Data Sources & Verification Methodology
Most B2B data vendors tell you their lists are “verified” and leave it there. That word doesn’t mean anything without the specifics behind it. So here they are: which sources we use, what we pull from each one, and the five checks a record must pass before it reaches you. We work across four product lines, Technology Users, Customer Base, Professionals, and Industry, and each one pulls from different sources for different reasons. A LinkedIn profile and an SEC filing aren’t interchangeable, and we don’t treat them that way. Every source below names exactly what we extract from it. Every record clears five verification stages, each one owned by a data experts.
650M+
Total records in database
6
Source Categories
Quarterly
Source-list review cycle
5
Verification pipeline stages
Which sources feed which lists?
Not every source applies to every product line. This table shows where each source category is actually used.
| Source category | Technology Users | Customer Base | Professionals | Industry |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Professional & business networks | ||||
| Public filings & business registries | ||||
| Trade publications & industry media | ||||
| Business & trade directories | ||||
| Trade shows & conferences | ||||
| Technographic & product-signal detection |
What happens to a record before it ships in a list?
Every record moves through five stages in order before it ships in a list – nothing reaches a customer list without clearing all five. A record that fails any stage is sent back for re-sourcing or discarded, not shipped with a caveat.
Stage 1
Source Collection
Raw records are pulled from the source categories listed.
Stage 2
Cross-Match
Every record is checked against a second, independent source before it moves forward.
Stage 3
Human Verification
Our Data experts review records that get flagged as ambiguous or high value.
Stage 4
Compliance Screening
Every record is checked against GDPR, CCPA, CAN-SPAM, and internal suppression lists.
Stage 5
Continuous Refresh
Records are re-verified on a quarterly cycle to catch job changes and company churn.
Every source we use, and exactly what we extract from it
Every legitimate source currently in use, what is pulled from it, and how it is scoped?
- Professionals
- Industry
- Technology
LinkedIn has over a billion members worldwide, and most of them keep their job title, employer, and industry up to date on their profile. We treat that as one signal among several, not proof on its own. A profile gets checked against at least one other source before anything from it goes into a record.
Job title, current employer, industry, seniority level, professional history
Wellfound
Wellfound, formerly known as AngelList Talent, became an independent company and rebranded in November 2022. It is a hiring platform built for startups, with millions of candidate profiles and thousands of company listings. We use publicly available Wellfound company profiles to verify company-level details, such as Industry, funding stage, employee size range, active job openings, and hiring activity.
Company funding stage, Industry, headcount, hiring activity.
- Customer Base
- Professionals
- Industry
SEC Filings & Investor Disclosures
Public companies name their vendors outright in a 10-K or an investor deck. When that happens it is about as solid as confirmation gets, since the company is disclosing the relationship itself rather than us inferring it from other signals. We pull revenue figures, technology, investor disclosures, operating segments, and named executives from these filings.
State & Federal Business Registries
Every US state keeps a registry of incorporated businesses, and most filings name at least one officer or registered agent. We use these records to confirm a company is actually active and legally registered, and to check that an executive we have on file matches who the state has listed.
- Professionals
- Industry
Chief Executive
Chief Executive is a controlled-circulation magazine that has been read by boardrooms since 1976. Getting on their subscriber list usually means proving you actually hold an executive title, which makes it a decent way to confirm seniority on a record.
Adweek
Adweek has covered brand marketing since 1979, and its readers tend to be VPs, C-level marketers, directors, and agency decision-makers. We lean on it to confirm industry classification for marketing and advertising records.
MIT Technology Review
MIT has published Technology Review since 1899. It covers emerging technologies and its readers include IT specialists, technologists, and people running technology companies. We use MIT Technology Review as a supporting source within the technology sector to verify publicly stated roles, leadership context and seniority when individuals are featured in articles, interviews, reports or event profiles.
- Customer Base
- Professionals
- Industry
Better Business Bureau
The Better Business Bureau has been accrediting companies since 1912 and currently has around 400,000 on file across North America. We use BBB Business Profiles as a supporting source to verify company identity, business location, website, operating history, accreditation status, and business category. It is particularly useful when validating smaller businesses that have limited information available through other established sources.
Yellow Pages (YP.com)
Yellow Pages is one of the oldest business directories still running. We use it narrowly, just to confirm a listed company actually exists, what category it is in, and its published phone number. It is not something we pull individual contacts from, since that is not what the directory is built for.
Yelp
Yelp is a local business review site, not a B2B data source in any real sense. We use it narrowly as a supporting source to verify that a small or local business is listed at a particular location and to review its publicly stated business category, address, phone number, website, operating hours and closure status. Yelp is not used to identify job titles, employees, decision-makers, personal email addresses or direct professional contact details.
Indeed
Indeed is one of the largest job search engines out there, launched in 2004 and now running in dozens of countries. We use it to understand hiring patterns and which roles a company is actively recruiting for, not as a general source for executive or decision-maker data.
Industry Trade Associations
Trade and professional associations keep membership directories organized by industry vertical, and membership usually requires an active business in that field, which works as a form of built-in verification. We treat association membership as a strong signal for industry classification, not for individual contact details, which still need confirming through a second source. Licensing terms vary by association and are checked before any directory gets used.
- Technology Users
- Professionals
- Industry
Small Business Expo
Small Business Expo has been running events for small business owners and entrepreneurs since 2008, with more than 225 conferences held so far. People sign up to attend, and that registration includes their name, company, and role. We use that data specifically for the small business and entrepreneur segments of our lists.
FABTECH
FABTECH is one of the bigger manufacturing technology expos, and it brings together suppliers, manufacturers, and buyers from across the industry. Attendees register themselves, which gives us name, company, and job title. We only apply this to the manufacturing segments of our technology and industry lists, not more broadly.
Enterprise Connect
Enterprise Connect runs conferences for people working in enterprise IT and unified communications, covering everything from cloud to collaboration tools. Registration is opt-in, same as our other event sources, and it gives us name, company, and title. We apply this specifically to enterprise IT and communications segments.
- Technology Users
- Customer Base
Web-Facing Technology Detection
We scan public-facing parts of a company’s website, along with job postings that mention specific tools, to figure out what software they are actually running. It is automated, and it is the main way we detect technology usage at scale, but we always check it against a second source before trusting it.
Vendor Case Studies & Partner Directories
Software vendors often publish their own customer stories, and they maintain directories of official partners and marketplace listings. When a vendor names a customer directly, or lists them in a partner directory, that tells us not just that a company uses the platform but which specific product or edition. It is about as confident as this kind of signal gets.
Data sources & methodology - frequently asked questions
No. Every record will be confirmed by at least two independent sources before it enters the verification pipeline.
Both. Automated cross-matching handles initial screening at scale; a trained human analyst reviews flagged, ambiguous, or high-value records before approval.
Yes. The source list is reviewed quarterly by the Data Quality team to confirm that each source remains relevant, reliable and appropriate for its intended use.
It gets pulled. Sources are reviewed quarterly, and one that stops meeting our standard is removed.
Yes. Technology Users, Customer Base, Professionals, and Industry all go through the same five-stage pipeline.
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Compliance
If a source on this page looks outdated or wrong, we want to know.
Contact the Data Quality team directly
