Building your proprietary search database

May 18, 2025

by a searcher in Sunshine Coast QLD, Australia

G'day Searchers. We're starting to build our proprietary search database and workflows to start the outreach to companies here on the Sunshine Coast in QLD AU. We've evaluated several platforms for data acquisition (e.g. Firmable, KnowFirst, Inven) with varying results on our tight geographic target (yes we know, a bit limiting but that's where we want to operate from) and potential costs for unlocking at least basic contact details. Anyone in AU have any experiences they're keen to share about how they built their database? Did you use a platform like any above? Buy data lists from somewhere? Cheers!

Reply by a professional
in Dubai - United Arab Emirates

Controversial take: Data platforms are overrated, espetially for searches with tight geographic focus. More often than not, data will be an enriched version of net available information (linkedin as main source) that many other people are leveraging, thereby making it quite saturated. Scraping + offline resources can pay better dividents, in addition to knowing how to build a system that connects with prospects across multiple channels as I would assume you will operate with a limited audience? (if we want to call it this way). ^redacted‌ I am curious: what is the main reason why you are considering a platform rather than a more focused approach towards data collection?

Reply by a searcher
in Jaipur, Rajasthan, India

^redacted‌ We have helped one of our clients from Australia in building their search database. For them we used Inven for a while, the results were good, but mostly we have found local directories, and sourced business lists from there. If you seek professional help regarding the same, or if you would like to speak with my client from Australia to have better understanding of the space, drop me an email at redacted and I will send an intro with my client or schedule a meeting with you to discuss how we help him.

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