How it works01 Data sourcing
No single database covers your buy box.
We keep a directory of 200+ primary sources, pull the ones that fit your criteria, then standardize, resolve, enrich and validate. The 5% no one else has is the whole point.
Mandate recordSample
AX-2026-042
- Industry
- Precision machining · NAICS 332
- Geography
- Texas · Southeast US
- Size
- 10 to 50 employees · owner-operated
- Structure
- Full acquisition · majority control
This record drives the whole build.
01Why coverage is the hard part
Every new source is 95% redundant. We buy the other 5%.
Add a niche licensing board to the databases you already have and 70 to 95% comes back duplicate. Most teams stop there. That slice is where the companies no one else is calling live, so every source that plausibly overlaps your criteria goes into the run.
Which makes it a data engineering problem: two hundred sources, two hundred shapes, the same company spelled five ways.
- Select
- The right sources
- Every source whose coverage touches your criteria, from the big databases down to one state licensing board.
- Standardize
- One schema
- Each source arrives in its own shape and is normalized before anything downstream touches it.
- Resolve
- One company
- Entity matching across name variants, DBAs and addresses collapses the redundant 95% into one record.
- Enrich
- Only the gaps
- A metered cascade fills owner, direct line and email only where missing. We pay for gaps, not re-buys.
- Validate
- Two layers
- Every email and phone is verified. Anything unverified never reaches a caller.
The result: a list built for your mandate, not exported to it. One clean record per company, most of them absent from whatever competitors bought off the shelf.
02Where it starts
The list is built against your criteria.
Every run starts from a mandate record: the industries you buy in, the geography, the size signals that mark the right company.
Generic databaseOff the shelf
- Built for
- Every buyer in your category
- Records
- The same export, sold to all of them
- Owners
- Already heard from the last three
Axia buildYour mandate
- Built for
- One mandate record
- Records
- One clean record per company
- Owners
- Mostly absent from bought lists
03The source directory
We publish the directory.
Named sources across eleven families, each with what it yields. This is the library, not the run: a mandate draws the subset that matches its industries and geography, usually a few dozen.
AWhere we start
- Apollo
- ZoomInfo
- LinkedIn Sales Navigator
- Google Maps / Google Places
- Yelp
- Angi (formerly Angie's List)
- HomeAdvisor
- Thumbtack
- ThomasNet
- Better Business Bureau listings
- Dun & Bradstreet (D&B Hoovers)
- Data Axle (formerly Infogroup / ReferenceUSA)
- Grata
- SourceScrub
- PitchBook
- Hunter.io
- RocketReach
Broad and fast. They prove a company exists. Every buyer in your category can buy the same export, so on their own they are a floor, not a list.
BWhat we add on top
- Entity & officer filings
- Contractor & trade licensing
- Healthcare & clinical licensing
- Professional & financial registries
- Federal regulatory & safety
- Franchise (FDD) registries
- Transport, energy & environment
- Liens, distress & timing
- Trade bodies & certification
- Directories & marketplaces
- Government data & contracting
- Property & owner records
- Social, forums & hiring signals
- Market sizing (counts only)
312 primary sources, mostly bulk downloads and open APIs. The registries and licence boards are why the same contacts do not reach every buyer in your category, and where a company gets an owner with a name.
Primary-source directory12 of 329
- ApolloBroad role-and-firmographic coverage as the first passMainstream databases & local directories
- FL Sunbiz: Division of CorporationsOfficers, directors, entity age (SFTP bulk)Entity & officer filings
- California CSLBLicensee/qualifier name, class, bond (free bulk)Contractor & trade licensing
- NPPES / NPI RegistryEvery licensed provider nationally + authorised officialHealthcare & clinical licensing
- NASBA CPAverifyAggregated state accountancy licenseesProfessional & financial registries
- DOL OSHA IMISInspections, citations, injury flags (bulk/API)Federal regulatory & safety
- NASAA FRED / EFDFederated multi-state FDD filingsFranchise (FDD) registries
- FMCSA MCMIS company censusEvery registered carrier, fleet size (free bulk)Transport, energy & environment
- TX SoS UCC bulkSecured-lender liens = debt and asset signalsLiens, distress & timing
- USDA Organic INTEGRITY DatabaseCertified organic operations and contactsTrade bodies & certification
- BizBuySellOwner actively selling, direct intentDirectories & marketplaces
- SBA PPP loan data (FOIA)Borrower name, address, NAICS, jobs reported and loan size for ~11M loansGovernment data & contracting
04The narrowing
Start with the block. Carve away everything outside your mandate.
The raw universe carries dead registrations, off-mandate companies and contacts that fail verification. Each stage removes a layer.
Universe narrowingSample
- 4,200−1,060Dead registrations and duplicate entities
- 3,140−1,300Outside industry, geography or size signals
- 1,840−600No owner resolved to a named person
- 1,240−253Email or phone failed the gate
- 987Confirmed, reachable, in mandate
987 confirmed targetsSample figures from one build.
05The verification gate
Three gates before anyone dials. Email twice, phone once.
Gate 1Accept · reject · escalate
Email, first verifier
Clean accepts. Invalid or disposable rejects. Catch-all escalates to the second verifier.
Gate 2Independent
Email, second verifier
Verified clean is accepted. A fail is rejected and the record falls to the next provider in the cascade.
Gate 3Every number
Phone verifier
A line-type lookup on every number, no sampling. Mobile, landline and VoIP separated. Dead lines drop; appended mobiles are manual-dial only.
Two verifiers disagree often enough that a single pass ships bounces. A provider labelling a number a cell is coverage; the line-type lookup proves the line.
06One record, end to end
What actually happens to a single company.
One fictional record, walked through every step of the build in order.
Record resolutionSample
- Entity foundPrecision Parts Inc. · TX · active, filed 2004SOS filing
- Entity enrichedPrecision machining · 18 yrs in business · est. $3 to 8M revenueEnrichment
- Owner foundJ. Morales, managing member. County DBA agrees.County DBA
- Filtered against criteriaNAICS 332 · TX · 10 to 50 employees. In mandate.Mandate
- Email and phone sourcedj.morales@[domain] · 555-0142Sourced
- Email verified twiceGate 1 catch-all, escalated. Gate 2 verified clean, accepted.Email gate
- Phone verified555-0142 · cell · confirmed reachablePhone gate
- Added to outreach sequenceOne verified record enters the sequence.Committed
Fictional record. Phone is 555-01xx.
Multiply that by the count.
Inside fifteen business days of agreeing criteria: the counted universe, fixed in writing.
How it worksKeep reading