The market and the ideal customer
About 20,000 UK firms with 10 to 249 staff sit in the launch verticals (ONS 2026, strong; rounded). Reach and trust are the constraints.
| Segment | Firms | First seats | Buyer | Cycle (estimate) |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Recruitment | 5,555 | 3 to 15 consultants | Owner or MD, often also champion | 2 to 6 weeks |
| Law | 4,085 | 5 to 20 fee earners | Managing partner approves; marketing or BD champions; IT runs security; COLP signs off publicity and AI | 3 to 6 months |
| Consultancy | 5,455 | 5 to 30 | Founding partner or MD | 1 to 3 months |
| Accountancy | 3,565 | Partners plus advisory | Managing partner | 2 to 4 months |
| Agencies | 1,595 advertising plus 505 PR | Per client workspace | Owner | Variable |
Recruitment enters at the open founding band, self-serve with a person on hand; law with a paid, scoped pilot at the published price (D17); consultancy at a founding band; accountancy as law, lighter; agencies later, as a channel. Law finds technology through peers (76% through colleagues or competitors, 21% after a provider approached them; SRA, June 2025, strong), so cold outreach is our weakest route into law. Recruitment owners will judge Maktura as a pipeline tool, exactly where the engagement rule bites. Participation is the hidden risk (about 6.5% of employees share content on LinkedIn; vendor data). Answer "what if only a fifth of my people post?" with opt-in seats first, two posts a week, Holly removing the blank page.
ICP scoring card#
Ten points or more, including at least two readiness points, is a fit; six to nine is nurture; below six, or any disqualifier, is a polite no. The six canonical qualification tests decide whether an opportunity counts as qualified.
- Fit: 10 to 150 client-facing people (2); revenue rests on named individuals' relationships (2); regulated or reputationally exposed (2); already pays a ghostwriter, agency, scheduler or marketing hire for visibility (2); owner or a partner posts and believes in it (1); staff posted once and stopped (1); UK-based, English-language posting (1).
- Readiness: a partner or star biller left or joined (2); a new head of marketing or BD (2); a practice, office or service launch next quarter (1); tender or pitch season (1); someone senior asked "why is our LinkedIn dead?" (1); a named person has already acted for us (2).
- Disqualifiers: wants automated likes, comments, connection requests or DMs; wants engager lists exported or used to source candidates; needs another platform live on day one; requires a SOC 2 or ISO 27001 certificate first; needs non-UK terms (Alex decides); needs white labelling; will only buy at a discount; needs video or image generation now; posts mainly in another language.