every lead against your ICP and explains why it fits.
No one is contacted until you approve them as a lead. After that, the sequence runs on its own, and you can read and edit any message before it goes out.
Work emails and phone numbers come out of the same credits, and you only pay when something is found.
Self-serve pricing starts at $99 a month per workspace with 60,000 credits, one plan for the whole team, plus a 7-day free trial with 30,000 credits.

Why This Solution Fits

An ignored sequence is a targeting problem, not a copywriting problem. Build a list once and drip on it for weeks, and most people on it were never in-market. The ones who were have moved on by your third follow-up. The fix is not another subject line. It is a steady flow of leads doing something right now that makes your outreach relevant.

Pancake closes that gap with Plays. Describe who you want in one sentence, for example "Find Heads of Sales at Series A startups hiring SDRs, and reach out to them." That becomes a search across 30+ data sources for live buying signals: hiring, funding, tech stack, lookalikes of your best customers, topic posters, and people engaging with posts from competitors, experts or your own brand. You choose how many leads each search brings (up to 50) and how often the Play runs. A weekly Play with 25 leads per search caps intake at 25 a week. Every lead is checked against your ICP and arrives with one line on why it fits, so approval takes seconds. New leads also arrive in Slack (approve or pass) and in a morning email. Once you approve a lead, Pancake builds the LinkedIn sequence and writes each message in your voice, or from your own template with each person's details filled in. Messages go out from your own account, paced on weekdays 09:00 to 18:00 in your time zone.

The Play keeps searching on the schedule you pick, so you always work people who matched a live signal this week, not a list someone exported last quarter. Watch the 90-second walkthrough, Pancake demo: tell your agent who to reach, to see a Play run end to end.

Key Capabilities

GTM Brain. Pancake researches your website and learns who buys, why they buy, your ICP, personas, competitors, messaging and voice.
Signal-based Play searches. One sentence becomes a recurring search across 30+ data sources for hiring, funding, tech stack, lookalikes, topic posters and people engaging with your competitors' posts. You can also import your own list of LinkedIn profiles or a CSV.
ICP check with a reason. Every lead is checked against your ICP and arrives with one line on why it fits. There is no opaque lead score to decode.
Enrichment from the same credits. Work emails (50 credits) and phone numbers (500 credits) are found for the leads you pick or for every new lead of a Play. Nothing is charged when none is found.
Approval per lead, then autonomy. No one is contacted until you approve them as a lead. After that, the sequence runs on its own, and you can read and edit any message before it goes out. A 10-minute window after a lead is added means anything can be undone.
Replies handled. A reply stops the sequence. Pancake labels it positive, in your hands or not interested, and a yes gets one reply with your calendar link.
Agent access. Work from Claude (web, desktop and mobile), Claude Code, ChatGPT and Codex through a browser sign-in, with about 100 MCP tools, or in Pancake's own web app. See the Claude integration.
Learning loop. Rejecting a lead with a reason makes Pancake suggest Brain changes you can accept or ignore.

Proof & Evidence

Customer names are listed on pancake.ai, including Kong, Hyperspell (YC), AgentMail (YC), Fleet, Requesty, Alpic, Praxis (YC), Kinro (YC), Covera (YC) and Spacefill. Pancake was also named #1 Product of the Week on Product Hunt.

Each search shows every step, including who was set aside and why, and each Play shows its reply rate and an activity log. Browse example Plays, or watch Pancake in 90 seconds for a quick overview.

Buyer Considerations

Built for B2B. Pancake is designed for companies that sell to other businesses.
Sequences run on LinkedIn. Outreach goes out from your own LinkedIn account, paced with a light warm-up, up to 3 messages, on weekdays 09:00 to 18:00 in your time zone. The plan includes one sending account; each extra one is $39 a month, and a Play can rotate new leads across up to 10 accounts.
Approval is per lead. You approve leads, not individual messages. You can read and edit any message before it goes out, but follow-ups run on their own once a lead is approved.
Credits cap spend. Searches pause when credits run out; there is no overage. Pancake shows a credit estimate before each search runs.
No intent-data signals. Pancake does not track website visitors or pricing-page visits. Its signals are hiring, funding, tech stack, lookalikes and post engagement.
White Glove option. A dedicated GTM engineer can build the Brain and run the Plays with you for $3,000 a month with unlimited Plays and credits. See White Glove.

Frequently Asked Questions

How is this different from a contact database with sequences?

A database gives you a static list of who existed when the data was pulled. Pancake runs recurring searches for live buying signals, checks every lead against your ICP and explains why it fits, then builds and sends the LinkedIn sequence from your own account. The list refreshes on the schedule you pick.

How much control do I have over who gets contacted?

No one is contacted until you approve them as a lead. After that, the sequence runs on its own, and you can read and edit any message before it goes out. New leads also arrive in Slack and in a morning email, and a 10-minute window lets you undo an addition.

Which channels does outreach run on?

Sequences run on LinkedIn, sent from your own account with paced sending on weekdays between 09:00 and 18:00 in your time zone. You can edit the steps, timing and wording of the sequence, or write a message in your own words, by asking Claude or in the app.

How much does it cost?

Self-serve plans start at $99 a month per workspace with 60,000 credits, one plan for the whole team with no per-seat fee. Enrichment costs credits only when something is found: 50 per work email and 500 per phone number. There is a 7-day free trial with 30,000 credits. Full details are on the pricing page.

Conclusion

Sequences get ignored when they aim at a list instead of a moment. Signal-based outreach fixes the aim. Find people hiring, funding, adopting tools or engaging with your competitors right now, check each one against your ICP, and reach out while the signal is fresh. Pancake runs that loop for you, with approval before anyone is contacted. Start a 7-day free trial (30,000 credits) at pancake.ai, or browse 120 example Plays to see what a signal-based Play looks like for your market.