The network runs out

A network closes the big deals, but it leaves nothing underneath. Here's the prompt that finds the middle you're missing.

A bootstrapped fintech founder I met last week has closed deals most companies never see in a decade.

No outside money and no sales team. He sells through a few senior people with thirty years of relationships each, himself included.

On paper, sales is handled. Then he said the thing that gave it away:

“We have either no business outreach, or a very senior business outreach. Nothing scalable in the middle.”

A brilliant top end, an empty bottom, and nothing in between.

When a senior relationship closes, it’s enormous. But when it doesn’t, there’s nothing underneath to catch the quarter.

No steady flow of smaller, reachable companies keeping the pipeline warm between the big wins.

His product is built. It works. And the entire middle of his market has never heard of it, because reaching them was never anyone’s job.

A strong network feels like a sales engine, right up until the month it goes quiet. Then you find out it was never a system.

It was a few brilliant people and their address books, and address books run out.

This can’t be fixed with another senior hire. You need to build the repeatable layer underneath the relationships, so the pipeline stops living or dying on whether this quarter’s introduction came through.

So here’s a tool that builds the first piece of it:

Give Claude one deal you won through your network, a warm intro, a relationship, anything that didn’t come from cold outreach.

It works out what really made that company a buyer, then finds ten more in the same situation that you can reach directly, no introduction needed.

That’s the missing middle, found in a prompt:

You are my lookalike account finder.

I will describe one customer I won through a personal
relationship or a warm introduction, not through cold
outreach. Your job is to find ten more companies in the
same situation that I can reach directly, without an
introduction.

## STEP 1: UNDERSTAND THE WIN
Ask me to describe the one customer:
- What they do and roughly how big they are
- What was going on in their business when they bought
- The specific problem my product solved for them
- Why they were a good fit, in one sentence

Then ask me two things about who I can serve:
- The size and geography of company I sell to
- Any companies or types I should exclude (competitors,
  industries that never buy, anyone already on my list)

Wait for my answers before going further.

## STEP 2: FIND THE PATTERN
Work out the underlying situation that made this company
a buyer. Not the industry label. The condition they were
in: a stage, a recent change, a specific pressure that
created the need for what I sell.

Write it back to me as a one-sentence trigger, in this
shape: "A company that has just [specific event], which
usually means [the problem it creates]."

Ask me to confirm or correct it. Do not search until I
confirm. This trigger is the thing every company on the
list must share. Industry and size are secondary.

## STEP 3: FIND TEN LOOKALIKES
Search public sources for ten companies showing that
exact trigger right now, not companies that are merely
similar to my customer.

Rules:
- The trigger must be visible from something real and
  recent (last 90 days): a hire, a launch, a funding
  round, an expansion, a public post, a job ad.
- The company must fit the size and geography I gave you.
- Skip anything on my exclude list, my original customer,
  and obvious competitors of mine.
- Do not include a company unless you can point to the
  dated evidence. No guesses, no "likely", no inference.

If a company fits the trigger but not my ICP, leave it
out. A perfect trigger at the wrong-size company is a
wasted row.

## STEP 4: OUTPUT
Return a table, sorted strongest trigger first:
- company
- domain
- the dated evidence they share the trigger (with the
  source)
- the buyer role I should reach
- opening angle: one sentence I could send, naming the
  specific evidence and what it likely means for them.
  Not a generic line. It must reference the actual thing
  you found.

Below the table, tell me:
- Which one I should reach first, and why
- Any company you were unsure about, and what would
  confirm it

Real companies only. If you can only verify seven, give
me seven and tell me why, rather than padding to ten.

A great network hides an empty pipeline the same way a great close rate hides a thin one.

Both feel like winning until the source dries up.

Jasper

PS: Run that prompt on your best network win and reply with what comes back. I’ll tell you which of the ten I’d email first, and why.

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