Ideal Customer Profile
Also called ICP
A sharp description of the exact customer your product is best for: their size, role, situation, and pain. Not everyone who could buy, but the ones who buy fastest and stay longest.
Why it matters
Focus is the scarcest resource early on. A tight ICP tells you who to build for, who to sell to, and just as importantly who to say no to, which is how small teams win a beachhead before spreading out.
For example
A payroll startup defines its ICP as 20-to-100-person tech companies in metros, and stops chasing tiny shops and giant enterprises that never fit.
Go deeper
Related terms
Also in Starting Up
See how founders actually handle this on Growing and marketing, part of the Starting Up hub.
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