Last updated: 11 October 2026
At this size, one person usually says yes, and two or three people can slow things down. This guide shows who that person is by company type, who can slow a deal down, how to confirm the name, and which route reaches them: the website, LinkedIn, public records, Apollo, a verified email or a warm introduction.
A company can fit every published rule of a buyer program and still go nowhere, because the message reached someone who cannot decide.
Introducing a company to an AI data buyer is a decision about a company asset and a contract. In a firm of 30 to 200 people, that decision rarely sits with the person who reads the general inbox.
It sits with the owner, the CEO, or the executive who signs contracts. Everyone else can help or slow it down, but cannot say yes.
The size band matters for a second reason. Buyer programs publish headcount rules: micro1 publishes 30+ employees, and its referral posting names 30 to 200. Mode publishes 20+ full-time US office employees, with 10+ for accounting firms and 6+ for law firms (all as published, checked 7 October 2026).
So the companies worth your time are usually owner-led or lightly structured. That is good news: the decider is often one person you can identify in an afternoon.
Company lists give you the company. Ours are company level only, with no names, emails or phone numbers, so finding the person is the step this guide covers.
Start from how the company is run, not from its org chart. Five patterns cover most firms in this size band.
The owner or CEO decides, often alone. They know which systems the company runs and how many years of records exist.
Write to them directly. A message to anyone else is usually forwarded late, if at all.
The COO or CFO often owns this kind of decision, because it is about an asset, a contract and risk, not about technology.
The CEO still has to agree, but the COO or CFO is the person who will run it. Start there if the team page shows one.
The managing partner decides, usually with the partners' agreement. Client confidentiality is the real gate, so expect questions about engagement letters early.
Firm administrators and COOs in larger partnerships often prepare the decision. They are a good second contact, not a first one.
The CEO or CTO decides, because licensing code or product records touches the product itself and its open-source obligations.
In founder-led software firms, the technical co-founder is often the more receptive first contact.
The local CEO may like the idea and still need the parent company or the board to approve an asset sale. Some shareholder agreements require it.
Ask early who else has to sign. It saves weeks of goodwill that ends in "the board said no".
None of these people can say yes. Each can delay a deal if they hear about it last. Name them early and point them to the buyer's own pages.
| Who | What they will ask | How to make it easy |
|---|---|---|
| IT or the systems admin | Who exports the data, how long it takes, and what access the buyer gets. | Bring them in once the owner is interested. The export is their work, so they need the scope in writing. |
| Legal or outside counsel | Contracts, client NDAs, privacy law, warranties and liability. | Normal and healthy, not a no. Suggest counsel joins at the NDA stage, not at the final draft. |
| Investors or the board | Whether selling or licensing an asset needs their approval. | Ask the owner on the first call: "Who else would need to agree?" |
| Clients | For agencies, law and accounting firms: whether client material can be included at all. | Expect a narrower scope: the firm's own procedures and templates, with client details removed. |
| Staff | Whether their messages and emails are part of it. | It is good practice to tell staff before anything leaves, and to exclude direct messages, HR and payroll. |
Never go around the decider. Writing to IT or to staff because the owner did not answer turns a slow deal into a blocked one. Be patient, or move on to the next company.
Work down the list and stop when one works. Often the first one or two are enough.
The about, team and leadership pages name the owner in most small firms. Look for a founding story, a "meet the team" page or a signature on the blog.
Note the founding year and the services while you are there. You will reuse both in your first line.
Open the company page, then filter its people by the titles above. Check that the person is current: a recent role start or recent activity is a good sign.
If two people share the top title, write to the one who appears in the company's own news or posts. That is usually the face of the firm.
State business registries list officers and registered agents for most companies. Annual reports and filings often name the president or managing member.
This is the most reliable source for small family firms that have no team page and little online presence.
Search by the company's domain, filter by seniority and title, and compare what you find with the website and LinkedIn. Apollo is useful for confirming roles and finding work addresses.
Treat its data as a lead, not a fact. Small firms change slowly online, and records can be out of date by years.
Ask how the owner prefers to receive a short written note about the company's records. Do not pitch the receptionist.
In firms of this size, the front desk usually knows exactly who decides and how they like to be reached.
A shared connection, a former colleague, an industry association or a local business group. A short introduction from someone the owner knows beats any cold message.
If you already work in the industry, this is your biggest advantage. Use it first, not last.
Each tool does one job well. Problems start when one is used for everything.
Good for: confirming who holds which role, and finding a work address for the person you already identified.
