You Don’t Get To Choose Your ICP

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Welcome back!

When we first started Chezie, we were convinced we knew exactly who our ideal customer was:

• Tech company

• 1,000-5,000 employees

• DEI team of 3 or more

• 6+ ERGs

… plus a bunch of other stuff that we wanted to be true. We were so confident about it that we built an entire scoring rubric based on these factors:

The logic seemed solid – they're modern, progressive, have younger workforces, and are more open to trying new software. Plus (if I'm being completely honest), the logos looked great on our website. DocuSign, Twilio, PagerDuty? Pretty sexy names to drop in investor meetings.

But after spending nearly three years chasing this assumption, we're realizing something interesting: we might have been wrong about our Ideal Customer Profile (ICP).

The Reality Check

Those bigger, "less sexy" companies – the ones in financial services, manufacturing, or other traditional industries – often make better customers. While their logos might not be as flashy as the latest tech unicorn, they typically have:

• More established HR teams

• Larger DEI budgets

• More consistent buying processes

• Similar (and sometimes faster) sales cycles

It’s been a humbling experience to say the least. We spent years defining our ICP based on who we wanted our customers to be, instead of letting the market tell us who our best customers actually are.

Why Having the Right ICP Matters

The ultimate goal of any startup is repeatability. Ideally, you want to be reaching out to prospects, pitching them, and onboarding them in exactly the same way. A clear ICP makes this possible.

Why is this so important? Let me give you an example. In the early days of Chezie, we were basically taking meetings with anyone who would talk to us. While I still think this is the right thing to do for an early-stage company, taking calls with anyone meant we were:

• Using different outreach messages for different industries

• Customizing our pitch deck for every meeting

• Creating unique onboarding processes for each customer

• Building features that only solved problems for specific customers

None of this was scalable or repeatable. When you try to serve everyone, you end up serving no one.

But when you have a clear ICP, everything gets easier:

• You know exactly who to target

• You can perfect a single, effective pitch

• You can build features that solve specific problems

• You can create standardized onboarding

• Your entire company can speak the same language about who you serve and why

Without one, you're stuck juggling multiple approaches for different types of customers. While that's necessary when you're just starting out, at some point you need to nail down which customers get the most value from your product and figure out how to consistently get in front of them. E.g., you need to define your ICP.

How to Find Your Real ICP

Here are three things we've learned about identifying your true ICP:

1. Watch for Real Enthusiasm (Not Just Interest)

There's a huge difference between what I call "pilot interest" and genuine interest. Here's how to spot it:

Pilot Interest - These people are fake interested but are looking for a reason to say “no”

• "Can we do a pilot?"

• "Who else do you work with?"

• Focusing on features you don't have yet

Genuine Interest - These people are excited about what you’re building and looking for a reason to say “yes”

• "What are our next steps?"

• "How much does it cost?"

• "How long does it take to implement?"

2. Study Your Competitors

One of our biggest revelations came from studying our largest competitor's customer base. While we were chasing tech startups, they were landing Fortune 500 companies. This helped us realize there might be an opportunity in targeting companies with 5,000-25,000 employees – not quite as large as our competitor's typical customer, but definitely bigger than where we'd been focusing.

3. Focus on What You Do Well Right Now

It's easy to get caught up in your product's future potential. We made this mistake early on – pitching to bigger companies before we had certain integrations ready because we knew we'd build them eventually.

The problem is, your product roadmap will change. It’s inevitable. So if you sign customers based on features that you tell them you’re going to build, you’re either going to be on the hook for those features or you’re going to let the customer down when you don’t ultimately build them.

Your ICP should be interested in whatever version of your product you have right now (+/- 3 months). If you're selling based on features that won't exist for 2-3 years, you're probably targeting the wrong customers.

Continuously Refine Your ICP

Your ICP isn't set in stone – it's more like a living document that evolves with your company. In our early days at Chezie, we were tweaking our ICP monthly as we learned more about our market and customers. Now, we review it whenever something clearly isn't working or when we notice significant patterns in our sales process.

When you first start your company, you have one product and one goal: figure out your ICP as quickly as possible. Getting clear on who your best customers are is critical because it's a key signal that you're moving toward product-market fit. Every sales conversation, every closed deal, and every churned customer gives you data about who your product serves best.

Mo Products, Mo (Ideal Customer) Personas

As a business grows, it eventually exhausts the potential ICP base of available customers. At that point, the only way to continue to grow is to launch a new product that allows the business to either sell more to the same ICP or sell to a new ICP.

Guess what? Each new product means going through the ICP identification process all over again.

Remember: refining your ICP isn't about completely changing course. It's about making small adjustments based on market feedback and real customer data. As you grow, you'll constantly be balancing between serving your core ICP well and exploring new ones through product expansion.

The Bottom Line

If I could go back and give myself advice about identifying our ICP, it would be simple: let the market tell you what your ICP is, don't try to define it yourself.

Yes, it's cool to have flashy tech companies as customers. But we've learned that sometimes the less sexy companies make the best partners – they have bigger budgets, more stable teams, and more consistent needs.

Your ICP isn't about who you want your customers to be. It's about who actually gets the most value from your product right now.

If you have thoughts about finding your ICP or want to share your own experience, reply to this email! Would love to hear from you 🤝

Catch you next week,

Toby