What we can see, what we infer, and what nobody can see from outside.

Things we can find and cite.

These come from live research on the web: the company’s own site, its careers page, its newsroom, news coverage and business listings. Each finding carries the links the research worked from, so you can check it.

• Funding news, as the company or the press announced it.✓confidence: verified — documented fact with a source
• Headcount range, and whether they’re hiring and in which areas.✓confidence: verified — documented fact with a source
• What they build and who they sell to, in their own words.✓confidence: verified — documented fact with a source
• Sales and marketing tools, where their site shows them.✓confidence: verified — documented fact with a source
• Recent news and announcements, with the coverage linked.✓confidence: verified — documented fact with a source
• Contact addresses, with the result of a paid email verification check.✓confidence: verified — documented fact with a source

Judgements drawn from shape and timing.

That a company with this shape, at this moment, probably has this need. A good researcher makes inferences like this all the time. They’re still probabilities, so we mark them as inferred everywhere they appear.

• That the problem you solve is likely on their plate, given what they handle and at what scale.~confidence: inferred — probability drawn from company shape and timing, not a confirmed fact
• That budget is more available than usual, given a recent raise or a growth pattern.~confidence: inferred — probability drawn from company shape and timing, not a confirmed fact
• That a hiring pattern means the work has become someone’s job rather than an idea.~confidence: inferred — probability drawn from company shape and timing, not a confirmed fact
• Revenue band and company stage, where neither is published.~confidence: inferred — probability drawn from company shape and timing, not a confirmed fact

If the research can’t point at evidence for a finding, the finding is shown as inferred or unobservable, never as confirmed.

Intent. Not by us, and not by anyone else either.

• Whether anyone there is currently looking for what you sell.—confidence: not observable — nobody can see this from outside the company, including us
• Whether they already have a supplier they are happy with.—confidence: not observable — nobody can see this from outside the company, including us
• Whether the budget survived the last board meeting.—confidence: not observable — nobody can see this from outside the company, including us
• Whether the person who would care has the standing to buy.—confidence: not observable — nobody can see this from outside the company, including us

No dataset records any of this. You find it out by talking to them.

Every no stays on the record.

When triage says no, the account is marked discarded and the reason is stored. Nothing is deleted, so you can always see what was ruled out and why, as well as what survived.

Does LeadAtomic have intent data?

No, we don't use it. Intent data infers interest from browsing and reading habits, tied to a company by IP address or cookie. We report what we can point at, and mark the rest as unobservable.

So what makes an account worth contacting?

Fit and trigger. Fit is whether the company's shape matches what you sell to: what they do, who they sell to, how big they are, how they operate. A trigger is something documented that changed recently, such as a funding round, a hiring pattern or a shift in what they're building. Fit without a trigger is a company that might buy some day. A trigger without fit is noise.

Isn't every prospecting tool guessing?

Yes. The difference is whether the guess is labelled. Every signal on a researched account is marked as something we confirmed or something we inferred, and the things nobody can confirm are shown as unobservable rather than left out.