Weak at: small and older firms with thin online footprints, where names and titles can be stale.
Good for: current titles, recent activity and a personal first contact for owners who use it.
Weak at: owners in email-driven industries, such as law, accounting, construction and logistics, who rarely log in.
Good for: reaching owners who live in their inbox, with a message they can forward to counsel.
Risk: unverified addresses bounce, and bounces damage your sending domain and your future reply rates.
Most dead ends come from one of these. Each is easy to avoid once you know it.
Marketing and sales leaders are the most visible people online, and the least likely to decide about company records.
Look past them to the owner, the CEO or the executive who signs contracts.
People change roles, retire and sell their firms. A title from a database can be years old.
Confirm every name in two places before you spend any more time on it.
Firms with several offices often show a local manager on each location page. The decision sits at the head office.
Check which entity owns the domain and the records, then find the person there.
A franchise owner controls the local business, not the brand's systems. The franchisor's records belong to the franchisor.
Decide which records you mean before you decide who to approach.
A firm acquired a few years ago may still run its own website. Its records, and the decision, may now sit with the new owner.
Look for "a member of", "part of" or "acquired by" on the about page and in the site footer.
Accounting firms are buried in tax season, retailers in the holidays, and many trades in their peak months.
Approach them when they have time to read, not when they are working nights.
Several people at one company hearing from you on the same day compare notes, and the owner hears about it second-hand.
One person, one route, then wait.
A guessed name or address costs nothing to send and a lot to recover from: bounces, the wrong person, a first impression you cannot undo.
If you cannot confirm the person, move on to the next company.
A fictional firm, to show the steps in order. It is illustrative only.
45 people, a US office, about twelve years in business, bookkeeping and tax for local companies. Mode publishes 10+ for accounting firms, and micro1 publishes 30+, so both programs' headcount rules are met.
The website's team page lists two founding partners and a firm administrator. The partner listed first also signs the firm's newsletter, so that is the managing partner.
LinkedIn shows the same partner with the title "Managing Partner" and a post from last month. The state registry lists the same name as an officer.
Apollo shows a work address on the firm's domain. A verification service confirms it as deliverable.
The partner posts on LinkedIn, so that is the more personal route. The work address stays as the second option. The firm administrator is not contacted unless the partner points there.
For an accounting firm the gate is client confidentiality, not headcount. The books belong to the clients, so any realistic scope is the firm's own process material, with client details removed. The partner, not you, decides whether that is worth exploring.
Owners talk to each other. How you write matters as much as who you write to.
Commercial email to businesses is allowed under the CAN-SPAM rules: an honest sender and subject line, a postal address and a working opt-out that you honor quickly.
Rules are stricter, and personal data rules apply to named business contacts. If you write to companies outside the US, check the rules that apply before you send.
Any form of "no" or "stop" ends it. Remove the person at once, and do not move on to their colleagues at the same company.
Several cold messages to one company at once looks like a campaign. Move to a second person only if the first one points you there.
No fake names, and never present yourself as the buyer program or its agent. Referral terms forbid it.
Store the name, role, route and dates of contact for the people you actually write to. Delete what you no longer need.
General information, not legal advice. Check the rules that apply to you, in your country and in the country of the person you write to.
Every list comes from our index of 120M domains: if a company has a website, it is in our index. Each company on a list is verified active and scored for the data AI buyers want. Company level only, so the people are yours to find with this guide.
Usually the owner or the CEO. In more structured firms the COO or CFO often owns decisions about company assets and contracts, in partnerships it is the managing partner, and in software companies selling code the CEO or CTO. If the company is part of a group or backed by investors, the parent or the board may have the final say.
No. IT and legal cannot say yes, and messages to them are rarely forwarded upward. Write to the person who decides, then bring IT and counsel in once the owner is interested.
Confirm the name on the company website or LinkedIn, then try a short LinkedIn note, a two-line message to the general inbox addressed to the owner by name, or a call to the front desk. If you do find an email, verify it before you send.
Not blindly. Guessed addresses bounce, and bounces damage your sending domain. If you must try a likely pattern, check it with an email verification service first, and never send to addresses you could not verify.
One at a time. Several cold messages to the same company at once looks like a campaign, annoys the owner and gets forwarded to the wrong place. Move to a second person only if the first one tells you to or does not reply after your follow-ups.
In the US, commercial email is allowed if it follows the CAN-SPAM rules: an honest sender and subject, a postal address and a working way to opt out. EU and UK rules are stricter. This is general information, not legal advice; check the rules that apply to you.