Build a target account list from plain words

A TAM list is the list of companies that could buy what you sell. Most teams build it from a database filter: an industry code, a country and a headcount range. Industry codes are wide, so the list mixes the companies you want with many that do not fit.

This guide builds the list the other way. You describe what your buyers do, in plain words. The API returns the companies that match by meaning, and you grow the list from the best ones. Each step is one call that you can run from a terminal.

What you need

• An API key. Get one free; the trial credits are enough for a first list.
• curl and jq in a terminal.

export INNERFETCH_API_KEY="<your API key>"

Step 1: describe your market in a few phrases

Write three to five short phrases. Each phrase says one thing your buyers do or sell. Use the words a buyer uses, not your own product words. Our example is the market for a help desk:

cat >market.txt <<'EOF'
help desk software for customer support teams
shared inbox for support e-mail
live chat widget for websites
knowledge base software for self-service help
EOF

Step 2: search each phrase

Send each phrase to the search call. Keep the companies that more than one phrase finds at the top: they are the core of your market.

while read -r phrase; do
  curl -sG https://api.innerfetch.com/api/v1/company/search \
    --data-urlencode "q=$phrase" -d max_results=50 \
    -H "X-API-Key: $INNERFETCH_API_KEY" |
    jq -c --arg q "$phrase" '.results[] | {domain, name, industry: .card.industry, match: .match_score, query: $q}'
done <market.txt >search.jsonl

jq -s 'group_by(.domain) | map(.[0] + {queries: map(.query)})
  | sort_by(-(.queries | length), -.match)' search.jsonl >seed.json

A search shows only strong matches, so a phrase can return fewer rows than you ask for. An empty answer is free.

Step 3: grow the list with competitors

The companies at the top of seed.json are your best matches. Ask for their competitors. A competitor of a company in your market is very often in your market too.

jq -r '.[:5][].domain' seed.json | while read -r domain; do
  curl -sG https://api.innerfetch.com/api/v1/company/competitors \
    -d domain="$domain" -d limit=25 \
    -H "X-API-Key: $INNERFETCH_API_KEY" |
    jq -c '.competitors[] | {domain, name, industry: .card.industry, basis}'
done >more.jsonl

Rows with the basis evidenced have a public page that compares the two companies. Rows with the basis similar are companies in the same market. Keep both for a TAM list.

Step 4: merge and export

Merge the two lists by domain and write a CSV that you can open in a spreadsheet or import into your CRM.

jq -s '[.[] | {domain, name, industry}] | unique_by(.domain)' search.jsonl more.jsonl >tam.json
jq -r '.[] | [.domain, .name, .industry] | @csv' tam.json >tam.csv

Step 5: add a profile and check the list

Add headquarters, headcount and tech stack with the batch call, up to 50 domains at a time. Then read the list once. A short look removes the companies that match the words but not the market, and it shows you a phrase to add or remove for the next run.

jq -c '[.[].domain] | range(0; length; 50) as $i | {domains: .[$i:$i + 50]}' tam.json |
  while read -r body; do
    curl -s https://api.innerfetch.com/api/v1/company/batch \
      -H "Content-Type: application/json" \
      -H "X-API-Key: $INNERFETCH_API_KEY" \
      -d "$body"
  done |
  jq -c '.results[] | select(.status == "found") | .data
    | {domain, name, industry, country: .headquarters.country, employees: .employee_count.max}' >profiles.jsonl

A test run

We ran these steps for the help desk market on 26 October 2026. The four phrases found 116 different companies. The competitors of the top five added more, for 153 companies in the CSV. Some industry labels were wrong for this market, which is why step 5 asks you to read the list. Your numbers will change as we add companies every day.

Next steps

• Find who already buys from the companies on your list: see find your competitors’ customers.
• Score the list in your CRM with the company enrichment API.
• Let an AI agent build and explain the list: see company data for AI agents.