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Using new business lists legally

A short, plain-English guide for the United States. It is not legal advice; if your outreach is large or unusual, ask a lawyer.

Direct mail

Mailing a business at the address it registered with the state is lawful. The lists are built for it.

Email (CAN-SPAM)

Our lists contain no email addresses. If you find a company's address yourself and email it, the federal CAN-SPAM Act applies to business-to-business email too. It does not require prior consent, but every commercial email must: not use a misleading subject or header, identify itself as an ad, include your valid postal address, offer a working opt-out, and honor opt-outs within 10 business days. See the FTC's guide.

Phone calls

The Telemarketing Sales Rule exempts most business-to-business calls from its call rules, although its ban on misrepresentations applies to them too. Calls to mobile numbers are a separate matter under the Telephone Consumer Protection Act, and many new-company owners use their personal cell. Do not autodial or text a number you cannot show consent for.

State data terms

Florida and New York publish these files for anyone to download, and Colorado publishes its register as public domain. We found no term in any of the three that limits using the records to contact businesses, but terms change: check the current ones if your use is large. Texas, if we add it, requires data brokers to register, which we would do first.

Be a good first contact

These are people in their first weeks of running a company. Say who you are, why you are writing, and how you got their details (the state's public filing). It works better, and it is the kind of outreach that keeps this data open.