> Enrich.chat gives AI agents verified work emails and mobiles. To use it from an agent, read https://enrich.chat/agents.md . This is the Markdown version of https://enrich.chat/use-cases/startup-outbound/ # Outbound for startups: build a lead list on a founder's budget Filter by the technology a company runs, its funding stage and its size. Count the matches for free, then spend credits only on the people you will contact. By Enrich.chat Editorial. Updated October 19, 2026. **Short answer:** Startup outbound works best with a short list of companies that fit, built by the founder. On Enrich.chat you filter by technology, funding stage, size and industry, count the matches for free, and reveal work emails only for the people you will contact. Start with 10 free lookups a day and no signup, then move to Growth at $29 a month, with no seats and no annual contract. ## Key takeaways - Y Combinator's Max Kolysh says the first two or three customers come from your own network, and that prospecting tools matter once you have 10 to 20 customers. - The `uses`, `funding_stage`, `funded_since`, `company_size` and `industry` filters build a fit list. Counts of companies and people are free. - A work email found uses 10 credits and each person read in search results uses 5. A steady month of 6,000 credits fits the Growth plan at $29 a month. - A co-founder or first sales hire joins on the same plan with no seat fee. Lists, saved searches and the do-not-contact list are shared, and the owner's credits pay for everyone. - Enrich.chat finds contacts. It does not send email or run sequences, so you send from your own inbox or tool. ## What a founder needs from a lead data tool - **Start with no signup.** 10 free lookups a day per IP address, with no key. A lookup that finds nothing does not count. - **Fit filters.** Technology used, funding stage, investors, company size, industry, growth and location, plus filters to leave out accounts you already have. - **Free counts.** Count companies and people before you read a row. Counts use no lookups and no credits. - **Reveal who you contact.** A work email costs 10 credits and a mobile 250. Nothing found, nothing used. - **No seats, no contract.** Unlimited seats on every plan, billed monthly, cancel anytime. A co-founder shares your lists and credits. - **Run it from your agent.** Add the MCP server or paste one prompt. Claude, ChatGPT and Cursor can run the whole loop. ## From fit filters to a first email 1. **Describe the buyer.** Type who you want in plain English, or set filters in the dashboard. A live count shows how many match, for free. 2. **Narrow until you can write by hand.** Add technology, funding stage and size until the list is small enough to read and personalize. 3. **Reveal, export, send.** Reveal work emails for the people you will contact, export CSV or XLSX, and send from your own tool. ## How should a startup do outbound on a small budget? Work your own network first, then message a short list of companies that fit, by hand. That is the order Y Combinator visiting partner [Max Kolysh describes](https://www.ycombinator.com/library/SF-how-to-get-your-first-10-customers) after hearing from dozens of YC founders. The first two or three customers came from friends, former colleagues and people one introduction away. Customers 4 through 10 came from work that does not scale, such as researched emails and personal LinkedIn messages. Prospecting tools started to matter after 10 to 20 customers. Paul Graham makes a similar point in [Do Things that Don't Scale](https://paulgraham.com/ds.html). Startups cannot wait for users to find them, so founders recruit the first ones by hand. **Figure 1: Where early customers come from, by stage.** Three stages after Y Combinator's Max Kolysh. Customers 1 to 3 come from your own network. Customers 4 to 10 come from work that does not scale, such as researched emails and personal messages. Customers 10 to 50 come from a tested pitch with tools and sequences. A short hand-built lead list fits the second stage and bigger lists fit the third. *The stages follow Y Combinator visiting partner Max Kolysh. The bottom row is our note. Source: [Y Combinator Startup School](https://www.ycombinator.com/library/SF-how-to-get-your-first-10-customers).* Email is not always the right channel. Kolysh describes a founder who spent months emailing buyers in a legacy industry, then closed more in three days on a trade show floor than in three months of cold email. Spend an hour on where your buyer spends the day before you build any list. Enrich.chat handles the list step: companies that fit, the right people at them, and their work emails. It does not send anything. ## How do you find companies that fit your product? Filter on what you already know about your best buyer: the technology they run, when they last raised, their size and their industry. [Lenny Rachitsky's write-up of early B2B customers](https://www.lennysnewsletter.com/p/how-to-win-your-first-10-b2b-customers) quotes Retool's David Hsu, who says the team filtered Crunchbase by when a company last raised and by vertical, then emailed the CTO and the VP of operations. Enrich.chat has filters of the same kind in its [company