Building a personal brand on LinkedIn isn't just about writing; it's about studying what works.

For a long time, I manually tracked my favorite writers in tech, VC, AI, and SaaS in a cluttered Notion database to draw inspiration for my own posts. I wanted to understand not just what they were writing, but why it was resonating.

However, manual tracking has its limits. That is why at Researchly, we built a dedicated intelligence engine to analyze LinkedIn influencers and company pages at scale.

We put our own tool to the test. By combining my personal favorites with crowd-sourced recommendations, we used Researchly to deconstruct the top 20 profiles defining the current ecosystem. We analyzed their content strategy, engagement metrics, and posting behaviors to uncover the "science" behind their growth.

You can access the raw data in our Google Sheet here.

Below is the Researchly breakdown of the top 20 profiles leveraging LinkedIn to dominate their niches.

1. Rubén Domínguez Ibar

Scout at a16z, Founder – The VC Corner

• Follower Count: 269,500
• The Strategy: Rubén dominates by blending high-level VC insights with practical tools. He focuses on fundraising dynamics, AI innovation, and the European startup ecosystem.
• Top Performer: Stanford University just dropped free online courses (2025) (936 reactions, 115 reposts)
• Researchly Insight: High Utility = High Shares. Users hoard resources. Curating free, prestigious educational content (like Stanford courses) is the fastest way to drive reposts and saves.

2. Greg Isenberg

CEO & Co-Founder – Late Checkout

• Follower Count: 220,400
• The Strategy: Greg acts as a bridge between current tech culture and future trends. He provides actionable playbooks for the AI age and community-driven design.
• Top Performer: Leaked internal memo from Shopify CEO on AI (5,443 reactions, 503 shares)
• Researchly Insight: Insider Access. People crave "behind the curtain" content. Analyzing internal memos or exclusive leaks from major tech leaders establishes you as an industry insider.

3. Guillermo Flor

VC Investor & Newsletter Founder

• Follower Count: 200,700+
• The Strategy: Visual storytelling for VCs and founders. He specializes in breaking down pitch decks and AI business models using creative media.
• Top Performer: ElevenLabs pre-seed pitch deck breakdown (1,355 reactions, 5,087 reposts)
• Researchly Insight: Reverse Engineering Success. The high repost count (5k+) proves that founders are desperate for tangible examples of what success looks like. Deconstructing unicorn pitch decks is a surefire viral format.

4. Fabio Moioli

Executive Search & Leadership Advisor – Spencer Stuart

• Follower Count: 141,000+
• The Strategy: Bridging the gap between AI tech and human leadership. He focuses heavily on emotional intelligence and the future of work.
• Top Performer: Leadership vs Management: Anyone can be a leader (27,700+ likes)
• Researchly Insight: Universal Truths. While niche tech content is good for leads, broad, relatable definitions of leadership drive mass-market virality and reach outside your bubble.

5. Tom Alder

Founder – StrategyBreakdowns.com

• Follower Count: 122,000+
• The Strategy: As his brand suggests, he breaks down complex strategies. He focuses on SaaS growth mechanics and big tech case studies.
• Top Performer: 15 Principles from Sam Altman’s “How to Start a Startup” (2,250 reactions)
• Researchly Insight: Curation of Wisdom. You don’t always need original ideas; summarizing and contextualizing "classic" wisdom from industry titans (like Altman) creates high-value, digestible content.

6. Yurii Rebryk

Founder & CEO – Fluently

• Follower Count: 106,000
• The Strategy: The "Ex-Big Tech" narrative. Yurii shares his candid journey leaving Amazon to build a startup, mixed with GenAI trends.
• Top Performer: I left Amazon to build my first startup (7,140 likes)
• Researchly Insight: Vulnerability Wins. Authentic stories of risk and resilience (leaving a safe job) resonate deeply because they reflect the aspirations of the audience.

7. Simon Høiberg

Founder (Aidbase, LinkDrip, FeedHive)

• Follower Count: 87,200+
• The Strategy: The Bootstrapper’s Guide. Simon focuses relentlessly on automation, product development, and practical SaaS growth without VC funding.
• Top Performer: Perfect AI Product Development Workflow
• Researchly Insight: Efficiency is King. Founders love actionable setups that promise to 10x productivity. Visualizing a "perfect workflow" stops the scroll.

8. Oliver Molander

Investor & Principal – Inception Fund

• Follower Count: 78,700+
• The Strategy: Championing the Nordic/European AI ecosystem. He highlights technical talent and infrastructure in specific geographies.
• Top Performer: Linus Torvalds as the most consequential Nordic founder (2,918 reactions)
• Researchly Insight: Local Pride & Global Impact. Celebrating regional heroes (like Torvalds) taps into local pride while discussing globally relevant tech history.

9. Saanya Ojha

Partner – Bain Capital Ventures

• Follower Count: 63,100+
• The Strategy: Deep-dive analysis. Saanya looks at enterprise consumption of AI, moving past the hype to discuss real adoption and ethics.
• Top Performer: 95% of enterprise GenAI pilots fail—here’s why (3,034 reactions)
• Researchly Insight: Contrarian Data. Viral posts often use a shocking statistic ("95% fail") to hook the reader, followed by a nuanced, solution-oriented breakdown.

