How to find companies with an expressed need

Start with the problem your product solves, not a generic list of companies. This workflow helps you decide which accounts deserve manual research before outreach.

Before you start

Connect your assistant, create an API key, and activate a subscription. Current observation coverage is procurement requests and facility expansions in Canada and the United States. Jolts does not currently search every hiring post, technology stack, or founder’s LinkedIn complaint. Do not turn those desired future signals into promises to your customers.

1. Describe the requirement

For example, if you sell warehouse automation:

Use Jolts to find companies in Canada or the United States requesting warehouse automation. Prioritize explicit procurement requests. Exclude the customer domains I provide. Return at most five companies with the stated requirement, source, event date, and observation date. Separate evidence from your inference about fit. Tell me what is missing.

The prompt describes a research task, not a guarantee of matches. Start with a small list so you can inspect the evidence before spending allowance on more pages.

2. Run the search

The agent calls search_companies. These are MCP tool arguments:

{
  "query": "Companies requesting warehouse automation equipment",
  "filters": {
    "countries": ["CA", "US"],
    "kinds": ["procurement_request"],
    "demand_classes": ["explicit_request"]
  },
  "limit": 5,
  "request_key": "warehouse-demand-first-page"
}

Add exclude_domains for customers you already serve. Supply hostnames, not website URLs. Country refers to the observation’s location, not necessarily company headquarters.

3. Review a useful shortlist

Ask the agent to show one row per returned company:

Company	Stated requirement	Why your product may fit	Source and dates	What to verify
Use the returned name	Quote or summarize the observed fact	Clearly label inference	Preserve returned references	Deadline, scope, eligibility, current need

This is an output template, not customer data. Inspect the original source before contacting an account. A procurement request may already be closed, have qualification requirements, or describe something your product cannot solve. A match does not prove an open budget or purchase intent today.

Verify and troubleshoot

Check coverage, not only the number of names. An empty result means this request returned no deliverable matches, not that your market is empty. Review the coverage limits. If the request fails, inspect error handling instead of repeatedly changing request keys. Use a new key for genuinely new work; reuse the original only for identical retries. Continue with search best practices or known-account research.

Getting started

Use cases

Jolts data

Best practices

How to find companies with an expressed need

Before you start

1. Describe the requirement

2. Run the search

3. Review a useful shortlist

Verify and troubleshoot

​Before you start

​1. Describe the requirement

​2. Run the search

​3. Review a useful shortlist

​Verify and troubleshoot

Before you start

1. Describe the requirement

2. Run the search

3. Review a useful shortlist

Verify and troubleshoot