The 5 best CRMs for founder-led sales in 2025

Founder-led sales is the norm in many startups. Founders are closest to the mission, have a deep passion for it, and can transmit that energy in every conversation they have. Sure, founders usually start leading sales strategy because they don’t have the resources to do things any other way. Still, even after hitting certain growth milestones, founders often stay close to the sales process to help push the most important deals forward and stay close to customers.

But despite their drive and passion, founders can be hamstrung by slow, clunky sales processes. Especially in the beginning, when they have to wear every hat. Managing a deal pipeline from a spreadsheet—how many founders start out—is far from ideal. Deals fall through the cracks, important updates get missed, and you’re looking at a ton of manual work to keep everything running smoothly.

That’s why founder-led sales requires a modern CRM that strikes the balance between getting out of your way and empowering you to move faster at scale.

Here are five of the best platforms for this.

What founders need in a CRM when leading sales

The CRM that’ll best support you in leading sales strategy isn’t the same CRM that’s best for managing enterprise sales at scale. When looking for a CRM that fits your founder-led sales strategy, look for the following:

• Fast setup: Founder-led sales means you’re moving quickly, and you don’t have days or weeks to set up your CRM. Look for a platform you can set up yourself, in 30 minutes or less.
• Flexibility: Enterprise sales deals often follow the same predictable patterns. That’s not the case for you. Your CRM should be able to handle non-linear sales, including investor relationships, partnerships, and pilots.
• Automated data capture: You don’t have time to manually transcribe meetings, enrich contacts, and grab data from emails. Your CRM should do these things for you.
• Transparent pricing: Per-contact and usage-based pricing sound great until you really start growing. Look for a transparent, flat price.
• AI-native: AI features aren’t a nice-to-have anymore. They’re a requirement. Make sure your CRM allows you to leverage AI to save time on the tasks that don’t need a human touch so you can focus on the ones that do.
• Mobile support: You’re constantly on the go, working from coffee shops and hustling at conferences. You need a CRM that can keep up, even when your laptop stays in the office.

The top 5 CRMs for founder-led sales

Clarify

Clarify is like having a copilot for your sales process. Built-in AI automates everything from pipeline creation to meeting transcription and follow-up work, so you can focus on building relationships instead of manually updating deals.

Strengths

• Autonomous data capture.
• Event-driven architecture.
• Relationship intelligence.
• Credit-based pricing with unlimited seats and contacts.

Pricing

Clarify offers a robust free plan, with paid plans starting at $20 a month.

Best for

Founders who want a robust AI CRM to handle their busywork.

Ready to empower your founders to sell more with AI? Start using Clarify for free today.

Attio

Attio is another example of an AI-native CRM that lets founders offload administrative work so you can spend more time on the work that really matters. Its advanced workflows allow you to automate even complex sales processes and close more deals.

Strengths

• Fully customizable workflows.
• Modern interface made for builders.
• Flexible enough to handle non-linear sales.

Trade-off

Attio can be more complicated to set up than other CRMs, and its AI features are a bit less mature.

Pricing

Attio offers a free plan, with paid plans starting at $29 per user, per month.

Best for

Technical founders who want more control over their CRM.

Folk

Folk is the CRM of choice for service businesses and agencies. It’s best for organizations that rely more on warm introductions than pure cold outreach. If you’re frequently meeting with prospects for long sales calls, then this might be the CRM for you.

Strengths

• Advanced contact enrichment triggered from a Chrome extension.
• Automations for lead qualification, outreach, and CRM updates.
• Smart fields search for emails and phone numbers automatically.

Trade-off

Folk’s Chrome extension can be a bit more limited than other CRMs on this list.

Pricing

Folk doesn’t offer a free plan, but it does have a free trial. Paid plans start at $25 per user, per month.

Best for

Founders looking to build deep partnerships.

HubSpot

HubSpot is one of the most popular CRMs on the market, supporting marketing functions, customer success teams, and, of course, sellers. Its sales hub allows you to leverage AI to know who to reach out to, when to reach out, and what you need to say to close the deal.