search](https://enrich.chat/features/company-search/) and [people search](https://enrich.chat/features/people-search/). | What you know | Filter | Example value | | --- | --- | --- | | They run a tool you work with | `uses` | `hubspot` | | They raised recently | `funding_stage`, `funded_since` | `Series A`, `2026-01-01` | | They are the right size | `company_size` | `11-50` | | They are in your industry | `industry` | `Software Development` | | They are growing | `growth_min` (percent in a year) | `20` | | A known investor backs them | `investor`, `total_funding_min` | A firm's name, `5000000` | | They already have a sales team | `sales_roles_min` (a team-size signal) | `10` | | The buyer has a clear title | `title`, `level`, `function` | `head of marketing` | | You already sell to them | `exclude_domains`, `exclude_company_name` | `staffing` | Size is a band, not an exact headcount, and `funding_stage` is a company's latest stage. List exact values for free with `GET /v1/facets/technology` or another facet name. A wrong value returns `unknown_filter_value` with `did_you_mean`. The [technographic search](https://enrich.chat/features/technographic-search/) page covers technology filters in more depth. Count before you read. `GET /v1/companies/count` and `GET /v1/search/count` take the same filters as a search and use no credits. Narrow until the list is small enough to message by hand. The [market sizing](https://enrich.chat/use-cases/market-sizing/) page shows how to use counts to judge whether a segment is worth your time. When your ideal buyer is rare, write the list as match tiers. Tier 1 is heads of marketing at Series A software companies that use HubSpot. Tier 2 drops the technology, and tier 3 widens the title. Each person appears once with a score from 100 down to 10, so you write to tier 1 first. Counts for a tier set are free. A tier search is billed like a normal one, 5 credits for each person shown on a plan. See [match tiers](https://enrich.chat/features/match-tiers/). **Figure 2: The People search screen: filters, a live count and results.** A drawing of the dashboard People search screen. Filters for job title, industry, funding stage, technology and country sit on the left. On the right a free live count of matches, three result rows showing name, title, company and whether an email and a mobile are held, and a footer with reveal prices. The numbers and people are examples. *The dashboard People search screen, drawn as a diagram. Filters on the left, a free live count and results on the right. Numbers and people are made up.* In the dashboard at [/app/](https://enrich.chat/app/) you log in with an email and a 6-digit code, with no password. The count updates as you edit filters. Keep a filter set as a saved search, and save people to a [list](https://enrich.chat/features/lists-and-export/) with a tag and a note. A co-founder or first sales hire you invite on the [team page](https://enrich.chat/features/team-workspaces/) sees the same lists and saved searches and spends from the same credits. ## How much does Enrich.chat cost for startup outbound? Start free and move up only when a month needs it. Every IP address gets 10 free lookups a day with no signup and no key. One search uses one lookup however many people it returns, and each work email found uses one more. A day covers one search of up to 25 people and up to nine work emails. Counts, filter lists and anything not found do not count. On a plan, credits replace lookups. A work email found uses 10 credits, a mobile 250, and each person read in search results 5. Plans are Growth $29 for 100,000 credits, Scale $90 for 500,000 credits, Pro $299 for 2,500,000 credits. Every plan has every product and unlimited seats, bills monthly and cancels anytime, with no annual contract. Credits renew with each monthly payment and unused credits do not roll over. | Month | What you do | Credits | Plan and bill | | --- | --- | --- | --- | | First list | 50 work emails from 100 people read in search | 1,000 | Growth, $29 a month | | Steady month | 300 work emails from 600 people read | 6,000 | Growth, $29 a month | | Heavy month | 2,000 work emails from 4,000 people read, plus 100 mobiles | 65,000 | Growth, $29 a month | | Push month | 5,000 work emails from 10,000 people read, plus 300 mobiles | 175,000 | Scale, $90 a month | **Figure 3: Three founder workloads against one month of Growth credits.** A bar chart of credits used in a month. A first list of 50 work emails and 100 people read uses 1,000 credits. A steady month of 300 emails and 600 people read uses 6,000. A heavy month of 2,000 emails, 4,000 people read and 100 mobiles uses 65,000. The Growth plan includes 100,000 credits each month. *Credits used in three example months, drawn to scale against the Growth plan's monthly credits. The workloads are examples, priced with the public credit rates on the [pricing page](https://enrich.chat/pricing/).* The bill is the plan price. At Growth's own per-credit rate, the steady month's credits are worth $1.74, and the plan costs $29 either way. Mobiles are the expensive part, so ask for them only when you will call. See the [pricing page](https://enrich.chat/pricing/) for the full rate card. ## How does Enrich.chat fit a founder's week? You count, search, reveal and then send from your own tool. The steps below use the three requests in the code window at the top of this page. 1. **Count.** `GET /v1/companies/count` says how many companies match. It costs nothing, and `free_lookups_remaining` stays the same. 2. **Search.** `GET /v1/search`, the [people search API](https://enrich.chat/api/people-search/), returns up to 25 people per call with name, title, company, level and whether an email and a mobile are held. Results come best first, and `next_cursor` pages up to 1,000 people. 3. **Reveal.** `GET /v1/person?person_id=&fields=email` returns the work email with a status of verified, catch_all or unknown. Treat catch_all as risky and every contact as a strong lead, not a guarantee. 4. **Send.** Add people to a list, export it as CSV or XLSX, and write the email yourself. Y Combinator's [Max Kolysh advises](https://www.ycombinator.com/library/SF-how-to-get-your-first-10-customers) keeping it under 75 words, asking for one clear thing, and following up three or four times over a couple of weeks. ```text Use www.enrich.chat to count US software companies that use HubSpot and raised a Series A since January 2026, then list the heads of marketing there and show the work email status for the first five ``` Your agent can run the same loop. Add the MCP server at enrich.chat/mcp for 10 free lookups a day with no sign-in, or enrich.chat/mcp/oauth to use your plan's credits. The [install page](https://enrich.chat/install/) has steps for Claude, ChatGPT, Cursor, VS Code and Codex. If you already have a spreadsheet of names and company websites, [bulk enrich](https://enrich.chat/features/bulk-enrichment/) finds work emails for up to 5,000 rows per run. Run it on the server as a [background job](https://enrich.chat/features/background-jobs/) and it keeps going after you close the tab. ## What should you check before you send cold email? Check the law, your sending reputation and your list. In the US, the FTC's [CAN-SPAM guide](https://www.ftc.gov/business-guidance/resources/can-spam-act-compliance-guide-business) says the law makes no exception for business-to-business email. It requires honest headers and subject lines, a postal address, a working opt-out, and opt-outs honored within 10 business days. The UK is different. The ICO says the [consent rule for marketing email does not apply to corporate subscribers](https://ico.org.uk/for-organisations/direct-marketing-and-privacy-and-electronic-communications/business-to-business-marketing/), but it does apply to sole traders and some partnerships. UK GDPR still covers a work address that identifies a person, and that person can object to direct marketing. Calls and texts to mobiles fall under other rules, covered in our [TCPA guide](https://enrich.chat/blog/tcpa-b2b-cold-calling/). Gmail sets its own bar. [Google's sender guidelines](https://support.google.com/a/answer/81126) ask every sender to authenticate with SPF or DKIM and to keep the spam rate in Postmaster Tools below 0.3%. Senders of more than 5,000 messages a day to Gmail need more. Small, targeted batches to people who fit keep complaints low. Our guides to [cold email data](https://enrich.chat/blog/cold-email/) and [email bounce rates](https://enrich.chat/blog/email-bounce-rate/) cover list quality. In Enrich.chat, add emails, company websites or LinkedIn profiles to your team's shared [do not contact list](https://enrich.chat/features/do-not-contact/) and they are left out of every list export and background job. Opt-outs from [enrich.chat/opt-out/](https://enrich.chat/opt-out/) are applied to every result. This is not legal advice, and using Enrich.chat does not make anyone compliant. You are responsible for TCPA, CAN-SPAM and GDPR. ## What does Enrich.chat not do for startup outbound? - **No sending or sequences.** It finds contacts. Sending and follow-ups happen in your own mail tool. - **No Chrome extension and no intent data or alerts.** You search when you choose to. - **No SSO and no per-person credit limits.** A co-founder shares your lists and credits, but you cannot cap what each person spends. - **Jobs have limits.** A background job holds at most 5,000 rows, results are kept 30 days, and a webhook announces finished jobs only. - **At most 1,000 results per search.** Narrow the filters to go deeper. - **Companies by website, not name.** A company lookup needs a domain, and work emails only come from the email input, not personal mailboxes. If your buyers do not live in their inbox, a list will not fix that. Talk to them first, as the Y Combinator talk advises, and use [the free email finder](https://enrich.chat/tools/email-finder/) or the [email finder API](https://enrich.chat/api/email-finder/) when you do need an address. ## Frequently asked questions ### Can a startup do outbound for free? Yes, to start. Enrich.chat gives every IP address 10 free lookups a day with no signup and no key. Counts, filter lists and lookups that find nothing do not use a lookup. One search of up to 25 people is one lookup, and each work email found is another. When a month needs more, the Growth plan is $29 for 100,000 credits. ### Should founders do their own outbound? In the early stage, yes. Y Combinator's [Max Kolysh](https://www.ycombinator.com/library/SF-how-to-get-your-first-10-customers) says customers 4 through 10 come from work that does not scale, done by the founder. [Paul Graham](https://paulgraham.com/ds.html) argues that founders recruit the first users by hand. Hire or automate after you have a pitch that works and a list of buyers who answer. ### How much does it cost to get 300 work emails? 