Pipeline you never see
Buyers who write about your problem in public can be contacted by anyone. Slow research hands them to faster teams.
The cost of waiting
Every week without the right buyer list is a week a competitor can use.
Hours lost to list building
Exports, filters and manual checks pull reps away from conversations. A ranked shortlist moves that time back to selling.
Outreach that lands late
If a buyer has already picked a vendor, a perfect pitch still arrives too late. Public signals help you act sooner, not instantly.
Illustrative timeline, not a measurement
- Step 1A public signal appears
- Step 2You are still building a list
- Step 3Someone else gets the reply
What a shortlist looks like
A reason, a source, and a place in line.
Relevant matches, public intent signals, cited context and prioritization, on every person. WhoEngine is public web research, not real time alerts or verified identity, so check each source before you reach out.
Dana Okafor
VP Revenue Operations, Larkspur Freight, Chicago
Fit
94
Reach first
Wrote publicly about replacing her routing vendor and is hiring two analysts for the same function.
- Post on replacing routing softwareHer newsletter
3 weeks ago - Open roles for routing analystsCareers page
2 weeks ago
Public web research. Review each source and confirm details before you reach out.
The conversation
One sentence in. Named buyers out.
WhoEngine asks one or two follow-up questions to sharpen your ICP, then returns a ranked shortlist with cited reasons.
01You describe
“I want early stage B2B SaaS founders who write publicly about product-led growth and have shipped in the last 12 months.”
2:14 PM
02We clarify
Got it. Should I look for founders who write on their own platform (newsletter, blog) or LinkedIn long-form too? And any geography preference?
2:14 PM
03You confirm
“All public writing counts. US and Canada only. Seed or Series A.”
2:15 PM
04We search
Scanning the live public web now: newsletters, LinkedIn posts, conference talks, GitHub activity, press mentions. Your ranked matches, with cited reasons, are on the way.
2:15 PM
Searching thousands of sources...
How it works
Four steps from description to deal.
01
Plain English description
Describe the buyer, hire, or partner you want in one or two sentences. No filters, dropdowns, or Boolean logic. Just the person you are looking for, in your own words.
02
ICP sharpened through follow-up
WhoEngine asks one or two questions to tighten the ICP: geography, company stage, intent signals, any disqualifiers. This step is what separates a precise shortlist from a noisy one.
03
Live web search across professional signals
WhoEngine searches the live public web in real time across writing, talks, affiliations, company signals, press, and credibility markers. No static database. No stale records.
04
Ranked shortlist with cited reasons
You get approximately 25 matches, each with a numeric fit score and a cited reason referencing the specific public signal that confirms the match. Full contact details and outreach drafts on paid plans.
Use cases
One engine. Every B2B motion.
WhoEngine handles any search where the right person is more important than the right filter.
Outbound sales
Named buyers, not personas.
01
Skip the 10,000-row export. Get a short list of named people whose public behavior confirms they are in market for what you sell, with the source that proves it.
- Public writing about the problem you solve
- Budget or decision authority signals
- Company stage and headcount fit
Talent acquisition
The candidate who quietly does the work.
02
Stop posting and waiting. Get a shortlist of people who already do the job: cited by their published work, contributions, and talks rather than a title on a resume.
- Published writing and side projects
- Conference talks and technical posts
- Peer citations and open source contributions
Investor sourcing
The founder before the term sheet.
03
Find operators building in your thesis before they raise their next round. WhoEngine surfaces traction signals, domain depth, and shipping velocity from their public presence.
- Domain expertise from writing and talks
- Shipping activity and velocity signals
- Early press and community recognition
Partnership mapping
The right collaborator in the right position.
04
Identify potential channel partners, integration partners, and co-sell allies by the companies they lead, the communities they run, and the problems they write about.
- Organizational affiliation and board roles
- Industry community leadership
- Public writing on partnership themes
B2B signal categories
What WhoEngine reads.
WhoEngine does not filter a profile database. It reads the actual text of what people publish, say, and contribute, then scores each person on how well those signals match your ICP.
- Public writing
Newsletters, blog posts, LinkedIn articles, personal websites, and Substack publications. Writing reveals what someone thinks about and cares about in their own words.
- Conference talks and podcast appearances
Keynote sessions, panel discussions, and podcast episodes. Speaking signals credibility, domain authority, and the specific problems a person is publicly associated with.
- Professional affiliations and board roles
Named board seats, advisory positions, investor portfolios, and professional association memberships. Affiliations reveal relationships, commitments, and organizational alignment.
- Open source and technical contributions
GitHub repositories, open source project contributions, and public technical specifications. For technical roles, this reveals depth and focus better than any profile field.
- Media coverage and third-party citations
Press mentions, analyst reports, and awards from credible third parties. External citation is a strong credibility signal because it represents independent validation.
- Financial capacity indicators
Publicly available indicators of budget authority, company funding stage, role seniority, and deal history. WhoEngine derives a capacity tier from cited public sources only.
How it compares
Focused discovery, with the evidence.
Broader platforms such as ZoomInfo and Apollo combine data, signals and workflows. WhoEngine is focused: it reads public web sources and returns a curated shortlist with a cited reason for each person. See the scope comparisons for Apollo and ZoomInfo on the compare pages.
| Dimension | WhoEngine | Broader platforms |
|---|---|---|
| Data source | Live public web, searched in real time | Structured data and filters across a large dataset |
| Input | Plain English description | Filters, signals and scoring inside a platform |
| Output | Ranked matches with cited reasons | Lists and accounts with workflows around them |
| Signal depth | Reads what people actually write and say | Firmographic, technographic and intent signals |
| Recency | What is public today | Varies by provider, see their site |