Strengths

• Robust features for every customer-facing team.
• Strong AI features.
• Good starting CRM for most organizations that stays strong as you scale.

Trade-off

HubSpot has a steep learning curve and gets expensive quickly as you scale.

Pricing

HubSpot offers a free plan for up to two users, with paid plans starting at $15 per user, per month.

Best for

Founders who also want to dip into marketing automation features.

Pipedrive

Have you ever wanted a CRM that looks and feels a bit like a whiteboard? Then you might want to look into Pipedrive. It’s a visual pipeline with an exclusive focus on sales, which can make it a solid option for founders who want a jackhammer instead of a multi-tool.

Strengths

• Drag-and-drop pipeline.
• AI-powered deal recommendations.
• Activity reminders to keep your founder and sellers on task.

Trade-off

Pipedrive isn’t the best platform for supporting emerging processes. You’ll want a solid sales process before you start using it.

Pricing

Pipedrive doesn’t offer a free plan, but it does have a free trial. Plans start at $24 per user, per month.

Best for

Founders with a validated sales motion that needs just an extra push to really grow.

Red flags: CRMs to avoid

You’ll notice one glaring omission on this list. The biggest player in the CRM space. Salesforce.

Even if Salesforce leads the CRM space in market share, it’s rarely the best option for founder-led sales. While it offers plans for smaller organizations, it still has the steep learning curve and expensive customization of the broader Salesforce platform. Enterprise organizations might have the time, budget, and consultants to get their Salesforce instance working just right, but you don’t.

You’ll be best served by one of the CRMs on this list. Don’t fall into the Salesforce trap. The same goes for any CRM built with enterprise organizations in mind, or anything that needs a consultant to set up.

Pick the right CRM and watch your growth skyrocket

Founder-led sales at an early-stage company can be absolutely exciting. It’s ups and downs, absolute drive and passion, and the rush of closing that next big deal. Pick a CRM platform that supports you as a founder and the sellers working under you, rather than getting in your way. Pick a CRM that offloads the admin work to AI so you can focus on what you do best. Selling.

Try Clarify for free today.

FAQ: CRMs for founder-led sales

How long should I stay in founder-led sales?

There’s no specific revenue or time milestone where every company should transition out of founder-led sales. Founders will always have a role in the organization’s sales process, but here are some signs your organization is mature enough that you can transition from a leadership role towards supporting a true sales leader:

• You’ve found product-market fit.
• You’ve built repeatable sales processes.
• Your organization needs to scale beyond your founder’s capacity for leading sales.

Can I switch CRMs later?

Absolutely! Most organizations will switch CRMs at least once as they grow. Just keep in mind that this switch requires migrating data between platforms, which can be expensive.

Do I need AI features?

AI features are rapidly becoming a must in sales. AI-powered CRMs can automatically transcribe calls, enrich contacts, plan follow-up tasks, and more. Look for these features in a CRM if you want to get the most out of it.

Should I use a free CRM or pay for one?

Founder-led sales is a marathon towards those first big milestone sales. Not every organization has the ability to sustain a paid CRM subscription for that amount of time. It’s best to start with a free CRM or the free plan of a paid CRM, and transition to paid plans as you need more advanced features.

What if my sales process is evolving?

Your sales process is guaranteed to evolve as your organization grows and your transition from leading sales to supporting sales leaders. When you pick a CRM, consider how it can support your process as you grow.

How to measure ROI for a CRM?

A simple way to measure your return on investment (ROI) from a CRM is to compare the value of deals you might not have been able to secure without it with the total cost of ownership for that CRM. Let’s say, for example, that you secured $10,000 in new deals from using your CRM, and you paid a total of $20 a month for 12 months (i.e., $240). You’d calculate ROI this way: (10,000 - 240) / 240 = 41 (i.e., an ROI of 41x).

Can I manage investors in the same CRM?

Absolutely! Most CRMs are flexible enough to handle customers and investors simultaneously, even allowing you to categorize them appropriately so you’re using the right approach with each one.