Ideal customer profile (ICP)
An ideal customer profile describes the kind of customer a product is best for: who they are, what they're stuck on, and why they'd buy. A useful one also names who the product is not for.
What it means
An ICP is a decision, not a description of everyone who might buy. Its value is in what it rules out: the customers the product won't be shaped around, the channels it won't use to reach them, the features it won't build for them.
The exclusions matter most early, when every interested customer is tempting and each one pulls the product in a different direction.
How we use it
Our method In AI Venture Build, the ICP always comes with its exclusions, written into the venture thesis before anything is built. It's how a venture beside an established business avoids drifting into serving everyone the core business serves.
Related terms
Published 28 September 2026. All terms