Customer research and ICP for a GPU marketplace moving upmarket

The situation

Because privacy is a core value proposition, Vast.ai had very little customer data and had never formally engaged customers to understand their needs. Acquisition ran entirely on organic sign-ups, there was no enterprise sales process, and competitors were already moving upmarket. Before Vast could follow, they needed to know who their high-value customers actually were and what they cared about.

What I did

• Identified and interviewed customers across segments, with a structured interview approach covering product feedback, service experience, competitive comparisons, and value proposition validation.
• Synthesized findings into themes for product, GTM strategy, messaging and positioning, customer success, and sales.
• Developed an ideal customer profile and segmentation grounded in real usage patterns and buying behavior rather than assumptions.
• Built a customer lifecycle marketing framework with specific recommendations at every stage to drive growth and expansion.
• Optimized the inbound lead flow as an immediate quick win while the longer-term work landed.

The result

The work transformed how Vast understood its customer base and market position: a clear roadmap for the upmarket move with specific product and support requirements, five distinct customer types with unique buying patterns, five new case studies, and a lifecycle framework that protects their product-led roots while opening the enterprise motion. The research also surfaced critical product feedback, from SLA and reliability needs to the billing improvements enterprise procurement requires, plus a new VC and PE partnership opportunity.