If you’ve ever burned hours digging for company info to build your ABM lists, you know how tedious—and pointless—it can feel. This guide is for B2B marketers, SDRs, and ops folks who want to stop copying-pasting from LinkedIn and start automating the boring stuff. We’ll walk through how to use Thecompaniesapi to automatically gather company data, spot your best-fit accounts, and keep your research pipeline humming—even if you’re not a developer. If you want honest advice, not sales pitches, you’re in the right place.
What is Thecompaniesapi and Why Should You Care?
Thecompaniesapi is an API that pulls company data—think firmographics, employee counts, tech stack, industries, and more. You send a request with a company name or domain, and it spits back structured info. The pitch is simple: automate the research step in your account based marketing (ABM) workflow so you can actually spend your time on outreach, not hunting for headquarters addresses.
Is it perfect? No. Sometimes the data’s out of date or missing for obscure companies. But if you’re tired of cobbling together lists from ten browser tabs, it’s a big step up.
Step 1: Get Your API Access
Before you can do anything, you’ll need API access. Here’s how it usually works:
- Sign up on Thecompaniesapi’s website. This part is straightforward.
- Grab your API key from your dashboard. Treat it like a password—don’t share it or put it in public code repositories.
- Check the docs. Most APIs have a “Getting Started” page. Read it, even if you’re impatient.
Pro Tip: Start with the free tier if there is one. See if the data quality matches your needs before you commit.
Step 2: Define Your Ideal Customer Profile (ICP)
Automation only helps if you know what you’re looking for. Get specific:
- Industry: Which industries do you care about?
- Company size: Headcount? Revenue?
- Tech Stack: Do you only want folks using, say, Salesforce or AWS?
- Location: Are there countries or regions you want to target or avoid?
- Other factors: Funding stage, website keywords, or anything else that matters to your team.
Write this down—seriously. Even a Google Doc is fine. You’ll need it for filtering later.
Step 3: Build Your Input List
The API can look up a company by domain, name, or sometimes both. Where do you get your initial list?
- Cold lists: Export domains from LinkedIn Sales Navigator or Crunchbase.
- Warm leads: Use your CRM to pull recent inbound companies.
- Events: Gather attendee lists (be careful with privacy here).
What works: Clean, deduplicated lists with accurate domains. What doesn’t: Company names with typos, missing domains, or weird formatting. The more “raw” your list, the more cleanup you’ll do later.
Step 4: Make Your First API Call
Here’s the meat of it. You’ll need to send a request to the API for each company.
The basics (in Python, but you can use any language):
python import requests
api_key = 'YOUR_API_KEY' company_domain = 'acme.com' url = f'https://api.thecompaniesapi.com/v1/company/{company_domain}'
headers = { 'Authorization': f'Bearer {api_key}' }
response = requests.get(url, headers=headers) if response.status_code == 200: data = response.json() print(data) else: print(f"Error: {response.status_code}")
- Batching: Most APIs let you request multiple companies at once. Use this to avoid hitting rate limits (and your own patience).
- Error handling: Expect some misses—companies with no data, bad requests, or rate limits. Don’t panic, just log and move on.
Pro Tip: Test a handful first. Don’t script your whole list and then realize you burned your monthly quota on typos.
Step 5: Filter and Enrich Your Data
Now you’ve got a pile of JSON responses—great. But not every company will match your ICP. Here’s where you filter:
- Industry: API will return NAICS/SIC codes or plain-text industries. Match against your target list.
- Size: Employee count, revenue range, etc.
- Tech stack: Some APIs return “technologies used.” Use this to include/exclude companies.
- HQ location: Filter out regions you don’t care about.
What works: Automate this in a script or with a spreadsheet import. Look for obvious mismatches and duplicates.
What doesn’t: Blindly trusting the API. Sometimes company sizes are wrong or industries are generic (“Information Technology”). Spot check, especially early on.
Step 6: Push Qualified Accounts Into Your ABM Workflow
You’ve got a filtered, enriched list. Where does it go?
- CRM: Import the list into Salesforce, HubSpot, or whatever you use. Map fields carefully.
- ABM tools: Platforms like Demandbase or 6sense often let you import target accounts.
- Manual review: For high-value deals, have sales or marketing eyeball the list before outreach.
What works: Automate the import if you can, but keep a manual review step for your highest-value accounts. What doesn’t: Dumping in hundreds of unfiltered records. You’ll just clog up your CRM.
Step 7: Keep It Fresh (and Avoid Garbage In, Garbage Out)
Company data ages fast. People move jobs, companies pivot, funding changes. Don’t make this a one-off project:
- Set up regular refreshes: Schedule a monthly or quarterly API run to update data.
- Handle changes: Watch for companies that go out of business or drastically change size/industry.
- Monitor API costs: Automated calls can rack up bills fast if you’re not careful.
Pro Tip: If you’re targeting a small number of whales, focus on quality over quantity. For big lists, automate more but accept a little noise.
Realistic Pros and Cons
Where Thecompaniesapi shines: - Saves you hours of manual research. - Can surface data you’d otherwise miss (like tech stack or funding). - Integrates well with most sales/marketing platforms.
Where it falls short: - Data isn’t always perfect—especially for small or international companies. - API quotas and costs can add up fast. - You’ll still need human review for nuance (e.g., “Is this company actually a fit, or just looks like it on paper?”).
What to ignore: - “Real-time everything.” Most B2B data is a little stale; don’t sweat it unless you’re in a fast-moving industry. - Hype about AI-powered enrichment. The basics—name, size, industry—matter most.
Common Pitfalls (And How to Dodge Them)
- Over-automating: Don’t skip manual checks, especially for your top-tier accounts.
- Bad input data: Garbage in, garbage out. Double-check your input list.
- Ignoring privacy: Respect data privacy laws—don’t scrape or store more than you need.
If you’re not technical, pair up with someone who is for the initial setup. After that, most people can run with it.
Wrapping Up: Keep It Simple
Automating ABM research with Thecompaniesapi isn’t magic, but it does save time on the grunt work. Start small, test your filters, and don’t overcomplicate it. The goal isn’t a perfectly clean list—it’s a list that’s good enough to get you talking to the right companies, faster. Iterate as you go, and remember: done is better than perfect.