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Best Ways to Find a Comprehensive List of SaaS Companies

·3 months ago·

Hey I'm looking to build a strong list of all SaaS companies out there. What's the best approach? Or even better: I guess there is already this list existing somewhere? Where can I find it? Looks like Clay was proving one in their template but not anymore ....

  • Avatar of Andrew B.
    Andrew B.
    ·3 months ago·

    Take a look at https://getlatka.com/

  • Avatar of Maxime M.
    Maxime M.
    ·3 months ago·

    hey Andrew B. - knew about it but looks like you can't even export the entire list with a paid plan. The goal is to have a solid list I an import to clay as the foundation of other tables

  • Avatar of Harkin
    Harkin
    ·3 months ago·

    you can scrape saas companies from crunchbase using an apify scraper

  • Avatar of Channeled
    Channeled
    APP
    ·3 months ago·

    Hi Maxime M.! This thread was recently closed by our Support team. If you have a moment, please share your feedback:

  • Avatar of George D.
    George D.
    ·3 months ago·

    Hey there - we're having a bit of trouble with our support tooling and closed this conversation out preemptively. Reopening it here and someone from our team will get back to you soon!

  • Avatar of Channeled
    Channeled
    APP
    ·3 months ago·

    You can build a comprehensive list of SaaS companies using our Find Company Search tool, which allows you to search and filter companies based on specific criteria like industry, size, location, and keywords.Here's how you can approach this: 1. Use our built-in company search with advanced filters to identify SaaS businesses 2. Search for companies and people with AI-powered tools 3. Use our Chrome extension to gather additional data from website directoriesOur AI technology is particularly effective at identifying SaaS companies through their LinkedIn descriptions, accurately distinguishing them from non-SaaS businesses.Rather than providing a static template list, we offer these powerful search and filtering capabilities so you can build and maintain an up-to-date list of SaaS companies that matches your specific criteria. Sources: 11 AI Prompts to Automate Prospect Research with Claygent [Automated Outbound] - Clay University Find Company overview | Documentation | Clay University Clay for Startups

  • Avatar of Channeled
    Channeled
    APP
    ·3 months ago·

    Rather than providing a static template of SaaS companies, we offer powerful tools to help you build and maintain your own customized, up-to-date list of SaaS companies. Here's how you can do this: 1. Use our Find Company Search tool with advanced filters and AI to search for companies 2. Our AI technology is particularly effective at identifying SaaS companies through LinkedIn descriptions - it can accurately distinguish SaaS businesses like Canva and Calendly from non-SaaS companies like Red Bull or Target 3. Access our comprehensive Companies dataset, which combines data from multiple providers and includes our own data cleaning methods to give you the best possible starting pointThis approach ensures you get a current, targeted list that matches your specific criteria rather than relying on a potentially outdated template. Sources: 11 AI Prompts to Automate Prospect Research with Claygent [Automated Outbound] - Clay University Clay for Startups Find Companies [Clay 101] - Clay University

  • Avatar of Channeled
    Channeled
    APP
    ·3 months ago·

    Here are several effective ways to build your SaaS companies list in Clay: 1. Use Find Company Search: • Define search parameters specific to SaaS companies • Set filters for industry, company type, and keywords • Preview results and refine criteria as needed • Import the refined list into a new table 2. Import existing data: • If you have a CSV file with SaaS companies, you can import it directly • Go to Actions > Import > Import Companies From a CSV • Choose to create a new table or add to an existing one 3. Use Company Lookalikes feature: • Start with 10 known SaaS companies as seed domains • Use the Ocean.io integration to find similar companies • Filter by software industry and other relevant criteria • This can expand your initial list significantly with relevant matchesRemember to iterate and refine your search parameters to ensure you're capturing the right companies. Look at the initial data and adjust filters as needed to optimize your results. Sources: Import a File Find Companies [Clay 101] - Clay University Find Company overview | Documentation | Clay University Clay for Startups Find Company Lookalikes [Clay 101] - Clay University

  • Avatar of Channeled
    Channeled
    APP
    ·3 months ago·

    You can use Clay's native integration with Apify to scrape SaaS companies from Crunchbase. Here's how: 1. In Clay, add an Apify enrichment by selecting "Add enrichment" and searching for "Run Apify Actor" 2. Select your Apify account (or add it if you haven't already) 3. Choose the appropriate Crunchbase scraper actor from the Apify marketplace 4. Configure your input data in JSON format with the parameters needed for the Crunchbase scraperNote that Crunchbase has strong anti-scraping measures in place, so make sure your scraper is properly configured to handle these protections.Once set up, you can combine data from multiple scrapes and use Clay's data manipulation tools to refine and analyze your results. Sources: Deep Dive: Apify Actors [Limitless Research] - Clay University Deep Dive: Zenrows Scraping [Limitless Research] - Clay University Apify integration overview | Documentation | Clay University

