Scraper #4: Export Any LinkedIn Search to Google Sheets

Day 4. This might be the most powerful scraper in the entire series.

LinkedIn's people search is incredibly useful. You can search for "CTO San Francisco" or "VP Sales Berlin" - whatever your ICP looks like. The problem has always been that you can't export the results. LinkedIn deliberately blocks copy-paste and CSV export to push you toward Sales Navigator ($99/month).

This workflow bypasses that limitation. In my test, "CTO San Francisco" returned 44 pages of results (~4,400 profiles) - the workflow auto-paginated through every single one and exported them to Google Sheets.

How to Export LinkedIn Search Results in 5 Steps

1. Run your LinkedIn People Search - go to LinkedIn, type your query (e.g. "CTO San Francisco"), and apply filters: location, industry, company size, current company, school. The more specific, the better the output.
2. Copy the API request from DevTools - open developer tools (F12), go to the Network tab, filter for "voyager" or "graphql," find the people search request, right-click, and "Copy as fetch."
3. Create your output Google Sheet - set up columns: Name, Title, Company, Location, LinkedIn URL. Share the sheet and connect it in Needle.
4. Paste and configure in Needle - paste the fetch request into the Needle workflow template, map the output fields to your sheet columns, and set the pagination to "auto."
5. Run the workflow - hit run. The workflow iterates through all search result pages automatically. 44 pages (~4,400 profiles) took about 15 minutes.

LinkedIn Search Filter Impact on Lead Quality

The filters you apply before scraping are the single biggest lever on lead quality. Here's what I found across multiple test runs:

Rule of thumb: if your search returns more than 2,000 results, add more filters. You want a hit list, not a phone book.

6 High-Converting LinkedIn Search Queries

Here are 6 search queries that consistently produce high-quality lead lists. Adjust the location and industry to match your ICP:

1. "CTO" + Series A startup + San Francisco + AI/ML - ideal for selling dev tools, infrastructure, or AI products to early-stage technical leaders.
2. "VP Sales" + SaaS + 51–200 employees + New York - perfect for selling sales enablement, CRM tools, or outbound platforms. These are buyers with budget.
3. "Head of Marketing" + E-commerce + London - great for agencies, marketing tools, and analytics platforms targeting mid-market brands.
4. "Founder" + AI + 1–10 employees + launched in last year - find brand-new AI startups for partnership, investment, or product sales while they're still choosing their stack.
5. "DevOps Engineer" + Cloud + 201–500 employees + Berlin - ideal for infrastructure, monitoring, and developer tooling companies targeting the European mid-market.
6. "HR Director" + Healthcare + 1,001–5,000 employees - perfect for HR tech, benefits platforms, and recruiting tools. Healthcare HR has high turnover and active buying cycles.

Who Should Use This Scraper

This workflow is designed for anyone who needs a list of specific people and doesn't want to pay $99/month for Sales Navigator:

• Sales teams - build ICP-targeted prospect lists in 15 minutes instead of hours
• Founders doing outbound - find your first 100 customers by role and company stage
• Recruiters - export candidate lists by title, location, and company size
• BD teams - build partnership prospect lists by industry and role
• Investors - find founders and C-suite executives at companies matching your thesis

Summary