If you’re tired of slogging through LinkedIn profiles by hand or copy-pasting data into spreadsheets, you’re not alone. This guide is for salespeople, recruiters, founders, and anyone who wants to automate the grunt work of finding leads. We’ll walk through setting up automated workflows with Proxycurl—a tool that pulls professional data from the web, so you don’t have to.
This isn’t a magic bullet and it’s not going to make you rich overnight. But if you want a reliable way to build lead lists without burning hours on manual research, read on.
Step 1: Know What Proxycurl Actually Does (and What It Doesn’t)
Before you start wiring up automations, get clear on what Proxycurl is good for—and where it stops:
What it does: - Pulls up-to-date data from LinkedIn and other sources (people, companies, jobs). - Lets you search by filters (location, job title, company, etc.). - Returns results via clean APIs, ready for your scripts or workflow tools.
What it doesn’t: - It’s not an email finder—Proxycurl won’t fetch emails directly (there are workarounds, more on that later). - It’s not a CRM or an outreach tool. - It can’t guarantee 100% up-to-date data (nobody can, by the way).
Bottom line: Proxycurl is a data pipeline, not a complete sales machine. Use it to find leads, then push them wherever you want.
Step 2: Set Up Your Proxycurl Account and Get Your API Key
You’ll need an account before you can do anything useful.
- Sign Up: Go to the Proxycurl website and register. There’s a free tier, but for serious use you’ll probably need a paid plan.
- Find Your API Key: After logging in, head to the dashboard and copy your API key. Guard it like you would a password—anyone with this can use up your credits.
Pro Tip: Don’t share your API key in screenshots or scripts you post online. People will use it and drain your quota.
Step 3: Decide What Kinds of Leads You Want
This can sound obvious, but most people skip straight to “pull all the data!” and then get overwhelmed. Think about:
- Industry (e.g., SaaS, healthcare, finance)
- Roles/titles (e.g., CTO, HR Manager)
- Location (country, region, city)
- Seniority (e.g., C-level, mid-management)
- Company size
Write this down. You’ll use these as filters in your Proxycurl queries.
Step 4: Build and Test Your Proxycurl Queries
Proxycurl has a lot of endpoints. For lead generation, these are your main tools:
- Person Search API: Find people matching your filters.
- Company Search API: Find companies (and then people at those companies).
Here’s a basic example using Python and the Person Search API:
python import requests
API_KEY = 'your_api_key' url = "https://nubela.co/proxycurl/api/v2/linkedin/person/search"
params = { "country": "us", "current_job_title": "CTO", "page_size": 10 }
headers = { "Authorization": f'Bearer {API_KEY}' }
response = requests.get(url, params=params, headers=headers) print(response.json())
Tips:
- Start with a small page_size until you know it’s working.
- Use specific filters—"CTO" in "United States" is better than just "CTO".
- Check the Proxycurl docs for all available parameters.
What to ignore: Don’t try to pull thousands of results in one go. You’ll hit rate limits, burn credits, and might get blocked. Test with small batches.
Step 5: Connect Proxycurl to Your Workflow Tool (Zapier, Make, or Custom Scripts)
Now, you want to move from “cool, I can run a script” to “leads show up where I need them.” There are three main ways to do this:
1. Zapier or Make (No-Code)
- Pros: No coding needed, lots of integrations (Google Sheets, HubSpot, Slack, etc.).
- Cons: Zapier doesn’t have a built-in Proxycurl integration, so you’ll use the “Webhooks” action.
- How:
- In Zapier, start a new Zap.
- Use the “Webhooks by Zapier” app to make a GET request to the Proxycurl API.
- Parse the response and send it to your tool of choice (Google Sheets, Airtable, CRM, etc.).
Heads-up: Zapier gets expensive if you run lots of tasks. For serious volume, look at custom scripts.
2. Custom Scripts (Python, Node, etc.)
- Pros: Full control, much cheaper at scale.
- Cons: You’ll need to write and maintain some code.
- How:
- Set up a script (like the example above).
- Schedule it (using cron, Task Scheduler, or a cloud function).
- Output leads to a CSV, database, or push straight to your CRM via its API.
Pro Tip: Add error handling. APIs fail sometimes—don’t let your script crash and burn.
3. Workflow Automation Tools (Make, n8n, etc.)
- Similar to Zapier, but with more flexibility. n8n is open source (and cheap).
Bottom line: If you’re just starting, stick with Google Sheets and Zapier. If this becomes business-critical, invest in a proper script or workflow.
Step 6: Enrich or Validate Leads (If Needed)
Proxycurl can give you names, job titles, LinkedIn URLs, and sometimes emails (if available publicly). But most of the time, you’ll want to:
- Find emails: Use tools like Hunter, Snov.io, or Apollo to find or verify work emails.
- Enrich data: Add phone numbers, company info, or social links using other APIs.
Pro Tip: Don’t waste money on enrichment until you know your lead list is good. Start with a small batch.
Step 7: Push Leads to Your CRM or Outreach Tools
Once you have your leads, you’ll want to get them into whatever tool you use to track and contact them:
- Google Sheets or Airtable: Easiest for testing.
- CRM (HubSpot, Salesforce, Pipedrive): Use their APIs or Zapier integrations.
- Cold Email Tools: Don’t blast contacts right away—warm up emails, personalize first.
What to skip: Don’t bother with fancy enrichment or personalization until your workflow is rock-solid. It’s tempting to automate everything, but you’ll just add complexity and more things to break.
Step 8: Monitor, Clean, and Iterate
Even the best automations get messy. Here’s how to keep things working:
- Monitor API usage: Proxycurl isn’t free, and you can burn through credits fast with sloppy queries.
- Check for duplicates: People change jobs, and you’ll often pull the same profiles more than once.
- Review data quality: Don’t blindly trust everything the API returns. Sanity-check your leads before sending outreach.
- Iterate: Tweak your filters, add steps, or cut out what isn’t working.
Pro Tip: Less is more. A lean workflow that you trust beats a super-complex, unreliable one.
What Works, What Doesn’t, and What to Ignore
What works: - Small, focused lead lists with clear filters. - Combining Proxycurl with other tools for email finding and enrichment. - Automations that are easy to monitor and fix.
What flops: - Trying to automate everything from day one. - Pulling huge, unfocused lists and blasting generic emails (you’ll just get marked as spam). - Ignoring the cost—Proxycurl credits and other APIs add up.
Ignore the hype: No tool will magically “fill your pipeline.” The best leads are still ones you qualify and contact thoughtfully.
Keep It Simple and Iterate
You don’t need a 10-step Rube Goldberg machine to get value from Proxycurl. Start with a basic workflow: pull leads using clear filters, review the data, and push it somewhere useful. Once that’s humming, add bells and whistles if you need them—not because you can.
Automate the boring stuff, keep an eye on what’s working, and don’t be afraid to prune what’s not. That’s how you actually win with automation.