  • Avatar of Bruno R.
    Bruno R.
    ·3 months ago·

    Hi Max, thanks for reaching out. Taking a look at this now! I suggest that you use our company search feature, specifically looking for SaaS companies, which would be fully free and should be more streamlined to run other people searches and enrichments on top as well. https://downloads.intercomcdn.com/i/o/w28k1kwz/1375492161/691e1d3a4c142eb47b47e948868a/CleanShot+2025-02-11+at+10_10_13%402x.png?expires=1739288700&signature=f068f1622feddd19a615e9021535f38bd2bf5e62171839f5079ad126bf9fc0e9&req=dSMgE813n4BZWPMW1HO4ze3vHjScF%2BVEMFWfzOntExxKax1%2BuV7ti29BjXvn%0AKy2e%0A I suggest that you start with "software development" as a foundational component of your search, and then build additional search parameters on top to hone in on the specific software companies you're interested in prospecting into further!

  • Avatar of Maxime M.
    Maxime M.
    ·3 months ago·

    thanks bruno

  • Avatar of Maxime M.
    Maxime M.
    ·3 months ago·

    just did what you recommended

  • Avatar of Maxime M.
    Maxime M.
    ·3 months ago·

    however I'm facing an error when I'm updating the source: https://share.birdie.so/2Xuyvp4

  • Avatar of Bruno R.
    Bruno R.
    ·3 months ago·

    Hi Max, thanks for following up on this! I went ahead and recorded this quick video to show you how you can make sure that your company search source updates at a specific cadence: https://www.loom.com/share/44ddb08c09b74be7aa1b33780f56f99c?sid=20b411b1-3a7a-4f7a-b569-1bc12118c227 I hope this was helpful. If there's anything else I can assist you with, please let me know!

  • Avatar of Maxime M.
    Maxime M.
    ·3 months ago·

    hey Bruno, thanks but the issue is not much about updating the list "on a schedule", it was about updating the criteria of the search and update the source accordingly

  • Avatar of Maxime M.
    Maxime M.
    ·3 months ago·

    did you watch the video I sent you above? 👆

  • Avatar of Maxime M.
    Maxime M.
    ·3 months ago·

    as a side note it looks like once I change a criteria and click on "update", Clay identify a run but it should delete some row in my case and nothing happen...

  • Avatar of Maxime M.
    Maxime M.
    ·3 months ago·

    and everytime I make a change in the criteria (left sidebar) I have the error when I select "update":

  • Avatar of Maxime M.
    Maxime M.
    ·3 months ago·

    ?

  • Avatar of Maxime M.
    Maxime M.
    ·3 months ago·

    hey team, any news on this?

  • Avatar of Owen C.
    Owen C.
    ·3 months ago·

    Hey Max, makes total sense. When it comes to adjusting criteria within an existing source, I would recommend creating a net-new source instead of trying to update an existing source. This is because if you update the criteria and the end results are less than what is on the table as of right now, Clay is put in a tough spot. Should we choose to delete the rows from your table? or should we leave them? Leaving them causes there to not be any update and it seems like nothing happens. Deleting them may delete unintended contacts from your table. In our case we default to not deleting them and recommend you create a net-new source if you're trying to adjust the search criteria. Hope this helps! Let me know how I can best assist! :)

  • Avatar of Maxime M.
    Maxime M.
    ·3 months ago·

    gotcha

  • Avatar of Owen C.
    Owen C.
    ·3 months ago·

    Hope that helps! Let me know how I can best assist. :)

  • Avatar of Rajat S.
    Rajat S.
    ·27 days ago·

    Maxime M. Owen C. - very interesting thread. Not all software development companies would be SaaS (ex: a develop shop, custom software development agencies) and not all SaaS companies might be marked as software development on Linkedin. How did you solve for accuracy to get only SaaS companies from the "software development" companies? Maxime M. - I see you've excluded IT services but does that yield accurate results? I was thinking of getting all these companies and getting AI to find B2B + Product companies to find the SaaS ones. Here again accuracy will only be as good as the AI, prompt and the underlying data.

  • Avatar of Bo (.
    Bo (.
    ·27 days ago·

    Hey, Exactly — the key here is in the prompting. Using AI to filter for B2B and product-led companies can definitely help, but the accuracy will depend on how well the prompt is crafted and the quality of the data you’re starting with. Great question — let’s see what Maxime adds to the mix too.

  • Avatar of Rajat S.
    Rajat S.
    ·24 days ago·

    Yes! I could get to 60%ish accuracy, which isn't the best. Rather decided to download a list from Latka, Tracxn, other B2B databases and then enrich them on Clay.

  • Avatar of Rajat S.
    Rajat S.
    ·24 days ago·

    For higher accuracy

  • Avatar of Rajat S.
    Rajat S.
    ·24 days ago·

    Let's see how that goes

  • Avatar of Bo (.
    Bo (.
    ·24 days ago·

    That’s a smart move — definitely keep us posted on how it goes. And if you’d like to share where you were seeing 60% accuracy, we’d be happy to take a look and help you improve it.

Best Ways to Find a Comprehensive List of SaaS Companies | Clay