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Y3 — ICP & Target-Account Playbook

Asset: Y3  |  Workstream: [GTM]  |  Ownership: [SO]  |  Owner: Sagar Status: drafted  |  Priority: top priority for cold outbound (claude.md §4.Y)

Purpose: Define exactly who we target, the buying signals that say "now," how we source the list, and the data shape that feeds A1 (enrichment) and A2 (ICP scoring + routing). The seed list this produces is the input the whole Y4 outreach engine runs on.

1. Firmographic definition (the hard filter)

A target account must match all of these to enter the list:

Dimension In-ICP Hard out
Vertical B2B SaaS · FinTech · HealthTech · Cloud-Native Consumer apps with no B2B motion, agencies, pure services firms
Stage Series A → pre-IPO (Seed-extended OK if revenue-generating) Pre-seed / idea stage
Headcount 20–250 < 15 (no platform need yet) · > 400 (likely has a platform team already)
Cloud Azure (primary or significant) AWS-only with no Azure (revisit at M4 AWS discovery)
Source/CI GitHub GitLab-only / Bitbucket-only (ADO supported M3)
Geography Global (we're India-based, timezone-flexible) none excluded on geography

A near-ICP account (e.g., AWS-primary, or 300 staff) is not discarded — it's routed differently by A2 (lower score, nurture track) rather than worked immediately. See §4 routing.

2. Buying-signal triggers (the "why now")

Firmographic fit says who. A signal says now. Prioritize accounts with ≥ 1 signal.

Signal Where to spot it Why it's hot
Raised Series A / B recently Crunchbase, news, LinkedIn announcements Fresh budget + board pressure to "get enterprise-ready."
Hiring first security / platform / DevOps engineer Job boards, LinkedIn Jobs, the company careers page They feel the pain and are about to spend — we de-risk the hire (Y1 O2).
"SOC 2" / "ISO 27001" / "HIPAA" in a job post or careers page Job descriptions, security pages Compliance is now an explicit company objective.
Enterprise deal stuck on a security questionnaire Founder posts/complaints on LinkedIn/X, sales-job postings mentioning "security review" Acute, deal-on-the-line urgency — the strongest signal.
Click-ops / immature Azure footprint Eng blog, conference talks, GitHub org with no IaC, "we move fast" culture signals Confirms the gap our Discovery Audit will quantify.
New CTO / VP Eng / Head of Security hire LinkedIn New leader looking for early wins + to professionalize infra.
Publicly pursuing enterprise / regulated customers Pricing page with "Enterprise" tier, case studies with big logos They will hit the compliance wall imminently.

Signal tiering for A2 scoring: - Tier-A (work immediately): deal-stuck-on-questionnaire · SOC2/ISO in job post · hiring first security engineer. - Tier-B (work this week): recent raise · new CTO/Head of Security · pursuing enterprise customers. - Tier-C (nurture): immature footprint alone, no other signal.

3. Sourcing process

  1. Define the search from §1 + §2 (e.g., "Series A B2B SaaS, 30–150 staff, hiring a platform engineer, Azure mentioned").
  2. Sources: Crunchbase / Tracxn (funding + stage), LinkedIn Sales Navigator (headcount, hiring, leadership), job boards (signal mining), company careers/security pages, BuiltWith / job-post tech mentions (cloud + CI stack).
  3. Capture into the seed list (template §5) — one row per account, with the contact(s) to approach (typically CTO / VP Eng / Head of Platform / Head of Security at this size).
  4. Enrich via A1 (Clearbit/Apollo → HubSpot contact properties).
  5. Score + route via A2 (ICP / near-ICP / out-of-ICP → Sagar/Nidhi).
  6. Hand to outreach (Y4).

4. A2 scoring & routing logic (the rubric A2 implements)

A2 is the Custom Code Action; this is the rubric it encodes. Suggested scoring:

Factor Points
Vertical in +30
Stage in +20
Headcount 20–250 +15
Azure present +15
GitHub present +5
≥ 1 Tier-A signal +25
≥ 1 Tier-B signal (and no Tier-A) +15
Tier-C signal only +5

Routing by total score: | Band | Score | Route | Action | |---|---|---|---| | ICP | ≥ 80 | → Sagar (or Nidhi for HealthTech/FinTech compliance-heavy) | Work now via Y4. | | Near-ICP | 50–79 | → nurture track | Lighter-touch sequence; revisit when a signal fires or a roadmap dependency lands (AWS/ADO). | | Out-of-ICP | < 50 | → disqualify / archive | No outreach. |

DoD dry-run: these bands must route the 50-account seed list sensibly (§ DoD).

5. Seed-list template (the A1 input)

The seed list is a simple table — CSV/Sheet/HubSpot import. Columns map to A1 contact properties so enrichment + A2 scoring run cleanly.

Column Maps to Notes
company_name company
domain company domain A1 enrichment key
vertical custom prop vertical SaaS / FinTech / HealthTech / Cloud-Native
stage custom prop funding_stage Series A / B / …
headcount company size
cloud custom prop cloud_primary Azure / AWS / GCP / mixed
ci custom prop ci_platform GitHub / GitLab / ADO
signal custom prop buying_signal from §2; the "why now"
signal_tier custom prop signal_tier A / B / C
contact_name contact first/last the person we email
contact_title contact jobtitle CTO / VP Eng / Head of Platform / Head of Security
contact_linkedin custom prop linkedin_url for Y4 LinkedIn touch
contact_email contact email if known; else A1/Apollo finds it
source custom prop lead_source Crunchbase / LinkedIn / job post / referral
notes — personalization hook for Y4 (the specific signal detail)

The signal/notes columns are what make Y4 personalization non-generic — every cold touch references the specific trigger.

A starter CSV header lives at seed-list.template.csv.

6. The first 50 (the build task)

The DoD is a 50-account seed list built against §1 + §2 with ≥ 1 signal each. This is a Sagar data-gathering task (real companies, real signals) — it is not synthesizable from context and contains no code. Track it as a checklist:

  • 50 accounts sourced, all firmographic-matched (§1).
  • Each has ≥ 1 buying signal (§2) recorded in signal + notes.
  • At least one named contact + title per account.
  • Imported to HubSpot; A1 enrichment run; A2 scoring run.
  • A2 routing spot-checked: the obviously-hot accounts land ICP, the marginal ones near-ICP.

Definition of Done (Y3)

  • A 50-account seed list built against the firmographic + ≥ 1 signal each. (Sagar data task — §6.)
  • An A2 scoring dry-run routes them sensibly. (After import.)
  • Contact-property schema (§5) reconciled with A1/A2 field references and Y13.

Sign-off

  • Reviewer: _  |  Date: _  |  Result: PASS / FAIL
  • Notes: