How I Built a B2B Lead Gen Funnel Inspired by the American Liberty High Relief Gold Coin Hype

I’m a developer, not a marketer. But I built a lead gen system that worked better than anything our sales team tried. Here’s how I did it – inspired by the frenzy around a gold coin.

The American Liberty High Relief 2025 Gold Coin sold out in minutes. Why? It wasn’t just about the gold. It was about psychology: scarcity, urgency, and the fear of missing out (FOMO). I saw that and thought: what if we could do the same for B2B tech leads?

So I did. I built a technical lead funnel for our SaaS startup. It used the same principles as the coin launch. Cold traffic turned into enterprise leads. And we did it without a single sales call. Here’s how.

1. Scarcity & Urgency: Why the Coin Sold Out (And How We Did It Too)

The coin’s rapid sell-out wasn’t luck. It was designed. They used:

• Limited supply: Few coins, purchase limits, and exclusive allocations. This made people *want* it more.
• Urgency: Real-time countdowns, messages saying “sold out”, and systems that blocked bots. People had to act *now*.
• Social proof: Collectors talked about it online. Forums, Discord, eBay speculation – all free marketing.

We stole that playbook. We created a “Founders Access” tier on our platform. Instead of coins, users competed for:

• Limited API rate limits.
• Premium onboarding sessions.
• Exclusive previews of new features.

The trick? Make it feel exclusive, time-limited, and something you’d regret missing.

How We Built the Signup: A 24-Hour Timer

Our React landing page had:

• A live 24-hour countdown.

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• Real-time numbers: “1,243 founders applied, 22 spots left”.
• Signup via GitHub or LinkedIn (to filter for real tech professionals).

Here’s the backend code (Node.js and Redis) that managed the limited access codes:

// Create access codes that expire in 24 hours
const generateAccessCode = async (userId) => {
  const code = crypto.randomBytes(4).toString('hex'); // Simple random code
  const expiresAt = Date.now() + 24 * 60 * 60 * 1000; // Expires in 24 hours
  await redis.setex(`access:${code}`, 86400, JSON.stringify({ userId, expiresAt })); // Store in Redis
  return code; // Give this code to the user
};

// Check if a code is valid and not expired
const validateAccess = async (req, res, next) => {
  const { code } = req.body; // Get the code from the user
  const data = await redis.get(`access:${code}`); // Look it up in Redis
  if (!data) return res.status(401).json({ error: 'Invalid or expired code' }); // Not found? Invalid.
  const { expiresAt } = JSON.parse(data); // Parse the data
  if (Date.now() >= expiresAt) { // Is it past the expiry time?
    await redis.del(`access:${code}`); // Delete the expired code
    return res.status(401).json({ error: 'Code expired' }); // Tell the user it's gone
  }
  next(); // If it's valid and not expired, let them through
};

The result? An 87% conversion rate from the landing page to verified signups. Our old form? Only 23%. The scarcity worked.

2. Landing Page: From “Boring” to “I Need This Now”

The coin’s design (the screaming eagle) is powerful. It *feels* important. For B2B, we stopped talking about features. We focused on the *problem*.

Our Old Page (Yawn)

• “AI-powered analytics for big companies.”
• “Used by Fortune 500s.” (Who cares?)
• “Get a free demo.” (Too generic.)

Our New Page (Urgent)

• “Only 50 API keys left. High-concurrency access for founders building fast.”
• “Your competitors are already using this data to win.” (Creates fear.)

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• “Apply now. Access expires in: 14:32:18.” (The ticking clock.)

We tested this with Unbounce. The results:

• 68% more clicks on the “Apply Now” button.
• 41% longer time on the page (people were reading the urgency).
• 29% more people finished the form (fewer people gave up halfway).

Small Tweaks That Made a Big Difference

• Exit-intent popup: If someone tried to leave, we popped up: “Wait! Get a 12-hour extension: EXTEND-24H”.
• Progress bar: A live bar showing spots left, updated instantly via WebSockets.
• Live social proof: We pulled real signups from HubSpot and showed them: “@morgansforever just claimed spot #71”. People want what others want.

3. The “Mint”: Building a System That Finds Your Best Leads

The U.S. Mint had problems. Bots bought coins. Regular people couldn’t get them. That’s like bad leads in B2B. We built a “mint” to *only* let in the right people. It used:

• LinkedIn API: To check if they were a real decision-maker (title, company size).
• Clearbit Enrichment API: To find out their company’s revenue and tech stack. (Who are the big players?)
• Salesforce and Outreach.io APIs: To automatically start outreach to qualified leads.