300 work emails use 3,000 credits. If you also read 600 people in search results to find them, add 3,000, for 6,000 in total. That fits the Growth plan at $29 a month. Searches and emails that find nothing use 0 credits. Credits renew with each monthly payment and unused credits do not roll over. ### Can I filter companies by funding stage or the software they use? Yes. Use `funding_stage` and `funded_since` for funding, and `uses` for technology, such as `uses=hubspot`. A company must use every technology you list. Add `company_size`, `industry`, `growth_min` or `country` to narrow it. `GET /v1/facets/` lists the exact values for free. ### Does Enrich.chat send the cold emails? No. Enrich.chat finds companies, people and work emails. It has no email sending, sequences or dialer. Export CSV or XLSX from a list, or let your agent read the results, and send from your own inbox or sending tool. Each work email comes back with a status of verified, catch_all or unknown, so you can decide whom to send to. ### Is cold email legal for a startup? It depends on where you and the recipient are. The FTC's [CAN-SPAM guide](https://www.ftc.gov/business-guidance/resources/can-spam-act-compliance-guide-business) says US law makes no exception for business-to-business email. The UK ICO treats corporate and individual subscribers differently. This is not legal advice, and using Enrich.chat does not make anyone compliant. ## Sources 1. [How to Get Your First 10 Customers](https://www.ycombinator.com/library/SF-how-to-get-your-first-10-customers) 2. [Do Things that Don't Scale](https://paulgraham.com/ds.html) 3. [How to win your first 10 B2B customers](https://www.lennysnewsletter.com/p/how-to-win-your-first-10-b2b-customers) 4. [CAN-SPAM Act: A Compliance Guide for Business](https://www.ftc.gov/business-guidance/resources/can-spam-act-compliance-guide-business) 5. [Email sender guidelines](https://support.google.com/a/answer/81126) 6. [Business-to-business marketing](https://ico.org.uk/for-organisations/direct-marketing-and-privacy-and-electronic-communications/business-to-business-marketing/) ## Examples **1. Count** ```text # Free: no lookup, no credits curl "https://enrich.chat/v1/companies/count?industry=Software%20Development&funding_stage=Series%20A&funded_since=2026-01-01&uses=hubspot&country=United%20States" # Example response (illustrative numbers) { "count": 120, "interpreted_as": { "industry": ["Software Development"], "funding_stage": ["Series A"], "funded_since": "2026-01-01", "uses": ["hubspot"], "country": ["United States"] }, "credits_used": 0, "free_lookups_remaining": 10 } ``` **2. Search** ```text # One search is one free lookup curl "https://enrich.chat/v1/search?title=head%20of%20marketing&industry=Software%20Development&funding_stage=Series%20A&uses=hubspot&country=United%20States&limit=10" # Example response (fictional people) { "found": true, "count": 2, "people": [ {"id": "per_8Lm3vXk2QzR7TnYc", "name": "Priya Nair", "title": "Head of Marketing", "company": "Brightloop", "company_domain": "brightloop.example.com", "level": "director", "has_email": true, "has_mobile": false}, {"id": "per_2Qd9sBn4WxE6JcHv", "name": "Marcus Webb", "title": "Head of Growth", "company": "Tallow Labs", "company_domain": "tallowlabs.example.com", "level": "director", "has_email": true, "has_mobile": true} ], "total_matches": 87, "next_cursor": "eyJyIjoyMn0", "credits_used": 10, "free_lookups_remaining": 9 } ``` **3. Reveal** ```text # Work email for one person from the search curl "https://enrich.chat/v1/person?person_id=per_8Lm3vXk2QzR7TnYc&fields=email" # Example response (fictional person) { "found": true, "id": "per_8Lm3vXk2QzR7TnYc", "name": "Priya Nair", "title": "Head of Marketing", "company": {"name": "Brightloop", "domain": "brightloop.example.com"}, "work_email": {"value": "priya.nair@brightloop.example.com", "status": "verified"}, "credits_used": 10, "free_lookups_remaining": 8 } ``` ## Prices | What you get | Credits | | --- | --- | | Work email found | 10 | | Mobile number found | 250 | | Company tech stack or profile found | 5 | 10 free lookups a day for every IP address, no signup. Nothing is charged when nothing is found. Monthly plans start at $29 for 100,000 credits. ## Try this prompt Build a startup outbound list ```text Use www.enrich.chat to count US software companies that use HubSpot and raised a Series A since January 2026, then list the heads of marketing there and show the work email status for the first five ``` ## Related - [Technographic search](https://enrich.chat/features/technographic-search/) - [Market sizing with free counts](https://enrich.chat/use-cases/market-sizing/) - [How to build a lead list](https://enrich.chat/use-cases/lead-list-building/)