Do You Really Know Your ICP? Why It Matters and How to Find Out

a16z Podcast

a16z

Science, Innovation, Business, Entrepreneurship, Culture, Disruption, Software Eating The World, Technology

4.4 • 1.1K Ratings

🗓️ 7 May 2025

⏱️ 36 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

Your ideal customer profile (ICP) is the north star for your entire company: it determines who you’re building for and selling to. Though most growth-stage founders think they know who their ICP is, very few know how to update and refine it to keep the company focused as they grow—which can lead to a lot of headaches down the road. In this debut episode of a16z Growth’s new company scaling podcast, the a16z Guide to Growth, a16z's Joe Morrissey (General Partner, a16z Growth), Michael King (Partner, Go-to-Market Network), and Mark Regan (Partner, a16z Growth) break down why ICP misalignment is often the hidden cause of common problems across the entire company, from pipeline gaps and bloated marketing spend to stalled product roadmaps—and dive deep on how to fix it. They offer tactical advice for defining (and refining!) your ICP as you scale, explain why getting it right requires company-wide alignment, and how to navigate the “precision paradox” when implementing it. Plus, why ICPs matter even more in the AI era, and how a well-executed ICP shows up across the business when it's working.

Transcript

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0:00.0	ICP is the central nervous system of the entire customer journey.
0:05.0	Conversion rates, expansion rates, the length of your sales cycles.
0:10.0	If you look at those, they're almost all telling you something about your ICP at all times.
0:15.0	If you're like, we sell to everyone, we build to everyone for everyone. Maybe you're not selling to anybody yet.
0:21.9	It not only shows who you need to target and what you need to target the customer with,
0:27.9	but also why the customer would need your product.
0:32.5	Your ideal customer profile, or ICP, is the low star of your company.
0:37.3	It defines who you're building,
0:38.8	marketing, and selling your products too. And most growth stage founders think they know who their
0:43.9	ICP is, because they found product market fit after all. I don't know that you necessarily
0:48.3	have found product market fit. Sometimes you just get really lucky, and I call that the curse
0:53.5	of early success.
0:55.2	And here's the thing. Very few can define and refine their ICP well enough to keep the company
1:00.2	focused on it as they grow. This lack of clarity can open a Pandora's box of problems across the
1:05.1	org. Pipeline not getting filled? Chances are it's an ICP problem. Product roadmap stalling out,
1:10.7	ICP problem. Marketing spent through the roof, ICP problem. Product roadmap stalling out. ICP problem. Marketing
1:12.2	spent through the roof, ICP problem. You could be missing a huge market opportunity if you
1:17.3	misidentify your ICP. In this first episode of A16Z growth's new company scaling series,
1:22.8	the A16Z Guide to Growth, we take a step back and explain why understanding your ICP should be a company-wide
1:29.0	effort, and why getting this right is even more important in the AI era.
1:33.3	As soon as you have a successful product, there will absolutely be competition in the market.
1:38.5	A16Z growth partner, Emma Janowski, sits down with growth general partner and former CRO of Segment, Joe Morrissey,
	...

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