10. Jacob Bank

Founder & CEO – Relay.app

• Follower Count: 60,100+
• The Strategy: Visualizing the future of work. Jacob focuses on "AI Agents" and operational workflows.
• Top Performer: My marketing team is 40 AI agents (9,764 reactions)
• Researchly Insight: The "Wow" Factor. Showing a concrete, visual example of a futuristic concept (running a team with AI agents) generates massive intrigue and debate.

11. Andreas Jonsson

Cofounder & CEO – Shield

• Follower Count: 56,200+
• The Strategy: Brutal honesty about bootstrapping and specific critiques of "VC culture."
• Top Performer: Day 1 as a Founder: Focus on Fundamentals
• Researchly Insight: Back to Basics. In a world of hype, grounded advice ("Focus on sales, not logos") builds trust with early-stage founders.

12. John Hu

Founder & CEO – Stan

• Follower Count: 56,000+
• The Strategy: The Creator Economy journey. John blends emotional storytelling with business metrics, documenting the path from "dorm room" to CEO.
• Top Performer: Dorm TikToks to dining with heroes
• Researchly Insight: The transformation arc. Showing the "before and after" of your career invites the audience to celebrate your wins with you.

13. Troy Munson

CEO – Dimmo

• Follower Count: 50,100+
• The Strategy: Tactical Sales & GTM. Troy reviews tech stacks and shares cold-calling challenges with a touch of humor.
• Top Performer: Why I ditched Hubspot for Attio
• Researchly Insight: Comparative Reviews. Honest, "why I switched" reviews of popular tools are gold for professionals looking to optimize their own stacks.

14. Marty Kausas

CEO & Co-Founder – Pylon

• Follower Count: 45,000
• The Strategy: Building in public (B2B edition). Marty shares transparency around fundraising and scaling an AI-native support product.
• Top Performer: Series B announcement led by a16z
• Researchly Insight: Milestone Marketing. Combining big metrics, top-tier investors, and a clear vision statement in one post solidifies category leadership.

15. Brad Porter

Founder & CEO – Cobot

• Follower Count: 41,200+
• The Strategy: Robotics reality check. Brad contrasts physical AI implementation with humanoid robot hype.
• Top Performer: Tribute to Mike McCue, tech mentor
• Researchly Insight: Gratitude. Mentorship stories humanize technical leaders and show that they are part of a larger lineage of innovation.

16. Annie Liao

Founder – Build Club

• Follower Count: 41,000+
• The Strategy: Community first. Annie focuses on hands-on AI education, prompt engineering, and bringing people together.
• Top Performer: We’re hiring at Build Club! (2,500+ reactions)
• Researchly Insight: Community Opportunity. Hiring posts don't have to be boring. By framing them as an invitation to join a movement, she generated massive engagement.

17. Nick Mulder

Founder & CEO – Hypofriend

• Follower Count: 40,800+
• The Strategy: Practical utility mixed with personality. He offers tangible real estate/tax advice while occasionally sharing who he is beyond the CEO title.
• Top Performer: Who are you, Nick?
• Researchly Insight: Identity Building. Even utility-focused accounts need to periodically re-introduce the human behind the brand to build trust.

18. Finn Thormeier

Founder – Project 33

• Follower Count: 39,700+
• The Strategy: Meta-LinkedIn strategy. Finn teaches B2B pipeline tactics and how founders can use video/content to grow.
• Top Performer: How I’d book more demos with target accounts
• Researchly Insight: Step-by-Step Playbooks. High-level advice is cheap; detailed "how-to" guides for specific outcomes (booking demos) garner saves and high engagement.

19. Darius Göttert

Founder – FORA, myChild

• Follower Count: 33,300+
• The Strategy: Action mindset and sustainability. Darius shares his serial founder journey alongside personal lifestyle changes for sustainability.
• Top Performer: Why I replaced my car with a BahnCard 100
• Researchly Insight: Lifestyle Experiments. Narratives about changing personal habits (like giving up a car) spark debate and connect with values-driven audiences.

20. Austin Hughes

Co-Founder & CEO – Unify & Charles Tenot, CEO at lemlist

• The Strategy: Both leaders excel at "Hard Truths." Austin focuses on the data behind their $40M Series B, while Charles opens up about the difficulties of the CRO role.
• Researchly Insight: Transparency builds authority. whether it's financial metrics or emotional burnout, honesty cuts through the noise of "hustle culture."

How to replicate their success

Tracking these leaders provided me with immense inspiration, but manually monitoring their strategies is time-consuming.

That’s why we built the Researchly intelligence engine.

At Researchly, we don't just guess what works—we analyze it. Our tools allow you to:

• Analyze Influencers: Break down the posting schedules, topics, and engagement drivers of top voices in your niche.
• Monitor Company Pages: See how competitors are positioning their brand and employer value proposition.
• Automate Insights: Stop scrolling for inspiration and start using data-backed content strategies.

If you want to stop guessing and start growing your LinkedIn presence with the same data-driven approach I used for this post, check out Researchly.