How to identify your ideal customer profile (ICP)
How to identify your ideal customer profile (ICP)Part three of my seven-part series on kickstarting and scaling a B2B business👋 Hey, I’m Lenny and welcome to a 🔒 subscriber-only edition 🔒 of my weekly newsletter. Each week I tackle reader questions about building product, driving growth, and accelerating your career. Welcome to part three of our series on how to kickstart and scale a B2B business:
Let’s jump right in. A huge thank-you to Akshay Kothari (COO of Notion), Ali Ghodsi (CEO of Databricks), Barry McCardel (CEO of Hex), Boris Jabes (CEO of Census), Calvin French-Owen (co-founder of Segment), Cameron Adams (co-founder and CPO of Canva), Christina Cacioppo (CEO of Vanta), David Hsu (CEO of Retool), Eilon Reshef (CPO of Gong), Eric Glyman (CEO of Ramp), Guy Podjarny (CEO of Snyk), Jori Lallo (co-founder of Linear), Julianna Lamb and Reed McGinley-Stempel (co-founders of Stytch), Keenan Rice (founding team), Mathilde Collin (CEO of Front), Rick Song (CEO of Persona), Rujul Zaparde and Lu Cheng (co-founders of Zip), Ryan Glasgow (CEO of Sprig), Shahed Khan (co-founder of Loom), Shishir Mehrotra (CEO of Coda), Sho Kuwamoto (VP of Product of Figma), Spenser Skates (co-founder and CEO of Amplitude), and Tomer London (co-founder and CPO of Gusto) for contributing to this series. Art by Natalie Harney. We’ve so far spent all of our time finding and validating a problem, but surprisingly, many (perhaps most?) of the B2B companies I researched spent just as much time on picking the problem as they did on figuring out who to solve the problem for. When they didn’t do this, they often regretted it. “We did not think about ICP. I wish we did earlier on. It’s one of my biggest mistakes.” If you’ve got a killer idea but you’re talking to the wrong people, you’ll come away thinking your idea stinks, and give up. But the same idea pitched to different people can change everything. Below, I’ll share a guide for nailing your ideal customer profile (ICP), dozens of stories of how founders identified their ICP, and as always, templates and tons of examples. A few of my biggest takeaways and surprises from this step
Initial ICPs for some of today’s biggest B2B companiesThrough my interviews, I’ve gathered the initial ICPs of over a dozen startups. In the chart, and in the stories below, notice how most companies landed on exactly three attributes. Some had more, but no one had fewer. Also notice how specific these attributes get. How to identify your ICPTo identify your own ICP, go through the list below and take your best guess at picking the three most unique and important characteristics of your potential ideal customer (here’s a template to get you started):
Try to get super-specific and super-narrow with your ICP. Almost comically narrow.Gusto found the most success with six ICP attributes initially:
The founders of Gong landed on three highly nuanced attributes:
As did Snyk:
And Looker:
Don’t stress if you can’t figure out your ICP for a while.Here’s Ali Ghodsi, co-founder and CEO of Databricks (which is now worth over $30B) on their complete lack of an ICP early on:
And Rick Song, co-founder and CEO of Persona:
But the sooner you figure out your ICP, the faster things will fall into place.
Eventually, you’ll be forced to figure it out.
Start by paying attention to who gets most excited about what you’re building.For Canva, here’s Cameron Adams, co-founder and CPO, sharing their path to identifying an ICP:
For Sprig, Ryan Glasgow, founder and CEO, on narrowing in on their unusual initial segment:
Be careful not to pattern-match too quickly...Subscribe to Lenny's Newsletter to read the rest.Become a paying subscriber of Lenny's Newsletter to get access to this post and other subscriber-only content. A subscription gets you:
|
Older messages
An inside look at Deel’s unprecedented growth | Meltem Kuran Berkowitz (Head of Growth)
Sunday, August 27, 2023
Listen now (72 mins) | Brought to you by Miro—A collaborative visual platform where your best work comes to life | LMNT—Zero-sugar hydration | AssemblyAI—Production-ready AI models to transcribe and
The ultimate guide to JTBD | Bob Moesta (co-creator of the framework)
Thursday, August 24, 2023
Listen now (70 mins) | Brought to you by Sidebar—Catalyze your career with a Personal Board of Directors | Merge—A single API to add hundreds of integrations into your app | Eppo—Run reliable,
How to hire your first growth team
Tuesday, August 22, 2023
Practical advice from 12 world-class growth experts, including Lauryn Isford, Casey Winters, John Egan, Adam Fishman, Melissa Tan, Laura Schaffer, Hila Qu, Adam Grenier, and Ben Williams
Monetizing passions, scaling marketplaces, and stories from a creator economy vet | Camille Hearst (Spotify, Patre…
Sunday, August 20, 2023
Listen now (64 mins) | Brought to you by Merge—A single API to add hundreds of integrations into your app | Coda—Meet the evolution of docs | Vanta—Automate compliance. Simplify security. — Camille
How to validate your B2B startup idea
Tuesday, August 15, 2023
Part two of my seven-part series on how to kickstart and scale a B2B business
You Might Also Like
I'm blue
Saturday, November 23, 2024
Hey, tl;dr – I've decided to delete all my Twitter posts, lock down my account, and leave the platform. And I'm going all-in on Bluesky, which (in the last month) has become 1000x more fun
🚀 Globalstar to the Nasdaq
Saturday, November 23, 2024
Plus $RKLB CEO becomes a billionaire, DIRECTV $SATS debt deal called off, TEC's $160M Series B, and more! The latest space investing news and updates. View this email in your browser The Space
Theory Two
Friday, November 22, 2024
Tomasz Tunguz Venture Capitalist If you were forwarded this newsletter, and you'd like to receive it in the future, subscribe here. Theory Two Today, we're announcing our second fund of $450
🗞 What's New: AI creators may be coming to TikTok
Friday, November 22, 2024
Also: Microsoft's AI updates are helpful for founders ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏
behind the scenes of the 2024 digital health 50
Friday, November 22, 2024
the expert behind the list is unpacking this year's winners. don't miss it. Hi there, Get an inside look at the world's most promising private digital health companies. Join the analyst
How to get set up on Bluesky
Friday, November 22, 2024
Plus, Instagram personal profiles are now in Buffer! ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏
10words: Top picks from this week
Friday, November 22, 2024
Today's projects: Remote Nursing Jobs • CopyPartner • Fable Fiesta • IndexCheckr • itsmy.page • Yumestudios • Limecube • WolfSnap • Randomtimer • Fabrik • Upp • iAmAgile 10words Discover new apps
Issue #131: Building $1K-$10K MRR Micro SaaS Products around AI Search Optimisation, Fine-Tuning Image Models, AI-…
Friday, November 22, 2024
Build Profitable SaaS products!! ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏
(Free) Trial & Error— The Bootstrapped Founder 357
Friday, November 22, 2024
Today, I'll dive into the difference between a trial user and a trial abuser and what you can do to invite the former and prevent the latter. ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏
💎 Specially for you - will never be repeated again!
Friday, November 22, 2024
The biggest Black Friday sale in Foundr history...but it won't last forever! Black Friday_Header_2 Hey Friend , We knew our Black Friday deal was amazing—but wow, the response has been so unreal