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Methodology & Editorial Policy

How Prospectiqa Works — Methodology & Standards

Transparency about how we enrich data, how we measure accuracy, and how we write about competitors. Published for users, researchers, and journalists.

Enrichment Methodology

Prospectiqa uses large language model AI (LLM) agents with real-time internet access to research B2B contact data. This is fundamentally different from querying a static database — every enrichment request triggers a live research session. Here is how it works step by step:

1. Multi-source real-time web research

For every contact record, Prospectiqa's AI simultaneously searches across 14+ source categories: company websites, LinkedIn-indexed profiles, professional directories, press releases, speaker bios, author pages, GitHub profiles, conference databases, industry association pages, and public regulatory filings. Unlike static databases that are queried from a pre-built index, every enrichment is a live research session.

2. Email pattern construction & cross-validation

The AI identifies known email addresses at the target company from any found source, infers the company's email format pattern (e.g. firstname.lastname@company.com), and applies the pattern to the target contact. It then cross-validates against any direct references to the contact's email found in public web content. Multiple pattern candidates are ranked by probability.

3. Confidence scoring

Each result is assigned a confidence score from 0 to 1. A score of 0.9+ indicates the email was found directly (verbatim match in public content). A score of 0.7–0.89 indicates a pattern-inferred email cross-validated against at least one corroborating source. A score below 0.7 is marked "partial" and indicates a best-estimate with lower certainty. We never suppress low-confidence results — we surface them with transparent scores so users can make informed decisions.

4. Phone number research

Phone enrichment searches for direct mobile numbers, direct work lines, and company switchboard numbers — in that priority order. Direct numbers are sourced from: public professional profiles, contact forms that include direct lines, speaker bio pages, press release contact sections, and professional directory listings. Switchboard numbers are retrieved as a fallback. Phone numbers undergo format validation and duplicate removal before being returned.

Accuracy Measurement

Email match rates are calculated as the percentage of input records for which at least one email address was returned. This includes both high-confidence and partial-confidence results.
Verified email rates refer to records where confidence score ≥ 0.8 — emails found directly or with strong cross-validation.
Phone match rates include any phone number found — direct mobiles, direct lines, and switchboards. Direct-only rates are approximately 60–70% of the total phone match rate.
All accuracy figures are based on internal analysis of production enrichment jobs and may vary based on input data quality, industry, contact seniority, and geography.
B2B contact data decays at approximately 30% per year. Real-time enrichment significantly outperforms static database freshness, particularly for contacts who changed roles in the past 12 months.

What Prospectiqa does NOT do

  • We do not store or resell enriched contact data. Each enrichment session is ephemeral.
  • We do not scrape LinkedIn in violation of their terms of service. We research LinkedIn-indexed public web content.
  • We do not guarantee deliverability. Enriched emails are research-based estimates, not verified deliverable addresses.
  • We do not enrich consumer (B2C) data. Our service is designed exclusively for professional B2B contact research.
  • We do not use personal data as training data for AI models.

Editorial Standards

Our content — comparisons, benchmarks, and guides — is written to be genuinely useful, not just to rank. We hold ourselves to the following standards:

All comparison content (vs Apollo, Clay, Cognism, etc.) is based on publicly available pricing, feature documentation, and user-reported data at time of publication.
We do not accept payment for favorable comparisons. Our competitive analysis reflects our genuine assessment of where Prospectiqa performs better — and where it doesn't.
Benchmark data is sourced from internal testing, published third-party studies, and community-reported benchmarks. Sources are cited where available.
Research reports are updated when new data becomes available. Publication dates and last-updated timestamps are shown on all reports.
We flag compliance information (GDPR, CAN-SPAM, etc.) based on publicly available regulatory guidance but recommend consulting legal counsel for specific situations.

Data Sourcing

Prospectiqa's AI researches publicly available information on the web. The types of sources it searches include:

Company websites and team pages
Press release contact sections
Professional directory listings
Speaker bio pages at conferences
Author pages at industry publications
GitHub profile contact info
LinkedIn-indexed public profiles
Regulatory and government filings
Job posting contact details
University and academic profiles
Crunchbase founder profiles
News article bylines

See the methodology in action

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