Client snapshot
The challenge
Off-the-shelf data wasn't enough.
Selling into high-stakes enterprise accounts demands more than surface-level firmographics. Off-the-shelf
tools like Clay and Apollo missed the context that actually moves a
deal:
- Hiring signals (open roles, team expansion)
- Executive, media, and webinar appearances
- Org-level figures — for example, analyst headcount
Without that context, outreach felt generic, research was slow, and strong prospects slipped through.
We tried existing platforms, but the costs were too high and the answers were often not good enough.
The goal
Build a fast, flexible enrichment system in under a month.
- Pull company and contact intelligence beyond basic firmographics
- Standardize outputs for immediate use in outreach and CRM
- Fit current workflows (Google Sheets + CRM)
- Run at scale and stay simple to self-host
Solution at a glance
From a single LinkedIn URL to a profile your reps can actually use.
A production-grade n8n pipeline that turns a LinkedIn URL or company domain into a
standardized, data-rich profile — ready for outreach, logging, and alerts.
- Inputs: LinkedIn URL or domain pasted into Google Sheets
- Sources: Apify scrapers, targeted research via AI, curated public web data
- Outputs: hiring signals, appearances, org insights, normalized job titles, deduped company and contact fields
- Operations: error handling, retries with backoff, run logs, Slack alerts
Lightning-fast process
Four sprints: prototype, iterate, standardize, ship.
- Clickable demo in 48 hours. Working prototype delivered in two days, tested on live leads. Immediate feedback on speed, fields, and output format.
- Rapid iteration for true fit. Two-to-three touchpoints a week, three major iterations. Lightweight Sheets-driven dashboard — paste a LinkedIn URL and run. Each iteration shipped in 3–4 days. Final milestone landed two weeks early.
- Standardize and ship. Clean, reusable n8n workflow (JSON) for self-hosting. Dashboard for smoother interaction. Loom walkthroughs and quickstart docs. The team started using it the same day.
Results
Sales up 10% in the first month.
- Sales increased by 10% within the first month
- Faster, higher-quality outreach with richer prospect understanding
- Delivery time cut in half versus the initial plan
| Before (Clay / Apollo) | After (Custom automation) |
|---|---|
| Surface-level data | Deep enrichment (hiring, appearances, org signals) |
| Slow, manual enrichment | Automated in under two minutes per lead |
| Generic lists | Standardized, actionable profiles |
| Missed prospects | Sharper targeting and stronger follow-up |
Performance & reliability
Built to keep running while no one is watching.
- One-click runs from Google Sheets; standardized JSON / CSV outputs
- Retries with exponential backoff; Slack alerts on failures
- Logging and run history for quick troubleshooting
- Designed to scale from hundreds to thousands of leads with batching and rate-limit awareness
Compliance & data ethics
Transparent collection, respectful automation.
- Public web sources only; robots-aware collection, no credentialed scraping
- Rate-limit friendly; respects provider ToS
- Optional deployment in client VPS or self-hosted n8n
Deliverables & stack
What was handed over
- n8n workflow (JSON) for cloud or self-hosted deployment
- Custom dashboard for reviewing leads and inputting new prospects
- Field mapping and data dictionary for CRM consistency
- Loom training videos and quickstart documentation
Tech stack
- Orchestration: n8n
- Data: Apify, curated public web sources
- AI: Targeted research and synthesis
- Ops: Google Sheets, webhooks, retries, logging, Slack alerts, HTML / CSS / JS
The client says
When we started, we didn't really quite know what the end product should look like... but Noah made sense of our rough ideas, built exactly what we needed, and delivered more than we expected. The iterative process was a lifesaver.