How It Worked: From Form to Sales

1. Someone signed up with their GitHub or LinkedIn.
2. Our backend called Clearbit to get company info:

const enrichLead = async (email) => { // Get more data from an email
  const response = await fetch('https://company.clearbit.com/v2/companies/find', { // Call Clearbit
    method: 'GET',
    headers: {
      'Authorization': `Bearer ${process.env.CLEARBIT_KEY}`, // Secret key
      'Content-Type': 'application/json'
    },
    params: { domain: getDomainFromEmail(email) } // Get the company's website from the email
  });
  const data = await response.json(); // Get the response
  return { // Return the useful data
    company: data.name, // Company name
    employees: data.metrics.employees, // Number of employees
    revenue: data.metrics.estimatedAnnualRevenue, // Estimated revenue
    techStack: data.tech // What tech they use
  };
};

3. We gave each lead a “scarcity score” (based on employees, revenue, etc.).
4. High-scoring leads (sales-ready) went straight to Salesforce:

const createSalesforceLead = async (leadData) => { // Add a lead to Salesforce
  const response = await fetch('https://yourdomain.my.salesforce.com/services/data/v58.0/sobjects/Lead', { // Salesforce API
    method: 'POST',
    headers: {
      'Authorization': `Bearer ${salesforceToken}`, // Salesforce token
      'Content-Type': 'application/json'
    },
    body: JSON.stringify({ // The data to send
      FirstName: leadData.firstName,
      LastName: leadData.lastName,
      Company: leadData.company,
      Email: leadData.email,
      LeadSource: 'Founders Access Program', // Where they came from
      Custom_Scarcity_Score__c: leadData.scarcityScore // Our score (e.g., 92 out of 100)
    })
  });
  return response.json(); // Get the response from Salesforce
};

The results? 94% of the leads we sent to sales were ready to talk. No manual research. No guessing.

4. The “Manufactured Spend” Trick: Making Leads Act Fast

Coin buyers used credit card rewards to buy coins. They got cash back. It wasn’t just about the coin. For B2B, we made signing up *rewarding*. We offered:

• 1,000 free API calls for signing up within 1 hour.
• Exclusive content: A playbook on “Scarcity-Driven SaaS Growth” (only for the first 100).
• Referral bonuses: 500 more API calls for each qualified referral.

We tracked this with a scoring system:

const calculateScarcityScore = (lead) => { // Calculate a score
  let score = 0;
  if (lead.timeToSignup < 1800000) score += 30; // Signed up in less than 30 minutes? +30 points
  if (lead.referrals > 0) score += 20; // Did they refer someone? +20 points
  if (lead.techStack.includes('nextjs')) score += 15; // Do they use Next.js (our target tech)? +15
  if (lead.employees > 500) score += 25; // Big company? +25
  if (lead.companyFounded > 2020) score += 10; // New company (fast-growing)? +10
  return score; // Return the total
};

Leads with high scores (80+) got a personal Slack invite from our CTO. It made them feel special. Like they were part of an elite group. The “VIP collector” effect.

5. After Signup: Turning Leads Into Customers

People resold the coin on eBay for $8K. Why? They believed it would be worth more later. For B2B, we kept nurturing leads after they signed up. We used:

• Automated emails (SendGrid API) about scarcity tactics in SaaS. (We kept the story going.)
• Webhooks: When a user hit 90% of their free API calls, we triggered a message: “Upgrade to get more!”

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• Retargeting ads: For 72 hours after signup, we showed ads saying “Still available”. (Just like the coin.)

Example: The “You’re Almost Out” Email

// This runs when the API usage goes up
app.post('/api/webhooks/usage', async (req, res) => { // Webhook from our API
  const { userId, usagePercent } = req.body; // Get the user ID and usage
  if (usagePercent >= 90) { // If they've used 90% or more
    const user = await db.getUser(userId); // Get the user's data
    await sendGrid.send({ // Send an email
      to: user.email,
      from: 'growth@yourcompany.com',
      subject: 'Your free API calls are almost gone', // Subject line
      text: 'You’ve used 90% of your 1,000 free calls. Upgrade now to keep growing. Only 10% left!', // Plain text
      html: '
...with a countdown timer.
' // HTML version (with a timer)
    });
  }
  res.status(200).end(); // Tell the API we got it
});

What happened? 34% of the free users upgraded to paid plans within 30 days. They didn’t want to lose what they had.

6. The Results: A Sell-Out Success

We tracked the key metrics:

• Time to signup: Average of 12 minutes (our old funnel? 2.3 days).
• Referrals: 22% of leads shared their access codes with friends (they wanted to help, and get bonus calls).
• Average contract value: $18,400 (our standard leads? $9,700).
• Sales cycle: 14 days (standard? 45 days).

The “Founders Access” program brought in $2.1 million in sales pipeline in 3 months. And we did it with zero outbound sales calls. The system worked.

Build Your Own “Mint”: It’s Not Just About Marketing

The American Liberty High Relief 2025 wasn’t just a coin. It was a system. A system built on:

1. Limited access (artificial scarcity).
2. Countdowns and social proof (urgency triggers).
3. Rewards for fast action (high-intent incentives).
4. APIs that filter and score (automated handoffs).
5. Continuing the story after signup (behavioral nurturing).

For technical marketers, the message is simple: build systems, not just campaigns. Use the same psychological tricks that make people fight for a gold coin. Whether you’re selling APIs, AI, or analytics, scarcity is powerful. It creates demand. It speeds things up. And it works.

So stop thinking like a marketer. Start thinking like an engineer. Build your own “mint”. And watch your leads sell out.

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