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Every startup talks about ICPs—short for Ideal Customer Profiles—but let’s be real, most of us wing it. We think we know our customer, and we might even have a Notion doc to prove it. But knowing of your customer isn’t the same as knowing how to find, target, and win them.
An Ideal Customer Profile (ICP) is a clear, data-informed picture of the kind of customer who is most likely to buy, stay, and spread the word. It’s not just a pretty persona slide for the deck. It’s your operating system. It decides what you build, how you talk, and where you grow. And when it's vague? You burn cash, chase bad leads, and lose your edge.
Need a deeper dive? Read our previous post:
https://paragraph.com/@vibefounders/just-in-time-the-ideal-customer-profile
We've made the ICP Planner available as a Google Sheet for you to copy and use on your own.
The ICP Planner is a worksheet that helps you organize, research, and prioritize your Ideal Customer Profile. It’s been tested across decades and dozens of startups.
This is where you zoom out. It helps you map the landscape of possible customer groups. You might feel like you're building for the masses, but that's a trap. You win by starting small and loud: identify a niche that deeply cares, win them completely, then use that momentum to expand.
Track all the niche markets that might benefit from your product. Be specific—lots of tightly-defined niches are better than a few broad groups.
These columns help quantify your opportunity from different angles.
TAM (Total Available Market) | Estimate the size of the niche. Use ad tools (LinkedIn for B2B, Facebook for B2C), community sizes, or conservative industry stats. |
ACV (Annual Contract Value) | Estimate what a typical customer in the niche would pay annually. Use real spending patterns and current alternatives. |
Complexity | The more buyers involved, the longer and riskier the sales cycle. Score your niche based on how many decision-makers are required. Scoring tip:
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For TAM, a bottom-up approach paints a clearer, more grounded picture. Here’s how the rest of the model flows:
Conversion | You won’t convert 100%. Use 1–5% as your estimate, then apply a "Reach Penalty" for harder-to-reach niches. |
Customers | This is TAM multiplied by your conversion rate. |
Revenue | Multiply customers by ACV. This shows how much revenue you can generate in each niche. |
Once you complete the worksheet, you’ll have a strong picture of your most promising markets. Consider:
Small customer numbers = fewer at-bats
Big TAMs don’t mean real demand
Lower complexity is easier to sell, but may bring less value
Focus on 2–4 niches and collect real-world signals
This sheet organizes insights from interviews or community observation to validate assumptions.
Your job is to collect as many real signals from real users as quickly as possible.
Interviews | Focus on a few top-priority niches. Add your interview subjects or observed users (from Reddit, forums, etc.) and record what they say about your planned features. |
Capabilities | Track your planned features, functions, or problems solved. Score each 0–5 based on perceived importance. |
Score | Scores roll up to show which features and which niches show the strongest signals. |
This tab pulls together all your research to reveal your most aligned, high-value customer segments.
Key Caveats
Directional, not definitive—validate with real users
TAM ≠ demand
ACV can be inflated by optimism—check against reality
Observed behavior > claimed preferences
Your ICP will evolve—check back often
Modern founders can go even faster by pairing the planner with AI. Here’s how:
Find niche audiences + TAM
What are 10 potential niche audiences for a [product or feature]? For each, estimate their size (TAM) and suggest a method to reach them.Identify relevant spending behavior and budgets
For this niche audience [insert niche], what is their typical budget range for tools like [product type]? What do they currently spend on comparable solutions?Generate interview questions tailored to niche segments
Write 5 high-signal customer interview questions for [niche audience] that will uncover their pains, motivations, and decision-making process.Curate pain points from Reddit and other communities
Find top Reddit threads and community posts where [niche audience] discusses their pain points with [problem area]. Summarize the top 5 unmet needs mentioned.These prompts turn AI into your fastest researcher, so you can spend less time guessing and more time building.
Most founders treat ICPs like a branding exercise—it’s a growth engine
The ICP Planner helps turn vague ideas into signal-rich customer profiles
It models TAM, ACV, complexity, conversion, and revenue potential for each niche
Use interviews and observation to validate real customer pain and intent
Layer in AI to accelerate research and uncover insights from the web
ICP has been a hot topic here, and for good reason. While it's importance is better known, how do you go about figuring it out? Over the last 10 years or so I have used a worksheet in one form or another to help myself and other founders find their ICP. Today, I'm sharing that with everyone! Read about it here: https://paragraph.com/@vibefounders/the-icp-planner Get your own worksheet here: https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1NboqVaSXhMs5bbhtm9k-1ycitlxXO61lMFZd1ZWOJyc/edit?usp=sharing Special thanks to @jonathancolton and @iamtherealyakuza.eth for being my editors!
You're welcome bro! And I see @jonathancolton -> we're here together again ahah! Gotta love this community!