Crustdata

What do they actually do

Crustdata provides live B2B company and people data through simple REST APIs. Teams can search and enrich records for companies and individuals, request specific fields (firmographics, growth and activity signals), and receive structured results suitable for CRMs and internal databases. The product is available now via self-serve API access and dataset feeds docs.

A real-time “Watcher” service lets customers subscribe to specific events—such as new funding, role changes, headcount shifts, job postings, and social posts—and receive immediate webhooks when those triggers fire. This is designed for automated workflows, agentic apps, and time-sensitive outreach Watcher docs.

Common workflows are: search → enrich → watch → webhook → automated action. Current users include AI SDR/sales automation tools, recruiting platforms, VC deal-sourcing tools, and internal sales/customer‑success teams. The team’s near-term roadmap focuses on expanding coverage/freshness, strengthening enterprise controls/SLAs, and making the schema “agent-ready” for direct consumption by AI agents YC profile seed blog.

Who are their target customer(s)

• AI SDR / sales automation platforms: They need fresh, triggerable signals (hires, funding, job posts) so outreach happens at the right moment. Existing sources are slow or inconsistent and require stitching and custom parsing, which breaks automated flows docs Watcher.
• Recruiting platforms and in‑house talent teams: They need timely discovery and change alerts (new roles, team moves, job posts). Public signals are noisy/duplicated and often out of date, forcing manual validation and higher ops cost docs.
• VC / growth‑equity deal‑sourcing tools: They need early momentum signs (funding, rapid hires, product activity) to prioritize outreach and diligence. Signals are scattered and delayed, causing missed opportunities or time spent monitoring many feeds seed blog YC profile.
• Internal sales and customer‑success teams (SMB/mid‑market): They need continuous enrichment and alerts so CRMs and playbooks reflect reality. Batch updates are not timely enough to trigger renewals, upsells, or churn prevention docs Watcher.
• Builders of agentic AI products and integrations: They need a single real‑time API with a compact, consistent schema so agents can act without heavy mapping or custom pipelines. Building crawlers, deduping, and webhook infrastructure in‑house is costly and brittle YC profile docs.

How would they acquire their first 10, 50, and 100 customers

• First 10: Run 6–8 week, hands‑on pilots with close‑fit users (AI SDRs, recruiting startups, VC tools) from YC and founder networks; set up custom Watcher rules, prove time‑to‑value, and convert with short commercial terms once webhooks drive measurable pipeline/automation wins docs Watcher.
• First 50: Product‑led scale using starter kits (templates for search/enrich/Watcher, webhook connectors) so developers can self‑serve; add targeted outbound by persona with case studies and 2–4 week POCs, plus light integrations (e.g., HubSpot/Outreach) to reduce setup time docs Watcher.
• First 100: Expand with channel partnerships (agent platforms, CRMs, ATSs) and an enterprise motion (AEs, technical onboarding, SLAs/secure feeds). Run a few marquee enterprise pilots to create repeatable playbooks and referenceable ROI.

What is the rough total addressable market

Top-down context:

Crustdata sits inside the broader sales intelligence/data enrichment category. The global sales intelligence market was about $3.26B in 2023 and is projected to reach $6.68B by 2030, a 10.8% CAGR, per Grand View Research Grand View Research.

Bottom-up calculation:

If Crustdata targets ~20,000 orgs (AI/GTM tooling vendors, recruiting platforms, data‑driven mid‑market teams) at an average $25k/year for API/webhook/data feeds, the bottom‑up TAM is roughly $500M/year.

Assumptions:

• Targetable buyers include software vendors and in‑house teams that programmatically consume B2B data (order‑of‑magnitude ~20k).
• Average contract value spans self‑serve to enterprise ($10k–$75k+), using $25k as a blended ARPA.
• TAM excludes adjacent segments (e.g., traditional list providers) and focuses on real‑time API/webhook use cases.

Who are some of their notable competitors

• ZoomInfo: Large sales intelligence provider with extensive company/people data, intent signals, and GTM tools. Broad coverage and workflows; less API‑first for real‑time webhooks vs. productized platforms.
• Clearbit: Well‑known B2B enrichment APIs for company and contact data used by GTM teams; strong integrations and self‑serve enrichment for marketing/sales ops.
• People Data Labs: Developer‑focused people and company data via API and bulk; often used for enrichment and matching in data products.
• Proxycurl: People and company profile APIs (e.g., role changes) popular with builders who need programmatic enrichment from public web sources.
• Crunchbase: Company and funding data with an API; widely used for tracking financing events and basic firmographics in prospecting and sourcing tools.