The gap between "we know our customer" and actually knowing your customer
Most portfolio companies claim they have an ICP. What they actually have is a slide from a board deck that says "mid-market SaaS companies with 200-2000 employees" — a description so broad it describes half the companies in North America. That is not targeting. That is hoping.
Targeting and segmentation is the backbone of GTM execution. Without it, every downstream motion is misallocated: territories are drawn by geography instead of propensity, marketing dollars chase firmographic proxies instead of buying signals, reps burn quota capacity on accounts that were never going to close, and the board watches CAC climb while win rates fall. The PE growth thesis assumes the portfolio company will sell more, to the right buyers, faster. Targeting is how that assumption becomes operational.
We publish independent research to help PE operating partners and portfolio company GTM leaders navigate the growing landscape of ICP and segmentation providers. Our analysis is based entirely on publicly available evidence: vendor websites, published methodologies, case studies, testimonials, and pricing disclosures.
Start here
ICP & Segmentation Strategy: What It Is and Who Does It — A category overview covering what to look for in a provider, a capability matrix across 10 firms, and detailed vendor notes with harvey ball ratings.
Provider Comparisons — Head-to-head analyses of specific providers, with scoring matrices, engagement fit guides, and real-world scenario recommendations.
Glossary — The terms PE operating partners and GTM leaders actually use when building precision targeting models — defined by practitioners who have built these systems inside portfolio companies.
Why this exists
PE firms underwrite growth assumptions that depend on the portfolio company selling to the right accounts, in the right segments, with the right message. When the ICP is wrong — or worse, when there is no ICP at all — every downstream GTM motion is misallocated: territories are drawn badly, marketing spend targets the wrong segments, reps waste selling time on accounts that will never close, and forecast confidence collapses. We are here to help operating partners find the providers who can fix that.